Founder stories
$100K ARRin 4 months
4 milestones
College Student Reaches $64K MRR in 6 Months with AI Chatbot Platform
Founder
Yasser Elsaid
Solo Founder•Technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
First-timeProduct
AI chatbot builder for websites using ChatGPT.
Type
SaaSIndustry
AI / MLModel
SubscriptionMarketing Strategy
How Yasser acquired customers
Primary Channel
Twitter / X
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Chatbase
OpenAI APISupabaseNext.jsStripe
The Full Story
Just a few months ago I was in my 4th year of college, interning at FAANG companies like Meta and Tesla. Then I placed my side hustle in front of the tidal wave that is OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The Viral Tweet
I tweeted about Chatbase to my 16 Twitter followers on Feb 2, 2023, and the tweet went viral. I ended up failing two classes, but it was 100% worth it.
The Scale
Just five months after launching, Chatbase reached $1M annualized revenue. Now at $8M ARR, 100% bootstrapped, with over 10,000 customers.
- Time to $64K MRR: 6 months
- Current ARR: $8M
- Customers: 10,000+
Key Takeaways
1
Timing is everything - launch when there's a tidal wave of interest
2
Go all-in when you see traction - I failed two classes but hit $64K MRR in 6 months
3
Build in public from day one - my viral tweet to 16 followers started everything
4
Don't wait for perfection - ship fast and iterate based on real user feedback
Originally published onIndie Hackers
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Milestone Journey
Yasser achieved 4 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
First Customer
$100
7 days
February 2023
93% faster
vs avg 3 months+23 days to next milestone
$1K MRR
$1,000
1 month
March 2023
91% faster
vs avg 11 months+15 days to next milestone
$10K MRR
$10,000
1 month
March 2023
93% faster
vs avg 1 year+2 months to next milestone
$100K ARR
$1,000,000
4 months
June 2023
90% faster
vs avg 3 years4 months
Total journey time
4
Milestones achieved
Yasser's Path to $100K ARRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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