Founder stories
$100K ARRin 4 years
3 milestones
AJ Built Carrd to $1M+ ARR as a Solo Side Project
Founder
AJ
Solo Founder•Technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
ExperiencedProduct
Simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything.
Type
SaaSIndustry
DesignModel
FreemiumMarketing Strategy
How AJ acquired customers
Primary Channel
Product Hunt
Also Used
Word of MouthTwitter / X
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Carrd
JavaScriptNode.jsPostgreSQL
The Full Story
TL;DR
AJ built Carrd as a weekend side project to test if people wanted one-page websites. Now it powers 3.3M+ sites with 2.2M+ users.
AJ (@ajlkn on Twitter) had been designing and coding website templates since the mid-2000s. He's known for HTML5 UP, Pixelarity, and various open source projects.
Time for Something Different
After years of designing templates, the work became "almost routine." AJ figured it was time to branch out. The question was what?
The Idea
"How about a site builder?" Building a Wix or Squarespace was off the table for a solo project, so AJ focused on a niche: one-page profile sites.
Two popular downloads at HTML5 UP were one-page profile templates. AJ saw them everywhere and noticed how well they worked in practice.
The Constraints
AJ set objectives: Easy to use, fast (under 5 minutes to create a site), free with optional paid plan, no signup required, mobile-friendly.
The Build
Carrd launched in March 2016. The site builder itself works on mobile - few competitors could do this at the time.
The Scale
Today, Carrd powers over 3.3 million sites built by 2.2 million users. AJ didn't think of himself as a "founder" until 4 years after launch.
Key Takeaways
1
Niche down - one-page sites instead of full site builder
2
No signup required lowers friction dramatically
3
Mobile-friendly site builder was a differentiator
4
Free tier with paid upgrades works for tools
Originally published onCarrd: The Making Of
Inspired by AJ's journey? Generate a business idea in the Design space using AI and real founder data.
Milestone Journey
AJ achieved 3 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
First Customer
1 month
April 2016
69% faster
vs avg 3 months+11 months to next milestone
$10K MRR
$10,000
1 year
March 2017
43% faster
vs avg 1 year+3 years to next milestone
$100K ARR
$1,000,000
4 years
March 2020
Avg: 3 years
4 years
Total journey time
3
Milestones achieved
AJ's Path to $100K ARRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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