Jesse built the original spreadsheet to help himself and his wife Julie manage their money as broke newlyweds trying to avoid student debt, not with a business in mind.

“That's when I built a spreadsheet that helped my wife, Julie, and me manage our money better.”

Before any sale happened, Jesse's earliest users were himself, then his own household, then friends and family he shared the spreadsheet with directly, before he tried to sell to anyone outside that circle.

The first sale came right after Jesse put the spreadsheet up for sale online. It went to a Mac user, which was a problem since the spreadsheet only worked on Windows at the time, so Jesse had to refund it almost immediately.

“Our first sale went to a Mac user, except YNAB didn't work on Mac at the time.”