Startups.email - $60k MRR in 3 months
Why Chatbase is making $60k MRR in just 3 months (and how you can do it too). Plus, the cautionary tale of Chartbrew and why you should avoid copying their mistakes.
Most people fail when building SaaS because they are not patient enough. After analyzing 500+ successful SaaS companies, I discovered a pattern that appears over and over again: the "SaaS Flywheel Effect". This requires a significant amount of effort to get started, but once it is spinning at a high speed and building momentum, it will continue to turn by itself.
In reality, it often takes between 6 months and 12 months to reach at least $1k MRR. People then usually think that it will take forever to get to $10k MRR, but that's not the case. Once the SaaS Flywheel is spinning, the growth will not be linear; it will be exponential.
You should understand two things: if your business isn't doing any revenue within the first 6 months, you should stop working on it and choose another idea to work on. If your business is doing at least $500 MRR, you should keep going; once you hit the momentum, your growth will become non-linear and accelerate without doing more. I have discovered a simple rule: if something starts out bad, it will stay that way. Minimize your risk by working on ideas that won't fail; there are plenty of ideas and businesses you can spend your time on.
This week, I added 10 new startup stats. Let's now deep dive into the new startups stats I have added to the website.
Chatbase.co ($59,005 MRR)
This is an OpenAI wrapper that makes $60k MRR. I congratulate Yasser for growing his business from $0 to $60k MRR in just about 3 months. Smart work always pays off; hard work almost never. How was he able to do it? Good timing and luck. 😎
Chartbrew ($1,085 MRR)
This is a tool for building interactive dashboards and client reports. The tool was launched 4 years ago, and the first release on Github was on 2nd September 2019. This is an example of what you should avoid as a solopreneur! The visualization market is clearly a red ocean, with many big competitors, huge budgets, and well-integrated solutions. You can't compete with Google Studio, Amazon Quicksight, Tableau, and others. If it were a good market, Chartbrew should be doing at least $50k MRR, but it is still at $1k MRR.
Notion2Sheets ($5,196 MRR)
This syncs your Notion database with your Google Sheets. It is an amazing business idea and market segment for solopreneurs. You won't compete with big businesses here, unless Notion or Google Sheets launches its own synchronization solution. You also will have much fewer strong competitors; your competitors will be other solopreneurs with similar resources. Notion2Sheets was launched 2 years ago and is now making $5k+ MRR, which is a very good sign. The SaaS Flywheel Effect works here; while this business won't be a million-dollar business, it will still generate enough money to have a good lifestyle. Isn't that what we all want?
Advanced Woo Labels ($900 MRR)
This is a plugin for WooCommerce where you can create and manage product labels. It is a very specific use case for a very specific product, even though there are approximately 6M+ WooCommerce stores online. The plugin was launched 3 years ago and is still making less than $1k MRR. This plugin seems to have some product-market fit, but the market seems to be very small to get the SaaS Flywheel Effect rolling. As a solopreneur, you should avoid niching down until the market becomes very small. I once heard the quote: "It doesn't matter if you build the next Google or a pizzeria around the corner; you can spend the same amount of time". Here, the founder could expand his product to enter a bigger market.
Here are SaaS stats that went live on the website:
Chatbase: Launched February 2023, 59005 MRR/Month, Custom ChatGPT for your website
Morise AI: Launched December 2022, 1296 MRR/Month, AI assistant for YouTube
Drippi: Launched January 2023, 855 MRR/Month, AI assistant for Twitter DMs
Advanced Woo Labels: Launched April 2020, 900 MRR/Month, Product Labels for WooCommerce
Chartbrew: Launched July 2018, 1085 MRR/Month, Interactive dashboards and client reports
LeaveMeAlone: Launched January 2018, 6862 MRR/Month, Easily unsubscribe from emails
Notion2Sheets: Launched May 2021, 5196 MRR/Month, Keep databases from Notion in sync with Google Sheets
TagParrot: Launched January 2023, 211 MRR/Month, Automatically get pages indexed in 48hrs
Snappify: Launched March 2021, 1402 MRR/Month, Create stunning visuals
BetterSheets: Launched April 2020, 98000 TTM/Lifetime, Tutorials, templates, and tools to create better Google Sheets
If my newsletter has caught your attention, please don't hesitate to show your support with a ❤️ and a comment 💬