Founder stories
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40 stories found
Pieter Levels
How I turned a spreadsheet into a $2M+/year business as a solo founder
In 2013, I sold all my possessions, packed a backpack and a laptop, and flew to Thailand to begin my digital nomad life. I was once a lost musician ea...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSTravel🌍 Remote
Tony Dinh
How I made $22K in 7 days with a ChatGPT UI tool
On March 1st 2023, OpenAI announced the ChatGPT API. Right on that day, I came up with the idea to create a new UI to solve my own pain points with th...
$10K MRR in 7 days·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇻🇳 VN
Danny Postma
How I made $100K in 2 weeks with an AI headshot tool
After selling my previous AI company Headlime for seven figures, I took time off in 2021. I was growing increasingly bored when an idea struck me: why...
$100K ARR in 14 days·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇳🇱 NL
Marc Lou
From Paris waiter to $250K in 5 months selling a code boilerplate
My journey took me from being a Paris waiter to an $80,000/month solopreneur over seven years of persistence. After 17 failed projects, I found succes...
$100K ARR in 5 months·Solo
Info ProductDeveloper Tools🇫🇷 FR
Sahil Lavingia
From weekend project to $10M+ in creator payouts
I built the first version of Gumroad in a weekend while working at Pinterest. The idea was simple: let anyone sell anything with just a link. The W...
$10K MRR in 2 months·Solo
MarketplaceE-commerce🇺🇸 US
Jon Yongfook
BannerbearMy 2-year journey to $10K MRR as a solo founder
When I quit my job in January 2019, I had a 2-year runway. For almost 1 year I made no money and burned through my savings. That's because I was doing...
$10K MRR in 2 years·Solo
API / Developer ToolDeveloper Tools🇯🇵 JP
Damon Chen
Building a $10K MRR testimonial tool by building in public
I built Testimonial.to after experiencing the pain of collecting and displaying customer testimonials for my previous projects. Every founder knows so...
$10K MRR in 1 year·Solo
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 US
Joel Gascoigne
From landing page to paying customer in 4 days
I validated Buffer with a landing page before writing any code. Within 4 days of tweeting about it, I had my first paying customer. The Validation...
$100K ARR in 9 months·Solo
SaaSMarketing🇬🇧 GB
Adam Wathan
From open source to $2M+ with Tailwind UI
We built Tailwind CSS as an open source project, then launched Tailwind UI as a commercial product. The first day made $500K. Building in Open Sour...
$100K ARR in 1 month·Team
SaaSDeveloper Tools🇨🇦 CA
Yasser Elsaid
College Student Reaches $64K MRR in 6 Months with AI Chatbot Platform
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...
$100K ARR in 4 months·Solo
SaaSAI / ML🇺🇸 US
Justin Welsh
From SVP panic attack to $5M/year solo with 89% profit margin
I was SVP of Sales when I had a panic attack from burnout. I quit to build a solo business. Now I make $5M/year with 89% profit margin and zero ads....
$100K ARR in 4 years·Solo
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Thibault Louis-Lucas
Shipped 11 products in 4 months, then built $3.5M ARR tool
Before Taplio succeeded, I shipped 11 products in 4 months. The key was speed and willingness to move on from failures. The Shipping Mindset I r...
$100K ARR in 1 year·Team
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 US
Sahil Bloom
Private Equity Analyst Builds 800K Newsletter During COVID, $70K/Month
Sahil Bloom was working at a private equity firm when March 2020 hit. Instead of 70+ hour weeks, he was suddenly at home. COVID Opportunity He h...
$10K MRR in 2 years·Solo
Info ProductContent Creation🇺🇸 US
Dickie Bush
Writer Creates 30-Day Challenge, Grows to 4,000 Students and Millions in Revenue
In December 2020, Dickie Bush tweeted: 'is anyone interested in doing a daily writing challenge for 30 days?' Rapid Validation Around 20 people...
$100K ARR in 6 months·Team
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 US
Tyler Denk
Morning Brew Engineer Builds Newsletter Platform to $1M MRR
Tyler Denk joined Morning Brew in 2017 as the second employee, where he led product, growth, and engineering. The Opportunity After building the...
$100K ARR in 3 years·Team
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 US
David Perell
Writer Launches Online Writing Course, $200K+ from First Two Cohorts
David Perell launched Write of Passage in April 2019 with ~150 students at $600. He ran it with Tiago Forte. Instant Success Even the first coho...
$100K ARR in 3 months·Team
Info ProductEducation🇺🇸 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
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
Samy Dindane
Built MVP in 3 days, grew to $23K MRR in 2 years
Hypefury started as a weekend project. I built the MVP in 3 days after spotting a gap in Twitter tools. Two years later, we hit $23K MRR and kept grow...
$10K MRR in 2 years·Team
SaaSMarketing🇺🇸 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
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
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
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
Erwin Lengkeek
Built Browser Extension in 1 Week, Made $30K/Year Building in Public
Erwin had two failed projects before Tailscan. He gave himself a week to build something and showcase it on Twitter. Viral Demo His demo got 70,...
First Customer in 21 days·Solo
Chrome ExtensionDeveloper Tools🇺🇸 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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