Featured Interview: Mohammad Abdin

Founder of Moonlit, the no code AI tool builder used by content and SEO professionals

Last year we were running a lot of AI tools and projects for content and SEO, mostly built to use Python or even sitting in a Google Sheets spreadsheet. Generally speaking, though, we just used clunky AI Assistants in Chat GPT. Then we found the Moonlit platform, and everything changed.

The brains behind Moonlit is bootstrap SaaS founder, Mohammad Abdin, a founder unlike many we’ve met over the years (because he actually engages constantly with the users of his service!).

Here’s our interview with Mohammad…

Tell us about yourself!

I’m a full-stack engineer currently bootstrapping moonlitplatform.com which is a no code AI tool builder designed for content marketers and SEO specialists.

A quick background, before that I completed my bachelors in computer science and AI and began working at a digital agency as a software engineer/analyst building internal tools for the team and working with clients. That eventually led me to gain confidence in my “building” abilities and I ventured into the start-up world.

Moonlit is currently my second start-up, the first one failed but more on that below.

I got into business while doing my university course in the UK, at the time ‘dropshipping’ was kind of a new business model and I didn’t see it as a gateway to riches but more as a easy starting point to gain experience, I can build the store, sell products, learning marketing, and all the little intricacies in between.

After improving my software engineering skills, and building internal applications for my team in my first graduate job, I started working in the B2B SaaS space. 

Tell us about the business you are part of right now?

Right now I’m fully focused on Moonlit, similar to most recent start-ups today, it came as a result of all the GPT hype. I’d say the people that were most excited about this technology were developers because it opened up the doors to thousands of new use cases and solutions.

Below: SEO professional, Jonathan Boshoff, demonstrates Moonlit’s capabilities as a Google Quality Guideline Checker.

So my idea with Moonlit was to allow anyone with or without technical expertise to build out these use cases using multiple AI models, functions, and data sources in a workflow-like editor. About a month from launching, it gained traction from the SEO & content community and this led me to tailor the product more for that segment.

Below: Blog Topic Clustering using Moonlit!

Tell us about your biggest successes / failures?

My failure is a classic one; I spent months building to find out that no one wants it. This was my first start-up called corows.io, a data integrations platform. The strange thing is that validating before building is business 101, and it’s mentioned on every business podcast/channel you’ll find but I still failed it.

The agency that I left said that they’d pay for it, I got some people saying the idea is cool, and I thought that was enough validation because I was just very eager to build. It’s not that ‘no one told me they wanted it’ and I still built it, but more so that I wasn’t really sure or had the experience to tell what is ‘good enough’ validation to start building.

On the positive side, my current SaaS [Moonlit] grew to $2k MRR in 6 months organically.

Along the way, what tools, software or apps helped you grow?

These are the tools that I can currently use and would still use if I worked on any other online business.

• SendGrid (Email Marketing / Cold Outreach)

• Stripe (Payment Processor)

• Proton (Email)

• Notion (Project Management)

•  Google Suite (Sheets & Docs mostly)

• Webflow (CMS)

• PyCharm (Code Editor)

Also one honourable mention for developers is Github Copilot, it’s an AI that helps with code and it’s a massive productivity boost. I also use ChatGPT a lot of course.

Are there any influential books, podcasts, or people that helped?

I barely find the time these days to read or listen to podcasts, but there’s definitely a lot of people that helped along the way.

Since it’s a B2B SaaS, I rely a lot on LinkedIn as my primary acquisition channel, and while building my network I’ve met some really amazing people that just wanted to help a solo bootstrapped founder because they found the product to be valuable.

What’s the future look like?

I’m still very early in my career (24 years old), and my current plan is to continue growing Moonlit, build a small agile team, and hopefully exit in 5 years to explore other verticals. At this early stage of my business it’s really hard to find time for learning outside the scope of my work, but I’m hoping to reach a point where the business can be more on ‘cruise control’ so I can get back to reading, writing, and learning new technologies.

Ultimately I would also love to start my next businesses in my home country Jordan, and do whatever is in my hand to improve its economic state.

What strategy or strategies worked best for you?

My strategy is sort of unique and unfortunately it won’t work for most readers just because it’s very specific to the way Moonlit works. Moonlit allows you to build these AI tools which are simply input to output tools, they can also be shared as an iFrame or a link.

When people share a tool there is a ‘build with moonlit’ banner at the bottom and people can try it without even creating an account for a bit.

So the acquisition strategy has been reaching out to top voices in the SEO space on LinkedIn, showcasing the product, and if they love it they would share the tools they build with their network, because it’s instant value for their audience and I get some promo from the banner. So TL;DR influencer marketing has been my go to, and I also do cold outreach. 

What’s your best advice for those starting out in the B2B SaaS sector?

I’d say most importantly, start building out your personal brand. I don’t think everyone should have their social media with 100k+ followers but focus on quality rather on quantity.

I say this to myself as well, in Uni I started an AI/data engineering blog documenting my projects and that led me to finding my first job, after that I stopped, which is a mistake. Then now for Moonlit I’m going back and trying to regrow my personal brand on LinkedIn again.

So stay consistent with building your brand/network, and focus on quality not quantity. 10k quality followers on LinkedIn can be better than 100k low quality. What I mean with ‘quality’ here is build strong relations with your network, and keep in touch with them rather than post once a week and disappear, no replies, no messages, no comments, etc.

Also, take your time, one thing I didn’t mention in my failed start-up is that I wasn’t the best developer, I was just getting into JavaScript frameworks and I had to run back to Google and Stack Overflow every 2 minutes, so I would say be super confident in the technology you are building with.

Where can we find out more about you and the Moonlit Platform? 

• Moonlit Platform

• LinkedIn