How I Built It: $16K/Month Micro-SaaS | Starter Story

Nick, a Ukrainian software engineer, built a Pinterest marketing tool called Block2Pin that now generates over $16,000 in monthly recurring revenue. What makes his story notable is not a dramatic launch or viral growth, but a methodical process of solving his own tedious problem, failing several times first, and then patiently acquiring customers one by one. The tool automates the creation and scheduling of Pinterest pins for bloggers and website owners, a niche that sounds small but serves over 400 paying subscribers.

From Corporate Ambition to Indie Hacking

Nick learned software engineering at 15 and initially aimed for a career at major tech companies like Google or SpaceX. The war in Ukraine in 2022 derailed that path and led to a period of depression. He discovered the Indie Hackers community around the time ChatGPT launched, which shifted his perspective. He decided to ride the AI wave and built several apps that all failed, generating zero revenue. Instead of giving up, he started an AI blog about cocktails—a personal passion—and tried every channel to drive traffic. Pinterest worked best. When he tried to hire someone to create Pinterest pins manually, he realized the process was slow and expensive. That frustration became the seed for Block2Pin.

The Build and the Slow Start