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How Charanjit built a $6K SaaS boilerplate as a solo founder

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Meet Charanjit Singh.

Based in India, Charanjit has been building tech projects for years. But every new idea ran into the same frustrating obstacle: the setup slog. Hours lost wiring up social logins, integrating Stripe, or handling boilerplate - before he even touched the core of his app.

As a part-time solo founder, that wasted time wasn’t just inconvenient - it was a dream killer.

Charanjit knew there had to be a better way. So he built Indie Kit.

A couple takes a selfie indoors by a window with wooden walls. He wears a black cap and shirt, smiling. She wears a denim jacket, pouting. Sunlight streams through the glass.

Charanjit Singh (with his girlfriend) - Founder of Indie Kit

Before Charanjit Singh shares his startup story - a few words from my sponsor.

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The story told by Charanjit Singh

The frustration

Imagine this: you're a developer buzzing with a killer SaaS idea - but before you can write a single line of core logic, you're stuck in setup hell. Auth bugs, payment glitches, team management logic. It’s all draining the life out of your momentum.

That was my reality.

As a serial indie hacker and co-founder of two previous ventures, I finally poured my energy into something different: Indie Kit - a Next.js boilerplate that’s now become the go-to starting point for 127 developers (and counting).

A webpage for Indie Kit promotes a. It features a black background, "Ship your SaaS in days, not months" in bold, NextJS 15 boilerplate, tech stack icons, and a "Get Indie Kit Pro" button.

Homepage of Indie Kit

Building and launching

In November 2024, I started hacking away at a solution in my spare time.

By January 2025, Indie Kit went live. In just three months, it hit 100 registered signups.

What makes Indie Kit stand out

Indie Kit isn’t just another boilerplate - it’s a launchpad for indie hackers, SaaS founders, and side hustlers. It is packed with everything you need to skip the grunt work:

Auth
Social logins and magic links, ready to go.

Payments
Stripe and Lemon Squeezy with webhooks and customer portals.

B2B kit
Multi-tenancy, team management, useOrganization hook, and withOrganizationAuthRequired wrapper for SaaS.

MDC
Predefined Cursor and Windsurf Rules to make AI aware of the project architecture.

UI
Sleek TailwindCSS and shadcn/ui designs. Full support of all 21st.dev components.

Background jobs
Inngest for queues and scheduled tasks.

AI Power
Cursor rules for lightning-fast AI-driven coding.

I also added a personal touch: 1-1 mentorship for a select few users and a Discord group where 127+ devs swap tips and keep the vibe alive. It’s not just a tool - it’s a community.

Marketing

My journey with Indie Kit is pure indie hustle - 100% bootstrapped. Every single signup came from Reddit, where I shared my story of fighting setup pain and building a solution.

I mainly posted about my boilerplate in microsaas and indie hacker subreddits - example below.

Reddit’s been gold to me. It’s where I found aspiring indie hackers who get the struggle.

But marketing hasn’t been all smooth sailing.

Google Ads burned cash for just two sales, and Facebook and Reddit ads were a nightmare. My Indian credit cards kept getting declined, and Facebook’s signup bugs didn’t help.

Examples of some of the ads I ran below.

A person in a red shirt raises fists excitedly against a black and green background. Text reads "MADE MY FIRST INTERNET MONEY" in white and green, with five green stars above.

Ad for Indie Kit

A person in a red shirt looks surprised against a black background with fireworks. Text in orange, yellow, and purple reads "AI-POWERED NEXT.JS 15 BOILERPLATE INDIE KIT.PRO".

Ad for Indie Kit

Then there’s the payment gateway hurdle. In India, Stripe doesn’t work, so I had to pivot to Dodo Payments.

I also tried out email marketing - but flopped.

The business model

I sell Indie Kit in two plans:

  • Indie Kit Pro: 79$

  • Indie B2B Kit: 119$

And then there is the “Full kit” (both kits) at 169$.

Indie Kit Pro competes directly with Marc Lou’s boilerplate ShipFast which is 249$.

I also provide a free 15-30 minute 1-1 call. A few members/customers are so impressed that they are ready to pay for more sessions. I am considering to include it in the bundle as well.

Current situation

In total Indie Kit has generated revenue of 6,000$ (May 2025).

A line graph titled "Revenue Split by Product Type" shows OneTime (blue) revenue peaking at $800 in Dec, then rising to $1.6K by Apr. Subscription (yellow) remains at $0.

Indie Kit revenue

Below are my visitor stats (Google Aanalytics) from indiekit.pro.

A dashboard shows Active users (8.3K), New users (8.3K), Event count (61K) with huge growth percentages. A line graph compares this year's user activity (Jan-May) to last year.

Indie Kit visitor stats for 2025

A dashboard shows Active users (3.3K, -0.4%), New users (3.3K, -0.9%), Event count (29K, +33.1%). A line graph compares the last 60 days (Apr-May) to the preceding period.

Indie Kit vistor stats for April and May 2025

What’s next?

With 127 devs currently paying for my product I’m more motivated than ever.

The feedback’s got me buzzing. I’m deep in development, working on ad conversion tracking for Google, Meta, and Reddit to make Indie Kit a no-brainer for growth-focused founders.

More features are in the pipeline too, fueled by the community’s input.

Want to connect with Charanjit Singh? You’ll find him on X.

See you next time,
Thanks,
Jakob Jelling

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