This Saturday
Affonso is launching on Product Hunt!
Let’s show the world that indie makers without big social followings can get Product of the Day and beat big corporates.
Thanks for your support ❤️
Big week ahead.
This Saturday, Affonso is launching on Product Hunt.
For the very first time.
One year after going live.
One year of building solo.
One year of learnings.
Let’s see what happens.
So I did. I quit my job to give it everything I have.
Now it’s just me, my laptop, and some savings.
Wish me luck. 🍀
Yesterday was my last day at my 9-to-5.
I quit my job to go all-in on my SaaS.
A year ago, I launched Affonso as a side project.
Since then, I couldn’t stop thinking about what it could become if I went all in.
$99/mo recurring
No words for the feeling
You build something from scratch
Real people pay. Every month!!! 🤯🤯
It still blows my mind every time
But it was all worth it.
So much has happened in just one year.
And it’s going to pay off.
The 7th day was for rest,
and for time with my wife and our dog.
The next 365 days will look pretty similar.
The only difference:
Starting December, I’ll be working on Affonso full-time!
From early morning to late at night.
No more 9 to 5.
365 days full of highs and lows.
This is what my last 365 days looked like.
Every day, before and after my 9 to 5,
I consistently worked on Affonso.
Shipping improvements, bug fixes, feature requests.
And on top of all that,
I still had to find time for marketing!
I worked on affonso(.)io at least 6 days a week.
Someone started a free trial
Two hours later…
Upgraded to the highest plan ($99/mo)
Feels good 😍
Got mentioned in Ilias‘s newsletter
He shared how a single blog post earned him €375
All through an affiliate program powered by Affonso
If you don’t have affiliates, you’re not just leaving money on the table
You’re missing out on backlinks from other sites
And chances to get mentioned by AI
Solid growth this month
Happy with how things are moving
Spent $426.94 on X ads
Made $0 in sales
AMA
Start your day with money making activities!
Since making that change, almost every 2–3 signups now start a trial (before it was only about every 6th).
It’s fascinating how much impact a small change can have on user behavior.
This boosted my trial conversion rate by +139%.
Instead of showing just "$15/mo" with a small note underneath saying “14-day free trial”, I switched to:
“$0 now, then $15/month in 14 days.”
I came across this idea on datafast from marc and decided to test it myself.
Grew Affonso’s DR from 0 to 60 in under 1 year.
Just quit my 9 to 5!
There was a promotion lined up for January.
Still decided to leave.
Going all in on Affonso.
No backup plan.
Just full commitment.
LOCKED IN
100% of my churn comes from the lowest plan ($9).
Not a single user on the growth plan has ever canceled.
Growth plan is $39/mo or $29/yr.
What would you do with that info?
But I have to admit.. I actually liked reading it.
At least it was fair and didn’t twist facts, which I’ve already seen others do.
Even when competitors try to show why you’re worse,
it’s still a signal that you’re relevant enough to matter.
We made it!
One of the big competitors just published a comparison page for Affonso.
That moment when you realize: you’re officially on the map.
Of course, the article is written in their favor, no surprise.
I’m not a fan of self hosting
I just want to focus on my business
not on maintaining servers
fixing configs
and babysitting infrastructure
Rate GPT-5 on a scale from 1 to 10 ⭐️
I’m currently deciding what to tackle first:
→ move high-usage functions to Cloudflare Workers
→ migrate everything from Vercel to a self-hosted Coolify setup
That should lower costs and help keep things sustainable.
Traffic on Affonso is about to explode
And I realized that even with Vercel’s Pro plan,
the cost of running Affonso will soon eat all the profits
I kept it simple and shipped @useAffonso last year as an MVP
Getting it out there was the priority
No overthinking
But now it’s time to optimize
→ New sales tab. Track sales from affiliates
→ New programs now come with a test affiliate account
→ Impersonate affiliates to view the dashboard from their perspective
→ …plus tons of UI improvements
More to come 👀 → affonso.io
3/3
→ Full coupon code management within Affonso
→ Delete affiliates
→ Better affiliate management options
→ “Upcoming payouts” tab. See who gets paid when
→ Currency conversion for affiliate commissions (200+ currencies)
→ Improved referrals tab for more insights
2/3
Last week was a big one at Affonso
Shipped 10+ requested features to give more control and better affiliate insights:
→ Custom commissions per product, plan & individual affiliates
→ Group affiliates into segments
→ Tiered commission structures
→ Manually assign referrals & sales
1/3
Churn always felt like a black box.
People leave and you never really know why.
Got inspired by seeing @jackfricks.bsky.social trying to reduce churn.
So I added a simple exit survey to catch users on their way out.
Already got the first bit of feedback.
Because they want to maximize what they get from each customer.
Take Babbel, for example.
You can get a lifetime deal there too.
Which already tells you something.
So yeah..
LTDs can absolutely make sense
Just don’t confuse them with generosity
In many cases, it’s just a well-calculated offer
The product might not get developed further.
The company might pivot.
Or disappear entirely.
On the other hand, more established companies also offer LTDs.
But make no mistake.
They’re doing it with clear intent.
They know their average LTV, and price the deal well above that.
