ShipFast: a Next.js boilerplate built in a week that made $6,000 in 48 hours

What it is

ShipFast is a Next.js starter kit with payments, auth, emails and landing-page sections already wired, so developers can launch faster (Marc Lou on HN).

Timeline

• Apr 2023: Lou decided to "always have a buy button" and "build painkillers, not vitamins"; earlier AI products made money but had low conversion and high refunds (newsletter).
• Late Aug 2023: after two weeks off in August, built ShipFast in a week "with no expectations" and launched it; his 2 Sep 2023 issue describes the launch as happening in "the last 3 days" (newsletter).
• First 48 hours: $6,000, more than his 2022 income (newsletter).
• 17 Jan 2024: "$220K in revenue (~$200K in profits)" and 1,500 developers helped, 4.5 months after launch. At launch he had told his wife "we're lucky if we make $100" (HN).
• Jan 2026: ShipFast and his course CodeFast each made around $20K/month (Marc Lou, 2025 recap).

Why it worked

• He was the customer. He had launched 17 products in two years and kept redoing DNS, Stripe webhooks and pricing sections (HN).
• Years of shipping in public. "For 7 years, I tried to convince users my apps were worth trying"; with ShipFast, users were pulled in instead (newsletter). Asked on HN how much his fame helped, he answered "clearly a lot" (HN).
• Design. "Landing page is hot" was one of the most common pieces of feedback; he credits padding, layout and typeface (newsletter).
• Buyers pulled the product. One customer apologised for a bug that blocked his own access; another wired money because he had no credit card (newsletter).

What to learn

1. Look at what you rebuild in every project. That repeated work may be the product.
2. "Focus is overrated" until something gets traction: 365 days on his first startup earned $0, 7 days on ShipFast earned $6,000 (newsletter).
3. Audience still matters, but it isn't everything: he reported paid ads to a cold audience returned about $15K revenue on $5K spend (HN).

Risks and what didn't work

• His earlier AI products had "low conversion, angry customers, high refund rate" (newsletter).
• A boilerplate is easy to copy, and the category draws criticism: one HN commenter called selling it this way "a grift" (HN).
• By January 2026 he described ShipFast as making around $20K/month; it is one of 15 income streams he now relies on (Marc Lou, 2025 recap).