What Works for Startups Like Yours?

RevGenius is a community platform founded by a 15-year sales veteran at the start of the pandemic to connect sales, marketing, and RevOps professionals. The platform grew to 15,000 members in its first year through word-of-mouth and community-driven growth.

First customers: community building

Indie Hackers, founded by Courtland and Channing Allen, was spun out from Stripe and is now being operated independently starting from $0 in revenue. The founders are exploring future revenue models for the platform after separating from the company.

Jay Clouse built and grew Unreal Collective, a community that became valuable enough to be acquired by Pat Flynn's Smart Passive Income. The acquisition was notable because communities rarely get sold—they're typically dependent on founders and often decline as they scale. Jay managed to build something that not only grew but maintained quality at scale.

Rosie Sherry built Ministry of Testing, a tight-knit community for software testers, growing it to $1.2M in annual revenue without relying on paid advertising. Despite being an introvert, she created such a passionate community that members have gotten the logo tattooed on their bodies. She accomplished this while simultaneously raising and homeschooling 5 children.

Louie Bacaj, a former Walmart engineer, co-leads a thriving community for bootstrapped entrepreneurs alongside Daniel Vassallo, promoting the 'small bets' philosophy as a path to financial freedom. The community challenges conventional venture capital thinking and emphasizes how strategic side projects, real estate investments, and expertise monetization can provide sustainable alternatives to traditional startup culture.

Generalist World is a community platform founded by Milly Tamati dedicated to empowering generalists—people with diverse skills who don't fit into traditional specialist categories. The platform launched a podcast to amplify conversations about the value of generalists in breaking down organizational silos and enabling diverse career paths.

Rosieland is a community platform run by Rosie Sherry, a community empowerment expert who builds and monetizes multiple communities. Rosie has extensive experience managing communities, including her past work managing the IndieHackers community, and now focuses on education and community-driven business models.

CreativeMornings is a free, community-driven event series founded by Tina Roth-Eisenberg that brings local creatives together. Starting from a co-working space in New York City, the platform has grown to over 200 chapters worldwide through organic community building and collaboration.

Property Hub grew from The Property Podcast, co-hosted by Rob Dix for a decade, into a multi-7 figure online community and real estate business. The turning point came when hundreds of listeners showed up to their first in-person meet-up, revealing significant demand. Today the podcast reaches 400,000 downloads weekly, and Rob's strategy centers on creating abundant free content while building monetized community offerings.

First customers: Podcast listeners attending first in-person meet-up

MillionDollarSellers.com is an exclusive e-commerce community with 440 members, each having proven $1M+ trailing 12-month revenue. Founded by Ian Sells with Eugene Cayman as COO, the community charges $6,000/year and generated over $1 million in revenue last year, with an 8-person team. The community focuses on Amazon-focused e-commerce entrepreneurs, differentiating itself through rigorous vetting and high-value events and partnerships.