Startups Making $1k - $5k/mo

Fernando Pessagno built ResumeMaker.Online as a side project in 2018 to solve his sister's resume-building needs, creating a simple WYSIWYG tool focused on ease of use over features. After launching on Product Hunt and becoming #1 product of the day and week, the service grew to 700,000+ downloaded resumes through word-of-mouth and SEO, eventually monetizing through donations and later a freemium model that now generates $1,500/month.

Harry Dry launched Marketing Examples, a content platform showcasing successful startup marketing stories, a few months ago. The site quickly gained traction with 5,000 email subscribers, won Product of the Week on Product Hunt, and is approaching $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

SkilledUp.life is a two-sided marketplace launched in August 2020 that connects volunteer tech talent with early-stage bootstrapped tech companies. Currently generating $1,000/month in revenue from 30 paying customers while managing a platform of 27,000 volunteer profiles. Founder Manoj Ranawira is bootstrapped with a team of five and plans to build V2 to better track placements and improve customer onboarding.

Indicative is a behavioral analytics platform launched in 2014 that enables product managers and marketers to analyze customer journeys across any data source, offering a generous free tier with a billion free events per month. The company has raised $4M+ in funding, maintains 15 employees in New York City, and achieves less than 5% annual revenue churn with an average customer paying $1,000/month. After introducing their freemium model in July 2018, they doubled month-over-month customer acquisition while focusing on product-led growth over traditional sales.

Segmate is a Facebook Messenger chatbot marketing platform launched in October 2017 by Carl Schuchert. The company generated $250,000 in top-line revenue from an affiliate launch within the first year, netting approximately $130,000 after affiliate commissions to fund development. Currently operating with 637 total users (79 monthly paying customers at an average of $9/month), generating roughly $1,000 MRR, the team is exploring niche-specific marketing campaigns and higher-ticket offers to scale the core SaaS subscription model.

Beth Milligan runs a virtual assistant and online business strategy agency, Milligan Strategies, serving women entrepreneurs and small business owners. She works with seven retainer clients billing $800-$1,200 monthly, using FreshBooks for time tracking and invoicing to streamline operations. Her business model focuses on helping clients reclaim time while she handles administrative tasks, and she's recently expanded into strategy workbooks for clients.