subscription Startups

Slide Rule is an online educational institution founded in 2013 that teaches data science and UX design paired with one-on-one mentorship from industry experts. The company generates approximately $100,000 MRR ($1.2M ARR) through a $300/month subscription model with courses lasting 2-3 months. They've grown to nearly 1,000 total students through content marketing, particularly blog posts that rank on the front page of Google for searches like 'Learn UX Design,' with an email list of 80-90k free users converting at 2-3% monthly.

Quick Legal, founded by Derek Bluford in early 2015, is an on-demand legal advice platform connecting users with attorneys via FaceTime, voice calls, and instant messaging. The company generates $65,000 monthly revenue from 130+ attorney subscribers paying $500/month, achieving this through referral-based growth with no paid marketing. With a $12 million pre-money valuation and a pending acquisition offer in the $14 million range, Derek is holding out for greater potential as he scales toward 2,500 attorneys through strategic partnerships.

BrainChase is an online learning platform that gamifies education through a semester-long adventure treasure hunt, curating the best third-party curriculum providers. The company grew from 500 participants in summer 2014 to 2,000 in summer 2015 (generating ~$400K in revenue), and is expanding from a seasonal summer model to year-round offerings through after-school and school district partnerships.

Hampus Jacobson, the founder of TAT (acquired by BlackBerry for $150M in 2010), launched Brisk—a B2C2B sales process acceleration tool that nudges sales reps on next steps. By October, Brisk had $7,000 MRR across ~1,000 seats from 380+ companies at $39/user/year, with large enterprise pilots for 200-400 licenses driven by single power users converting their teams.

Amy Schmetawa built Savvy Sexy Social, a video content strategy platform, starting with YouTube videos in 2008 and growing a community of 2+ million views. She transitioned from hourly consulting to a membership model (Social Authority Membership, launched May 2015) at $59/month to work only with committed clients willing to execute. Within five months (October 2015), the membership was generating $5K/month with plans to phase out lower-tier offerings and focus on annual premium memberships.

Amy Porterfield launched her Profit Lab program in May 2017, a course teaching social media sales funnel creation, generating almost $1 million in revenue over a 20-day launch period. The success came from a strategic combination of 25% affiliate sales (from 8 carefully selected partners), cold traffic ads, retargeting, and email marketing to her 180,000-person list. Notably, 30% of sales came in the final two days, and one-third of customers never attended a webinar, purchasing directly from email sequences.

Matt Galant is a serial entrepreneur who has generated over 7 million leads across multiple industries (primarily guitar instruction and fitness supplements). His supplement company (Masszymes) grossed $280,000 in October with a net profit of $52,000, primarily through an affiliate model paying 30% commission for life. He built Gold Lantern, a SaaS tool that tracks lead value over specific time periods (30, 90, 180, 365 days) to help optimize marketing spend and identify break-even points.

Mark Podolsky is known as "The Land Geek" and is a leading authority on buying and selling raw, undeveloped land in the United States. Since 2001, he has completed over 5,000 unique transactions and generates over $20,000 per month in passive income through owner-financed deals. His business model uses direct mail to find distressed property owners, purchases land at steep discounts (often 20-30 cents on the dollar), and either flips them wholesale or finances them to buyers at 12.7% interest, creating recurring monthly revenue streams.

Whiplash is an order fulfillment and shipping service for e-commerce companies founded by James Marks and two co-founders. The company generates approximately $100k in monthly recurring revenue from 157 customers, with October gross revenue of $330k including carrier fees. They are bootstrapped with three warehouses, recently joined 500 Startups, and are planning to raise $2M at an 8-10M cap valuation to scale their sales efforts.

Batchbook is a SaaS CRM platform founded by Pam O'Hara in 2006 to help small businesses manage customer relationships. The company bootstrapped to over 10,000 paying customers with an average monthly spend of $42 per customer and above 95% retention rates, using word-of-mouth and targeted paid social as primary growth channels.

Yannick Silver is a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped seven businesses to seven figures and is now building Maverick 1000, a peer-to-peer member-driven organization of 120+ game-changing entrepreneurs paying $1,500/month ($150/month of which goes to impact initiatives). The group has deployed over $2 million in impact funds while generating $1.8M+ ARR, combining business growth, experiential retreats, and social impact through a carefully curated ecoverse of entrepreneurs.

Troy Dean is a university dropout-turned-web developer who built two recurring revenue businesses: a $25k/month WordPress plugin called Video User Manuals (1,200 active subscribers at $24/month), and WP Elevation, a membership course for WordPress freelancers launching at $97/month that generated $500-600k in its first 12 months. He leveraged his existing plugin customer base and an email list of 27,000 to drive course sales through Facebook ads ($5k spent for 220 customers in one launch) and a scarcity-driven 7-day enrollment model, achieving a 98.5% retention rate among course members.

Jay Bean founded FreshLine in 2014 after leaving his Chief Strategy Officer role at Deluxe Corporation. FreshLine helps local service-based businesses attribute marketing spend to actual transactions and automatically re-engage past customers. With a couple hundred direct customers paying $150-400/month, FreshLine is projected to hit $250K in the first full year, with plans to scale to $4-5M through partner relationships.

Michael Devlin launched Profits Engine, a membership platform combining e-commerce software tools with education for Amazon sellers. He generated approximately $110,000 in upfront revenue from 104 customers through a single webinar to his LinkedIn network (10.5k followers), with customers paying $997 for the Amazoners Academy course and upgrading to recurring subscriptions ($99-$199/month) for the Profits Engine software and tools.

YouMake is a 3D sketching app for iPad that allows users to design intuitively without prior 3D training. Founded in April 2014 by Evie Meyer and partners who left Autodesk, the team bootstrapped for nearly two years before raising $5.2 million in seed funding. One month after launching on the App Store, they had approximately 800 paying customers generating around $8,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Harris Media is a digital agency founded by Vincent Harris in his dorm room that provides comprehensive digital communications and strategy services for political campaigns and advocacy organizations. Operating with approximately 35 employees and 25 clients on retainer, the agency generates over $1.2M annually by managing websites, social media, video production, online advertising, and email marketing campaigns. The agency's primary revenue driver is email fundraising, which accounts for 70-90% of online donations for clients like Senator Rand Paul.

PrepDish is a meal planning SaaS founded by Allison Schaaf, who pivoted from a time-intensive personal chef business to a scalable subscription model offering weekly downloadable meal plans. With 1,100 paying subscribers (60% annual, 40% monthly) generating approximately $10,000 MRR, the company grew primarily through influencer partnerships, most notably earning $25,000 in two days from a single 100 Days of Real Food collaboration. The business is highly seasonal with peaks in January and August.

SeamlessDocs is a SaaS platform that transforms static PDFs into smart, interactive online forms for government and enterprise clients. Founded in 2013 by Jonathan Endin, the company struggled for the first year trying to serve small businesses before pivoting to local and state governments as their ideal customer. With over 300+ government customers across 40 states, a 99% annual retention rate, and $17,000 average annual contract value, they were projected to reach $2M in 2015 revenue and $20M in 2016.

Tom Hunt is a 26-year-old founder who left his job at Accenture in 2015 to launch Virtual Valley, a marketplace connecting entrepreneurs with vetted virtual assistants from the Philippines. The platform charges a 20% markup on assistant salaries ($500-$1,000/month per assistant) and offers recruitment, payment escrow, and time-tracking software. Tom projects $7,000 MRR by February 2016 and aims to build to $15,000 MRR by year-end, with a long-term goal of selling the company for $4 million.

Jen Scalea is a visibility strategist and business coach who built a multi-six-figure coaching and membership business. She generates approximately $50,000 per month on average (reaching six figures in some months) through a combination of one-on-one mentorship ($10,000 for four months, scaling to $15,000), a membership site with ~200 members ($30-47/month), and periodic course launches. Her growth came primarily through organic social media and word-of-mouth before adding paid advertising in April.