Startups.email - $6k MRR is worth $300k

Learn how Noah scaled his profitable business working on the Notion platform and sold it for $300,000 - all within only 2 years!

Noah, the founder of Potion.so, recently sold his app for an incredible $300,000. Although having only been working on Potion for two years, Noah was already generating around $6,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Potion is a website-building application which operates on the widely used Notion (5M+ active users) platform.

It looks like Noah managed to score a 5x multiplier of his annual recurring revenue, which is considered to be a standard market rate. I firmly believe that for indiemakers to be successful, it's essential to build something on top of an existing platform, as there are over 50 to choose from such as Trello, Notion, G Suite, Zoom, and Shopify.

As we've seen in the last newsletter, Luca chose a similar approach, creating a chatbot for Notion. If you're just starting out or want to create something new, I highly recommend utilizing the power of giants. Now let's dive into some fascinating statistics this week.

Trends.vc ($500k / year)

Three years ago, Dru began his journey as a newsletter publisher - and he's certainly been rewarded for it. Now boasting over 55,000 subscribers and a yearly income of $500,000, it's clear that his success is inspiring. This week, I reported on The Open Project, which has a monthly recurring revenue of $2,400. It's similar to Trends.vc, but on a smaller scale. I'm aware of at least five other products of the same kind that are providing its owners with a decent livelihood. In my experience this year, I've come to the conclusion that a newsletter business is one of the quickest routes to financial security. If you don't have coding skills, or the time to learn, I'd strongly recommend launching your own newsletter service.

Zipchat.ai ($1,5k / month)

Mike started Zipchat, a ChatGPT for Shopify, just a month ago and is now making $1,500 a month. It's a simple but effective business model, offering customers the opportunity to ask questions and receive product recommendations in response. I strongly urge anyone to jump on the AI Chat bandwagon - even if it only lasts a year or two, it's an opportunity not to be missed. The founder of Audiopen.ai tweeted that they made $73,000 in sales in just two months. Audiopen.ai is another wrapper around OpenAI, and if you can make $500,000 in a year before the business stops working, it's still better than having a dream of a stable business. There is and never will be a stable business, so take the opportunity and build another wrapper. This week I also discovered Automatic.chat, which achieved $1,100 MRR within four weeks. There are so many examples out there, and they all work.

Typeframes.com ($3,3k Presell in 48hrs)

Lilian, a talented indie maker, managed to make a staggering $3,300 in just 48 hours! How did he do it? By writing a tweet and launching a simple landing page: Typeframes, a tool that creates simple product videos. Unfortunately, his other product launch a few weeks prior was not so successful. There is a simple formula for success that Lilian followed: 1. Build a Twitter audience, 2. Launch a Lifetime deal, 3. Build the product. Of course, you can do it in reverse order too, but that is not the most secure option for indie makers. It is best to follow the same steps as Lilian: 1. Build an audience, 2. Launch a lifetime deal, 3. Create a product.

Let's take a look at some other up-to-date SaaS statistics:

Trends.vc: A subscription newsletter to discover new markets and ideas, founded in February 2020 and with $500,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue.

Remoteleaf: An October 2017 subscription-based remote job delivery platform with $1,610 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

MrScraper: A visual web scraper and subscription service launching in October 2022 with $320 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

Potion: A subscription-based plugin for Notion founded in April 2021 with $6,300 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

Automatic Chat: An automated AI Chatbot subscription service launching in April 2023 with $1,130 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

TableBackend: A backend solution subscription based platform launching in May 2023 with $1,929 in Total Transaction Value Lifetime.

Plausible: A subscription-based Google Analytics alternative founded in December 2018 with $150,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

Typeframes: A subscription-based presell video platform launching in May 2023 with $3,292 in Total Transaction Value TTM.

The Open Projects: A subscription newsletter founded in March 2022 with $2,359 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

Zipchat: A subscription-based Shopify, Chat and AI platform launching in March 2023 with $1,500 in Monthly Recurring Revenue.

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