Startups that have hit more than $1K MRR in about 12-24 months
Published in 2020, this chronicle by @upen946 details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $1K MRR.
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
$1k MRR is nothing to brag about. Seriously, we need to start aiming much higher. If this was "My 1hr a day side project hitting $1kMRR in 12months", then it's impressive. But I often see these non side projects and I just want to voice that it's absolutely not impressive.
If you started a business mowing lawn, cutting hair, you better be way past $1K revenue in 6 months. If you're fully committed to building a startup and 100% vested in it, even $10k a month isn't impressive after 24 months. MY OPINION. If you're that skilled and can't figure out how to make money fast, you really might be better of leetcoding and getting a job at one of the FAANGs or well paying SV companies.
Wow. There's a lot of projects here that must have taken a lot of work - and look really good - but the MRR is just dismal. There's one there that's pretty close to a side project of mine - not even a grand. Somewhat offputting.
Does this mean that many of these projects could stand to put a lot more effort into sales? Would that make a reliable difference? Or is it really just this hard? Or a bit of both?
I feel like for some of these, giving the best salesperson you know a huge commission, just getting the ball rolling, could make quite a big difference.
This is an awesome list!
$1k MRR may not sound impressive in Silicon Valley / New York etc., but 1) it's actually pretty good in other places in the world - the world is just too big, too diverse; 2) not many people have the skill to make $1k MRR without working for an established companies, and not many people have the time / energy to do side hustles or have guts to quit their job to find time to do so.
$1k MRR is a milestone. You can grow it to $2k, $5k, $10k down the road. Your efforts can directly affect the financial outcome.
In a sea of startups/products, where everything feels as if it is already created - how does one come up with a product idea?
I feel that every problem I try to tackle is not a real problem. It’s a vitamin and not an ibuprofen. The real problems already have a solution - which means that I’d need to spend a few years and a few hundred thousand dollars to just get a chance to maybe make a profitable product.
my investment property, a residential duplex in the midwest, has a better MRR than most of these.
total cost? a month of my time looking at houses and negotiating, which i enjoyed, and about 45k downpayment.
plus i get all the tax writeoffs that property ownership brings.
most of these "startups" seem like more work than they are worth.
Open Startups data with revenue, launch date & social media follower count.
Probably can find some pattern? Or some suggested ideas to replicate success? Or find a niche?