In this video I break down the part nobody talks about enough: you built the API, you listed it on a marketplace like RapidAPI… now how do you actually get paying customers? Building the API is the easy part. The real challenge is getting it in front of people who need it and are willing to pay for it—and once you crack that, it starts to feel like you’re printing money. First, I show my most effective “detective work” strategy: I go to GitHub, search repos related to my API niche, filter for projects that are recently active with decent stars, then look at contributors. Those devs are already solving problems in my space, so they’re ideal customers. I reach out with a genuine message focused on saving them time (not a hard pitch), and I’ve landed multiple paying customers this way—one is on my $200/month plan because my API saved his startup weeks. Then I talk about building in public on Twitter like Mark Lou—sharing revenue updates, wins, and learnings so other devs discover your API naturally. I also point to examples like Fireship, Anna Kubo, and Ervin Ruci (Geocode.xyz) to show this model works—but it’s not get-rich-quick. Consistent outreach, authenticity, and being genuinely helpful is what makes it compound.