TMAKER (Tibo Maker)
Tweet Hunter + Taplio sold to lempire ($8M, Jan 2023); Revid.ai at $18K MRR (Sep 2024)
French indie hacker who shipped 11 products before Tweet Hunter. Sold Tweet Hunter + Taplio to lempire for $8M; now building Revid.ai.
Tibo and Thomas Jacquesson launched Pony Express product studio in January 2021, shipping 11 products in 4 months. Tweet Hunter — a searchable viral tweet library — was built in 2 weeks, validated with a Carrd landing page, charged from day one. It hit $150K ARR in 4 months.
The Receipt
“I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems to be pissing off genuine content creators.”
“Payment is the ultimate form of validation. It's easy to say 'your tool is awesome' but paying for it means only one thing.”
— @tibo_makerThe Journey
Growth trajectory — click a dot to jump
- Jan 2021
launch Tibo and Thomas Jacquesson launch Pony Express product studio; commit to shipping one product per week.
- Oct 2021
milestone Indie Hackers AMA: '$150K ARR in 4 months.' 15% weekly growth. Critics call it click-bait valuation and Twitter pollution. JK Molina joins as co-founder with equity.
- May 2021
What they said
“I really dislike the product and what it stands for...this product is polluting Twitter and it seems to be pissing off genuine content creators.”
What happened
After 11 products shipped (8 with users, 4 with revenue), Tweet Hunter emerges as the breakout — MVP built in 2 weeks using Next.js and Firestore.
May 2021
Criticism → Reality - Jul 2021
What they said
“The company is only 4 months old and the founder is giving it an optimistic 7x multiple at the $150K ARR range to create this ridiculous click-bait title.”
What happened
Tweet Hunter launches on Product Hunt — #2 Product of the Day, 124 comments. First customers from Tibo's existing Twitter audience.
July 2021
Criticism → Reality - Jan 2022
milestone Tweet Hunter expands from tweet library to full Twitter growth suite with AI tweet generation (GPT-3). Grows to $300K MRR.
- Nov 2022
launch Taplio launches on Product Hunt — #1 daily, #2 weekly. 'The all-in-one tool to grow your personal brand on LinkedIn.' Peaks at $600K MRR.
- Jan 2023
other Twitter bans Tweet Hunter API access without explanation — 5,000+ users affected. Platform risk materializes.
- Jan 2023
acquisition Tibo announces sale to Guillaume Moubeche (lempire) — 'Just sold my startup to a middle-school mate.' Deal: $2M upfront + up to $6M earnout at x10+ ARR multiple. Anonymous HN post misreports price as $1.4M.
- Mar 2023
milestone Earnout period begins — Tibo works within lempire to hit revenue milestones. Describes it as 'very stressful two years.'
- Sep 2023
acquisition Tibo acquires Typeframes (under $1K/month NRR) and rebrands it Revid.ai — AI short-form video generator. His next chapter while still under earnout.
- Apr 2024
acquisition Acquires feather.so (Notion-to-blog tool) — adds $9K MRR to portfolio.
- Jun 2024
launch Launches superx.so — Twitter growth tool, $800 MRR at launch.
- Sep 2024
milestone Indie Hackers profile: Revid.ai at $18K MRR, feather.so at $9K. Tibo: 'I don't plan to do that again. I want to keep building apps and reach slow, continuous growth.'
Outcomes & Insights
Latest outcome
September 2024
Revid.ai MRR (next chapter)
$18K MRR
Build-in-public flywheel: every milestone (MVP launch, $12K MRR, $150K ARR, exit) became content that attracted the next wave of users — the IH AMA itself was a customer acquisition event
Content inspiration wedge: entered a scheduling-saturated market via the unsolved problem of 'what to tweet' — a library of 2M+ viral tweets as a moat competitors couldn't quickly copy
No free plan from day one — immediate payment as validation signal, which also self-selected for users with real intent and budget
Affiliate program at 30% commission combined with JK Molina's ghostwriting community as niche creator distribution
Payment is the ultimate form of validation. It's easy to say 'your tool is awesome' but paying for it means only one thing.
💡 What you can learn
- The HN post said the exit was $1.4M.
- The real number was $8M.
- But Tibo says it was too stressful and he'd never do it again.
lempire cross-sell post-acquisition: Tweet Hunter and Taplio gained access to 127K+ existing B2B SaaS customers from lemlist
When they pushed back
When Twitter banned Tweet Hunter's API access affecting 5,000+ users, instead of rebuilding they doubled down on the pending lempire acquisition — exiting while platform risk was at its peak. Smart timing, painful earnout.
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