What Works for Startups Like Yours?

BillB is a bootstrapped B2B SaaS platform launched in 2015 that provides e-commerce backend tools (invoicing, shipping, inventory management) for small businesses selling across multiple channels. Growing 70% year-over-year with 9,000+ paying customers, the company generates $2.2M ARR while maintaining 25-30k monthly profit through platform partnerships—particularly Shopify—which drive over 50% of signups.

First customers: Community engagement in the DIY e-commerce niche on Davanda (German Etsy clone)

ParkMobile is a mobile app and web platform that enables drivers to find, reserve, and pay for parking across nearly 300 U.S. cities by contracting with municipalities and private parking operators. Launched in 2009, they generate revenue through a flat convenience fee (typically 30-45 cents per transaction on-street, and percentage-based fees on off-street reservations). With 7.5 million registered users, 1.5 million monthly active users, and 250,000 new registrations per month, the company does well over $500,000 in monthly revenue and operates with a team of 106 based in Atlanta.

Distillery is an applied data science company in the ad-tech space, launched in 2008 as a pure-play demand-side platform (DSP). After 10 years, the company pivoted in late 2017 to decouple its core product—high-performance behavioral audience data—from its own activation platform, allowing brands to use Distillery audiences across third-party platforms like The Trade Desk and AppNexus. The company takes a 20% revenue share on media spend, generating approximately $5 million in annual revenue from its data product line on $25 million in processed spend, while its legacy DSP business generates $27 million in net margin on roughly $55 million in platform spend.

Benja Commerce Network was a gamified mobile shopping app and shoppable media ad network that helped define the interactive advertising space. After initial traction from a Product Hunt launch, Andrew pivoted to an ad network model with promising unit economics, but cash flow challenges and fundraising rejection led him to make material financial misrepresentations to investors, ultimately resulting in SEC/FBI investigation, shutdown, and his conviction for securities fraud in 2020.

First customers: Product Hunt launch and earned media coverage in mid-2010s