Dan started his journey in tech as an Android developer and years later he builds & sells cool Micro-SaaS tools…
Hi Dan, what’s your background and what has been your career?
Hi, I’m Dan Mokaya, from Nairobi Kenya.
My tech journey began back in 2015 as an Android developer while I was still in University. I got a client who wanted a simple farming application made for them but I was just starting out and I didn’t have that much experience working with Android.
The client’s budget was about 30,000 Kenya shillings, so instead of letting this opportunity go, I decided to let a friend in on the deal to help out, we built the app and got paid.
From this experience, I realized that I just needed to have the right skills to be able to make money.
Over the years I have worked with various other technologies and started a couple of ventures from Amazon FBA to a B2B Internet venture in Kamulu. Some didn’t work out and some I sold off.
In 2021 I ventured into machine learning and data analytics after seeing that these two fields were beginning to grow exponentially, and in 2023 I decided to focus on building micro-SaaS applications.
What is one business that you have built and sold off or didn’t work out?
In 2022 my brother and I created a marketplace where entrepreneurs would be able to sell their businesses to potential buyers instead of shutting them down. We created this platform to scratch our own itch as I had personally faced major hurdles while trying to sell the B2B internet business earlier on.
There was nobody doing this in the country so we decided to try it out. We built it out pretty well but marketing was a real challenge so we ended up shutting the business down.
Towards the end of that same year 2022 we built a copyrighting tool powered by the OpenAi API and after 2 months we got a buyer for the tool through Acquire.com and this was the first success and an Aha! Moment as well. We could build and sell micro-SaaS products for those not willing to start building from scratch.
What are you working on currently?
I’m working on a few things behind the scenes but the main one that has taken center stage is uiwithux.com.
A productized service agency where I offer UI/UX design services to businesses or indie hackers on a subscription model. So they subscribe to my service on a monthly basis just like they would subscribe to Netflix, are matched with a top tier designer under Uiwithux and put in design requests that are executed upon in a timely manner while we manage everything else project and design related for the client.
Why did you decide to start Uiwithux?
Initially I was working on Tumizipay which was aimed at helping small business people separate their personal and business expenses, so they would have a loaded debit card that would be used for any kind of business expenses. I had personally experienced this problem so I thought there were others out there who would need such a product as well.
I set up a landing page and started pitching to several VCs and Angel Investors, I did this for about four months with no result because Tumizipay had no revenue or clients. After this I decided to take a different approach and set up the service that I’m running currently as a means of funding Tumizipay in the long run.
How did you get your first customers/users?
I got my first client from a community called Microconf. I joined the Slack channel for this community and was actively participating when people asked design questions. One person checked out my website and liked what I was offering and that was my first customer.
Most of my leads have come from the Slack channels that I’m in. So far X (Twitter) has not brought in any clients yet even though I’m very active on there.
What are some challenges that you have faced and how did you overcome them?
The technology being used will always pose challenges here and there and one for me was finding the right payment gateway so that I could be paid easily even by clients outside of Kenya. I ended up settling on Paystack.
Marketing is also not easy at all. I’ve been using X a lot but still there is no positive result in terms of conversion but I’m still pushing and iterating as I go and it will work out at some point.
Financially/user acquisition wise how is the product doing?
The service is doing well, I have a few paying clients from the US so far and the service is growing steadily.
What are some of the mistakes you made & some disadvantages of working on the product?
Mistake number one was thinking that my personal problem was another person’s problem as well and building something fully on top of such an assumption.
The best approach is to build a simple landing page, show what you are going to offer and engage people online and see if they will be interested.
Do a little research.
If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
I will go with my favorite quote as an answer to this question. “Ship often, iterate quickly and embrace failure as a stepping stone to success.”
But another thing that I would do differently is listening to other founders, learning from them because in one way or another they have already faced and probably overcome the same challenges that I am facing currently.
I would also try to solve people’s problems more and sell to them less. Put out value first even in terms of content that is shared on social media and the money will follow.
Any recommendations in terms of who to follow, YouTube videos to watch, a useful website or books to read?
On YouTube you can check out the EO (entreprenuership_opportunities) channel and Nine to 5 with Wangari which are two great places to learn about the journeys of other entrepreneurs and the products that they have built.
A great podcast to listen to is “The SaaS podcast” by Omer khan and one book I would recommend is “12 Months to $1 Million” by Ryan Daniel
Where can people go to know more about you and your work?
Find me on twitter @DanThaKaya and check out the design subscription service I’m currently running at uiwithux.com
Getting personal, what does success look like to you as an individual and at what point would you say you have achieved said success?
Success for me is when I know I’m healthy, my family is well and I have a strong supportive system of friends. Being able to fully enjoy this life that God has given us.
Also being able to exit a product that I have worked on successfully, this is also success.
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