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I make $40K/month with this one website
Starter Story
Jul 20, 2025
This is how Angus Cheng built a simple tool that makes $40K/month.
Extend your startup’s runway → https://go.starterstory.com/angus
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Chapters
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crisp (link)
-
GitHub (link)
-
Amazon Web Services (link)
-
Google Analytics (link)
-
Lemlist (link)
-
Upwork (link)
-
Brevo (link)
-
Google Adwords (link)
-
Vercel (link)
-
Route 53 (link)
-
Kotlin (link)
-
LetsEncrypt (link)
-
Hugo (link)
-
Stripe (link)
-
Ahrefs (link)
-
Buildkite (link)
-
Fastmail (link)
-
React (link)
-
Netlify (link)
-
Ansible (link)
-
Grafana (link)
I
built
a
simple
website
that
makes
40k
a
month
This
is
Angus
Chang
He
lives
in
Hong
Kong
and
he
built
the
simplest
website
I've
ever
seen
I
built
a
website
that
literally
does
one
thing
And
what's
even
crazier
is
that
he
operates
this
business
entirely
as
a
solopreneur
Solo
founder
zero
employees
100
bootstrapped
I
bootstrapped
this
entire
business
by
myself
I
brought
Angus
onto
the
channel
and
he
broke
down
how
he
found
a
silly
idea
that
thousands
of
people
also
happen
to
need
Why
spending
money
on
ads
actually
hurt
his
business
And
why
having
a
big
strategy
is
for
losers
All
right
let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
welcome
Angus
to
the
channel
Thank
you
for
coming
on
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Angus
Chang
I
built
a
business
that
does
just
one
thing
I
launched
it
in
2021
and
today
it
makes
40
000
a
month
and
I
run
it
entirely
by
myself
All
right
before
we
get
into
the
numbers
of
this
amazing
business
that
you
built
I
want
to
hear
how
did
you
come
up
with
the
idea
for
Bank
Statement
Converter
I
had
just
quit
my
job
and
I
knew
I
was
going
to
build
some
sort
of
product
Actually
I
planned
to
build
something
else
But
on
the
side
I
was
thinking
you
know
I've
got
X
amount
of
money
in
the
bank
I
want
to
know
how
long
I
can
continue
living
the
way
I'm
living
And
to
do
that
I
wanted
multiple
years
of
bank
data
I
wanted
it
all
in
one
nice
Excel
spreadsheet
so
I
can
kind
of
figure
out
okay
it
looks
like
I'm
spending
this
much
a
month
And
that
was
a
lot
harder
than
I
thought
it
would
be
because
my
bank
only
provided
PDF
bank
statements
So
I
wrote
some
code
to
get
the
transaction
data
out
of
the
bank
statements
And
that
was
also
really
hard
So
I
figured
it
must
be
a
real
problem
Okay
you
found
the
idea
Lots
of
people
have
ideas
all
the
time
How
did
you
know
that
this
could
be
a
business
Often
I
like
to
just
make
an
MVP
as
quickly
as
possible
get
it
into
production
and
then
get
it
in
front
of
real
users
And
that's
kind
of
what
I
did
So
me
and
a
friend
worked
on
it
for
about
a
week
We
got
a
domain
we
launched
it
and
then
we
bought
Google
Ads
to
get
people
to
start
clicking
into
the
domain
And
immediately
people
started
uploading
bank
statements
which
kind
of
outlived
the
problem
you
know
know
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
will
be
looking
for
how
do
I
find
a
simple
idea
How
do
I
find
this
kind
of
app
that
can
do
one
thing
I
can
build
it
myself
and
it
can
become
a
business
Do
you
have
any
sort
of
framework
or
strategy
around
finding
these
ideas
I
think
a
good
way
is
if
you
encounter
the
problem
yourself
or
a
pain
point
yourself
Another
way
is
your
colleagues
or
friends
complain
about
stuff
at
work
But
sometimes
I
just
get
ideas
and
I
just
think
of
the
smallest
possible
way
to
implement
that
idea
you
know
get
it
out
there
and
see
if
people
will
use
it
You
can
try
to
validate
before
launching
but
if
it
takes
you
like
one
or
two
weeks
to
make
an
MVP
it's
not
that
much
of
a
risk
anyway
So
you
might
as
well
just
build
it
Okay
so
we
talked
about
finding
the
idea
but
I
want
to
hear
more
about
how
you
actually
built
this
thing
How
did
you
go
from
idea
to
real
live
website
When
I
proved
this
out
I
had
a
local
version
that
would
work
for
my
own
bank
I
wrote
this
in
Kotlin
It
was
basically
a
console
application
And
then
I
generalized
it
a
bit
so
that
it
would
work
with
other
bank
statements
Like
obviously
I
don't
know
if
it
works
for
every
bank
statement
but
I
tried
it
out
with
some
of
my
other
banks
and
some
of
my
friends
banks
banks
And
then
I
convinced
a
friend
to
help
me
build
the
UI
for
this
And
he
did
this
in
Next
js
And
then
we
got
the
two
things
deployed
I
got
the
front
end
on
Netlify
I
deployed
the
back
end
to
EC2
on
AWS
And
that's
kind
of
how
we
did
it
You
probably
build
a
bunch
of
other
apps
And
you
learn
a
lot
in
the
process
of
what
works
and
what
doesn't
What's
your
kind
of
framework
for
building
What's
the
Angus
method
It's
kind
of
like
a
lean
startup
approach
You
know
you
make
an
MVP
launch
it
as
quickly
as
possible
Try
get
it
in
front
of
your
target
audience
whoever
they
are
Don't
show
it
to
your
friends
and
family
They
will
just
lie
to
you
And
they're
probably
not
going
to
buy
your
product
anyway
And
then
you
build
your
features
based
on
real
user
feedback
So
maybe
somebody
emails
you
Or
maybe
like
analytics
So
if
you
notice
that
people
are
dropping
off
on
this
page
maybe
you
need
to
do
something
there
If
people
are
not
using
a
certain
feature
maybe
don't
continue
working
on
it
All
right
well
let's
get
in
some
of
the
numbers
of
this
Can
you
give
me
a
timeline
of
the
growth
of
Bank
Statement
Converter
So
2021
we
launched
Bank
Statement
Converter
2022
we
hit
6
000
USD
MRR
2023
14
000
2024
27
000
And
today
it's
at
40
000
USD
MRR
Total
number
of
users
75
000
Paying
customers
about
1
000
And
traffic
per
month
about
40
000
All
right
so
everyone
watching
this
right
now
is
probably
wondering
okay
it's
cool
how
you
built
it
But
how
did
you
actually
market
it
How
did
you
get
customers
Was
there
a
specific
strategy
that
made
this
thing
go
up
At
first
I
bought
Google
search
ads
These
were
good
for
getting
the
initial
users
But
I
was
never
able
to
run
an
ad
campaign
profitably
So
I
would
spend
maybe
1
000
USD
on
ads
and
bring
in
about
300
USD
in
sales
I
spent
a
lot
of
time
trying
to
optimize
these
ads
trying
to
get
them
more
profitable
but
never
really
worked
out
I
tried
blogging
and
building
in
public
That
gets
quite
a
lot
of
attention
However
I
don't
think
I
get
many
users
from
doing
that
because
my
users
don't
seem
to
be
using
Twitter
or
reading
my
blog
I
also
tried
sending
out
cold
emails
And
in
three
months
of
doing
that
I
got
one
sale
And
I
also
annoyed
a
lot
of
people
I
got
a
lot
of
angry
messages
back
People
don't
really
like
cold
emails
After
about
six
months
of
running
Google
search
ads
I
decided
you
know
I'm
just
not
going
to
do
this
anymore
I
might
not
even
do
this
app
anymore
I
cut
the
ads
and
I
thought
maybe
go
back
to
work
And
interestingly
I
stopped
paying
for
ads
So
I
knew
everyone
who
was
clicking
on
the
website
was
an
organic
user
And
I
noticed
I
started
getting
new
users
I'd
get
like
two
or
three
new
signups
a
day
day
From
that
point
on
I
kind
of
focused
on
improving
the
products
When
customers
complained
about
things
I
would
fix
them
And
I
just
basically
focused
on
doing
what
the
customers
wanted
All
right
real
quick
Before
we
get
into
how
Angus
built
this
30
000
per
month
business
let's
talk
about
something
that
matters
a
lot
Once
your
business
starts
making
money
banking
The
truth
is
most
banks
aren't
built
for
solo
founders
and
SaaS
builders
They
slow
you
down
with
low
card
limits
delayed
payments
and
systems
that
feel
like
they
were
made
in
2004
That's
why
we're
partnering
with
Brex
the
modern
finance
platform
that's
built
from
the
ground
up
for
startups
With
Brex
you
can
get
up
to
20x
higher
card
limits
earn
high
yields
on
your
cash
automate
expenses
invoices
and
vendor
payments
and
move
money
instantly
when
you
need
it
It's
fast
flexible
and
made
to
scale
with
you
no
matter
how
small
or
scrappy
your
SaaS
is
right
now
We
worked
with
them
to
put
together
a
free
guide
called
The
Startup's
Guide
to
Modern
Banking
It
breaks
down
how
to
protect
your
cash
extend
runway
and
upgrade
your
finance
stack
without
wasting
time
Just
click
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
download
it
Thank
you
to
Brex
for
supporting
the
channel
Let's
get
back
to
the
video
All
right
so
you
got
this
website
making
a
bunch
of
money
It's
a
great
business
Do
you
have
a
team
working
on
this
No
it's
just
me
I
started
this
business
with
a
friend
but
he
left
after
a
few
weeks
I
do
all
the
development
customer
support
sales
and
marketing
All
right
so
you
went
from
working
a
nine
to
five
job
to
being
a
solopreneur
running
your
own
business
What
was
that
transition
like
Working
for
a
company
you
kind
of
spend
a
lot
of
time
like
playing
you
know
refactoring
code
trying
out
databases
you
think
are
cool
But
when
you
work
for
yourself
you
quickly
realize
these
things
don't
make
any
money
and
potentially
are
a
waste
of
time
So
your
focus
is
really
different
You
go
from
being
like
a
developer
who
cares
about
writing
nice
code
to
a
developer
who
cares
about
business
futures
and
more
business
aligned
I
suppose
Yeah
In
your
experience
becoming
a
solopreneur
what
are
some
of
the
pros
and
cons
of
the
solopreneur
lifestyle
When
I
first
started
it
was
a
big
change
Most
of
my
friends
I
knew
most
of
the
people
I
hung
out
with
were
people
from
work
You
know
you
go
out
for
drinks
or
whatever
And
then
I
went
to
working
for
myself
just
being
at
home
all
day
basically
not
socializing
It's
kind
of
a
big
change
when
you
go
from
making
maybe
like
10
000
a
month
to
200
a
month
month
and
you're
basically
hanging
out
with
no
one
Being
a
solopreneur
can
be
pretty
depressing
Another
thing
is
people
often
don't
really
get
what
you're
doing
especially
when
you're
failing
to
make
money
I
remember
in
the
first
two
years
people
didn't
understand
why
I
did
it
and
they
would
also
you
know
hear
the
revenue
and
they
would
tell
me
oh
this
is
like
a
crappy
business
You
shouldn't
go
after
this
And
then
multiple
years
later
when
it's
making
a
lot
more
money
those
same
people
will
say
like
oh
it's
a
great
business
Some
pros
it's
good
to
have
your
own
schedule
Often
I
wake
up
and
go
hiking
instead
of
going
to
work
It's
nice
to
be
like
on
a
different
schedule
to
everyone
else
If
you're
starting
up
a
VC
backed
startup
you
have
a
boss
you
have
investors
you
got
a
lot
of
time
pressure
As
a
solopreneur
you
can
go
a
bit
slower
I
mean
depending
on
how
much
money
you
have
saved
up
and
you
can
also
go
after
much
smaller
markets
A
venture
capitalist
wouldn't
want
to
invest
in
bank
statement
converter
It
doesn't
make
enough
money
The
market's
not
big
enough
but
for
a
single
person
you
know
it's
enough
right
And
you
can
be
quite
happy
with
that
revenue
Cool
Now
you
have
this
great
business
You're
a
solopreneur
What
were
you
doing
before
Were
you
a
developer
What
was
your
kind
of
journey
to
starting
your
own
business
I've
always
been
a
developer
In
2010
I
worked
for
an
EPS
machine
company
2010
to
2014
I
worked
for
myself
myself
developing
indie
games
for
the
Xbox
Live
indie
game
store
I
also
developed
a
virtual
girlfriend
app
for
Android
and
iOS
It's
called
Girlfriend
Plus
2017
to
2019
I
worked
in
an
investment
bank
in
Hong
Kong
2020
I
worked
at
a
crypto
company
We're
building
a
crypto
exchange
2021
I
launched
bank
statement
converter
Okay
let's
talk
about
TechStack
I
know
you're
a
developer
Can
you
share
with
me
the
entire
stack
of
how
you
built
this
app
The
core
engine
is
written
in
Kotlin
It's
like
a
JVM
language
Next
js
is
what
the
front
end
is
written
in
I
use
Brevo
for
transactional
emails
I
use
AWS
EC2
instances
to
host
the
back
end
Netlify
to
host
the
front
end
Stripe
for
payment
processing
And
that's
about
it
A
lot
of
profit
It's
like
39
out
of
40
000
is
profit
Yeah
All
right
right
So
you
built
this
awesome
business
You've
been
working
on
it
for
a
number
of
years
What
have
you
learned
in
the
process
that
surprised
you
In
the
first
two
years
I
was
working
extremely
hard
on
the
business
and
making
basically
no
money
You
know
I
spent
a
lot
of
hours
developing
the
app
I'd
reply
to
customer
emails
as
soon
as
possible
If
a
customer
email
came
in
at
3
a
m
I
would
deal
with
it
right
away
You
know
at
that
time
every
extra
customer
made
a
big
impact
on
MRR
And
what
I
realized
was
that
those
first
two
years
of
hard
work
you
don't
get
paid
much
but
you
kind
of
get
the
money
for
that
hard
work
in
like
years
four
and
onwards
The
last
question
that
I
want
to
ask
is
well
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
to
Starter
Story
If
you
could
stand
on
Angus's
shoulder
when
you
quit
your
job
you're
building
that
app
it
was
making
a
few
dollars
in
revenue
what
advice
would
you
give
him
SaaS
is
an
excellent
business
model
Make
sure
you
save
enough
money
to
survive
multiple
years
of
no
income
If
you
only
have
enough
money
for
a
few
months
of
runway
you're
probably
not
going
to
make
it
You
know
I
mean
it
took
me
two
or
three
years
before
I
could
pay
rent
with
the
revenue
I
was
getting
in
Ignore
social
media
That's
you
know
a
lot
of
people
think
they
need
to
build
a
following
on
social
media
before
building
a
business
I
think
it's
a
waste
of
time
Building
a
following
on
social
media
is
hard
work
And
even
if
you
have
it
your
business
might
still
not
be
very
good
So
just
focus
on
the
business
Focus
on
the
products
get
some
real
users
improve
the
product
and
it
should
be
easy
to
get
more
users
If
your
product
solves
their
problem
don't
make
a
Facebook
Instagram
and
Twitter
page
for
your
business
See
a
lot
of
people
do
this
I
think
it's
a
waste
of
time
as
well
That
was
awesome
Thank
you
Angus
for
coming
on
I
love
the
business
that
you
built
It's
going
to
keep
growing
It's
awesome
Thanks
for
sharing
everything
with
the
audience
audience
and
hope
to
see
you
back
on
soon
Angus
proof
that
you
can
build
simple
apps
that
actually
make
money
He
found
a
tiny
problem
built
a
solution
for
himself
and
then
turned
it
into
a
life
changing
business
I
think
anyone
can
take
this
framework
and
strategy
and
turn
it
into
their
own
micro
SaaS
If
you
want
to
learn
more
about
how
to
build
simple
apps
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
In
about
two
weeks
you'll
go
from
a
simple
idea
to
a
fully
operational
app
We'll
guide
you
on
how
to
use
AI
to
build
and
design
your
app
and
then
we'll
challenge
you
on
how
to
launch
it
into
the
real
world
Just
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
learn
more
and
join
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
guys
Thanks
for
watching
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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