Leaving a funded startup and bootstrapping to $1M/yr in 18
months
After running a funded crypto startup, Gil Hildebrand decided he needed a change. He didn't want to keep chasing funding. So 18 months ago, he launched Subscribr. Then he built it. And within 100 days, it was bringing in $10k MRR.
This year, it's on track to bring in $1M.
Here's Gil on how he did it. 👇
A winding path to bootstrapping
I've been writing code professionally for the past 25 years. It feels crazy to say that. But my first job in high school was at a web development shop when I was 15. And now I'm 41.
I ended up dropping out of college almost immediately because I was getting paid $50/hour as an independent consultant when I was just 18. I did that for a few years until I lost everything in a major natural disaster (Hurricane Katrina). That didn't stop me, though — within months, I was recruited by Seth Godin to become CTO at his brand new startup Squidoo.
Over 9 years, we grew that business to $10M in revenue. I definitely wasn't qualified for a business of that scale, but I worked hard and always had a knack for understanding what I needed to learn next in order to continue growing into the role. At its peak, we were serving over a million users per day with an engineering team of only three people. We had insane leverage, and I credit Seth massively for driving the team to stay lean and profitable when the easy way would have been to raise money.
Fast forward to today, and I'm now working on Subscribr, a tool that helps people start and grow their YouTube channels. One of the most challenging aspects of YouTube is that making videos is just really hard — and even harder to do consistently for a long period of time. Subscribr uses AI to help you plan new video ideas for your channel, brainstorm the packaging, and structure your content into a good script.
It launched publicly in April 2024. It took 100 days after launch to start hitting $10k months. And it was up from there. A year and a half later, I've got around 4,000 customers. The product has already generated over $500k this year, and we aren't even to the busy season yet.
The case for bootstrapping
Just before starting Subscribr, I ran a startup in the crypto industry. We raised angel and seed rounds and pushed for massive growth. It was the Silicon Valley dream. At our peak, we had over 20 employees and were doing over $1M in ARR — but we weren't profitable.
That meant I was always, always talking to investors to raise more money. It really is a hamster wheel. Once you take money, you've got to keep doing it, and you better keep growing.
The really frustrating part, though, was the market. We were a SaaS serving businesses in the crypto industry — which was small and highly sensitive to volatility. When the market tanked, there was no way we could outmaneuver it. We ended up being acquired by one of our competitors, and I knew from that point forward I wanted to build a very different kind of company.
Just to be clear, I had a very positive experience with all my investors. But many software businesses, especially now with AI, shouldn't really need capital in order to get to profitability. And at the end of the day, a solopreneur with a $1M/year business is actually far richer than a CEO of a $50M/year VC-backed business. Because the CEO can still only justify a salary of maybe $250k, and they've likely diluted their equity to only 30% after investment and employee shares. Whereas the solopreneur could probably be clearing $500k/yr without reporting to any kind of board or investors. Not to mention the fact that the $1M/year business, if profitable, is likely far more liquid and easy to sell.
Placing his chips for Subscribr
Around the time my crypto startup was having trouble, I read a post called "The only thing that matters" by Marc Andreessen. The gist is that you will live and die by the strength of the market you serve. I knew I wanted to serve a healthy market.
But I also knew that after running a large and unprofitable startup, I was ready to become a solopreneur and aim for profitability as soon as possible. If I picked a market that was too large, I might be up against well-funded VC-backed startups. So I was really looking for a Goldilocks market — one that I could easily build a $1M business in, but not so large (like $100M) that all my competitors would be funded.
I found myself watching tons of YouTube videos, and I decided to dive in and make my own channel. But I quickly discovered how difficult scriptwriting was, and how lousy many freelance scriptwriters were. People were trying to use ChatGPT to write scripts, but the technology wasn't there yet. I did some research and found there weren't many actual software competitors despite there being over three million channels in the YouTube Partner Program. And that was how I decided to get involved in YouTube.
So I bet on the YouTube market, but I placed my chips using my zone of genius, which is software development.
Starting up in a new industry
So, I was basically brand new to the YouTube industry. I didn't have any connections, nor any experience. To get started, I bought literally every book, ebook, and course I could find about YouTube content creation. I got on X and started learning from all the industry influencers. I needed to get educated, and fast.
Pretty quickly, I saw some opportunities to use my skill set to build some mini-apps that would help YouTubers. I also used my data analysis skills to create some industry reports that folks found interesting. I shared all this stuff on X and started to build an audience. I set up an email list and collected 1,000 emails. I talked to potential customers about what they were looking for. And I started sharing some mockups of what I had in mind to build. The reception was positive.
At that point, I needed validation — real validation. So I polished my mockups and wrote an email sequence to my list. I planned to sell 50 lifetime subscriptions to my software before it was even built! The first 10 subscriptions were at an absurdly low price, and the next 10 were at a slightly higher price. The price would continue going up until all 50 presale subscriptions were sold.
Taking risks
If these presale customers used the product hard, I knew they would be unprofitable long term. But I was willing to take the risk.
And that wasn't even the biggest risk. I needed time to build the product, and I had to manage expectations. So I boldly proclaimed on the presale page that I would need 2 months to build it. If I missed the deadline, or if they simply weren't happy with the product, they could ask for their money back. There was no alternative — I had to deliver something awesome.
Incredibly, from an email list of only 1,000 people, I sold all 50 lifetime subscriptions in just a few days. I now had over $20k in the bank, making my business profitable before I even had a product.
I delivered the actual product on time and on budget. During the development phase, I communicated weekly with my customers to share progress and get their feedback. There were only a few refund requests — and all of them from people whose circumstances had changed before they even had a chance to try the product. Once they got access, not a single person asked for a refund.
One-time revenue is great, but I needed recurring revenue if I was going to survive. So I shifted gears to selling subscriptions, adding a pricing page, and launching publicly soon after.
It took me 100 days to get to $10k MRR.
The right stack
I'm using Laravel, an elegant and unfussy PHP framework. I've found PHP much more enjoyable to use than the current trend of JavaScript and TypeScript apps, which can be super slow to build and often break due to package compatibility issues.
Laravel has a feature called Livewire that enables real-time app experiences that feel like single-page apps. Laravel also has a very powerful job queue system called Horizon, which is perfect for the long-running AI tasks that are common in Subscribr.
The product itself is hosted on a single DigitalOcean droplet. It's very simple and low maintenance.
The absolutely relentless pace of AI has been a challenge. If I were starting Subscribr today, I wouldn't build it with the current workflow. The way people interact with AI apps has changed drastically in the 18 months since I started designing it.
It's never too late, though. As we speak, I am developing Subscribr v3, which will be a fully agentic chatbot — exactly the kind of experience AI users have come to expect in modern apps. It's going to be awesome.
Organic and paid traffic
In the early days, I was hyperactive on X and running weekly giveaways. This got me tons of traction. But it's really hard to grow a business as a solopreneur once the business gets going.
Because initially, you can put everything you have into product and marketing. But then, once you have customers, serving them becomes the primary focus. This makes it difficult to run as fast as before. The bigger you get, the trickier this can be. Today, Subscribr has over 4,000 customers, and I feel like there's always more I could be doing to engage with them.
So, I started exploring passive marketing channels early on — the kind that take a lot of work upfront, but can keep contributing even while I am asleep or on vacation.
SEO was one that I was comfortable with, and I invested a ton into SEO content way before it became profitable. Today, I get a very healthy amount of organic traffic from Google, and a rapidly increasing amount from ChatGPT.
I also have an active affiliate program, which does well.
Google and Meta ads help me improve brand visibility. While I don't make a killing from ads, it's enough to keep the programs going.
Subscriptions and lifetime deals
Subscribr is a subscription business with plans beginning at $49/month. This is a premium price for an AI app, but I also want to position Subscribr as a premium product. I pride myself on being able to deliver 1:1 support with the founder, and I would rather have fewer customers paying more than a large number of low-end customers that I can't afford to support.
Like I said, Subscribr has already brought in $500k this year and we aren't even at the busy season yet.
A big part of my success this year was running an AppSumo campaign. Initially, I was VERY hesitant to do so. Lifetime subscriptions are scary for an AI business with high usage costs. Also, AppSumo takes the majority of the revenue, which is hard as a founder to come to terms with. But I approached the campaign with enthusiasm and humility. I worked hard for every customer. And it's been very rewarding, especially with all the new connections I've made and reviews I've received from happy customers.
Parting advice: Validation, risk, and markets
Find the right market
Think REALLY hard about the market you are entering. Is it actually a healthy market, or one that just seems exciting? Do your customers have money to spend? Is the problem you are solving a vitamin or a painkiller? Remember that your startup will live or die by the strength of the market and your ability to find paying customers day after day.
Validate
People always say that you should validate your startup. You can supposedly do that by solving your own problem or asking people what they'd be willing to pay if the solution existed. But those are not great validations.
Real validation is paying customers and money in the bank. So, your only focus in the beginning should be, "What is the bare minimum I can do to get people to pay me?" And just do that. It's such a simple concept, but so hard to actually do in practice.
De-risk
Startups are notorious for being risky. But instead of leaning into that risk, look for ways to de-risk. Don't quit your job to start a startup; do it on the side. Don't raise money when you haven't proven your customer acquisition strategy. Don't hire employees or contractors just because you want to move faster. Take your time and do things when you have more certainty.
Get into flow state
I'm not a big fan of to-do lists or OKRs. Every day I get up and work on what feels important right now.
Because I'm always excited about the task in front of me, most days I have no problem getting into a flow state. If I can nestle into a flow state for just a few hours, I can get more work done than I could in several days of interruptive ADD-style work that I'm dreading.
The curveball — bringing on a cofounder
Here's the curveball — 18 months after starting on Subscribr, I'm bringing on a cofounder. This wasn't a decision I took lightly. But there's a certain individual in my exact industry that is the perfect fit as my partner. We've known each other for over a year now, and the puzzle pieces have been fitting into place ever since.
As a technical founder, it's so cliché to just pin all our hopes on the sheer brazenness of a marketing partner who promises that bringing in new business is easy. So often, technical founders get burned that way. But my new partner has actually demonstrated his ability to drive sales. Even more critically, he solves one of Subscribr's biggest challenges — customer education. He runs a YouTube channel with over 15,000 subscribers interested in YouTube content creation. He is already an authority on educating our target audience.
By combining forces, we're almost certain to grow the business to a much larger level. I'm giving up a lot of things in the process: equity and profit, of course, but also a bit of freedom. There's a lot to look forward to, though. Revenue jumped 50% our first month working together.
What's next?
We're collaborating on a brand new version of the software that will be a huge upgrade for our customers. We're about to publish tons of new educational content on our YouTube channel. And we're just getting started.
Can Subscribr hit $1M in gross sales in its second year? I'm certainly going to give it my all.
You can find me on X. I've also published some early Subscribr war stories on my blog. And you can, of course, check out Subscribr.
Leave a Comment
These experiences are valuable, and we need to provide users with valuable features, such as saving users' time and making it easier to implement a difficult or tedious task after using our products, so that users are willing to pay.
Gil, your shift from VC-backed to bootstrapped is striking — do you think more founders will start viewing profitability as the real flex over fundraising?
Nice. In my main business I use PHP for the back end. I sometimes find people look down their noses at it. But I love the simplicity of it - like you say no package dependencies that can break easily. I don't even use a framework for our main API. It is just second nature to me. We do also use Python for other stuff and in other businesses I use Node/Express. The best tool for the job is what gets the job done.
Respect for the persistence. I’m also bootstrapping on the side of a full-time job, and it’s encouraging to see how winding paths can still lead to amazing outcomes.
That's a very good path! My challenge to you is to find a way to keep the product and launch as simple as humanly possible so that you can ship it in a realistic timeframe, given that you're only available to work on it outside of normal business hours. There is almost always a simple version of whatever we build that could sell just as well as the full featured version. A good example is Calendly - they got to massive scale with such a simple app. Good luck to you!
Love stories like this 👏 I’m in the early days bootstrapping my own side project (PromptDock). Totally different scale, but even hitting the first 100 users feels like climbing a mountain. Amazing to see what’s possible with focus and consistency, it is super motivating!
Congrats on hitting your first 100 users 👏 That early traction is always the hardest and most motivating milestone. Keep stacking small wins and it really does snowball. If you ever scale beyond bootstrapping, having a solid tech partner (I’ve seen teams like Nij Web Solution help startups polish their apps and accelerate growth) can make the climb feel less steep. 🚀
Yo, Gil! Working as a CTO for Seth Godin?!
And besides, I always that thought laravel was a tough to learn and useless lang. You made me rethink. (^-^)
Despite the presence of tools like vidlQ and tube buddy, looks like youtube is a growing place for ai agents.
Gil, your journey from VC-backed to bootstrapped success really resonates with my experience launching a free loyalty card app. Your "Goldilocks market" approach is brilliant - we hit 55k+ downloads by targeting the sweet spot between big enough for growth but small enough to avoid well-funded competitors. Your presale validation strategy of 50 lifetime deals is exactly what I wish we'd done - we spent months building features users hadn't validated with their wallets. The "real validation = money in the bank" principle is gold. We learned this the hard way when engagement metrics looked great but conversion to premium features was poor. Your point about solopreneurs being richer than VC-backed CEOs is spot-on - we stayed lean and profitable, avoiding the fundraising treadmill entirely. The market strength insight from Marc Andreessen's post is crucial - we chose loyalty/rewards because small businesses always need customer retention solutions. Question: How do you balance feature requests from lifetime deal customers vs. your roadmap priorities? That's been our biggest challenge with early users.
Wow, 25 years coding and still bootstrapping! beats most VC-backed startups. Smart validation with presale strategy and great timing on YouTube creator market. Pay my respect!
Really motivating story! Gil’s journey shows the power of validating ideas, taking calculated risks, and building something real from scratch while staying focused on the market and customers.
Gil, this hit deep. From surviving Hurricane Katrina to scaling Squidoo, then bootstrapping Subscribr to $1M/yr—your story is pure founder grit. I’m building White Waters Sentinel, a civic tech platform for pipeline security in Nigeria. Bootstrapped, live, and mission-driven. Your clarity on market selection and validation is gold. Respect
你真牛逼！！
Love this. I’m bootstrapping my own AI-driven fitness startup, AdaptiFit, and can relate to so much of this — especially the part about focusing on validation and solving a real pain point. Inspiring to see what’s possible building lean and adapting along the way. 👊
As a tech founder, this journey really resonates. What stands out to me is how you reframed validation—not as something abstract, but as actual paying customers with skin in the game long before the “real” product was even built. That’s a level of risk most of us talk about but rarely execute, and your playbook of selling lifetime access up front is proof that conviction beats code.
Something unique I’d add: leaving the VC treadmill and focusing on capital-efficient, high-margin growth isn’t just about peace of mind—it fundamentally changes the kinds of bets you can make. It lets you prioritize experimentation, customer intimacy, and long-term product discipline without outside pressure. Your “Goldilocks” market strategy (big enough for real revenue, small enough to avoid big-funding land grabs) is exceptionally pragmatic in today’s noisy AI world.
Having bootstrapped and also done the investor route myself, I find your story a powerful reminder that ownership and optionality often trump the illusion of scale. Your willingness to “de-risk” not with slow motion, but with smart validation and rapid execution, is an example many founders (myself included) need.
Major congrats on the milestone—your transparency around numbers and mistakes is what makes this such essential reading. Thanks for sharing the journey!
Any advice for someone who has no X base on marketing a product?
That’s an inspiring story of resilience and focus. The biggest lesson I see here is how important validation and picking the right market are. You proved that even a small but healthy niche can create sustainable growth if you focus on solving real problems. Bootstrapping keeps you in control, but it also demands smart risk-taking and constant learning.
Loved the “real validation = money in the bank” mindset — selling 50 lifetime deals with a 2-month SLA is gutsy and practical. Also +1 on choosing Laravel/Livewire/Horizon over JS package churn. In hindsight, which had the highest ROI for you: the AppSumo push, SEO compounding, or bringing on the YouTube cofounder (authority + education)?
Gil, this was such an inspiring breakdown — thanks for sharing all the details.
A few things that stood out to me:
The contrast between your VC-backed crypto startup and Subscribr shows the real power of bootstrapping. It’s freeing to hear someone say out loud that a $1M profitable solo business can actually beat a $50M VC-backed one.
The presale strategy with lifetime deals was bold — and pulling it off on a 2-month delivery timeline shows serious conviction.
Your focus on market strength (YouTube as a “Goldilocks” market) is such a smart filter.
One thing I’d love to hear your thoughts on: you mentioned SEO, AppSumo, and now bringing on a cofounder with a YouTube channel. Looking back, which channel felt like the biggest accelerator for Subscribr’s growth? Was it SEO compounding, the AppSumo push, or the authority/education angle from YouTube?
Really rooting for you to hit that $1M mark this year 🚀.
The journey of James Fleischmann illustrates resilience and vision - leaving a funded startup to bootstrap growth requires discipline, customer focus, and smart scaling strategies.
“This journey from a funded startup to bootstrapping to $1M/year in under 18 months is incredibly inspiring. I’m especially struck by how you balanced fast validation with sustainable growth—going from $10K MRR in just 100 days to scaling toward $1M ARR is no small feat. At TalentWave Digital, we help businesses—including jewellery, real estate, and hospitality—scale their digital presence effectively, whether that’s through traffic acquisition or strategic branding. Thanks for sharing such a tangible blueprint—very motivating!”
This is such a powerful message, congrats on building $1M/year in 18 months entirely on your own. The discipline and clarity required to shift from VC-backed to bootstrapped success is awe-inspiring.
At xMap, we're also committed to shipping quickly, validating with real users, and letting revenue, not hype, drive growth. Your playbook with presales, focus, and compounding channels like SEO is exactly the mindset we aim to emulate.
Thank you for sharing such a raw and results-focused journey. It’s a timely reminder of why sustainable, customer-first building is such a powerful alternative to chasing funding.
Super inspiring story 👏 Love how you shifted from chasing VC funding to building something sustainable and profitable.
The part about validating with real paying customers early really hit home simple advice but so powerful in practice. Congrats on the $1M path 🚀
very touching and practical
Really inspiring journey — going from a funded startup to bootstrapping $1M/yr in just 18 months is no small feat. I’d love to hear more about the mindset shift you had to make when moving from the VC-backed environment to bootstrapping. Did it change how you approached growth and decision-making? Also, what was the hardest trade-off you had to make in those early months?
This is the kind of founder story that rewires your brain. No funding, no fluff just pure execution. $1M ARR in 18 months is wild. Respect!
Very nice
Wow - Just Wow.
Just the kind of mindset shift i need
Love how Gil de-risked it early with paid presales. Reminds me of how Tally leaned on community + freemium and Tweet Hunter validated with an audience before shipping. Different playbooks, but same principle → traction first, polish later.
This was an incredibly insightful and refreshingly honest read — your journey from high-school coder to solopreneur scaling Subscribr is both inspiring and instructive. Your take on market selection, validation, and risk management is a must-read for anyone building beyond the traditional startup playbook. I also loved the emphasis on long-term, passive acquisition through SEO and building a product-first website experience. Curious — what would you do differently if launching Subscribr today, given how rapidly AI workflows and user expectations are evolving?
Really enjoyed this piece — love how Subscribr is simplifying something that’s usually overwhelming for creators. The way you’re breaking down the subscription journey feels super practical and empowering. As someone who works with data, I couldn’t help but think about how powerful it would be to track which parts of that journey drive the most loyal subscribers. Excited to see more creators benefit from this!
Wow, what an inspiring breakdown! Really shows the power of validating early and staying laser-focused on profitability. Love how you leveraged presales and affiliates to fuel growth without outside funding, and the cofounder move with the YouTube audience was such a smart multiplier.
Curious—now that you’ve hit strong traction, what’s your biggest focus for the next stage of Subscribr: doubling down on distribution channels, expanding the feature set, or something else entirely?
Wow, what an incredible journey Love how you turned setbacks into stepping stones and proved the power of validation + focus on profitability. Subscribr sounds like a brilliant solution in a growing market excited to see how it evolves with your new cofounder onboard!
Very inspiring. I'm currently trying to see if the solopreneur path would be the one I could walk. Being fresh after failed PH launch, this is much needed motivation.
Thank you and good luck!
Very inspiring
Such an inspiring journey, Gil. The presale traction really stood out to me, turning 50 lifetime deals into ~$20K before launch is such a smart way to validate while funding early growth. Hitting $10K MRR in 100 days and scaling to ~$83K with such a lean team is seriously impressive.
I’m also fascinated by how SEO and affiliates became strong long-term channels. And the cofounder strategy of bringing in someone with an existing YouTube audience is genius, the fact that it jumped revenue 50% in the first month says it all.
Curious, are you planning to stick with Laravel/Liquid on DigitalOcean as you build Subscribr v3, or are you considering other frameworks as things scale? And with AI features becoming central, how are you thinking about managing infra costs vs. user value, usage-based pricing, feature gating, or something else?
Thanks for sharing such a detailed breakdown. Posts like this are a huge motivator for those of us bootstrapping.
This is such an impressive journey, Gil—congrats on scaling Subscribr to $1M ARR in just 18 months while staying lean and bootstrapped!”
Some takeaways that really jumped out from your numbers:
Presales as proof: Selling ~50 lifetime deals before launch gave you ~$20K upfront capital. That’s not just validation—it’s essentially non-dilutive seed funding without pitching VCs.
Fast traction: Hitting ~$10K MRR within the first 100 days shows that the demand was strong and the positioning resonated. That’s an insane early signal of product-market fit.
Efficient scaling: Growing from $0 → $83K MRR in 18 months with only 2–3 people on the team is a testament to high-margin SaaS + smart ops. At ~$1M ARR with that lean headcount, you’re probably running at 70–80% gross margins.
Channel efficiency:
SEO accounts for a steady inbound stream—compounding growth with low CAC.
Email + affiliate partnerships delivered measurable conversion lifts.
The cofounder addition alone boosted revenue by ~50% in the first month—huge ROI on the “hire.”
Market focus: YouTube creators number in the tens of millions globally. Even capturing a tiny fraction of that pie (say, 0.01%) represents thousands of high-LTV customers.
Smart risk management: You flagged that some LTD customers might be unprofitable due to AI usage costs. That’s a great reminder: when AI infra (OpenAI, GPUs, etc.) is variable, front-loaded LTD deals can flip your unit economics upside down.
For me, I’ve been tackling two different roadblocks:
With FoundersInno, the challenge has been figuring out how early founders can showcase MVPs/prototypes and get noticed without spending heavily on ads.
With Komplora (a compliance automation prototype), the struggle is convincing startups that SOC2 can actually be affordable and lightweight, since most people only know the big, expensive players.
In both cases, the hardest part has been balancing building vs. finding traction
For FoundersInno consider focusing less on investors. Because they already have the problem of a huge number of startups wanting to pitch them - they're usually not actively trawling third party websites looking for deal flow. What WOULD be super valuable is tools to help founders better market their products, especially in the early stages. But to potential customers, not to investors.
Komplora - SOC II is a very crowded space with heavily funded startups and big sales teams. To focus on this market I would pick a very specific sub-market within it that you can serve better than anyone else in the world. But really, unless you have a partner on your core team that is very experienced at B2B sales, I would consider picking something else. Small businesses don't have the time or money for SOC II, and larger companies need a long sales process and lots of handholding from a big team.
Thanks a lot for the thoughtful feedback 🙏.
For FoundersInno, my goal is to make it easier for early founders to get noticed without having to constantly post across 5+ platforms (Reddit, IndieHackers, LinkedIn, Discord, etc.). It’s a grid-style showcase where MVPs/prototypes can be discovered at a glance — by other founders, potential collaborators, and also investors who want a quick way to spot early projects without digging through scattered platforms.
For Komplora, I know the SOC2 space is crowded, but my angle is serving small startups who can’t afford $20k+ tools/consultants. The idea is lightweight automation at a much lower price point, so compliance doesn’t become a blocker and they can close deals faster.
Still super early, but refining based on feedback like this.
This post is packed with operator-level grit and wisdom. Like how you engineered real validation, lean delivery, and margin-first growth from day one.
At ScrumBuddy, we guide solo developers from ideation to production using AI-powered code. Reading your journey highlights a core truth we’ve baked into our DNA: market validation isn’t about likes or surveys, it’s about real users getting real value. The best way to do that is to ship something meaningful fast, as you did with your lifetime deal presale.
I have a couple of questions based on your experience:
You built with Laravel + Livewire on a single droplet. When you weighed going agentic with Subscribr v3, did your infrastructure or framework choices evolve? Did you explore frameworks like FastAPI or Rust for reduced latency and cost in AI workloads or did you optimize within the same stack?
In AI-driven tools, usage directly impacts cost. Aside from validating via presales, how are you managing the balance between early customer success signals and infrastructure spend? Do you gate heavier workloads to only the most engaged users or rely on usage-based pricing, caching, or batch workflows to keep margins healthy?
We’ve been using similar principles like graceful degradation, incremental AI execution, and user-justified triggers to help makers stay lean while also delivering usable outputs fast. I’d love to compare war stories on how you’re evolving Subscribr’s technical levers as scale and AI cost ramps up.
I don't focus too much on infrastructure. I value simplicity and not a lot of moving parts. I'm still pretty happy with Laravel, although the very dynamic front-end nature of the new version I'm building would probably be better to build using React. I just prefer Laravel haha.
I don't gate featured based on how frequently customers use them, however I do have a credits system that determines how many times you can use any of the AI-heavy features. For AI features that aren't directly related to the credit system (of which there are many) I experiment with different lightweight/cheap models to find ones that work well for the use case, which not only saves cost but also saves time.
cant wait for the new software
Thanks Katherine, working hard on the new version now
Great interview James. As a fractional CMO for B2B companies, I appreciate how Gil's presale strategy (50 lifetime deals before building) demonstrates 'real validation' - something I emphasize to founders who often mistake engagement for true market validation. His Goldilocks market approach (targeting a $5-10M niche with premium pricing) is exactly the positioning strategy I help clients implement. Money in the bank beats survey responses every time, and this founder-led growth creates not just validation but an engaged launch community.
Couldn't have said it better myself Rudi!
I loved reading your journey as a solo bootstrap founder. Very inspiring! Look forwarding to following your journey.
Thank you Pat
Really inspiring journey — love how you flipped the usual VC script and proved you can hit serious revenue by staying lean, validating with real buyers, and focusing on channels that compound over time. The lifetime deal approach to test demand was such a smart move, and your sequencing from idea → delivery → scale is a great playbook for anyone bootstrapping. Thanks for being so transparent with the numbers and lessons — it’s both motivating and practical for founders in the trenches.
No problem, hope it helps to inspire people
Inspiring stuff...
Thanks Parag!
The impressive pivot from VC to bootstrapping $1M/year in 18 months is inspiring. Your focus on validating early, shipping value, and choosing sustainable growth over hype really resonates. Would love a distillation GTM checklist!
Thank you :-)
Stepping off the fundraising treadmill to build something calm, profitable, and focused really lands. The way you validated with real buyers, shipped on your promise, then leaned into durable channels before partnering with someone who already educates your exact audience, great sequencing.
It reads like operator discipline, not luck.
Quick curiosity: what’s been the most counterintuitive learning from lifetime deals in an AI-heavy product (support vs infra costs vs churn dynamics)? And what single activation signal best predicts an upgrade for you today; first successful outcome, minutes processed, or a second project created?
P.S. I’m with Buzz, we build conversion-focused Webflow sites and pragmatic SEO for product launches. Happy to share a tight GTM checklist if useful.
Yeah, I think the operator discipline just comes from being "old" haha. I'm 41 now. Failed enough times in the past to learn that doing things the slow, deliberate, and hard way usually works better.
To run a lifetime deal on an AI heavy product, you have to really be comfortable with your AI usage patterns. I monitored them from the day I launched to understand what costs were like. And I ran Subscribr for many months before even considering the LTD. I needed to understand what long term usage would look like in terms of costs. With the LTD I no doubt have some customers that are unprofitable, but the bet is that there are enough with less usage to balance them out.
This was a refreshing read. I really like how you contrasted your experience running a VC-backed startup versus building Subscribr lean and profit-focused from the start. It’s encouraging to see that hitting $1M ARR is possible without a big team or outside funding, just by choosing the right “Goldilocks” market and staying close to customer revenue. Also love the reminder that validation comes from paying customers, not likes or buzz. Super motivating for those of us bootstrapping right now. Thanks for sharing the transparent numbers and lessons, you’ve given me a lot to think about in terms of narrowing focus and aiming for profitability earlier.
Really enjoyed this👏
The way you presold lifetime deals to validate Subscribr is a perfect case study in making the market prove the idea fast.
Something I’ve noticed while working with founders is that once you’ve validated and achieved traction, the next significant unlock is conversion optimization. You’ve already proven demand — but even small tweaks in messaging, landing page flow, or onboarding can make a big difference in moving people from “interested” to “paying.”
Love how you’ve approached this, and it’s encouraging to see bootstrapped, customer-first thinking paying off at scale. 🙌
Also don't understand the power of just being visible and showing up every day. People need to consume many hours of your content before they're ready to buy from you. Conversion optimization helps if you have a big funnel, but first you have to build that funnel through lots of hard work marketing. In the early days you can't afford ads so it's just doing a bunch of hard marketing tasks that don't scale in order to bring in the traffic.
Sheeeesh the lesson I learned is that validation isn’t likes, comments, or ‘I’d totally buy this someday.’
Real validation is money in the bank. Take risks, ship fast, talk to customers, and let them prove your idea
The usual advice is "ask people how much they'd pay for this"
And while that's better than nothing, it doesn't truly answer the question.
Because people might really mean "I'd pay X if it did these 5 things or had these 3 integrations that only I need"
They might also mean "I'd pay X once I get my new job / after I get my funding / that new client".
And that is a very scary and slippery place to be. Because you thought you had validation...until the moment when you launch and find out no one is actually ready to pay.
Very inspiring
Thank you! I wish you well on your entrepreneurial journey :-)
Dang I knew it was going well, but didn't know it was going THIS well 😆
Still plenty of ups and downs. But it's been a fun ride so far. Excited for what's ahead.