14-year-old high school student making $2.5k selling big ideas

Meet Om Patel.

Om is a 14-year-old indie hacking enthusiast from Canada with a mission to help developers build successful, money-making products.

After 8 failed projects, Om finally found success with BigIdeasDB - a platform that helps aspiring founders discover their next big idea.

Here’s how Om went from almost giving up coding to earning $2.56k in sales in just a few months as a high school student.

The story told by Om Patel

"The World Isn’t All Sunshine and Rainbows"

I started coding at 12 years old. I went from watching Python tutorials to building full-fledged front-end and back-end projects in just a year with a few Codecademy courses, all while still in Grade 8.

By the time I turned 13, I felt ready to tackle my first big project called InternHub (discontinued but the landing page is still working), a platform where users could review internships from over 180 companies.

I spent a year working on InternHub building a large-scale application from scratch. I felt like the next Mark Zuckerberg. But when I launched, dreaming of overnight success, reality hit hard.

Over three months, I spent $1,200 on LinkedIn ads and other promotions. In the end, I gained only 25 users and made $0 in revenue. The disappointment was crushing, and I almost quit coding altogether.

But instead of giving up, I decided to shift gears. I started building smaller SaaS applications targeting niche audiences. Over the next year, I launched 7 more projects - all of which flopped. Zero users. Zero traction.

I remember people DMing me (example below), telling me to stick to an idea and make it pay, and that I will never get anywhere with all of these useless small SaaS applications. So that’s exactly what I decided to do.

The Big Idea

The idea for BigIdeasDB came from my own frustration with idea generation. I realized there wasn’t a single platform where founders could browse real-world problems, validated solutions, and successful product ideas from actual discussions from users. So, I decided to create it.

I built a scraper that found validated problems from Reddit posts and comments in niche subreddits. These problems represented real market and user needs because they came from discussions that users had who were seeking solutions to problems they faced.

From there, I analyzed the data to generate potential SaaS solutions for these problems. The result was BigIdeasDB, a platform featuring:

• 1,000+ validated problems from Reddit.

• 1,000+ SaaS solutions tailored to those problems.

• 3,000+ successful products sourced from Product Hunt and beyond.

I also update all of these databases weekly.

Launching BigIdeasDB

On October 21st, 2024, after 3 months of scraping, analyzing data, and building the platform, I launched BigIdeasDB and shared it with the world through X and Reddit’s “build in public” community:

• At 14 years old, I made a website that scrapes validated problems from Reddit based on your chosen subreddit and keywords (Reddit)

• After eight failed projects at 14 years old, I finally made my first internet dollars with a database filled with validated real world problems (Reddit)

Initially, users didn’t understand the idea and how I was getting these “validated” problems. My product was roasted on Reddit. But instead of feeling defeated, I saw this as an opportunity. I listened carefully to the feedback, added features users wanted, and refined the platform to make it more clear on what I was selling.

Within two days of relaunching, I made my first 6 sales, earning over $200. For someone who had faced nothing but failure before, it was a huge moment. I couldn’t stop jumping up and down at midnight when I finally saw the Stripe Dashboard 💲

The Growth

After my first sales, I posted about my journey on Reddit’s r/SideProjects. The post (below) blew up, gaining over 222k views, 400 upvotes, and 100 comments. People loved the concept, and my sales jumped to 17 customers, earning me another $400.

But I wanted to push further. Over the next month, I gathered more feedback and continued improving the product. That’s when I had an idea:

What if users could find problems based on Reddit posts and comments from their own chosen subreddits and keywords?

I spent 15 days building this feature, working over 80 hours in total. Once it was ready, I shared it on Reddit, and the response was incredible. In just two weeks, I gained another 20 customers and made over $2,000.

Every week, I launch new features for developers to make products that are already validated.

Here are some new features that I've already launched so far that users love:

• Pipeline Builder: Get infinite problems directly from Reddit posts and comments from your chosen subreddit and keywords

• CopyCat DB: Explore success stories from Reddit posts from different subreddits. Find improvements and build off of existing wins

• Reddit Keyword Generator: Find the perfect subreddits and keywords for your product or service, and optimize your posting strategies by getting the best times to post

You can find a demo video for every feature on BigIdeasDB right here.

The Results

In summary, here’s what I’ve achieved so far:

• $2.56k in sales.

• Just 3 sales away from 40 total customers.

• 1,000 followers on X.

• Top 1% poster on Reddit.

Below the Google Analytics vistor stats for BigIdeasDB.com

I’m reinvesting every dollar back into the platform to continue growing it. My ultimate goal is to fund my college education, and with $97.44k to go, this is just the beginning.

Check out BigIdeasDB to discover your next big idea or get inspired by Om’s journey. You can also connect with Om on X to stay updated on his progress and future projects.