How a 20-Year-Old Nigerian Grew Senja to $32K MRR with SEO & PLG

Background

Wilson was just 12 when he earned his first dollar online by building simple apps with code from forums. That early taste of digital income sparked a long run of freelance gigs and self-taught coding until a torn ACL at 17 forced him offline. Stuck at home for six weeks, he read up on digital entrepreneurs and decided it was time to make something of his own.

The Birth of Senja

In January 2022, Wilson noticed that most testimonial tools were clunky and lacked good design. He set a 30-day deadline to build a minimum viable product (MVP) and kept costs to just a domain and hosting—$35/month total. By focusing on core features—video uploads, text boxes, customizable widgets and Walls of Love—he hit his launch target without distractions.

Tech Stack and Development

To move fast and keep a polished UI, Wilson choseSvelteKitfor the framework andTailwindCSSfor styling. He usedPostgreSQLwithHasurafor the database layer,Muxto host videos, andCloudflareas the CDN. This setup let him put in 12- to 14-hour days and launch a clean product under budget.

Growth Strategies

Wilson shared daily progress on Twitter, growing from zero to 20,000 followers by launch day. He then focused on SEO, publishing pages for low-competition, high-volume keywords and competitor terms to pull in 45% of traffic. A freemium tier with “Powered by Senja” badges turned users into advocates. Affiliate partnerships drove 16% more sign-ups, and newsletter sponsorships of existing users added a steady trickle of new accounts.

Overcoming Hurdles

Based in Port Harcourt, Wilson couldn’t access Stripe or PayPal. He signed up for Paddle and Payoneer to accept payments, bought a power station for outages, and upgraded to a 5G router and Starlink to stay online. These workarounds let Senja compete globally despite local limits.

Current Results

A year after launch, Senja serves 20,000 users and pulls in $32,000 in monthly recurring revenue. The freemium model pays off with a growing base of paying customers, while SEO and product-led growth keep new sign-ups coming in without heavy ad spend. Wilson’s lean, transparent approach shows how a solo founder can build real traction fast.