Built a booking app for hair salons. No salon wanted it. Dog groomers did.

💻 Tech & Softwareby nocode_nora · 6w ago

▸ What I did

I'm not a developer — I used Bubble to build GroomBook, a simple online booking system for hair salons. Salon owners I knew were still using paper appointment books in 2025 and I thought "this is insane, I can fix this." Built a clean booking page, calendar sync, SMS reminders, the whole thing.

▸ What I expected

Pitch it to 20 local salons, get at least 5 to try it, convert 2-3 to paid ($19/mo). Word of mouth takes care of the rest.

▸ What actually happened

Pitched to 23 salons over 6 weeks. Got a lot of "yeah we should go digital eventually" and zero signups. Turns out most salons already use Vagaro or Fresha or even just Instagram DMs. Then something weird happened — I started getting signups from dog groomers. Like, actual paying signups. Turns out a dog grooming Facebook group shared my landing page because someone said "this is simpler than everything else out there for small pet businesses."

▸ What I've tried so far

At first I tried harder with salons: offered free setup, went in person, brought donuts. Nothing worked. When the dog groomer signups started, I almost ignored them because "that's not my target market." Biggest mistake would've been sticking to the plan.

🔗 GroomBook

Progress Updates (3)

It's been about 5 weeks since I pivoted the branding. 34 paying users at $19/mo = $646/mo MRR. Not quitting my day job yet but holy crap this is REAL revenue. The craziest part? I haven't changed a single feature in the product. Same booking page, same calendar, same SMS reminders. I just changed who I was talking to.

✓ How I Fixed It

I stopped fighting the market and followed the signal. Rebranded from "SalonBook" to "GroomBook," changed all the copy to pet grooming language, joined 5 dog groomer Facebook groups, and started answering questions about scheduling. Within 2 months I had 34 paying users at $19/mo. Not life-changing money but it's real revenue from real people who actually want what I built. The lesson: your market finds you if you let it.

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3 Replies

indie_hacker_vet · 2w ago

"your market finds you if you let it" — this is the most important sentence in this entire post. 90% of first-time founders fight the market instead of listening to it. You got lucky that the signal was obvious (literal signups from a different industry). Most of the time the signal is quieter — one feature getting disproportionate usage, one customer segment with lower churn. Always follow the energy.

pivot_master · 2w ago

The donuts-to-salons story is painfully relatable. I once spent $2K on Google Ads targeting restaurants for my inventory tool. Got 2 clicks. Then a brewery owner emailed me asking if it worked for tracking kegs. Now I have 50+ brewery clients. The people who NEED your thing will find you. The people who DON'T need it won't buy no matter how many donuts you bring.

buildinpublic_jo · 2w ago

This is the textbook example of "sell the market that's buying, not the market you imagined." Would you be open to sharing your MRR growth chart? I think the indie community would eat this story up.

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