From viral side project to a $5M/yr B2B AI platform

Two years ago, Yasser Elsaid launched Chatbase, and within just six months, he hit $64k MRR. Now, as he relaunches it on his two-year anniversary, he's at $5M ARR.

Here's Yasser on how he did it. 👇

Accidentally viral

In February 2023, I was in my final year of university, and I had a full course load. I didn’t receive a return offer from my Meta internship, which, in hindsight, was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I was inspired by some big names in the indie hacking space that were getting into AI, like Pieter Levels. I then started exploring how to build useful tools using OpenAI’s API.

The idea for Chatbase started as “ChatGPT for your PDFs,” a simple tool that allowed users to upload a document and chat with its contents. I tweeted about it to my 16 followers, and to my surprise, it went viral.

I realized I had hit on something with huge potential, and within weeks, I decided to make Chatbase my full-time focus, even at the cost of failing two of my final classes.

It was worth it.

Pivoting the MVP

Building the MVP for Chatbase took about two months. The first version was simple but effective: Upload a PDF and the tool would create a chatbot that could answer questions based on the document’s content.

I used React, Next.js, Supabase, OpenAI’s API, LangChain, and Pinecone to bring it to life. It was a lean, cost-effective stack that allowed me to move quickly.

The viral success of my launch tweet showed me that there was real demand. However, I quickly realized that focusing on PDFs alone wouldn’t be enough. I needed to stay ahead of the competition.

When Chatbase launched, it was the first “Chat with PDF” SaaS tool. Within months, competitors flooded the space, and it became clear that differentiation was critical.

This realization led to a pivot toward building a platform for customer-facing AI agents, which has a much higher technical barrier to entry, a larger market, and greater long-term potential.

Two years later

Now, Chatbase is a platform that allows businesses to create AI-powered customer support agents. These agents aren’t just bots that answer questions — they’re capable of taking actions, like updating subscriptions, rescheduling appointments, or handling customer requests in real time.

It is a subscription-based platform with tiered pricing, starting from $40/month plan up to an enterprise plan. The bulk of our revenue comes from higher-tier plans, where businesses use our API integrations and advanced features to create fully-customized AI agents.

Revenue growth has been consistent, scaling from $64,000 MRR in May 2023 to over $5M ARR today. Much of this growth has been driven by the shift from simple chatbots to AI agents that can perform actions, which adds tremendous value for businesses.

Organic growth

The initial launch of Chatbase went viral thanks to the perfect storm of being early in the AI space and riding the ChatGPT hype.

Tweets and posts on platforms like Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, Reddit, and AI directories drove the first wave of users. AI influencers also shared Chatbase organically, which helped immensely.

After the initial wave, we focused on long-term growth strategies:

• SEO and content marketing: Building a library of resources around AI customer support and chatbot implementation.

• Direct partnerships: Collaborating with companies for case studies and adding logos to our site for social proof.

• Customer feedback loops: Listening closely to users and iterating quickly to add features that meet their needs.

These efforts have paid off, and today we’re serving over 9,000 active subscriptions.

Parting advice

1. Launch early and often: The sooner you get something in front of users, the sooner you can learn what works.

2. Listen to your customers: They’ll tell you what they need if you’re paying attention.

3. Focus on high-barrier opportunities: Spaces with low competition but high potential are where you can really thrive.

4. Build in public: Sharing your journey not only helps you grow an audience but also connects you with like-minded people who can support you.

What's next?

As we relaunch Chatbase on its two-year anniversary, February 4, 2025, our goal is to cement our position as the leading platform for building customer-facing AI agents. We plan to:

• Expand integrations with tools businesses already use, like Stripe and Cal.com.

• Have better functionality around the AI model for specific use cases like SaaS support.

You can follow along on X and LinkedIn. And check out Chatbase!