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Founder stories
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232 stories found
David Bressler
how a non-coder built an ai excel tool to $20k in two months
David Bressler spent his paternity leave building an AI Excel formula tool with no-code Bubble, then watched influencers turn it into a fast-growing freemium business.
$500K/año·$100K ARR in 4 months·Solo
SaaSAI / MLOrlando, Florida
Thomas Frank
how thomas frank made $1m/year selling notion templates
After a decade making content, Thomas Frank made $1 million in a single year selling Notion templates, with the line peaking at $100k a month in one-time template sales.
Primer Cliente in 0 days·Solo
Producto de InformaciónProductividadColorado, USA
RC
Reilly Chase
how reilly chase landed hostifi's first 11 customers in three weeks
With an IT background but no SaaS experience, Reilly Chase built a UniFi hosting tool, launched it with a single tweet, and found his first 11 paying customers in three weeks by going where Ubiquiti users actually hung out.
$3M/año·$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSHerramientas para Desarrolladores🇺🇸 US
Dominik Sobe
how dominik sobe turned notion into a $3k mrr help center business
A self-taught Austrian developer needed a help center for his app, hated every option, and built one on top of Notion instead. HelpKit hit $3K MRR and 130+ customers within roughly a year.
$120K/año·$10K MRR in 3 years·Solo
SaaSProductividad🌍 Remote
Eddy Vinck
how a part-time dev got blog recorder to $250 mrr in 6 months
Eddy Vinck shipped his first SaaS, Blog Recorder, as a part-time project and reached $250 MRR and $2,000 in total revenue in six months, with his first customer coming from his own developer network.
$3K/año·$100 MRR in 3 months·Solo
SaaSCreación de Contenido🇳🇱 NL
Joe Masilotti
a one-month mvp that sold 14 months later
A Rails developer timeboxed an MVP to 30 days, landed two paying customers in his first 20 minutes on Product Hunt, and sold the product 14 months later.
$2K/año·$100 MRR in 2 months·Solo
SaaSHerramientas para Desarrolladores🇺🇸 US
Dru Riley
how Dru Riley took Trends.vc from zero to $20k MRR in under a year
Dru Riley quit a big-data job with savings and a vague plan, burned through three years of side projects, then turned weekly research reports into a one-person newsletter that hit roughly $20k MRR within a year of launch.
$240K/año·$10K MRR in 4 months·Solo
Producto de InformaciónMarketing🌍 Remote
Mohamed Nagm
How Mohamed Nagm turned Reddit pain points into SaasNiche's first $305 MRR
Mohamed Nagm built SaasNiche around one sharp promise: stop guessing what to build by mining Reddit for real customer pain. Founder-message and Stripe-verified sources show it reached roughly $300 MRR with a single Reddit-led channel.
$4K/año·$100 MRR in 1 month·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇪🇬 EG
Guillermo Rauch
V0: How Vercel's CEO Built an AI UI Generator Used by 3M+ Developers
Guillermo Rauch, a self-taught developer who never finished high school, built Next.js and Vercel. Then he used AI to make his own platform accessible to 100M+ potential users.
$200M/año·$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSHerramientas para Desarrolladores🇺🇸 US
Jan Oberhauser
n8n: Solo Founder Side Project to $2.5B Open-Source Automation Platform
Jan Oberhauser, a VFX pipeline engineer, started coding n8n in his Berlin apartment after work. His first hire was a developer evangelist. Now it's worth $2.5B with 150K GitHub stars.
$40M/año·$100K ARR in 7 years·Solo
SaaSProductividad🇩🇪 DE
Andrew Mason
Descript: The Groupon Founder Who Built a $550M AI Video Editor by Editing Audio Like Text
After founding Groupon ($16B IPO) and watching it unravel, Andrew Mason built Descript — an AI video editor that lets you edit media by editing text. He acquired a voice-cloning AI startup and rebuilt the product from scratch.
$55M/año·$100K ARR in 5 years·Solo
SaaSCreación de Contenido🇺🇸 US
Brett Williams
DesignJoy: How Brett Williams Built a $1.5M/Year Design Agency of One — Zero Employees, $95/Month in Tools
Brett Williams had been designing since 2009. In 2017 he launched DesignJoy, a subscription design service. Building in public on Twitter from early 2022 filled a 100+ company waitlist in three weeks and let him double his prices. By 2022, he broke $1.5M ARR as a true agency of one.
$1.7M/año·$100K ARR in 4 years·Solo
Agencia / ServicioDiseño🇺🇸 US
Codie Sanchez
Contrarian Thinking: How Codie Sanchez Built a 750K-Subscriber Newsletter and $100M+ Business Portfolio from Scratch
Codie Sanchez went from Goldman Sachs to building Contrarian Thinking — a newsletter that hit 10K subscribers in 30 days. She parlayed that audience into courses, community, and a holding company that now does 9 figures in revenue.
$49.2M/año·$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
Producto de InformaciónFinanzas🇺🇸 US
Jack Butcher
Visualize Value: How Jack Butcher Went from a Honda Factory to $180K/Month Through Daily Visual Posts
Jack Butcher assembled cars at a Honda factory, talked his way into design school, spent 8 years at agencies, then burned out running his own. In January 2019, he started posting simple visuals on Twitter. Within 18 months: $180K/month.
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
Producto de InformaciónEducación🇺🇸 US
Dan Koe
Dan Koe: 6 Failed Businesses, Then $3.3M/Year from Writing 2 Hours Per Day
Dan Koe tried fitness YouTube, dropshipping, a Facebook ads agency, and two e-commerce brands — all failed. Then he started writing on Twitter. Within 4 years: $3.3M/year and 3.4M followers.
$4.1M/año·$100K ARR in 4 years·Solo
Producto de InformaciónEducación🇺🇸 US
Wes Bos
Wes Bos: How a Canadian Developer Built a $10M+ Course Business Teaching JavaScript to 500,000 People
Wes Bos started teaching at a coding bootcamp, then launched "React for Beginners" — 2,300 students in 3 weeks. His free JavaScript30 challenge attracted 754K+ sign-ups. Total: $10M+ in course revenue from Hamilton, Ontario.
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
Producto de InformaciónEducación🇨🇦 CA
BL
Brian Lam
How a Gizmodo Editor Built the Internet's Most Trusted Product Review Site — Then Sold It to the NYT for $30M
Brian Lam left Gizmodo, moved to a surf shack in Hawaii, and launched Wirecutter. The NYT bought it for ~$30M in 2016.
vendida por $30M·$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
OtroCreación de Contenido🇺🇸 US
Noah Kagan
How Employee #30 at Facebook Built AppSumo into an $80M+ Deal Marketplace After Getting Fired
Noah Kagan was fired from Facebook before the IPO. He launched AppSumo with a Reddit post and a $12K deal — building it into $80M+ annual revenue.
$80M/año·$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
MarketplaceE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Amir Salihefendic
How a Student's Side Project Became a $20M ARR Bootstrapped Productivity Empire
Amir Salihefendic built Todoist as a side project to manage his own tasks as a student. 17 years later it's a fully bootstrapped, $20M+ ARR company used by 30 million people.
$26.5M/año·$100K ARR in 7 years·Solo
SaaSProductividad🌍 Remote
Tiago Forte
From Voice Disorder to a $1M+ Productivity Course Taken by 50,000 People
Tiago Forte developed his note-taking system to cope with a debilitating voice disorder. That personal system became Building a Second Brain, the world's most popular personal knowledge management course.
$2.1M/año·$100K ARR in 5 years·Solo
Producto de InformaciónProductividadSan Francisco, CA
Matt Kepnes
From Hospital Admin to 7-Figure Travel Empire: The Nomadic Matt Story
Matt Kepnes quit his hospital admin job after a trip to Thailand opened his eyes. His travel blog became Nomadic Matt — one of the world's largest travel media brands with over 1 million monthly readers.
$1M/año·$100K ARR in 4 years·Solo
Producto de InformaciónViajes🌍 Remote
Andrew Henderson
How a 22-Year-Old's Tax Bill Built a Global Nomad Advisory Empire
Andrew Henderson built a radio broadcasting empire at 22, then faced a 43% tax bill that changed his worldview. He founded Nomad Capitalist to share what he discovered — and built a 60-person global advisory brand.
$100K ARR in 3 years·Solo
Agencia / ServicioViajes🌍 Remote
Zeno Rocha
From Hospital Bed to $250K: How a Dark Theme Became a Design Business
Zeno Rocha created the Dracula color theme in 2013 while hospitalized in Germany, after his laptop was stolen from his hospital room. Seven years and 3 million downloads later, he launched a paid version, and made $5K in 72 hours.
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
OtroDiseñoBrazil → USA
Martin Moravek
Software Engineer Builds $20K MRR App to Fight His Own Phone Addiction
After nearly a decade in automotive/aerospace, Martin Moravek built Minimalist Phone to solve his own screen addiction problem.
$240K/año·$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
App MóvilSalud y Bienestar🇩🇪 DE
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