Founder stories
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122 stories found
Ben Tossell
From Product Hunt employee to building and selling Makerpad
After leaving Product Hunt, I wanted to teach people how to build without code - the skills I had learned myself. The Launch I launched Makerpad...
$1K MRR in 1 month·Solo
Info ProductDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 US
Brian Dean
Failed with first 5 businesses, created Skyscraper Technique, acquired by Semrush
I failed with my first 5 online businesses before Backlinko worked. Created the "Skyscraper Technique" which became an industry standard. Eventually a...
$100K ARR in 3 years·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Pat Flynn
Fired Architect Creates LEED Exam eBook, Builds Multi-Million Dollar Brand
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...
$10K MRR in 5 years·Solo
Info ProductContent Creation🇺🇸 US
Tiago Forte
Productivity Expert Launches Cohort Course, Builds $5M/Year Business
Tiago Forte 'rage quit' consulting with a month of savings. He created a course on SkillShare that became 2 on the platform. Cohort Model After...
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Ben Thompson
Growth Engineer Launches Tech Analysis Newsletter, Builds $3M Business
Ben Thompson founded Stratechery in March 2013 from Taipei while working at Automattic. Accidental Format He introduced paid daily updates in 20...
$1K MRR in 2 years·Solo
Info ProductContent Creation🇺🇸 US
Bhanu Teja
24-Year-Old From India Reaches $10K MRR in 1 Month with AI Chatbot
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-P...
$10K MRR in 1 month·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇺🇸 US
Jordan O'Connor
Solo Dad Builds $42K/Month Chrome Extension with $1/Day Pricing
I'm the self-proclaimed 'winner of Indie Hackers' - if you filter for solo founders with verified Stripe revenue, I come up at the top. Simple Valu...
$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
Chrome ExtensionE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Ajay Goel
24-year SaaS veteran builds $8.6M ARR Gmail tool with $10K investment
After 24 years in SaaS, I built GMass to $8.6M ARR with just $10K initial investment and 11 employees. Bootstrap Forever I've been bootstrapping...
$100K ARR in 7 years·Solo
Chrome ExtensionProductivity🇺🇸 US
Cory Zue
How I built a $10K+ MRR boilerplate business as a side project
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...
$10K MRR in 2 years·Solo
Info ProductDeveloper Tools🇿🇦 ZA
AJ Ladwal
How I built Carrd to $1M+ ARR as a solo founder
Carrd started as a side project in 2016. I wanted to create the simplest possible way to build one-page websites. The Concept After years of bui...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 US
Tyler Tringas
How I built a $20K MRR micro-SaaS while traveling
I built Storemapper while traveling as a digital nomad. It started as a simple store locator widget and grew into a stable micro-SaaS business. The...
$1K MRR in 6 months·Solo
SaaSE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Eran Galperin
After failed VC startup, bootstrapped gym software to $3M ARR and 8-figure exit
After a failed VC-backed startup, I bootstrapped Gymdesk while working a day job. 4 years to $12K MRR, then accelerated to $3M ARR. Learning from F...
$100K ARR in 5 years·Solo
SaaSHealth & Wellness🇺🇸 US
Lenny Rachitsky
Ex-Airbnb PM Launches Newsletter, $360K ARR in Year One
Lenny Rachitsky launched his newsletter about a year before going paid. When he introduced paid subscriptions, he had 15,000 free subscribers. Pric...
$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
Info ProductContent Creation🇺🇸 US
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Neuroscientist Launches Mindful Productivity Community, $100K ARR in 22 Months
Anne-Laure Le Cunff sent her first Maker Mind newsletter in July 2019. Ness Labs started as free content and community. Pivot to Paid In the fir...
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
Info ProductContent Creation🇺🇸 US
Dustin W. Stout
From Zero to $20K MRR in 163 Days with All-in-One AI Tool
After following the BuildInPublic journey of many indie makers, I decided this was the approach I was going to take. Slow and Steady I didn't w...
$10K MRR in 5 months·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇺🇸 US
Monica Lent
From free newsletter to $50K+ in course sales
I started Blogging for Devs as a free newsletter teaching developers how to grow their blogs. It evolved into a paid community and course. Building...
$1K MRR in 2 months·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Kieran Drew
Dentist Becomes Copywriter, $142K Course Launch While Working 50-60 Hours/Week
Kieran Drew was a dentist working 50-60 hours per week when he decided to build an online business. Premium Pricing He launched High Impact Writ...
$100K ARR in 6 months·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Julia McCoy
19-Year-Old College Dropout Builds Content Agency from $75 to $4M
At 19, Julia McCoy was in college pursuing a degree she didn't want. She taught herself to write by writing hundreds of cheap articles. Finding the...
First Customer in 3 months·Solo
Agency / ServiceMarketing🇺🇸 US
Guilherme Rizzo
21-Year-Old Self-Taught Brazilian Developer Makes $100K with CSS Extension
I'm from Brazil and built CSS Scan because I always wanted to know what border-radius, box-shadow, or font-family an element I see has. Fast Progre...
$100K ARR in 1 year·Solo
Chrome ExtensionDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 US
Rick Blyth
Built extension in a weekend, sold for 6 figures in 5 hours
I built my first Chrome extension in a weekend. After growing it alongside other micro-SaaS products, I sold it at full asking price in 5 hours. Th...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
Chrome ExtensionE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Eric Bandholz
Started with $30 Shopify subscription, 1.6M YouTube subscribers
Beardbrand started with just a $30 Shopify subscription. Now we have 1.6M YouTube subscribers. Authenticity beats production quality. $30 Start...
$100K ARR in 2 years·Solo
OtherE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Tim Bennetto
From Locksmith to Self-Taught Developer: $74K MRR Solo
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...
$10K MRR in 3 years·Solo
SaaSMarketing🇬🇧 GB
Robin Vander Heyden
ManyPixels
Unlimited Design for $359/Month: Productized Service to $60K MRR
Robin didn't have a job and decided to launch a productized service offering unlimited design work for a fixed fee per month. Rapid Growth He gr...
$100K ARR in 4 months·Solo
Agency / ServiceDesign🇺🇸 US
Adrian Horning
Psychology Major Becomes "Web Scraping Guy", Hits $10K MRR
I was a psychology major in college. One day I learned about Uber and decided I wanted to be in tech. So I moved to San Francisco, attended a coding b...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
API / Developer ToolAI / ML🇺🇸 US
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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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