HelperBird

Robert James Gabriel spent May 2018 on sabbatical from his software engineering job, traveling the world to rediscover his passion for coding and helping people. During this journey, he created a Netflix Chrome extension that scraped hidden categories—it got picked up on Product Hunt and was eventually acquired. That small win reignited his dream of building his own business. Around the same time, Robert reflected on his own childhood struggles with dyslexia. He'd been told to drop out of school, labeled as unable to succeed, and didn't get proper support until age 17. Determined to prevent others from facing similar obstacles, he decided to revive an old pet project he called HelperBird.

HelperBird actually started in January 2015 as a simple Chrome extension Robert built during his internship at Teamwork.com. Using knockout.js and SASS, he created a basic tool that injected open source fonts to help with readability—just a toggle button, nothing more. He published it to the Chrome Web Store and forgot about it. Two months later, he discovered 2,000 users had found it organically through search. The creator of the Open Dyslexic font reached out and asked Robert to rebuild it as the official extension, adding a proper toggle. That version grew to 250,000 users. By September 2018, three years after launching, Robert realized the project had real potential. He decided to commit one full year to it, redesigned the website in October, and in mid-November registered the domain helperbird.com. He started charging $3 for lifetime access, later optimizing pricing to $4.99/month or $50/year.

The first users came entirely organically. The Chrome Web Store's search algorithm picked up HelperBird because Robert had naturally included keywords like "dyslexia" and "accessibility tool" in the extension metadata. No paid advertising, no outreach—just people searching for solutions and finding his tool. By January 2019, word-of-mouth and consistent updates had attracted 20,000 users. As Robert went full-time in November 2018 and ramped up feature releases (every two weeks), the growth accelerated dramatically: 29,000 users, then 39,000, then 50,000+ by October 2019. Robert's personal approach—responding to users in forums and Reddit, offering free or discounted access to students and schools, and genuinely caring about accessibility rather than chasing profits—created a loyal community that spread the word.

What worked: **SEO and organic discovery**. Robert stumbled into great keyword positioning early. **Consistency**: releasing features every two weeks signaled active development and kept users engaged. **Community trust**: being transparent about mistakes, genuinely helping people, and keeping pricing affordable ($4.99/month, especially for schools) built loyalty. **Zero tracking**: HelperBird doesn't collect user data, which appealed to privacy-conscious users and schools with FERPA compliance needs.

What didn't: Robert made critical mistakes. A code bug locked paying users out of premium features—the Chrome Web Store's staggered rollout meant the fix spread slowly over weeks, frustrating users. Chrome's sudden icon size requirements (16x16 to a different format) caused 5,000 installs to break, driving uninstalls he never recovered. Trying to get promotional coverage hit walls; many sites wanted $1,000-$2,000 or revenue splits. Robert learned that cold outreach for PR didn't work but organic relationships (like articles he'd written on accessibility years earlier, still pulling 500 visits/week) did. He also struggled with taxes and legal structure as the user base grew globally.

By late 2019, Robert had scaled HelperBird to five figures in monthly revenue and brought on his college friend Rokas in July 2019 to help with marketing, web development, and sales. The pair launched on Product Hunt three times—100 votes, then 40, then 500 on the third attempt—proving consistency beats one-shot launches. Robert emphasizes he maintains a 50/50 split between development and founder/CEO responsibilities. His vision is to make HelperBird the go-to accessibility tool globally, eventually releasing an iOS app and serving students, schools, elderly users, and anyone needing customizable web experiences. He's keeping the team small (aiming for 5-6 people), remote-first, and committed to affordability so every school and student can access it. Robert credits his success to mentors (especially his high school physics teacher Sean Foley who encouraged him into programming), the supportive communities of Indie Hackers and Product Hunt, and relentless consistency.