Founder stories
Founder stories
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61 stories found
Alex Turnbull
Journey to $100K blog series with radical transparency built $5M ARR
Our "Journey to $100K" blog series with radical transparency got featured in 100+ publications and built Groove to $5M ARR. Radical Transparency...
$100K ARR in 5 years·Solo
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 US
Steli Efti
Found content niche where nobody was writing about sales
Nobody in Silicon Valley was writing about sales. We found that gap and owned it. Switched to recording voice instead of writing to remove friction....
$100K ARR in 5 years·Team
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 US
Iuliia Shnai
After 11 Failed Products: Open Source DocSend Alternative to $45K MRR
In 2023, Iuliia built 10 products. Her partner Marc launched Papermark - a simple open-source DocSend alternative. The first version took one weekend....
$10K MRR in 1 year·Team
SaaSProductivity🇩🇪 DE
Elie Steinbock
Open Source Email Assistant: Scratch Own Itch to $10K+ MRR
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...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSProductivity🇺🇸 US
Elston Baretto
Simple HTML Hosting: 18 Months to First 50 Customers, Now $10K MRR
Elston launched Tiiny Host with a simple hypothesis: there are customers who just want a simple tool to quickly host HTML content. SEO Takes Time...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 US
MC
Maciej Cupial
From Bankruptcy to $100K ARR: A 2.5 Year Struggle
Maciej Cupial from Poland had a background as a programmer and entrepreneur. After a challenging 2.5 years building Calendesk, he finally reached $100...
$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
SaaSProductivity🇵🇱 PL
Sergiu Chiriac
Solo dev builds AI directory of directories to $10K revenue in one year
Sergiu created a meta-directory listing AI tool directories, reaching $10K revenue by helping AI startups get discovered.
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
MarketplaceMarketing🇷🇴 RO
Mike Carson
How I built a $125K/month solo business by automating everything
Started as scripts to catch domains for myself. Two years later, $125K/month revenue with zero employees.
$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
SaaSDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 US
Rob Hope
How a South African designer built $100K/year from website curation
Started curating single-page websites in 2008. Cross-promotion between projects grew to $100K+/year.
$10K MRR in 9 years·Solo
OtherDesign🇿🇦 ZA
VK
Victoria Kurichenko
SEO Blog
SEO Specialist Reaches $1K/Month with Just 89 Blog Posts
Victoria built a WordPress blog with only 89 posts and 15,000 monthly visits to reach $1K/month from affiliate marketing.
$1K MRR in 9 months·Solo
OtherMarketing🇺🇦 UA
Sumit Bansal
Tech Worker Sees Excel Skills Gap, Builds Blog to 1M+ Visitors and $10K/Month
Sumit saw colleagues struggling with Excel and built TrumpExcel to 1M+ monthly pageviews and $10K/month revenue.
$10K MRR in 3 years·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇮🇳 IN
MJ
Mayank Jain
Digital Startup Veterans Build AI Content Platform, $100K MRR in Year One
Mayank and co-founders leveraged 10+ years of digital marketing experience to build Scalenut to $100K MRR in one year.
$100K ARR in 1 year·Team
SaaSMarketing🇮🇳 IN
CM
Chris Mason
From $0 to $1K in Revenue in 30 Days by Validating Before Building
Chris and his co-founder validated demand first by talking to WooCommerce store owners, then built One Click Upsells to $1K in 30 days.
$1K MRR in 1 month·Team
SaaSE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Jesse Mecham
Broke College Student Builds Spreadsheet Into Multi-Million Dollar Business
Jesse Mecham built a simple spreadsheet to manage money with his wife. That spreadsheet became YNAB, now used by millions worldwide.
$10K MRR in 5 years·Solo
SaaSFinance🇺🇸 US
Peter Xu
Twin Brothers Build Top-Ranked Travel Planning App
Peter Xu and Harry Yu (twin brothers) leveraged their Stripe and Google experience to build Wanderlog, now top-ranked for travel planning.
$1K MRR in 1 year·Team
SaaSTravel🇺🇸 US
Abraham Burak
Digital Nomad Builds $1B eSIM Marketplace to Solve Travel Connectivity
Abraham Burak experienced roaming bill shocks as a digital nomad, then built Airalo - now valued at $1B+ with 20M+ users.
$100K ARR in 2 years·Team
MarketplaceTravel🇺🇸 US
Christopher Gimmer
Christopher Gimmer Built Snappa to $1.5M ARR with Content-First Strategy
Chris and Marc built an audience with a viral blog post on free stock photos, then leveraged it to launch Snappa and reach $10K MRR in 5 months.
$100K ARR in 3 years·Team
SaaSDesign🇨🇦 CA
Danny Postma
Danny Postma: From 7-Figure Headlime Exit to Building HeadshotPro
After selling his AI writing tool Headlime for 7 figures in 8 months, Danny Postma built HeadshotPro - now serving 196,000+ customers.
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇳🇱 NL
Ania Wysocka
How I Built a 2M+ User Anxiety App With Zero Employees
Ania started having panic attacks in her final year of university. She built the app she wished existed.
$100K ARR in 5 years·Solo
Mobile AppHealth & Wellness🇨🇦 CA
Steve Kamb
Nerd Fitness: Building a 7-Figure Business for Fitness Misfits
Steve Kamb turned his nerdy approach to fitness into a 7-figure business with 300K+ email subscribers.
$10K MRR in 2 years·Solo
Info ProductHealth & Wellness🇺🇸 US
AD
Aaron Davidson
Cronometer: A Nerdy Side Project That Became the Most Accurate Nutrition Tracker
Aaron Davidson built Cronometer as a personal tool for CRON dieting, now used by millions for precise nutrition tracking.
$10K MRR in 12 years·Solo
Mobile AppHealth & Wellness🇨🇦 CA
BT
Bernie Tschirren & Michael Cameron
Rome2Rio: From Side Project to $40M Exit by Solving "How Do I Get There?"
Two ex-Microsoft engineers built the definitive travel search for getting from A to B anywhere in the world.
$10K MRR in 4 years·Team
SaaSTravel🇦🇺 AU
EM
Erikas Malisauskas
Kaching Bundle Quantity Breaks
Building a $4.5M/Year Shopify App Portfolio with $0 Marketing
Erikas Malisauskas quit freelancing and built 5 Shopify apps generating $4.5M annually without any paid marketing.
$100K ARR in 3 years·Solo
SaaSE-commerce🇱🇹 LT
GW
Gareth Williams, Barry Smith & Bonamy Grimes
Skyscanner: From Ski Trip Frustration to £1.4 Billion Exit
Three friends frustrated by expensive ski flights built Skyscanner on the side, bootstrapped it to £1,000/day, then sold for £1.4 billion.
$100K ARR in 5 years·Team
SaaSTravel🇬🇧 GB
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A note on these stories: The founders featured here represent those who publicly shared their success. Not every startup succeeds, and timelines vary widely. These stories are meant to inspire and educate, not to set expectations.
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