Founder stories
$10K MRRin 2 years
3 milestones
From side project to $100K/month with founder interviews
Founder
Pat Walls
Solo Founder•Technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
ExperiencedProduct
Database of successful business case studies and interviews.
Type
SaaSIndustry
Content CreationModel
SubscriptionMarketing Strategy
How Pat acquired customers
Primary Channel
SEO / Content
Also Used
Twitter / XCommunities
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Starter Story
WordPressConvertKitStripeAirtable
The Full Story
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+ monthly.
The Beginning
I was fascinated by how businesses got started. I began reaching out to founders for interviews and publishing them on a simple website.
SEO Focus
The key insight was that each interview created a unique, long-tail SEO opportunity. "How X started their business" searches brought consistent traffic.
Monetization
I added a premium membership for access to all case studies, financial details, and a community. The paywall created urgency without losing all free content.
- Started: 2017
- $10K MRR: ~2 years
- $100K MRR: ~4 years
- 3,000+ case studies published
Key Takeaways
1
Content SEO compounds over time
2
Interview-based content is unique and valuable
3
Freemium model works for content businesses
4
Consistency beats everything - publish regularly
Originally published onIndie Hackers (Pat Walls)
Inspired by Pat's journey? Generate a business idea in the Content Creation space using AI and real founder data.
Milestone Journey
Pat achieved 3 milestones on the path to $10K MRR
First Customer
2 months
October 2017
38% faster
vs avg 3 months+10 months to next milestone
$1K MRR
$1,000
1 year
August 2018
Avg: 11 months
+1 year to next milestone
$10K MRR
$10,000
2 years
August 2019
Avg: 1 year
2 years
Total journey time
3
Milestones achieved
Pat's Path to $10K MRRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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