TikTok Startups

Miss Excel is a creator who went viral on TikTok teaching Microsoft Excel tips and tricks through entertaining short-form videos. After getting featured in major publications, she created a course business that now generates six figures per month with minimal overhead (just a $97/month Thinkific subscription and a virtual assistant). She's expanding into the full Microsoft suite and using paid ads to amplify already-viral content, with a goal to reach $1M/month in revenue.

Kate (Amaranth) is the #1 creator on OnlyFans, earning $30M+ on the platform in just two years (April 2020 onwards). She built a sophisticated media empire with a 5-person core team plus extended staff, then expanded into Real Work—an agency offering virtual assistance services to other OnlyFans creators. Her growth was driven by leveraging an existing Twitch and Patreon audience, strategic use of earned media when her Instagram was banned, and continuous optimization of conversion tactics across multiple platforms.

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.

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) is a content creator who built a YouTube empire by obsessing over viral video creation and implementing systematic improvement principles. Starting from age 11 with zero views, he spent 8 years perfecting his craft, initially making only ~$500/month, before eventually cracking the code to viral success. His approach emphasizes the 'Rule of 100' (improve one element with every 100 videos), obsessive idea generation, building a creative team, and the belief that 'impossible is possible' through systematic problem-solving.

Ridge Wallet is a bootstrapped e-commerce brand founded in 2013 that grew from $1M (2013) to over $200M in annual revenue without raising external capital or taking on debt. The company scaled by mastering Facebook advertising arbitrage, expanding strategically into complementary product categories like men's wedding bands, and maintaining profitability from day one.

Chat Desk, founded by Anato (formerly a Product Manager at Google working on Voice Search and Google Assistant), is a customer support platform that uses generative AI to help brands scale support and drive sales. Operating for over 6 years based in New York, the company has tripled annual revenue through strategic upselling to existing customers by expanding from initial entry points (like social media moderation at a few hundred dollars/month) to comprehensive multi-channel support solutions.