Michelle (Saku Studio)
From data analytics lead to full-time indie, building apps for the hobbies she loves. One year to make it work.
July 31, 2026 · €400, a first refund, and Mica
A good milestone and a rough first, in the same update.
The milestone: €400 in revenue over the last 28 days.
It’s still not enough to cover all the bills, but it’s a nice milestone and a good sign that things are moving in the right direction.
The rough first: on July 23 she got her first ever refund request, with no message and no explanation.
That honestly bummed me out… It’s something I’ll have to learn to let go of, because I’m sure more will come eventually. 😉
She and Joost also launched Bloei, their pregnancy nutrition app. They’re proud of it, but getting people to actually use it has been harder than expected, even with a dedicated website (a first for them) and outreach to media outlets. They’re giving it away free to anyone willing to share feedback.
And she’s in Shipaton with a new app called Mica, taking the website lessons from Bloei with her, with a TestFlight build hopefully coming soon.
July 13, 2026 · Meet Michelle
Michelle came to us through her husband Joost, who longtime readers might remember from issue #84. A whole family of indies. 🥹
She spent years as a data analytics team lead before deciding, at the start of 2026, to give indie development a real one-year shot. She taught herself Swift while working her 9-to-5, building an app for her board game hobby that became Game Shelf. Today she runs Saku Studio, a growing lineup of apps built around things she loves: StitchStash for cross stitchers, SewMate for sewing, and Hookly for crocheters.
Where she is right now: very much in the building-and-learning phase, trying to become a better developer, designer, marketer, and entrepreneur all at once. StitchStash is starting to gain real traction, though she’s honest that it’s not sustainable yet. Her next big challenge is growth: ASO, marketing, and getting her apps in front of more people.
She’s also got three more apps in progress, including one with Joost for people who are pregnant or trying to conceive, focused on what you can eat instead of everything you can’t.
My next big challenge is growth… I’m spending a lot of time learning about ASO, marketing, and figuring out how to get my apps in front of more people. Ultimately I want to reach the point where I can sustainably support my family by building products that people genuinely love using. That would be a dream come true.