The Playbook

MRR~$57K/month2024-05

MRR~$139K/month

Take photographs with AI

"Good luck to the next person maintaining it."

ShipFa.st

Launch revenue$3,000 in first week2023-08

Revenue$90,000/month

The Next.js boilerplate with all you need to build your SaaS, AI tool, or any web app and make your first $ online fast

"This is just Next.js boilerplate. You can get this free from Vercel's own templates."

HeadshotPro

ARR (14 days post-launch)$100K ARR reached within 14 days of launch2023-03

MRR / ARR$300K/month MRR (~$3.6M ARR)

The #1 AI Headshot Generator for Professional Headshots

"There's no moat around profile pictures, not even good execution."

Bannerbear

MRR$10,455/month (~$125K ARR)

MRR$500/month2020-04

Automate & Scale Your Marketing

"On its face this seems handy... But the pricing, for the above, seems insane: $99/mo for the standar..."

Interior AI

2022→

MRR$1,000/month2022-10

Annual revenue$600,000

Redesign your interior in seconds using AI

"results are extremely terrible. The output has almost nothing to do with the input"

Chatbase

MRR$10,000/month2023-03

MRR$59,000–$64,000/month

Build a custom AI chatbot trained on your data

"OpenAI is going to show us how closed they are and who's startup that they are going to kill. First..."

Testimonial.to

Launch revenue~$6K (30 lifetime deals at $199 in 2 weeks)2020-12

MRR$1,000/month — Damon quits Cisco

Get Video Testimonials from Your Customers with Ease

"testimonial.to is just so likely to misspelt that this is probably a good move. Not sure about the c..."

MacWhisper

LaunchFree + €10 Pro tier on Gumroad2023-01

Downloads250,000+ downloads

Launch month revenue$1,500 (more than all 6 months of prior app combined)2022-11

High Quality Text Transcription with OpenAI's Whisper on Mac

"Seems shady to me to charge for running larger free models you don't provide on hardware your users..."

HabitKit

2023-2025→

Annual revenue$51,000 full-year 2023, 120K downloads

productivityReddit

Change Your Life One Habit at a Time

"Do people really pay for that?"

Lemlist

ARR / Valuation$10M ARR; 20% stake sold at $150M valuation ($30M secondary)

ARR$1M ARR2020-03

emailHN

The cold outreach tool that helps you get replies

"There's a new one every day because the last one got banned/isn't effective anymore."

Plausible Analytics

MRR$64/month (first subscriber)2019-05

MRR$11,303/month

Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative

"Web analytics isn't boring to me. I also think it's a really hard area to break into. There's no sho..."

Inkdrop

Total sales$1,000 cumulative2017-04

MRR~$3,747/month (424,600 JPY)

LaunchFirst paying customers2016-07

The Note-Taking App with Robust Markdown Editor

"I tried InkDrop and couldn't justify the steep price point for something so trivial. I backup everyt..."

Carrd

2016→

Revenue$50,000/month

no-codeHN

Simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything

"Wix and Squarespace exist. What's the point of yet another website builder?"

Tana

2021→

FundingSeed closed (Lightspeed-led; amount undisclosed)2022-11

Waitlist / community160,000+ waitlist; 30,000+ beta testers; 24,000+ Slack members

Meetings that ship

"Yet another entry in the productivity tool sweepstakes."

ScreenStudio

First month revenue$30,000 in first month after release2022-12

Best single day$3,467.45 in one day (Jan 4, 2023)

videoHN

Beautiful screen recordings in minutes

"Screen Studio at $29/mo is unusually and extremely expensive for a video recorder app"

TypingMind

First week$10,000 in first 3 days2023-03

Revenue$200,000+ total revenue (3 months)

A better UI for ChatGPT

"This is literally just a ChatGPT UI. OpenAI's own interface is free and better."

ARR (4 months post-launch)$150K ARR ($12.5K MRR), 15% weekly growth2021-10

Combined MRR peak (Tweet Hunter + Taplio)~$900K MRR ($300K Tweet Hunter + $600K Taplio)

Build & Monetize your X audience FAST

"I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems..."

Engineered Viral Launch

10 products

Pattern insight

Engineered Viral Launch

10 founders designed their first hour, not their first month. Cal AI hit $40M LTM revenue and a MyFitnessPal acquisition. ShipFa.st turned an HN 'predatory pricing' thread into $90K/month by December. The launch was designed to generate receipts, not just revenue.

10 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

ShipFa.st

Launch revenue$3,000 in first week2023-08

Revenue$90,000/month

The Next.js boilerplate with all you need to build your SaaS, AI tool, or any web app and make your first $ online fast

"This is just Next.js boilerplate. You can get this free from Vercel's own templates."

HeadshotPro

ARR (14 days post-launch)$100K ARR reached within 14 days of launch2023-03

MRR / ARR$300K/month MRR (~$3.6M ARR)

Month 1 revenue$28,0002024-05

The #1 AI Headshot Generator for Professional Headshots

"There's no moat around profile pictures, not even good execution."

Cal AI

2024→

Month 2 revenue$115,000

Track your calories with just a picture

"While technologically cool the app is bullshit. 90% accurate isn't accurate enough for the job and i..."

Interior AI

2022→

MRR$1,000/month2022-10

Annual revenue$600,000

Redesign your interior in seconds using AI

"results are extremely terrible. The output has almost nothing to do with the input"

Testimonial.to

Launch revenue~$6K (30 lifetime deals at $199 in 2 weeks)2020-12

MRR$1,000/month — Damon quits Cisco

Get Video Testimonials from Your Customers with Ease

"testimonial.to is just so likely to misspelt that this is probably a good move. Not sure about the c..."

Will Robots Take My Job

Launch trafficViral: 1M+ visitors in first week2016-09

Total visitors5M+ total visitors

Find out if robots will take your job

"The methodology is questionable and this is just fearmongering dressed up as data."

Plausible Analytics

MRR$64/month (first subscriber)2019-05

MRR$11,303/month

Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative

"Web analytics isn't boring to me. I also think it's a really hard area to break into. There's no sho..."

Tally

Launch100 signups in first week2021-05

Users50,000 users, $5,000/month MRR

The simplest way to create forms, for free

"Yet another form builder. Typeform already owns this space. What's the differentiation?"

ScreenStudio

First month revenue$30,000 in first month after release2022-12

Best single day$3,467.45 in one day (Jan 4, 2023)

videoHN

Beautiful screen recordings in minutes

"Screen Studio at $29/mo is unusually and extremely expensive for a video recorder app"

TypingMind

First week$10,000 in first 3 days2023-03

Revenue$200,000+ total revenue (3 months)

A better UI for ChatGPT

"This is literally just a ChatGPT UI. OpenAI's own interface is free and better."

AI Timing Advantage

9 products

Pattern insight

AI Timing Advantage

9 products caught the AI wave before incumbents noticed. Cal AI: $40M LTM revenue, acquired by MyFitnessPal. Photo AI: $141K/month, solo PHP, shipped 11 days after DreamBooth dropped. The window was 18 months. These founders were already inside it.

9 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

Photo AI

MRR~$57K/month2024-05

MRR~$139K/month

Take photographs with AI

"Good luck to the next person maintaining it."

HeadshotPro

ARR (14 days post-launch)$100K ARR reached within 14 days of launch2023-03

MRR / ARR$300K/month MRR (~$3.6M ARR)

Month 1 revenue$28,0002024-05

The #1 AI Headshot Generator for Professional Headshots

"There's no moat around profile pictures, not even good execution."

Cal AI

2024→

Month 2 revenue$115,000

Track your calories with just a picture

"While technologically cool the app is bullshit. 90% accurate isn't accurate enough for the job and i..."

Interior AI

2022→

MRR$1,000/month2022-10

Annual revenue$600,000

Redesign your interior in seconds using AI

"results are extremely terrible. The output has almost nothing to do with the input"

Chatbase

MRR$10,000/month2023-03

MRR$59,000–$64,000/month

Build a custom AI chatbot trained on your data

"OpenAI is going to show us how closed they are and who's startup that they are going to kill. First..."

MacWhisper

LaunchFree + €10 Pro tier on Gumroad2023-01

Downloads250,000+ downloads

High Quality Text Transcription with OpenAI's Whisper on Mac

"Seems shady to me to charge for running larger free models you don't provide on hardware your users..."

Will Robots Take My Job

Launch trafficViral: 1M+ visitors in first week2016-09

Total visitors5M+ total visitors

FundingSeed closed (Lightspeed-led; amount undisclosed)2022-11

Find out if robots will take your job

"The methodology is questionable and this is just fearmongering dressed up as data."

Tana

2021→

Waitlist / community160,000+ waitlist; 30,000+ beta testers; 24,000+ Slack members

Meetings that ship

"Yet another entry in the productivity tool sweepstakes."

TypingMind

First week$10,000 in first 3 days2023-03

Revenue$200,000+ total revenue (3 months)

A better UI for ChatGPT

"This is literally just a ChatGPT UI. OpenAI's own interface is free and better."

One-Person Company

8 products

Pattern insight

One-Person Company

8 products were built by one person. Literally one. Photo AI: $141K/month, 14,000 lines of PHP, Pieter Levels alone. Cal AI: $40M LTM revenue, one founder. MacWhisper: 300,000 copies sold, one developer. The smallest team that can ship a product is one. Some of them are here.

8 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

Photo AI

MRR~$57K/month2024-05

MRR~$139K/month

Month 1 revenue$28,0002024-05

Take photographs with AI

"Good luck to the next person maintaining it."

Cal AI

2024→

Month 2 revenue$115,000

Track your calories with just a picture

"While technologically cool the app is bullshit. 90% accurate isn't accurate enough for the job and i..."

MacWhisper

LaunchFree + €10 Pro tier on Gumroad2023-01

Downloads250,000+ downloads

Launch month revenue$1,500 (more than all 6 months of prior app combined)2022-11

High Quality Text Transcription with OpenAI's Whisper on Mac

"Seems shady to me to charge for running larger free models you don't provide on hardware your users..."

HabitKit

2023-2025→

Annual revenue$51,000 full-year 2023, 120K downloads

productivityReddit

Change Your Life One Habit at a Time

"Do people really pay for that?"

Lemlist

ARR / Valuation$10M ARR; 20% stake sold at $150M valuation ($30M secondary)

ARR$1M ARR2020-03

emailHN

The cold outreach tool that helps you get replies

"There's a new one every day because the last one got banned/isn't effective anymore."

Inkdrop

Total sales$1,000 cumulative2017-04

MRR~$3,747/month (424,600 JPY)

The Note-Taking App with Robust Markdown Editor

"I tried InkDrop and couldn't justify the steep price point for something so trivial. I backup everyt..."

ScreenStudio

First month revenue$30,000 in first month after release2022-12

Best single day$3,467.45 in one day (Jan 4, 2023)

videoHN

Beautiful screen recordings in minutes

"Screen Studio at $29/mo is unusually and extremely expensive for a video recorder app"

ARR (4 months post-launch)$150K ARR ($12.5K MRR), 15% weekly growth2021-10

Combined MRR peak (Tweet Hunter + Taplio)~$900K MRR ($300K Tweet Hunter + $600K Taplio)

Build & Monetize your X audience FAST

"I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems..."

Unconventional Pricing

7 products

Pattern insight

Unconventional Pricing

7 founders broke SaaS pricing rules and got paid for it. ShipFa.st charged $169 one-time for a 'free boilerplate' and hit $1.8M ARR. Bannerbear hit $1M ARR with API usage pricing nobody else attempted. Testimonial.to crossed $2.4M total revenue by charging differently from every competitor.

7 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

ShipFa.st

Launch revenue$3,000 in first week2023-08

Revenue$90,000/month

The Next.js boilerplate with all you need to build your SaaS, AI tool, or any web app and make your first $ online fast

"This is just Next.js boilerplate. You can get this free from Vercel's own templates."

Bannerbear

MRR$10,455/month (~$125K ARR)

MRR$500/month2020-04

Automate & Scale Your Marketing

"On its face this seems handy... But the pricing, for the above, seems insane: $99/mo for the standar..."

Testimonial.to

Launch revenue~$6K (30 lifetime deals at $199 in 2 weeks)2020-12

MRR$1,000/month — Damon quits Cisco

Get Video Testimonials from Your Customers with Ease

"testimonial.to is just so likely to misspelt that this is probably a good move. Not sure about the c..."

Inkdrop

Total sales$1,000 cumulative2017-04

MRR~$3,747/month (424,600 JPY)

The Note-Taking App with Robust Markdown Editor

"I tried InkDrop and couldn't justify the steep price point for something so trivial. I backup everyt..."

Tally

Launch100 signups in first week2021-05

Users50,000 users, $5,000/month MRR

LaunchFirst paying customers2016-07

The simplest way to create forms, for free

"Yet another form builder. Typeform already owns this space. What's the differentiation?"

Carrd

2016→

Revenue$50,000/month

no-codeHN

Simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything

"Wix and Squarespace exist. What's the point of yet another website builder?"

ARR (4 months post-launch)$150K ARR ($12.5K MRR), 15% weekly growth2021-10

Combined MRR peak (Tweet Hunter + Taplio)~$900K MRR ($300K Tweet Hunter + $600K Taplio)

Build & Monetize your X audience FAST

"I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems..."

Niche Domination

6 products

Pattern insight

Niche Domination

6 founders picked a category so specific that being #1 felt inevitable. Bannerbear owns API-based image generation at $1M ARR. Chatbase owns 'ChatGPT for your website' at $8M ARR with 10,000+ enterprise customers. Will Robots Take My Job? got 30M visitors by being the only serious answer.

6 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

Bannerbear

MRR$10,455/month (~$125K ARR)

MRR$500/month2020-04

Automate & Scale Your Marketing

"On its face this seems handy... But the pricing, for the above, seems insane: $99/mo for the standar..."

Chatbase

MRR$10,000/month2023-03

MRR$59,000–$64,000/month

Build a custom AI chatbot trained on your data

"OpenAI is going to show us how closed they are and who's startup that they are going to kill. First..."

Will Robots Take My Job

Launch trafficViral: 1M+ visitors in first week2016-09

Total visitors5M+ total visitors

LaunchFirst paying customers2016-07

Find out if robots will take your job

"The methodology is questionable and this is just fearmongering dressed up as data."

Carrd

2016→

Revenue$50,000/month

no-codeHN

Simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything

"Wix and Squarespace exist. What's the point of yet another website builder?"

Tana

2021→

FundingSeed closed (Lightspeed-led; amount undisclosed)2022-11

Waitlist / community160,000+ waitlist; 30,000+ beta testers; 24,000+ Slack members

Meetings that ship

"Yet another entry in the productivity tool sweepstakes."

ARR (4 months post-launch)$150K ARR ($12.5K MRR), 15% weekly growth2021-10

Combined MRR peak (Tweet Hunter + Taplio)~$900K MRR ($300K Tweet Hunter + $600K Taplio)

Launch month revenue$1,500 (more than all 6 months of prior app combined)2022-11

Build & Monetize your X audience FAST

"I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems..."

Bootstrapped to Exit

4 products

Pattern insight

Bootstrapped to Exit

4 products never took a check. Lemlist sold to Claap at $40M ARR — bootstrapped from €0. Plausible Analytics: $3.1M ARR, 17,000+ paying customers, privacy-first, no VC. HabitKit: one developer, ~$25K/month. The constraint is sometimes the strategy.

4 of 20 products

indiereceipts.dev

HabitKit

2023-2025→

Annual revenue$51,000 full-year 2023, 120K downloads

productivityReddit

Change Your Life One Habit at a Time

"Do people really pay for that?"

Lemlist