Founder stories
A personal finance and budgeting web app for the modern day spender.
How Jen acquired customers
Tools used to build Lunch Money
Jen quit her job at Twitter, traveled the world, and built Lunch Money as a company of one to 1000+ paying users.
I'm Jen, the founder, engineer, designer and customer support at Lunch Money. I am a company of one.
After working at Twitter for 4 years, I quit to travel the world. While living in Japan as a digital nomad, I started building Lunch Money to solve my own problem - I needed a better way to track finances across multiple currencies with my partner.
With 600+ users and $45,000 ARR, I've learned to optimize every aspect of running a solo business. I handle customer support, engineering, product and marketing all by myself. Finding opportunities for process optimization is honestly one of the more fun parts of running a business.
The variety keeps it interesting. I love being able to switch between tasks to keep the job interesting and my mind refreshed while still being productive overall.
At 500+ users, I can no longer push code directly to production. Every major feature lives in a feature branch. I code review my own work with a clear head - always taking a break first before reviewing.
I also implemented an internal beta-testing program. As an engineering team of one, it's nearly impossible to always get it right the first time.
Build safeguards as you scale - code reviews matter even when solo
Variety in tasks keeps solo work sustainable and interesting
Automate later than you need to - manual work first helps you understand the process
Low-hanging fruits on slow days can boost morale and momentum
Inspired by Jen's journey? Generate a business idea in the Finance space using AI and real founder data.
Jen achieved 4 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
$10
$1,000
$25,000
$408,000
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
See the complete breakdown: launch strategy, validation methods, startup costs, expert analysis, replication playbook, and more actionable insights.
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