Christopher Gimmer and Marc Chouinard launched Snappa in November 2015. Five months later they hit $10K MRR.

It All Started With a Blog Post

While running BootstrapBay (a Bootstrap themes marketplace), Chris wrote a blog post about free stock photo resources. Using the Skyscraper Technique, he created "21 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos."

After sharing on Reddit and StumbleUpon, the post went viral with over 17,000 visits in one day. More importantly, it started ranking for "free stock photos" in Google.

Building the Audience First

With traffic flowing, they built StockSnap.io - a free stock photo site. Within months, it was generating over 1M page views per month. This became their launchpad for Snappa.

Validating the Product

Chris sent welcome emails asking one question: "What are you using the stock photos for?" 40% said blogging, 29% said social media. He then did 15-20 Skype calls with users to understand their design process.

The Launch

With validated demand and a built-in audience, Snappa launched and hit $10K MRR in just 5 months. They continued to $1.5M ARR without outside investment.