subscription Startups

Libsyn is a podcast hosting platform that has been operating for 11+ years and is currently profitable. With over 29,000 paying podcasters hosting their shows on the platform, the company generates approximately $600,000 in annual revenue from subscription fees averaging $15-20 per customer monthly. Rob Walsh, Vice President of Podcaster Relations, shares industry insights about podcast downloads, iTunes algorithm mechanics, and advertising CPM rates ($30-50 range for shows with 5,000+ downloads per episode).

Bounce Exchange is a behavioral automation software company that helps e-commerce and publisher sites increase conversion rates by reacting to users' digital body language. Founded by Ryan Urban in 2012, the company grew to $17M in 2015 revenue with a run rate goal of $40M by end of 2016, serving 250-300 paying customers across ~700 websites. The company eschewed traditional VC-funded growth models, staying mostly inbound, hiring minimal sales staff, and maintaining nearly break-even profitability while scaling.

Maestro Conference is a SaaS conferencing platform founded in 2009 that powers interactive webinars and large-scale conversations with breakout group functionality, allowing up to 5,000 participants on a single call. As of March 2016, the company has 1,000+ paying customers averaging $100/month MRR (~$90K), with growth driven primarily by word-of-mouth and high-profile clients like Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. Julian Martinez, the first marketing hire, joined in March 2016 to implement paid social and SEM strategies after the business had relied on organic growth, with plans to address a 30% monthly churn rate and improve conversion rates from the homepage.

John Lincoln founded Ignite Visibility in 2013 after leaving a comfortable six-figure director role at SEO Inc. to start his own digital marketing agency. With just $10,000 in personal investment and leveraging his existing reputation in the industry, he achieved nearly $1 million in first-year revenue (2013), grew to $2 million in 2015, and was on track for $3 million+ in 2016 with 30 employees and 70 clients. His growth was driven primarily through becoming an influencer in the SEO/digital marketing space via content marketing, blogging, public speaking, and publishing his book "Digital Influencer."

John Bowen is a serial entrepreneur who built and sold multiple financial services businesses, including a $2 billion advisory firm and a company taken public on the Canadian market. He now runs CEG Worldwide, which coaches top financial advisors through a subscription model, and co-founded AESNation.com with thought leaders like Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish to research and educate entrepreneurs on wealth creation and best practices.

Loganics is a 6-year-old SEO fulfillment agency founded by 28-year-old serial entrepreneur Adam Steele that builds citations and acquires backlinks for digital marketing agencies. Operating with minimal founder involvement through a team of 50+ people in the Philippines, the company generated approximately $500K in revenue in 2015 and was on track for $750K in 2016 with 3,000+ clients across 70 countries and nearly 250,000 citations built.

BrewPublic is a craft beer curation and delivery service founded in 2014 by 26-year-old Charlie Mulligan. The company uses an algorithm to match customers with personalized beer selections from 3,000+ craft beers, serving both offices and consumers across Charlotte, Raleigh, Nashville, and San Francisco. In 2015, BrewPublic generated $275,000 in revenue with 35% net margins, and projects $1-2 million in 2016 after raising $500,000.

AstroPrint is an IoT platform for the 3D printing industry, often called the "Android of 3D printing." Founded in 2013 and pivoted in 2014, the company makes 3D printers easy to operate and connects them to a cloud-based app store ecosystem. With $150,000 in 2015 revenue and $400,000 raised, they're pursuing a B2B licensing model targeting printer manufacturers and major brands, projecting $500,000 in 2016 revenue.

Ryan Moran acquired the premium domain Capitalism.com for $100,000 to rebrand his Freedom Fastlane personal brand into a more authoritative business platform. As of March 2016, he was generating approximately $1 million per month in top-line revenue across multiple streams: a coaching/incubator program called "The Tribe" ($250k/month from ~200 members), physical product sales on Amazon ($750k/month primarily from fish oil and supplements with 75% of total revenue), passive income from a yoga business sale (~$5k/month), and real estate holdings. His primary growth channels include content marketing through his podcast and email broadcasts, organic Amazon search rankings, and a high-end annual conference that serves as a branding and networking play.

TransTutors is an AI-assisted tutoring platform that helps college students with homework and assignments through a $20/month subscription model. Founded in August 2014 by Aditya Singhal, the company achieved over $1 million in revenue in 2015 and was doing $60-80k MRR by early 2016 with approximately 3,000 active paying monthly subscribers. The company grew through organic search traffic from 2 billion monthly Google searches by college students seeking homework help, and was raising a $500k convertible note from 500 Startups at a $2.5M cap.

metadata.io automates demand generation for B2B companies by reverse engineering customer data to build ideal prospect profiles and find look-alike audiences across social platforms and networks. Launched in May 2015, the company reached $35,000 MRR in February 2016 with a dozen customers paying an average of $3,000/month, after raising $300,000 in seed capital from angels, 500 Startups, and Right Side Capital. Founder Gil Alush, a 33-year-old software engineer turned VP of marketing, is targeting mid-market and enterprise companies with a value-based pricing model and planning to raise a couple million in equity at a $5-6M pre-money valuation.

Lead Genius is an AI-powered SaaS platform that automates lead generation, enrichment, and email outreach for enterprise sales teams. Founded in 2011 by mathematician and Berkeley researcher Anand Kokkarni, the company has raised $8 million and achieved $8M ARR by 2015, with approximately 200 enterprise customers paying an average of $40,000 annually. The business demonstrates strong unit economics with a 10:1 LTV-to-CAC ratio and has achieved the coveted net negative churn by expanding existing accounts faster than customer losses.

Cool Leaf is a B2B SaaS platform that helps mid-sized businesses and Fortune 500 companies organize, communicate, and track employee engagement efforts. Founded in 2011 by Prem Bhatian and co-founder John, the company has evolved from an initial B2C focus to a successful B2B enterprise with 26 active customers paying an average of $25-30k annually. By March 2016, Cool Leaf had raised $800k in funding (including from 500 Startups), generated less than $500k in 2015 revenue, and was aiming to hit $1M ARR by end of 2016.

Doorman is an on-demand package delivery service founded by Xander Adel, a former Pixar technical director, that solves last-mile delivery problems by allowing customers to schedule package arrivals at convenient evening hours (6 PM to midnight). By 2016, the company had raised over $3 million, built a team of 10, and delivered over 100,000 packages across three markets (San Francisco, Chicago, and New York) with both direct-to-consumer and retail partnership models.

GetResource.io is a recruiting automation SaaS founded by Troy Salton that automates outbound sourcing for growing technology companies, charging $5,000-$8,500/month. With three co-founders and $125K from 500 Startups accelerator, the company operates profitably with approximately 10 customers and generates around $50K in monthly revenue through word-of-mouth and network-based sales.

Milo is a content and newsletter platform for freelancers, founders, and creative entrepreneurs, started in 2009 as a side project called GraphicDesignBlender.com. It took 4-5 years before generating meaningful revenue, but now generates $8,000/month through sponsorships from relevant SaaS companies. With 30,000 email subscribers growing by 1,500/month, Preston has built a profitable business working only 5-8 hours per week while maintaining a full-time job.

Khalid Salid founded InVesp in 2006, a conversion optimization consulting agency that helps enterprise clients like eBay, O'Reilly, 3M, and Dish Network increase online revenue. Starting with $15-20K in first year revenue while maintaining a $100K+ corporate salary, the company grew to over $1 million by 2011 through high-touch consulting ($8,000+/month retainers averaging 15-24 months). By 2016, Khalid decided to transition the business into a SaaS platform offering A/B testing, heatmaps, video recording, and analytics to compete in the conversion optimization software space.

Flatiron Communications is a New York City-based PR and digital media agency founded by Peter Himler in 2015 after leaving Burson-Marsteller. The agency helps emerging and established companies capitalize on communication technologies, digital marketing, and content strategies. Operating with a lean team of four contractors paid $100-150/hour, Peter runs the business on retainer fees ranging from $7,500-$12,500 per month with six-month initial contracts, serving clients including AIG Private Client Group, Indiegogo, HSN, and various startups.

Mojio is a connected car platform launched in 2012 and backed by Deutsche Telekom and Amazon that enables existing cars to connect to the internet. Kenny Hawke, who previously took iGo public in 1999, took over as CEO in fall 2015 and has landed major contracts including rollouts with Deutsche Telekom in Europe and a North American carrier. The company operates on a revenue-share model with telecom operators and projects to have millions of units installed within 2-3 years.

Crisp Video Group is a video production and marketing agency founded by Michael Mogul in 2012 that bridges the gap between video production and video marketing for national clients. Starting from $100K in their first partial year, the company has achieved over $1M in revenue by 2015 with 300% year-over-year growth in the last two years, operating with 15 full-time employees plus 25-30 national cinematographer contractors. Their success comes from working with both major brands (Coca-Cola, Verizon, Red Bull) and smaller businesses, delivering 80-100 projects monthly through systematized processes and a strong team structure.