Startups Making $50k+/mo

Splinks is a bootstrapped SaaS platform helping small internet and voice service providers in emerging markets compete with large operators. Founded in 2016 by Alex Fischgenow and co-founders, the company has grown to $3M ARR ($250k MRR) serving 700 paying customers across 50 countries, with 70% year-over-year growth. The team of 50 (35 engineers) uses a lean sales model with two quota-carrying reps and minimal paid advertising ($4k/month).

Shoal is a Finnish sales enablement platform that helps SMBs deliver relevant content to prospects at every stage of the buying journey. Originally spun out from a web development agency in 2012, the company raised $1M at a $6M valuation in 2019 and has grown to $3.2M ARR with 300 customers, a 112% NRR, and plans to raise $7-10M for accelerated sales and product growth.

Reamaze is a multi-channel customer support platform serving primarily e-commerce brands, with 60-70% of its 2,500+ paying customer logos in that vertical. The company has grown from ~$1M ARR in 2017 to $3M ARR by 2020, with 10,000 seats across customers, while maintaining profitability with just an 18-person team. Growth has been driven primarily through the Shopify and Big Commerce app marketplaces, supplemented by paid advertising and direct sales efforts.

90.io is a bootstrapped SaaS platform built by veteran entrepreneur Mark Abbott that provides an integrated suite of tools (meeting, planning, goal-setting, feedback, process management) designed to help companies build on the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) framework. With 1,920 paying customers at $140 average monthly revenue and $250K MRR, the company has achieved impressive unit economics ($3M ARR from a bootstrapped model with only 50% net burn between $50-100K monthly) and exceptional retention with 136-140% net revenue retention, primarily driven by organic growth within entrepreneurial communities like EOS coaching networks and organizations like Vistage and YPO.

Boomtime is a hybrid SaaS and service company that helps SMBs with go-to-market strategies through a content-oriented marketing automation platform combined with professional services. Founded in 2014 by Bill Bice, the company serves 300 customers generating $250k MRR while maintaining profitability with a 5-month payback period. They've raised $8M in venture funding and are seeing accelerating growth in 2020, with new customers onboarding at $2,000/month price points.

One.io automates enterprise integration delivery and management for IT, HR, and financial teams at large enterprises like Adidas and Schindler. Founded in 2011, the company has reached $3M ARR with 65 customers, a $45K average revenue per account, and is raising $6M to scale from their current 32-person team while burning $80K/month.

Griddle is a cloud-based team collaboration and communication platform that consolidates messaging, files, chats, audio, and video calls into a single unified workspace. Founded in 2014 by Yash Shah, the company grew from $40K MRR in October 2017 to $250K MRR by scaling through reseller partnerships, achieving a 2.5% monthly churn rate with a 3.5-month payback period on $300 CAC. With 500 enterprise customers and 100,000 paid seats across India, Australia, the US, and Southeast Asia, Griddle has raised $1.1M in equity funding and maintains a 32-person team based in Ahmedabad, India.

Leadfeeder is a B2B SaaS lead generation tool founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneur Pekka Koskinin that identifies anonymous companies visiting customer websites via IP address tracking integrated with Google Analytics and CRMs. The company has grown to 2,500 paying customers at $100/month, generating $250K MRR ($3M ARR) with 88% net revenue retention, doubling year-over-year growth. With $1.3M raised and a $800 CAC, they're pursuing a volume-based growth strategy with plans to raise $5M at a $20M valuation.

Scripted is a content marketing platform founded in 2011 that connects businesses with freelance writers and provides managed content marketing services. Under CEO Doug Breaker (who joined in February), the company has grown from ~$180k MRR a year ago to ~$250k MRR, with over 500 customers paying an average of $500/month ARPU. The company operates with a 2-month payback period and 10-20% annual revenue churn, recently acquired by Xenon Ventures and focused on becoming a cash-flow-positive alternative to paid advertising.

Personalized is a SaaS platform for all-material personalization and marketing automation launched in 2008 by Israeli entrepreneur Iaki Shabbatis. After three years of development, the company entered commercial phase in 2011 and has since scaled to $250,000 MRR with 500+ customers, growing 20-30% year-over-year. Initially built through white-label partnerships with marketing agencies, the company shifted to direct customer acquisition in recent years and expanded to marketplace platforms like Shopify.

BrandLive is a SaaS live video platform launched in 2014 by Fritz Brumder that enables brands and retailers to create engaging live content for marketing, training, and commerce. The company serves enterprise customers like REI, Pottery Barn, and Adidas with annual contracts ranging from $30K-$60K, generating over $3M in pure SaaS ARR with 70% year-over-year growth and healthy unit economics (105% NRR, $1 CAC per $1 ARR).

Privy is a freemium SaaS platform launched in January 2015 by Ben Jiboie to help e-commerce brands convert more website traffic into leads and sales through exit-intent offers and lifecycle email automation. The company achieved explosive growth by becoming the #1 marketing app on the Shopify App Store, reaching 5,000+ paying customers with $250k MRR and $3.1M ARR by the time of this interview. Growth doubled year-over-year through platform partnerships, strong product-market fit for SMB e-commerce, and exceptional customer support that drives organic reviews and trust.

Eugene Woo launched Venngage in 2012 as a freemium infographic design tool after selling his previous company Visualize Me (a resume infographic tool) to Parchment in 2013 for less than $1M. After returning to Venngage in 2014 with a bootstrapped, cash-flow positive model, he grew the company to 11,000 paying customers generating ~$250K MRR ($3M ARR) through primarily organic channels like SEO and PR, with minimal reliance on paid acquisition despite 10% monthly churn from consumer users.

BuildFire is a no-code mobile app builder founded by Ian Blair in 2014 that allows non-technical users to create custom mobile applications. Starting from a white-label reseller model generating $25K/month in 2012, Ian built his own platform which launched in August 2014 and achieved $1M ARR by 2015. By December 2016, the company was generating approximately $250K/month in revenue with 1,000-5,000 customers, powered primarily by organic search traffic and retargeting.

Mobile Walla is a mobile consumer audience platform that collects and processes mobile behavioral data to create targeted audience segments for enterprise marketers and sells raw mobile data to large companies like Oracle. Founded in 2013 with $4M in venture funding, the company initially generated revenue through media buying ($1M in 2014, $4M in 2015) while building its data platform underneath. In 2016, they pivoted away from media buying to focus exclusively on the SaaS and audience data business, achieving remarkable 20x year-over-year growth in data revenues ($12k in May 2016 to $250k in June 2017) with just 9 SaaS customers paying $8,500-$41,000/month and zero paid marketing spend.

Italist is a luxury e-commerce marketplace founded in 2014 that connects Italian boutiques with global customers, operating in 85+ countries. By January 2016, the company had achieved $10M in annual transaction volume with $250K in monthly gross margin on approximately 2,000 monthly customers spending $500-600 per order, with 30% of traffic driven by affiliates. The company raised over $1M in seed funding including investment from 500 Startups and was approaching Series A at a $40M pre-money valuation.

LiveAgent is a bootstrapped SaaS help desk software that started as a spin-off from Post Affiliate Pro and grew from $20k to $250k MRR over 4 years under David Cacik's growth leadership. The company achieved traction through a combination of PPC, content marketing, SEO, and particularly by building a strong presence on software review directories with incentivized customer reviews. Now LiveAgent accounts for 75% of the parent company's revenue, competing successfully against well-funded competitors like Zendesk and Freshdesk.

Vervotech provides hotel data standardization and unique identification services for travel agencies sourcing inventory from multiple suppliers. Bootstrapped since launch in October 2018, the company grew from $150k to $240k MRR in the past year (70-75% YoY growth) with 200+ paying customers powering 1,000+ websites globally. Recently acquired by Constellation Software's Juniper Group travel tech portfolio.

JustCall is a bootstrapped cloud phone system SaaS for sales and support teams founded by serial entrepreneur Gaurav Sharma in December 2016. The company has grown to 1,600 paying customers generating $240k MRR ($2.88M ARR) with a 60% EBITDA margin, powered by organic inbound growth and a high-converting demo funnel that adds 150 new customers monthly. With a team of 35 and a disciplined approach to profitability over fundraising, JustCall exemplifies successful bootstrap scaling.

Connor (actor-turned-rapper) and Brianna (marketing strategist) built a viral music career on TikTok by combining creative skits with original hip-hop/rap songs. Starting from under $1,000/month, they hit a six-figure month after their "Spin the Globe" series went viral (72M views), and now average 60M Spotify streams monthly, generating approximately $240K MRR ($2.88M ARR) across streaming, YouTube, brand deals, syncs, and publishing. They operate independently, own 100% of their catalog, and have scaled to a family operation with multiple team members.