I disagree - I wrote a simple tool for my family a number of years back, left it on my personal website in a way that was usable by the general public, and ignored it. Came back a couple years later, saw it was getting tens of thousands of uses a month, added some relevant amazon affiliate links, and hit that $500 a month mark. I let it run for a couple years like that, then sold it.

So if I can hit the mark accidentally off a weekend project, it certainly is achievable if you put serious effort in.

Care to share what kind of tool it was? This story has quite piqued my curiosity.

It was an image conversion program that computed designs for various crafts from uploaded photos.

This is (extremely) untrue in my experience and those of countless other boostrapped SaaS founder friends in my circle.

I've started 2 simple SaaS products that are solidly profitable (simplecrew.com and crewfire.com), and a 3rd just shipped this week (chainfuel.com).

The internet is full of other counterpoints.

Here's an exercise that would be interesting. Look at all the 'Show HN' posts announcing new startups from a couple of years ago. Find how many are still operating. Then contact the creators to see if the revenues produced have paid for the hours invested.

Then we would have some real data instead of my anecdote. And yours.

I have a simple SaaS product that plans emergency shifts for dentists (evenings and weekends). The value is in 1) fair planning, 2) a single source of truth on who is on call, and 3) reminders. It makes $300 a month with minimal cost and almost no time spent. Since it is B2B I only have to send invoices once a year.

Anecdata of course, but it has been like this (and profitable) for the last 7 years. At least proofs it is not impossible (I also never really invested lots of time in it to get to this state)

I think i can bring it to 30k a year with sufficient effort, but then again, my salary is higher than that so it doesn’t make enough sense to switch my time to do so. (The growth problem of course is sales, not tech)

Where can I see your product?

And then find a way to monetize that data to $500 MRR :)

Who cares if 90% of startups fail? Your point was wrong

No, he's right. Most people are better off investing in the stock market than trying to build a successful small business, SaaS, startup, or otherwise.

Indiehackers would disagree (https://www.indiehackers.com/interviews/page/1)

Aside from the fact that there's a ton of evidence that proves you wrong (but there is truth that a lot of SaaS founders never make a penny), OP was asking about starting at $500/month, which is far from "gushing profits".