Startups Making $50k+/mo

Odoo started in 2005 as a services company and pivoted to SaaS in 2010 with a €4M ($12M total raised) investment. The company now serves 11,000 paying customers (4M+ free users) generating $2.6M MRR ($31.2M ARR SaaS + $9M professional services), achieving 110% net revenue retention through an integrated suite of business applications (CRM, accounting, inventory, etc.) with a unique pricing model combining per-user and per-app fees.

Tope Awotona founded Calendly after three failed startups taught him the importance of solving real problems rather than chasing money. He spent six months validating the scheduling tool idea by studying competitors' products and user forums, then went all-in by emptying his bank account and hiring engineers in Ukraine. Calendly achieved product-market fit through a freemium model that optimized for invitee experience, growing to 4 million users and $30M ARR largely through organic viral growth and word-of-mouth.

LMS365 is a SaaS platform built for the Microsoft ecosystem that raised $20M in 2023 at a $100M valuation, based on $20M ARR. As of April 2024, the company has grown to $30M ARR with a 200-person team. The company is targeting $40M ARR in 2024, demonstrating strong momentum in the enterprise learning management space.

QuestionPro is a bootstrapped SaaS survey and feedback platform that grew to $30M ARR primarily through strategic acquisitions of smaller companies, buying them at 2x multiples. The company's growth strategy focused on consolidation within the survey/feedback tools market rather than traditional marketing channels.

Copy is a SaaS product that achieved $30M ARR and 1,000+ G2 reviews without building an outbound sales team. The company leveraged product-led growth and word-of-mouth strategies to drive adoption and credibility on review platforms like G2.

Batch Products is a bootstrapped SaaS company founded in 2018 by three co-founders (Evo Dragunov and two partners) that provides five separate data and lead generation platforms for real estate professionals and other industries. Starting with Facebook group outreach and affiliate marketing, they grew to 18,000 customers generating $2.5M in monthly revenue ($30M ARR projected for 2021) with 57% profit margins, all while maintaining 100% ownership and adding 100 employees in six months during 2020.

Servoy is a low-code platform-as-a-service founded in 2001 by Jan Elman that enables rapid development of business applications for corporate users and independent software vendors. After 17 years of bootstrapped growth with only $1M in external funding raised in 2008, the company has scaled to over 1,000 customers, $30M ARR, 100 employees, 30% YoY growth, 3% revenue churn, and net revenue retention above 100%. The company maintains healthy unit economics with a 12-14 month customer acquisition payback period and a $1 CAC to $1 ACV ratio.

Sale Cycle is a bootstrapped behavioral marketing SaaS platform founded in 2010 by Dominic Edmonds that helps ecommerce companies reduce cart abandonment and drive conversions through data-driven insights. The company has grown to 500 customers, 180 employees globally, and $2.5M MRR with 30% year-over-year growth and impressive 101% net revenue retention. Built on a foundation of transactional customer data across email, onsite, and SMS channels, Sale Cycle is expanding beyond cart abandonment into a broader marketing cloud offering.

Hive Blockchain is a digital currency mining company founded by Harry Pochgranti that validates cryptocurrency transactions on blockchain networks, primarily Ethereum. The company went public on the TSX Venture Exchange in September 2017, raising $17 million on day one followed by additional equity raises totaling approximately $200 million Canadian by end of 2017. As of Q1 2018, Hive operates mining facilities in Iceland and Sweden with a $30 million annualized run rate revenue.

Showpad is an enterprise sales enablement platform founded in 2011 by PJ Broughton that helps marketing and sales teams manage content and deliver branded buyer experiences. Starting from a mobile-first approach to solve a client's trade show problem, Showpad grew to 1,000 paying customers across 50 countries with an average contract value of $30,000, reaching $30M ARR with 70% YoY growth and 130% net revenue retention.

FreshConnect was an online B2B marketplace for fresh agricultural produce that achieved ₹2.5M MRR (₹25M ARR) through offline sales and WhatsApp-based customer engagement, but failed to scale due to poor hiring decisions, lack of focus, insufficient capital, and inability to raise external funding. Co-founder Tarun Gupta and his team eventually accepted an acqui-hire deal after 19 months of full-time work, during which the startup burned ₹100,000-150,000 monthly while bootstrapped.

Aweber is a 17-year-old profitable email marketing SaaS company with 120,000 paying customers as of August 2015. The company generates well over $2.4 million in monthly revenue ($28.8M ARR estimated) through a subscription model starting at $19/month, with a 3-4% monthly churn rate and heavy reliance on affiliate referrals (30% lifetime commission). Founded by CEO Tom (credited with inventing the autoresponder), Aweber has achieved sustained profitability since day one by prioritizing customer lifetime value and profitability margins over rapid growth.

Docebo is a SaaS platform providing training delivery solutions to mid-sized and enterprise companies. Founded in 2005 by Claudio Araba as an open-source tool to share course materials, it evolved into a paid enterprise software business after organic media coverage generated customer interest. The company has scaled to 1,400 customers with north of $2.3M MRR and $27.6M ARR, growing over 60-70% year-over-year with a 250-person team across Italy, North America, Dubai, and Canada.

Rant and Rave is a customer feedback SaaS platform founded by Nigel Shanahan in 2000, originally as a broadcast messaging company called Repeat Communication. After being diluted to 5% ownership through VC funding between 2000-2006, Nigel orchestrated a management buyout for just over £1 million, cleaned up the cap table, and has since bootstrapped the company to 285 enterprise customers including Barclays, Manchester United, and Harrods. The company is now doing approximately £2.3 million in monthly recurring revenue with 35% year-over-year subscription growth and 95% retention rates.

Supermetrics started in 2010 as a single-person Excel add-on to automate Google Analytics data fetching. The company achieved major inflection points by being featured in Google's Sheets add-on gallery (2014) and Data Studio connector gallery (2017), driving exponential growth from $300K (2015) to $27M ARR by 2020. The company raised $40M in Series B funding (with secondary shares) at a $200-500M valuation while remaining profitable.

SecurityScorecard, founded by Alexander Yampolsky in 2014, provides enterprise security ratings that measure the security posture of companies from outside. The company has grown to over 450 customers including GE, McDonald's, and Pepsi, with an average contract value of $80,000-$100,000 per year, targeting $25-30M ARR in 2018. Strong network effects, low churn, and net negative revenue churn have driven 100%+ year-over-year growth.

Safety Wing is a global digital nomad and remote team health insurance platform founded by Sondra Rashi in 2018. Starting with direct-to-consumer nomad insurance at $45/month, the company pivoted to enterprise remote health coverage in 2020 after receiving 100+ requests from companies wanting to insure global teams. The company has grown to $24M ARR (doubled from $12M the previous year) with 25,000 active policies and has raised $53M total including a $35M Series B at a $195M valuation.

Dashlane is a password management SaaS founded in 2012 that has grown to 10 million users with 650,000-700,000 paying subscribers. The company generates ~$2M MRR ($24M ARR) with exceptional unit economics: 105% net revenue retention, sub-1% annual churn, and customer acquisition payback periods under 12 months. Growth is driven primarily by paid advertising (spending $500K-$1M/month), with 250,000 new users added monthly at a 50/50 mobile-to-desktop split, and a 5-8% free-to-paid conversion rate.

ProsperWorks is a Google Apps-integrated CRM platform founded in 2011 by John Lee that automates data entry by pulling conversations directly from email, phone, and calendar. The company serves over 40,000 customers with approximately $2 million in MRR and has raised $10 million in funding, achieving negative revenue churn and a healthy LTV to CAC ratio of 6:1 through primarily inbound, product-led growth channels.

Coralogix is a SaaS platform that reached $24M ARR with 2,000 customers. The company notably turned down a $40M acquisition offer in 2019, choosing instead to pursue independent growth and scale.