$10K MRRin 1 month

3 milestones

Last known revenue

$25K MRRas of June 2025Source

Estimate based on $500K lifetime revenue reported mid-2025; no direct MRR disclosure.

24-Year-Old From India Reaches $10K MRR in 1 Month with AI Chatbot

Founder

Bhanu Teja

Solo Founder•Technical•USA

Commitment

Full-time

Experience

Experienced

Product

SiteGPT

AI chatbot trained on website content.

Type

SaaS

Industry

AI / ML

Model

Subscription

Marketing Strategy

How Bhanu acquired customers

Growth Channel

Twitter / X

Tech Stack

Tools used to build SiteGPT

OpenAI APINext.jsVercelStripe

The Full Story

I had around 10,000 Twitter followers and frequently mentioned I would be launching a new AI product soon. I didn't have high expectations.

Multi-Platform Launch

When I launched SiteGPT on Twitter in March 2023, the launch tweet became viral. The next day, it got onto the front page of Hacker News. Then I launched on Product Hunt where it became #1 of the day.

Growing SiteGPT

I went from zero to $15K MRR in just six months. The $250K exit people sometimes associate with this story was actually Feather.so, an earlier product I sold in June 2024 - SiteGPT itself was never sold and kept growing toward $1M ARR.

Time to $10K MRR: 1 month
Peak MRR: $15K in 6 months
Feather.so (earlier product): sold for $250K in June 2024

Key Takeaways

Build an audience before launching - my 10K Twitter followers were crucial

Launch on multiple platforms in quick succession - Twitter, HN, Product Hunt

Building in public creates momentum - people love following the journey

Don't underestimate your potential - I thought one customer would be success

Originally published onIndie Hackers

Founder proof brief

A one-page proof brief turns Bhanu's SiteGPT playbook into your next test.

See what it covers before you sign up: the pattern worth copying, the channel to test, and the risk to avoid when you adapt this story.

Pattern

$10K MRR

Channel

Twitter / X

Output

Action checklist

What a proof brief covers

A one-page brief that turns Bhanu's pattern into a testable plan
Channel bet: start from Twitter / X
A risk check before copying the SiteGPT playbook

See what a proof brief covers

See what it covers first. Create an account only if you choose to unlock.

Inspired by Bhanu's journey? Generate a business idea in the AI / ML space using AI and real founder data.

Milestone Journey

Bhanu achieved 3 milestones on the path to $10K MRR

First Customer

$29

3 days

February 2023

97% faster

vs avg 3 months

+4 days to next milestone

$1K MRR

$1,000

7 days

February 2023

98% faster

vs avg 11 months

+23 days to next milestone

$10K MRR

$10,000

1 month

March 2023

95% faster

vs avg 1 year

1 month

Total journey time

Milestones achieved

Bhanu's Path to $10K MRRPremium

The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone

How Bhanu actually did it

7/7 funnel stages sourced

Reconstructed from Bhanu's own published sources. Quoted claims are the founder's words, verified verbatim; anything marked as our analysis is exactly that.

Where the idea came from

Pivot from prior productPivot from Feather (Notion-to-blog SaaS product)

We could not confirm the exact idea-origin story from a citable founder source. Multiple third-party write-ups (a Starter Story interview and a Reddit AMA post) describe SiteGPT as spun out of a chatbot feature Bhanu first built for his existing product Feather's blog customers, but Starter Story is off-limits under our sourcing rules and the Reddit post could not be fetched to verify a quote. The only thing our usable sources confirm directly is that Feather was a separate, concurrently-run SaaS product at the time of the AMA ('my other SaaS product').

Our analysis, not the founder's claim

Validation

Built first, validated after

MvpValidated

Built a working but buggy product in about 2-3 weeks and shipped it directly with a launch tweet, rather than validating demand first with a landing page, waitlist, or presales.

Bhanu describes deciding to build SiteGPT and shipping a rough MVP within weeks, skipping any pre-build validation step.

“learnt everything I needed to build the product, and within 2-3 weeks, I have a product ready, which had a lot of bugs”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

First test users

Existing audiencePaying from day oneTwitter

First users came from Bhanu's own pre-existing Twitter following, built over three-plus years of building in public before SiteGPT existed.

“Without Twitter, I wouldn't have made anything on any of my products.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

First paying customer

Existing audiencePaywall from launch

There was no free plan or trial, by deliberate choice, so the first people to use the product were paying from the very first interaction.

“I also didn't have any free plan or free trial for this exact reason.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

Acquisition channels, and whether they worked

Twitter / XLaunchWorked

Years of consistent build-in-public tweeting created the audience that made the launch tweet take off immediately.

“It did not happen overnight. I have been tweeting about my business(es) for more than 3 years now.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

By the founder's own account, Twitter dwarfed the other two launch channels in traffic volume.

“Twitter >>> HN > PH”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

Communities · Hacker News front pageLaunchWorked

Hitting HN's front page was a ripple effect of the viral tweet, not a separate submission effort.

“the next day, the product got onto the front page of HN for several hours”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

Product HuntLaunchWorked

The Product Hunt launch was an unplanned, last-minute decision with no dedicated prep: he filled out the form and submitted.

“I haven't done anything extra for PH launch.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

Word of MouthScalingWorked

After the initial launch spike, new users increasingly arrived through word of mouth rather than fresh promotion.

“These days, people are coming mostly through Word Of Mouth.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

SEO / ContentScalingWorked

Ongoing traffic increasingly came from people searching directly for the product's brand name on Google, alongside Twitter as the two main acquisition channels.

“In Google, people are directly searching for "SiteGPT".”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

What didn't work

ChannelScalingCost: money

A one-time paid newsletter sponsorship to promote SiteGPT, the only paid marketing he tried.

“For the first time ever, I tried sponsoring a newsletter to promote the product.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

The sponsorship produced traffic but converted nobody, and underperformed a single organic tweet.

“Even though I got 500 visits from the newsletter, I did not get any sign ups.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

What they did instead: Went back to relying on organic Twitter posts, which he says alone outperformed the newsletter buy in visits.

How it changed as they grew

Today: 2 people (Solo founder plus one recent hire, still mid-onboarding at the time of the AMA (about five weeks after launch).)

Bootstrapped

What broke as they grew

Bhanu names churn, not acquisition, as the real constraint on growth for an AI product like his.

“Churn is very high for AI products. Unless I address that, it will always a leaky bucket and MRR won't grow.”

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies)

Sources (3 in the founder's own words)

"I reached $10k MRR with my AI SaaS product in 1 month. AMA" (Indie Hackers, posted by Bhanu Teja Pachipulusu, with his own comment replies) · founder-authored · 2023-05
Bhanu Teja P launch tweet for SiteGPT · founder-authored · 2023-03
Bhanu Teja P tweet announcing the sale of Feather to @tibo_maker for $250k · founder-authored · 2024-06
SiteGPT teardown (Systemaic) - third-party analysis, used only for bare corroborating facts · third party · 2026-07

Persistence

Projects attempted before finding success

failed projects before this one worked

Learned from a previous attempt

Launch Strategy

How they introduced the product to the world

Social Media

Initial go-to-market approach

Validation

How they tested demand before building

MVP

Method used to confirm market interest

Most common approach — build and learn fast

Launch Pricing

Price point when the product first launched

Under $20/mo

Initial pricing strategy

Starting Audience

Whether they had followers before launch

Existing Audience

Leveraged existing followers

Having an audience accelerates early growth

Time Investment

Average weekly hours during building phase

50 hrs

per week on average

Full-time dedication

Initial Investment

Capital required to get started

$500

in startup costs

Minimal investment — software and domains

Biggest Challenge

DDOS attacks almost every day and sleepless nights

Unlock Bhanu's Full Journey

See the complete breakdown: launch strategy, validation methods, startup costs, expert analysis, replication playbook, and more actionable insights.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does SiteGPT make?

The last known public figure for SiteGPT is $25K MRR as of June 2025. Estimate based on $500K lifetime revenue reported mid-2025; no direct MRR disclosure. Source: Founder LinkedIn.

What is SiteGPT?

AI chatbot trained on website content. It operates in AI / ML.

How long did it take SiteGPT to reach $10k mrr?

Bhanu Teja took 1 month to reach $10k mrr with SiteGPT.

Was Bhanu Teja a solo founder?

Yes. Bhanu Teja built SiteGPT as a solo founder.

What marketing channel did SiteGPT use to grow?

SiteGPT grew primarily through Twitter / X.

What industry is SiteGPT in?

SiteGPT operates in AI / ML.

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