AutoForward SMS

Norbert wasn't building a new product from scratch—he was hunting for something with existing traction. In early 2021, he searched through internet marketplaces, primarily Flippa.com, looking for undervalued, revenue-generating apps he could acquire and improve. He found AutoForward SMS, an older Android app doing $600 USD per month, listed for $12,000 AUD. The previous owner was an Australian woman running multiple SMS-related businesses who wanted to work less and sell off assets.

Norbert negotiated hard. The original listing price was around 12,000 AUD for that $600 MRR (roughly a 2X multiple). But luck struck: the previous buyer fell through on payment, so the owner reached out directly to Norbert. He offered $7,500 USD, and she accepted—a remarkably cheap entry point. Norbert paid less than half the original asking price for an asset with established market fit and organic growth.

Once he took over, Norbert spotted what he called "a pricing mistake." The previous owner had made SMS forwarding via API completely free because she didn't think it cost her anything to provide. This meant power users—the most engaged customers—were paying just 99 cents per month while consuming the most value. Norbert restructured the pricing into tiers: $1.30 for 500 messages/month, $5 for 500-5,000, and $22 for up to 100,000 forwards/month. This single decision became the primary driver of growth.

The business grew from $600 to $10,000 MRR in 12 months—over 16X growth. Norbert didn't do paid marketing. Instead, he leveraged the app's existing SEO advantages: the domain had been ranking for "text message forwarding" and "SMS forwarding" keywords for 5-6 years. He added FAQ and help articles to improve user onboarding and reduce friction. The Android app store presence remained strong. By month 12, he had 992 paying customers, averaging ~$10 per month each, with an 8% monthly churn rate.

Norbert runs AutoForward SMS almost entirely solo (he does the legacy Kotlin/PHP app; a co-founder friend handles the new Flutter/Firebase version for 20% of profits). Last month generated $9,300 MRR with minimal costs (under $500/month), leaving ~$8,500+ in profit. Norbert takes a small salary and reinvests the rest to fund other ventures—he wants to diversify his income by finding and scaling additional acquired assets rather than doubling down on one business. He credits the success to finding something with existing market fit, a proven distribution channel (organic SEO), and room for pricing optimization.