Startups Making $50k+/mo

The CareSide is a home care and nursing services company founded by Gareth Mahon (management consultant background) and his wife (registered nurse) in Perth, Australia. The company achieved +$500k/month in revenue by focusing on delivering superior value within government-set pricing constraints, growing 16% monthly through Google Ads and content marketing after initial unsuccessful attempts with newspaper ads and doorstep outreach.

Upsell Org is a SaaS platform that has achieved significant enterprise traction, reaching $6M ARR with 150% expansion quotas. The company demonstrates strong customer retention and expansion revenue metrics typical of successful B2B SaaS businesses.

Xsella is a cloud-based SaaS platform launched in 2011 that helps service businesses (architects, accountants, designers, consultants, agencies) manage operations through automation and integration with existing tools. With $11M in total funding, 60 employees across Sydney and San Francisco, and over 1,000 customers, Xsella has achieved strong unit economics with ~$480k-$4.8M monthly revenue, 80% daily active user engagement, and 20-30% year-one expansion revenue with negative 10% net revenue churn.

Cascade is a B2B SaaS platform that helps companies turn strategy from conceptual planning into measurable execution. Founded in 2013 by Tom Wright, the company has grown to over 1,000 customers generating approximately $450,000 in monthly recurring revenue (up from $200,000 a year prior), maintaining 120% net revenue retention. The company is bootstrapped with $50K founder investment and has achieved profitability while relying primarily on organic SEO growth for customer acquisition.

Britek is a B2B wealth tech SaaS platform founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Yuri Furber (who previously sold a financial software company for $25M) that serves financial institutions in Latin America. The company went to market in 2014 after two years of development with $1M of Furber's own capital, and has grown to $450K MRR across 150 customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Chile with 100% year-over-year growth. The company raised $4M in 2015 and operates with exceptional unit economics: 99% retention, 10% expansion revenue, 109% net revenue retention, and 7-month payback periods.

ScrapingBee is a web scraping SaaS that Pierre de Wulf co-founded and mostly bootstrapped to $5 million ARR before achieving an eight-figure all-cash exit. The company experienced rapid scaling, growing from $7K MRR to nearly $1M ARR in just 15 months, driven primarily by a scalable SEO content strategy. The founders navigated the complex decision to sell at the right time, balancing profitability with the opportunity for a significant liquidity event.

Ship Hero is a SaaS platform serving e-commerce companies and 3PLs (third-party logistics providers) with warehouse management and shipping automation software. Founded in 2013 and bootstrapped to profitability, the company has grown to ~$5M ARR across 300 paying customers through primarily word-of-mouth marketing, with expansion revenue driving most growth rather than new customer acquisition.

JivoChat is a bootstrapped SaaS live chat and business messenger platform for small e-commerce businesses, launched in January 2012. The company grew from zero to $5M ARR with 31,000 paying customers (averaging $13/month) across 230,000 website installations through word-of-mouth and organic growth powered by visible 'powered by JivoChat' branding. Tim Valeshev and his co-founder achieved this entirely through bootstrap growth with a distributed team of 120 people, with a 45% annual churn rate but a 24-month customer lifetime value of $330.

Apps Without Code is an online bootcamp teaching non-technical entrepreneurs how to build profitable apps and businesses using no-code tools. Founded by Tara Reid in 2019, the company has grown to $5M ARR by charging $1,900 per student for an 8-week program with lifetime access. Growth came from free webinars, influencer partnerships, affiliate marketing, and eventually paid social advertising, with emphasis on teaching sales and business model first before product building.

Memsource is a cloud-based translation management system bootstrapped from 2010 to a $5M+ ARR run rate by December 2017, serving 500 enterprise customers at ~$5k/month average with a distributed team of 80 across Prague, US, Japan, and other locations. The company achieved this through heavy investment in trade shows (50+ annually) and maintains industry-leading unit economics with less than 3% net revenue churn, spending $2-3k CAC to acquire customers paying $5k/month upfront.

Agora Pulse is a bootstrapped social media management SaaS founded in 2012 by Emreck Urnu and CTO Ben. The company grew from $2.5M ARR in 2016 to $5M ARR by end of 2017 (100% YoY growth) with 3,000 paying customers at ~$145/month through organic growth and content marketing. They've successfully reduced net revenue churn from 12% monthly to 3-4% through product improvements and upmarket repositioning.

Advanced Solutions International (ASI), founded in 1991 by Bob Alves, is a software company serving nonprofits globally with an ERP, CRM, and website solution. The company is transitioning from traditional on-premise licensing ($60M total revenue) to pure-play SaaS, with their cloud business growing 60% year-over-year to $5M ARR from ~$300k/month a year ago. With 375 employees across three continents, 500+ SaaS customers, and a direct sales model supplemented by 100 business partners, ASI maintains exceptional retention (95%+ customer retention, targeting 101% net revenue retention) and is cash-flow positive after raising $56M.

Kumo is a full-stack e-commerce platform founded in 2015 serving 350+ mid-market and enterprise brands internationally. The company operates on a hybrid pricing model combining setup fees (€20-50K) and revenue sharing (1-3% of GMV), processing €35-40M in annual transaction volume and generating €5M ARR (up from €1.5M a year prior). With a team of 80 across Dublin, Italy, and remote locations, Kumo is pursuing channel partnerships while maintaining a strong direct sales motion with 6-12 month customer payback periods.

Streamline provides digital services software to special district governments in the US (water districts, utility districts, libraries, etc.). With 1,450 customers paying an average of $275/month, they've achieved $400k MRR growing 122% YoY from $140k a year ago. Rachel Stern joined as Chief Strategy Officer to expand revenue streams and successfully secured a $2M seed round, now raising a $6-8M Series A.

Dakota is a B2B SaaS database and software platform serving investment firms (venture capital, private equity, growth equity) by providing access to 4,500+ investor accounts and 13,000+ contacts including pension funds, foundations, endowments, and banks. Founded in 2006 as an outsource sales and marketing firm that raised $40 billion for investment strategies, they pivoted in 2019 to sell direct database access after customers requested it. Bootstrapped to $4.8M ARR with 400 customers, 1,020+ seats, 3% annual churn, and 115% net dollar retention.

Legasys is a compliance management software company with 500 customers across India and 44 other countries, generating approximately $5 million in annual recurring revenue ($400k MRR). The company operates on a hybrid model with 85% one-time fees and 15% SaaS subscription revenue ($9 per user per month), maintaining healthy 12-20% EBITDA margins. Founded over 12 years ago with only $2 million raised to date, Legasys was planning to raise a $5 million bridge round in Q1-Q2 2019 to fund product development and sales expansion.

Adlato Software is a vertically-focused SaaS platform for manufacturing sales enablement, using Unity gaming platform and AR technology to create visual sales experiences for complex products. Founded in 2014 and relaunched in 2016-2017 under CEO Mark Murphy, the company has grown from $150k/month to $400k/month ($5M ARR) with 250 customers, primarily OEMs buying seats for their dealer networks, achieving a healthy 90-100k CAC payback through upfront setup fees.

Bazilla is an Israeli social listening and research SaaS company founded in 2010 by Joao Predor that crawls unstructured information from social networks, forums, blogs, and news sites. The company has grown to $5M ARR with 300 paying customers, 50% YoY growth driven primarily by word-of-mouth in the Israeli market and major government contracts, achieving exceptional unit economics with 1.2% annual gross churn and net negative 10% churn (100%+ net revenue retention).

inPlug is a digital display software company founded in late 2012 by Nancy Lou that allows businesses to control and manage content on multiple screens (TVs, displays) across their offices. The company has grown to over 1,000 direct customers paying an average of $400/month ($4.8M ARR), with additional revenue through a franchise model with 10 partners serving ~150 customers each. Growth is driven primarily through inbound leads via SEO and content marketing, with a healthy CAC of $1,100 and LTV of $25-30K.

CleverTap is a mobile analytics and user engagement platform founded by Sunil Thomas and two co-founders in 2013. The company combines analytics with real-time user engagement (push notifications, email, in-app messaging) and raised $9.6M total ($1.6M seed, $8M Series A) from Sequoia and Excel. By May 2017, CleverTap reached $400K MRR and $5M ARR from 200 paying customers, growing from $1.5M revenue in 2016 through content marketing and direct sales.