Founder stories
Browse Stories
25 founders who reached $10K MRR using SEO / Content
SaaS Pegasus started as a side project while I had a full-time job. It's a Django boilerplate that saves developers weeks of setup time. The Origin...
I started Starter Story as a side project to interview founders about how they started their businesses. It grew into a full-time business doing $100K...
We acquired Betterpic when it was doing $1,500/month. Through multi-channel paid advertising, we scaled it to $274K/month. The Acquisition Buyin...
After 24 years in SaaS, I built GMass with just $10K initial investment and 11 employees. Bootstrap Forever I've been bootstrapping since the 90...
I wrote around 150 guest posts in 9 months, close to one every other day. Content drove 70%+ of Buffer's signups and we hit 100K users in 10 months....
Help Scout's "long ball" growth strategy kept CAC at $40, recouped in the customer's first month. 10,000+ customers with only about $6.8M raised ($800...
Tim Bennetto worked as a locksmith for 10 years and never imagined he'd build a SaaS. He taught himself to code via Codecademy. The Pivot Starte...
In 2023, Iuliia built 10 products. Her partner Marc launched Papermark - a simple open-source DocSend alternative. The first version took one weekend....
When running a previous business, Elie spent way too much time on email. He thought, 'Why can't an AI do this for me?' First Mover Elie was a fi...
Josef taught himself to code at age 13. He freelanced until he saved enough runway to commit to entrepreneurship. The Challenge His first produc...
Pat Flynn was fired as an architect in 2008. He launched an ebook about the LEED exam based on his own study materials. The Pivot That first inf...
James Clear has been writing about habits and continuous improvement since 2012. In year one, his list went from 0 to 30,000 subscribers. Slow Buil...
Building on the success of The Obstacle Is the Way, Ryan Holiday launched Daily Stoic in 2016. Daily Consistency Each morning, Ryan sends a shor...
Sergiu created a meta-directory listing AI tool directories, reaching $10K revenue by helping AI startups get discovered.
Sumit saw colleagues struggling with Excel and built TrumpExcel to 1M+ monthly pageviews and $10K/month revenue.
Jesse Mecham built a simple spreadsheet to manage money with his wife. That spreadsheet became YNAB, now used by millions worldwide.
Steve Kamb turned his nerdy approach to fitness into a 7-figure business, starting from around 3,500 email subscribers near his first $10K MRR milestone.
Aaron Davidson built Cronometer as a personal tool for CRON dieting, now used by millions for precise nutrition tracking.
Two ex-Microsoft engineers built the definitive travel search for getting from A to B anywhere in the world.
Peter and Harry Yu, twin brothers from Yale, built Wanderlog into the top-ranked trip planning app after previous bootstrapped travel ventures and stints at Stripe and Google.
Shalom Stark bootstrapped Invoice Ninja to 200,000+ users through open source, SEO, and word of mouth - without spending on marketing.
Julia Enthoven and Eric Lu bootstrapped Kapwing to 100,000+ users using SEO and the viral watermark strategy.
Aktarer Zaman built Skiplagged at 20, got sued by United Airlines and Orbitz, and won - now helping millions find cheaper flights.
Elliot Sowersby spent three years building Coupon Affiliates with little to show for it. A decade later it is his biggest source of income and plugins make up over 90% of his revenue.
Pranay Agarwal and his co-founder ran Mockey as a free, ad-supported side project for years. Adding subscriptions and download caps roughly tripled revenue, reaching about $12k a month.
Share your revenue journey and inspire other founders.