ShortFlix · The $10k MRR PathOne-person operator · 30-day demo · 6-month plan
Bootstrap mode · no VC · invoices on Day 1

The demo earns the prize. The Pro tier earns the rent.

I am one developer. The challenge gives me $30K of upside in cash and a public stage. I can also turn the same multi-agent stack into a $4.99/mo Pro tier and clear $10K MRR in 6 months — without hiring, without raising, without leaving Track 1.

Target MRR · M+6
$10,800
Pro subs needed
2,164
Free → Pro conv.
3.1%

Revenue ladder

★Prize money (Track 1 Best + APAC)$15,000
M+1Submit + post-launch press · 8.4k DAU$420 MRR
M+2Curator profiles · referral loop$1,820
M+3Pro tier · ad-free + extra slots$3,940
M+4Embed widget · creator share$6,120
M+5Brand briefs · 4 logos × $1,200$8,610
M+62,164 Pro subs · 4 brand briefs$10,800

Bootstrap P&L — Month 6 (target)

Same architecture as the demo. Multi-agent superiority is also the cost moat: one curator nightly batch supplies all 8.4k DAU, vs single-agent's per-request inference cost.

LineDetailUSD / mo
Pro subs2,164 × $4.99+ 10,802
Brand briefs4 × $1,200+ 4,800
Total revenue—+ 15,602
Cloud Runmin=1, asia-NE3− 312
Gemini-2.0-flashnightly batch + on-demand− 1,840
Vertex AI Search1 corpus, grounding− 410
Cloud SQL f1-microcache + user state− 96
RapidAPIYT + IG + TT plans− 880
Stripe (3.4%)Pro subs only− 367
CDN + logs + bufferincl. 20% margin− 540
Total cost—− 4,445
Netper-DAU $0.038 cost holds+ 11,157

Conversion funnel · M+6 model

Demo video drives top-of-funnel; per-card "why" surfaces curator value; curator profiles drive retention; Pro upgrade triggers at 21st pick.

14,200install
8,420D1 active
5,920D7 active
3,260weekly
2,164Pro

Every step is a single solo-dev change. No hires. No VC pitch deck. No re-architecture.

Maintainable-by-one checklist

Every feature in the demo must pass this gate, or it does not ship. Indie hacker rule #1: future-me has to debug it at 2 AM, alone.

What the demo video sells

1-2 minutes, English subtitles. Opens with one Pro upgrade overlay so judges see Business 30% before they see code; closes with a real $4.99 Stripe receipt screenshot from a beta tester.

  • 0:00 — install ShortFlix PWA in 3 taps
  • 0:18 — first 9 picks with per-card "why"
  • 0:46 — 21st card → Pro upgrade modal
  • 1:04 — Stripe receipt + curator profile @jisu
  • 1:24 — orchestrator dashboard (4 agents)

Why this earns Business 30%

The judges are explicitly told to weight Business Case. A bootstrap MRR plan with a real $4.99 receipt is more credible than a TAM slide.

$4.99 / mo Pro $1,200 brief 3.1% conv. $0.038 / DAU 1 dev, 6 mo

Same codebase. Same four agents. The only difference between a hackathon project and a $10k MRR business is whether the demo also says "and here is the receipt".