# the story behind "SEO it is"

> how a 12-hour launch challenge became one of my best products, from $2 lifetime to $49/mo with real users.
- **Author**: kalash vasaniya
- **Published**: 2026-03-21
- **Category**: personal
- **URL**: https://www.kalashvasaniya.com/blog/the-story-behind-seo-it-is

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on 27th december 2025, i went to a 12 hour launch challenge hosted by [harkirat](https://x.com/1997harkirat).

i was not sure what to build at the launchathon, but i usually prefer solving my own problems or just copying the best products.

on my way to the location, i decided to build something related to SEO because 3 days earlier, on 24 dec 2025, one of my posts about programmatic SEO went viral and hit 800k+ views.

here is the tweet [link](https://x.com/kalashvasaniya/status/2003680784373416184?s=20) and it also made it to global twitter news.

so i instantly realized that i should definitely build something around SEO and i did. it became one of my best products so far.

so how did i build it?

as always, i reached the location 5 minutes late (sorry for that). i met some great builders and of course i bought the domain before the launchathon started.

and i got this beautiful gift from [harkirat](https://x.com/1997harkirat) (btw, i still have that card).

in hour 1, i bought the domain, set up the repo, downloaded a ui template, set up env and did all the basic stuff.

then i started building the landing page and understanding competitors like semrush and ahrefs for reference. i created a plan to build 6 tools and set the price to $2 lifetime. i know it is low, but they were just 6 simple basic SEO tools.

after building continuously, in 10 hours i was 100 percent done with the product. i added pricing and created a launch video in 10 minutes.

and somehow that launch [video](https://x.com/kalashvasaniya/status/2004942903802823057?s=20) went viral and got 300k+ views.

the reason it went viral is because for the last 12 hours i was constantly posting what i was doing on twitter, building the product live in public.

the moment i posted the video, people got excited and it blew up.

the goal of the event was to earn $1 from your product in 12 hours and yes i did it.

after posting the video, i left and when i reached home i had 2 users.

i was so happy. i immediately increased the price to $4 and still got 5 users.

then i doubled down on the product, improving both frontend and backend, adding analytics ui and changed the price to $5. after that i slept because i was exhausted.

when i woke up, i saw 4 more users. for the first time i felt product market fit. then i added more tools, set up email and everything else, and increased the price to $9.

and yes, i kept getting 2 to 3 users daily for about a month.

then i thought of adding AEO and GEO to help people rank on chatgpt and other llms because it is a hot and less competitive space. i spent 1 week building it and priced it at $49 per month.

and right now i have 5 users paying $49 per month.

"what i learned is simple, simplicity wins and boring builds real businesses."

start with 1 and keep improving. people waste too much time just building and building.

that 12-hour product launch taught me a lot. i went from $2 lifetime pricing to $49 per month.

you do not need funding or a budget.

just document your journey and build in public, that's what i did and i'm rooting for you.
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