Starter Story

Tom was an IT admin doing the most tedious job imaginable. Nobody was solving it, so he built the solution himself. Now it makes $60K/month with 1,000+ customers. This is his exact playbook for finding and building in boring niches. Get compliant: https://www.vanta.com/lp/demo-1k?utm_campaign=1k_offer&utm_source=starter-story&utm_medium=paid-partner *Free database → 190+ micro-SaaS ideas making millions:* https://clickhubspot.com/kdm Follow Thomas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-mahony/ Check out Pckgr: https://intunepckgr.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Riches in (boring) niches 1:32 - Business Overview 2:10 - Coming up with the idea 3:05 - Finding first customers 4:37 - Make sure your app is compliant 5:24 - How to find a niche saas idea 7:11 - Hundreds of micro-saas ideas 7:57 - Boring saas demo 9:08 - Doesn't have to be fancy! 9:30 - Tech stack 9:59 - Final piece of advice (Just Start) 10:59 - Pat and Gus reflections 11:39 - Start building your idea

This is the story of how a $3M/year business got its first 100 paying customers. Every tactic, step by step, so you can do the same. *Get the free $1M Solopreneur MVP guide:* https://clickhubspot.com/vgk Follow Joseph: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhylee/ Check out Supademo: https://supademo.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - The $3M SaaS 1:29 - App overview and data 2:30 - Founder background 3:38 - Early app validation 4:30 - First 100 customers (part 1) 6:35 - Find your $1M MVP 7:32 - First 100 customers (part 2) 8:03 - Do things that don't scale 9:08 - Be everywhere your users are 10:00 - What early saas founders get wrong 10:52 - App demo 12:38 - Tech stack 13:23 - One piece of advice 14:09 - Pat's reflections

This is the story of how Ivan built an AI agent and the specific steps he took to grow it to $10K MRR. *Get the free guide to make money with AI Agents:* https://clickhubspot.com/mgh Follow Ivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivan-nedlekovski/ Check out Lancer: https://www.lancer.app/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Zero to $10K MRR 1:18 - Founder and App overview 2:32 - Ideas and opportunities 5:31 - Build your own AI agent 6:41 - Growth strategy and tactics 9:30 - His distribution playbook 12:20 - Tech stack and costs 13:36 - Final advice 15:24 - Pat's reflections on the episode

This is the story of how Miquel grew Late to $40K/month with just one marketing system. *Get compliant:* https://www.vanta.com/lp/demo-1k?utm_campaign=1k_offer&utm_source=starter-story&utm_medium=paid-partner *Get our free guide to find a $1M business idea:* https://clickhubspot.com/ekm Follow Miquel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miquelpalet/ Check out Late: https://getlate.dev/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Zero to $40K in 7 months 0:50 - Need an app idea? 1:09 - App overview 2:41 - Founder background 3:40 - Distribution overview 4:44 - Is your app compliant? 5:44 - Deep dive on Google 6:50 - The SEO (Organic) Strategy 8:00 - The Paid Ads Strategy 9:20 - Find your $1M idea (free template) 10:06 - Google Playbook for 2026 13:28 - Late demo 14:55 - Tech stack and costs 15:21 - Advice to young founders 16:16 - Pat and Gus reflections 17:31 - Is SEO really dead? 19:19 - Time to build your idea!

Maddox built a $15K/month gaming website. This video breaks down his exact strategy for driving massive traffic to a simple website. *Learn how the best apps grow →* https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-organic-short-form?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=maddox Follow Maddox: https://x.com/_maddox1337 Check out his new project: https://maddoxcloud.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - By the end of the video... 0:45 - Founder Background 1:10 - $15K/month gaming website (stats, revenue) 2:39 - Finding the idea 4:06 - How he built the website 5:10 - Growth strategy with TikTok 6:28 - Math behind a 5M view video 7:29 - Organic short-form playbook 8:33 - Selling the website 9:27 - Website playbook in 2026 10:35 - Tech stack and tools 12:12 - Power of staying consistent 13:01 - What's next? 13:26 - Pat and Gus reflections 15:45 - It's time to BUILD!

Jonathan Fishner built ChartDB, an open source database visualization tool for developers. This video breaks down how to identify and sell to your ICP, no matter how "small" you think the audience is. *Get our free guide to find a $1M business idea →* https://clickhubspot.com/swt *Build your own niche app →* https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=chartdb Follow Jonathan: https://x.com/jonathanfishner Check out ChartDB: http://chartdb.io/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:46 - Ideas template 1:04 - Founder background 1:35 - What is ChartDB? 2:25 - How to find developer tool ideas 3:55 - Initial growth and marketing 4:51 - Why the hacker news post worked 5:45 - How to find $1M ideas hiding in plain sight 6:36 - Developer Tools Playbook 9:38 - ChartDB demo 10:41 - Tech stack and costs 11:57 - Advice to founders 13:00 - Pat and Gus reflections 15:10 - Build your own niche app

This is the story of how I sold Starter Story :) I'm sharing more about how and why here: https://go.starterstory.com/workshop All love, – Pat & The Starter Story Team

Vikash built Bulkmockup, a Photoshop plugin that makes $12K/month. This video breaks down the three-step content system he uses to grow and get customers on auto-pilot Build your own micro-saas → https://build.starterstory.com/select-plan?promo=TINY&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=vikash Follow Vikash: https://x.com/vikashkprajapat Check out BulkMockup: https://www.bulkmockup.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 1:13 - BulkMockup overview 1:32 - Business analytics and dashboards 2:13 - Founder background and idea 3:34 - Going from idea to product 4:34 - Content through customer pain 5:25 - Real examples of content 6:40 - Content Flywheel Playbook pt. 1 8:40 - Solve one problem 9:38 - Content Flywheel Playbook pt. 2 11:30 - App Demo 12:48 - Tech Stack 13:33 - Final advice 14:18 - Pat and Gus reflections 16:50 - Build your own app!

Nic built a micro-saas that makes $16K MRR. And he did it by picking a painfully specific niche and solving their whole problem. This video breaks down how even a "small" niche can still get you to $10K/month Make sure your app is compliant → https://delve.co/book-demo?utm_source=starterstory&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=primary-feb-05-26 Build your own micro-saas → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=blogtopin Follow Nic: https://x.com/nikpolale Check out his app: https://www.blogtopin.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 1:03 - Build your own micro-saas 1:27 - Blog to Pin overview 1:50 - Business analytics 3:08 - Founder background 4:38 - Building the micro-saas 5:34 - Make sure your app is compliant (sponsor) 7:29 - Growth channels 9:00 - Finding similar app ideas 9:44 - Micro-Saas playbook 13:05 - App demo 14:26 - Tech stack 14:46 - Advice 15:30 - Pat and Gus chats 16:49 - Ready to build?

Florin Pop is a developer who's made $500K over 6 years – not from one breakout hit, but by stacking dozens of tiny projects. This video breaks down his building framework and why playing the long game with a portfolio of projects beats chasing one big win. Get compliant → https://www.vanta.com/downloads/compliance-for-startups-bundle?utm_medium=paid-partner&utm_source=starter-story&utm_campaign=compliance_for_startups Build your own project → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=florin Follow Florin: https://x.com/FlorinPop17 Check out his projects: https://www.florin-pop.com/one-million/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:53 - Build your first project 1:17 - Who is Florin? 1:44 - Different income streams and projects 2:35 - Founder background 3:28 - Make sure your company is compliant (sponsor) 4:39 - Why multiple projects works 6:18 - How to manage multiple projects/apps 7:15 - What it takes to build a successful portfolio 8:19 - Ready to launch your own project? 8:59 - Multi-project playbook 11:31 - Tech stack 12:00 - Final advice 12:34 - Pat and Gus final thoughts 14:53 - Take action!!

Nevo built an open source SaaS called Postiz. Over the past few years he has gotten over 25K GitHub stars and grown the app to over $17K MRR. This video breaks down how to market open-source projects in 2026 and beyond. Book a demo with Delve → https://delve.co/book-demo?utm_source=starterstory&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=primary-jan-28-26 Grab the niche communities playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-communities?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=nevo Build your own app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=nevo1 Follow Nevo: https://x.com/wickedguro Check out his app: https://postiz.com/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:58 - Niche Communities Playbook 1:40 - Who is Nevo? 2:14 - Business Analytics 4:06 - Founder Background 5:14 - Get Compliant with Delve 6:22 - Why Open Source is a Great Opportunity 10:31 - Open Source Playbook 16:07 - Niche Open Source Communities 17:15 - How the App Works 19:05 - Tech Stack 20:39 - Advice for Open Source 22:04 - Pat's Final Word

Romàn Czerny runs a SaaS that makes $34K per month. And much of his early growth is thanks to a genius Reddit strategy. This video is a focused, tactical Reddit playbook: the templates that work, how to avoid getting banned, and how to turn Reddit into a consistent revenue channel for your app. Subscribe to The Hustle → https://clickhubspot.com/8abd40 Grab the niche communities playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-communities?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=roman Build your own app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=roman1 Follow Roman: https://x.com/romanbuildsaas Check out his app: https://gojiberry.ai/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary. Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:01 Grab the Reddit playbook (free) 00:01:33 Who is Roman 00:02:03 App dashboard and analytics 00:03:05 Founder background 00:03:52 How Reddit impacted the business 00:04:30 Example of Reddit post 00:05:39 Check out the Hustle (sponsor) 00:06:37 Why a Reddit post goes viral 00:07:48 The complete Reddit playbook 00:10:29 Handling haters on Reddit 00:11:49 How his app works 00:12:39 Marketing tech stack 00:13:41 Final advice 00:14:14 Pat and Gus reflections 00:16:09 CHeck out Starter Story Build

Ayush built Elphas, an AI app that’s making $150K/year. He grew the business in two phases: Phase 1 was Reddit and Phase 2 was SEO. This video breaks down his exact Reddit playbook and his SEO strategy, that helped him go from zero to $150K/year in just a few years.Grab the niche communities playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-communities?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ayushBuild your own app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=ayush1Follow Ayush: https://x.com/ayushtweetshereCheck out his app: https://elephas.app/🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobsThis video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.

Sam Adeniyi used Discord to validate and launch his first saas and now it makes $14K MRR (built entirely with ChatGPT + Cursor). This video breaks down how he used Discord to validate his idea and how knowing a niche community lets you build the perfect product. Learn how to find customers like Sam → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-communities?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=algrow Join an upcoming Starter Story Build Bootcamp → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=algrowsam Follow Sam: https://x.com/samgrows Check out Algrow: https://algrow.online/ 🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild 🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.

Lara just launched an AI writing tool for LinkedIn. They made $30K in 4 days, and went from $0 to $60K/month in less than 2 months. The secret? The Kleo Launch Playbook. This video breaks down exactly how they built up hype for their app, launched to a private beta, and hit $30K MRR in just a few days. Grab the personal brand playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-personal-brand?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=larakleo Join an upcoming Starter Story Build Bootcamp → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=kleo Follow Lara: https://x.com/Laraacostar Check out Kleo: https://kleo.so/ This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.

Bhanu built SiteGPT and he’s grown it to $13K/month. But here's the thing... he's a builder, NOT a marketer. In this video, we'll dive into how Bhanu used his building skills to get thousands of views on his product (for free). Join an upcoming Starter Story Build Bootcamp → https://build.starterstory.com/select-plan?promo=BHANU&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=bhanu Follow Bhanu: https://x.com/pbteja1998 Check out SiteGPT: https://sitegpt.ai/ This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.

Hassam is a non-technical founder who built his app 100% with AI. Then he hacked distribution by using someone else's audience to share his work. This video breaks down his distribution strategy that helped him his $25K MRR in 90 days Build an app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=hassam Follow Hassam: https://x.com/hasaamb This video is an educational case study of this founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.

Over the past year, Rob Hallam has been furiously building in public on X/Twitter. He posts every day and has grown his app to over $10K/month. In this video, Rob breaks down his build in public playbook and how anyone can use the power of the internet to build their own successful saas. Grab the Personal Brand Playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-personal-brand?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=rob-build-playbook Build an app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=robhallam Follow Rob: https://x.com/robj3d3 Check out SuperX: https://superx.so/

Alejandro and Mario built Pushscroll: a fitness app that's making $30K/month. But they took an entirely different approach. This story is about a new way to build apps: where your first MVP isn’t code, it’s content. Get the Content-First Playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-validate-app-idea?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=pushscroll-playbook Build an app with AI → https://build.starterstory.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=pushscroll Follow Alejandro: https://x.com/skyirezumi Founder Mario: https://x.com/null_deref

Louis built a mobile app that made $800K in 1 year. And he did it all by posting on TikTok for $0. This video breaks down how he did it and why this works. Get 90% off Xero for 6 months using this link. Terms & Conditions apply → https://xero5440.partnerlinks.io/StarterStory_mobileapp Get the TikTok Playbook → https://build.starterstory.com/build/playbook-organic-short-form?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=louis-david-short-form Follow Louis: https://x.com/LouisDavidPH Check out GlowUp: https://www.useglowup.app/