How I Built a $30K/month Micro-SaaS (Subscribr Breakdown)
Starter Story
Dec 1, 2025
Gil is a developer who left the VC-backed world to bootstrap his own app. He has a simple playbook for building apps: pre-sell first and THEN build. In this video, we break down how he bootstrapped his app to over $30K/month
Build your own simple app → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=gil
Follow Gil: https://x.com/gilhildebrand
Check out his app: https://subscribr.ai/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:50 - Subscribr Overview
1:15 - Numbers behind Subscribr
1:46 - Gil's Background
2:50 - Idea for Subscribr
3:52 - 4-part validation strategy
6:01 - Starter Story Build
7:06 - Gil's building philosophy
8:42 - The Pre-Sale Playbook
13:03 - Tech Stack and Costs
14:10 - Advice to younger self
15:28 - Pat's takeaways
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
My
name's
Gil
and
I
vibe
coded
an
AI
app
that
makes
over
30
000
a
month
Meet
Gil
a
developer
who
built
a
SaaS
to
30
000
a
month
thanks
to
one
simple
strategy
Which
was
I
think
the
key
thing
that
made
this
successful
Instead
of
spending
months
building
and
then
finding
customers
Gil
took
a
very
different
route
And
I
made
my
first
20
000
before
the
idea
was
even
built
I
brought
Gil
onto
the
channel
and
he
shared
everything
Including
how
he
came
up
with
a
30
000
per
month
SaaS
idea
in
an
industry
he
knew
nothing
about
How
he
built
up
hype
for
an
app
that
didn't
exist
And
the
playbook
for
how
anyone
can
do
this
starting
over
from
scratch
right
now
This
is
one
that
you
cannot
miss
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
Okay
Gil
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Thanks
for
having
me
Pat
My
name's
Gil
and
I
vibe
coded
an
AI
app
that
makes
over
30
000
a
month
Subscriber
is
an
AI
script
writing
tool
for
YouTube
creators
It
was
profitable
from
day
one
and
18
months
later
I
have
over
4
000
customers
We
have
a
SaaS
subscription
model
We
have
plans
anywhere
from
49
to
300
a
month
Okay
cool
This
business
is
awesome
Can
you
give
me
a
little
bit
more
numbers
behind
the
business
and
how
it's
doing
The
amount
of
revenue
every
month
varies
but
typically
it's
around
30
000
a
month
and
that's
in
subscription
revenue
And
in
total
in
the
past
year
I've
done
over
700
000
in
sales
So
we've
got
over
4
000
customers
today
We
acquire
those
customers
through
word
of
mouth
social
media
And
a
big
part
of
that
is
actually
our
programmatic
SEO
campaigns
where
we
bring
in
over
30
000
views
a
month
just
from
Google
Before
we
get
into
how
you
built
this
how
you
grew
this
I
want
to
get
a
little
bit
more
on
your
background
How
do
you
get
to
the
point
where
you
even
start
a
SaaS
business
like
this
Well
I
started
my
first
SaaS
actually
when
I
was
a
teenager
I
started
coding
when
I
was
15
and
by
the
time
I
got
to
college
I
was
already
working
out
in
the
field
doing
freelance
software
development
And
so
I
actually
dropped
out
of
college
pretty
early
and
was
doing
that
for
several
years
After
that
I
was
a
victim
of
Hurricane
Katrina
kind
of
had
to
start
over
And
so
I
moved
to
New
York
City
I
co
founded
a
company
called
Squidoo
which
was
a
social
publishing
platform
We
grew
that
to
over
10
million
in
revenue
After
Squidoo
was
acquired
I
moved
on
to
consulting
for
a
while
Then
I
got
the
itch
to
start
something
new
as
a
startup
founder
got
into
the
cryptocurrency
space
There
was
really
no
QuickBooks
for
crypto
There
was
no
accounting
solution
for
businesses
that
are
using
crypto
So
we
dove
into
that
We
were
one
of
the
first
solutions
on
the
market
We've
raised
millions
of
dollars
from
VCs
and
then
we
actually
ended
up
selling
that
company
too
Okay
so
you're
in
this
VC
world
You
work
on
and
sell
multiple
companies
How
do
you
decide
to
go
the
bootstrap
route
And
how
do
you
come
up
with
an
idea
that
eventually
makes
30
000
a
month
Well
there
was
nothing
wrong
with
the
VC
backed
route
But
after
selling
that
last
company
I
was
really
excited
for
a
change
I
started
posting
videos
on
YouTube
talking
about
my
ideas
for
what
kind
of
company
I
would
want
to
start
next
At
the
same
time
I
was
getting
more
into
YouTube
itself
and
getting
into
this
idea
of
faceless
YouTube
channels
where
you
can
create
channels
on
the
back
end
So
I
started
putting
together
a
team
I
quickly
realized
that
script
writing
is
this
huge
bottleneck
It's
actually
really
hard
to
find
good
script
writers
even
though
we
sort
of
know
what
a
good
YouTube
script
looks
like
I
tried
using
ChatGPT
and
I
saw
that
it
was
nowhere
near
good
enough
to
you
know
write
the
kind
of
script
that
I
wanted
to
see
But
I
made
a
bet
that
if
I
took
all
of
my
experience
as
an
entrepreneur
and
as
a
software
developer
that
I
could
build
a
solution
that
actually
worked
Okay
cool
Well
I
think
that's
super
interesting
that
you
actually
attempted
to
build
a
business
in
an
industry
that
you
really
didn't
know
all
that
much
about
And
that's
one
of
the
reasons
why
I
wanted
to
bring
you
on
the
channel
is
you
had
this
interesting
strategy
on
how
to
validate
an
idea
that
maybe
you
weren't
fully
deep
into
Can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
that
I
did
what
anyone
would
do
I
signed
up
for
X
I
opened
up
a
brand
new
account
with
zero
followers
and
I
started
following
everyone
in
the
YouTube
space
From
there
I
started
finding
opportunities
to
create
things
of
value
for
people
in
that
space
using
my
skill
set
as
a
software
engineer
So
I
started
putting
together
little
pieces
of
content
and
I
would
put
it
out
there
using
viral
giveaways
on
X
And
from
there
I
was
able
to
build
up
an
email
list
of
over
1
000
people
Every
week
or
so
I
would
just
hit
up
this
list
with
new
findings
that
I
had
And
in
the
background
I
would
reach
out
to
each
person
individually
to
talk
to
them
about
this
idea
for
this
app
that
I
wanted
to
build
So
I
was
getting
feedback
on
this
idea
And
when
I
realized
I
had
something
I
knew
it
was
time
to
monetize
it
So
I
mocked
up
this
idea
and
I
then
knew
I
needed
to
get
validation
on
it
So
I
set
up
a
pre
sale
sale
The
pre
sale
was
50
licenses
of
the
software
that
are
basically
lifetime
subscriptions
to
it
And
it
was
at
kind
of
an
absurdly
low
price
I
figured
if
I
could
sell
these
that
it
was
validation
that
this
is
actually
a
product
that
people
would
want
to
buy
The
first
10
licenses
were
super
super
cheap
And
then
every
10
after
that
went
up
So
there
was
a
little
bit
of
FOMO
for
those
early
adopters
Pretty
quickly
it
sold
out
I
think
within
two
or
three
days
And
I
made
my
first
20
000
before
the
idea
was
even
built
Now
there
was
one
catch
And
that
catch
is
that
I
told
people
at
any
point
in
time
you
can
ask
for
your
money
back
I'm
going
to
deliver
this
product
to
you
in
60
days
And
after
that
you'll
have
two
weeks
to
continue
trying
it
and
ask
for
your
money
back
So
if
I
didn't
get
this
right
all
that
money
that
I
worked
for
would
be
lost
And
I
had
60
days
to
just
put
my
head
down
and
make
the
thing
happen
What
I
love
about
Gil's
story
is
that
he
didn't
spend
months
building
something
that
nobody
wanted
He
validated
demand
got
the
customers
and
then
he
built
the
app
I
think
this
mindset
is
the
shift
that
separates
winners
from
everybody
else
building
stuff
right
now
If
you
learn
how
to
harness
AI
once
you
have
your
idea
you
can
build
it
really
fast
sometimes
in
just
a
couple
weeks
or
even
a
couple
days
And
this
is
exactly
what
we
teach
inside
Starter
Story
Build
Inside
Starter
Story
Build
you'll
find
our
bootcamp
where
we
will
show
you
how
to
find
an
idea
how
to
build
it
and
how
to
launch
it
all
with
just
AI
We've
had
thousands
of
people
already
go
through
our
programs
and
launch
their
first
second
and
sometimes
even
third
apps
It
is
so
cool
to
see
these
projects
come
to
life
and
see
how
AI
is
helping
people
do
this
even
faster
Our
next
bootcamp
starts
this
week
So
if
you
are
ready
to
get
off
the
sidelines
and
you
are
ready
to
build
just
head
to
that
first
link
right
down
there
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
and
everything
we
do
to
help
you
build
and
launch
your
next
big
thing
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
video
I
think
that's
really
important
that
you
mentioned
there
that
final
catch
which
you
didn't
really
mention
right
until
the
end
which
is
you
actually
hadn't
built
the
product
yet
This
is
why
I
wanted
to
bring
on
the
channel
because
I
think
this
is
so
genius
Can
you
break
this
down
a
little
bit
more
about
why
this
works
and
why
you
did
this
The
curse
of
being
a
software
developer
is
that
it's
so
easy
to
fall
in
love
with
an
idea
and
I've
done
this
so
many
times
before
Too
often
we
just
get
excited
about
that
invention
invention
without
making
sure
that
it's
actually
like
a
painkiller
So
as
an
entrepreneur
we
always
want
to
be
selling
a
painkiller
not
a
vitamin
A
vitamin
is
a
nice
to
have
A
painkiller
is
something
you
have
to
have
and
it's
going
to
sell
a
lot
better
The
traditional
advice
with
startups
is
to
go
and
talk
to
your
friends
and
say
what
do
you
think
about
this
idea
Give
me
feedback
Maybe
the
next
level
of
advice
would
be
to
say
how
much
would
you
pay
for
this
tool
if
it
existed
I
actually
think
that
that
feedback
is
not
good
enough
In
fact
it's
actually
quite
dangerous
because
it
lets
you
think
you
have
validation
So
you
go
in
a
hole
for
three
months
or
however
long
it
takes
to
build
this
thing
and
then
you
pop
up
for
air
and
you
say
hey
guys
it's
ready
And
the
problem
with
that
approach
they
say
you
know
know
I
would
be
willing
to
pay
20
a
month
if
I
didn't
have
this
other
subscription
or
I
would
be
willing
to
pay
once
I
get
this
check
in
from
my
old
company
And
I've
seen
this
happen
so
many
times
So
the
only
way
to
really
get
validation
is
to
collect
money
from
people
And
the
faster
you
can
get
to
that
the
more
likely
it
is
that
your
startup
is
going
to
succeed
Okay
that's
amazing
I
think
it's
one
of
the
best
pieces
of
advice
for
anybody
bootstrapping
anything
with
their
own
cash
What
I
really
want
to
get
from
you
and
I
think
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
would
be
wondering
if
you
were
to
give
advice
to
someone
watching
right
now
on
how
to
do
that
what
would
be
your
exact
playbook
if
you
had
to
start
over
from
scratch
today
Well
step
one
is
you
have
to
build
an
audience
because
if
you
don't
have
an
audience
you
don't
have
anyone
to
sell
to
People
buy
because
they
trust
you
And
especially
today
when
it's
so
easy
to
create
products
that
there's
a
million
products
out
there
people
buy
based
on
believing
in
a
brand
or
a
person
Post
the
raw
build
in
public
type
stories
of
you
with
your
thought
process
and
what
you're
doing
And
that
will
help
establish
trust
with
people
The
way
I
did
that
was
just
by
putting
out
free
things
of
value
that
took
me
time
to
create
but
I
knew
would
be
helpful
to
other
people
In
addition
to
just
showing
up
and
being
really
authentic
about
who
I
was
and
why
I
was
there
that
alone
can
get
you
an
audience
of
people
that
trust
you
and
are
engaged
with
you
And
that
really
is
the
first
step
Step
two
is
you've
got
to
set
up
an
email
list
and
start
communicating
with
people
at
least
once
a
week
So
while
your
social
media
can
be
a
great
way
to
kind
of
interact
with
new
people
your
email
list
is
really
where
you're
building
that
trust
And
what's
cool
is
that
when
you
start
emailing
people
they
will
email
you
back
and
you
start
this
dialogue
and
you
can
start
to
talk
to
them
about
your
idea
You
can
even
use
your
email
list
to
put
out
your
ideas
get
the
replies
back
as
your
feedback
on
how
to
improve
your
idea
Show
up
do
that
weekly
because
when
it's
time
to
hit
up
that
email
list
in
order
to
start
your
presale
you're
going
to
need
that
level
of
engagement
So
step
three
is
you've
got
to
do
the
math
on
what
validation
would
look
like
for
you
In
my
case
I
knew
I
needed
to
make
about
20
000
to
fund
let's
say
three
months
of
my
life
in
order
to
work
on
this
thing
And
so
I
worked
out
how
many
people
I
would
need
based
on
my
target
price
point
of
what
I
thought
this
type
of
customer
would
pay
And
that
led
me
to
50
people
to
buy
And
so
then
I
worked
out
the
math
of
how
big
does
my
email
list
need
to
be
in
order
to
potentially
get
50
buyers
And
so
I
thought
about
conversion
rates
You
know
it's
obviously
going
to
depend
but
that
gives
you
a
very
scientific
way
of
understanding
you
know
know
what
kind
of
audience
that
you
need
to
build
before
you're
ready
to
start
this
presale
Step
four
is
we're
ready
to
do
the
presale
Now
you've
got
to
get
aggressive
about
this
because
there's
no
one
who's
going
to
be
excited
about
your
product
unless
you
make
them
excited
So
you've
got
to
set
up
an
email
sequence
every
single
day
for
seven
days
Start
teasing
out
the
benefits
of
this
product
that
you're
building
And
yes
you
can
talk
about
features
too
but
it's
really
about
the
benefits
for
them
Really
get
emotional
and
talk
about
how
this
benefit
is
going
to
impact
their
life
And
the
more
that
you
can
do
this
the
more
likely
it
is
that
people
are
going
to
convert
And
towards
that
last
day
really
start
hitting
home
this
concept
of
the
presale
that's
launching
Do
not
give
any
details
away
yet
Just
give
a
date
On
the
launch
day
you've
got
to
have
several
emails
queued
up
so
people
know
exactly
when
it's
going
live
You've
got
to
have
reminders
when
the
presale
is
about
to
end
And
you've
got
to
be
firing
on
all
cylinders
on
all
of
your
social
media
channels
You've
got
to
be
really
visible
during
that
time
And
if
you
work
really
really
hard
and
engage
with
people
it's
an
incredible
thing
when
you
actually
pull
off
a
presale
like
that
So
a
key
part
of
the
presale
is
to
have
an
offer
so
good
that
people
can't
help
it
but
say
yes
And
if
you
follow
Alex
Hormozy's
100
million
offers
he
talks
about
this
a
ton
ton
For
me
for
the
first
10
customers
might
have
not
even
been
profitable
but
I
knew
it
was
something
that
people
would
say
yes
to
I
also
wanted
to
give
people
total
security
and
comfort
in
their
purchase
So
the
way
that
I
did
that
was
by
offering
a
money
back
guarantee
So
the
entire
time
in
between
when
the
presale
happened
and
when
the
product
was
delivered
they
could
ask
for
their
money
back
People
had
the
confidence
in
knowing
that
they
could
get
their
money
back
especially
for
someone
who's
new
in
the
space
They
were
able
to
go
ahead
and
make
that
purchasing
decision
So
for
whatever
your
product
is
think
of
an
offer
so
good
that
people
can't
help
but
to
say
yes
Well
I
mean
that's
awesome
Thanks
for
sharing
that
I
want
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
to
tech
stack
I
understand
that
you
vibe
coded
this
SaaS
app
Can
you
share
the
actual
tech
stack
that
you
use
to
build
this
and
what
you
use
to
build
this
app
I
use
cloud
code
Probably
90
of
my
code
is
written
with
cloud
code
I
keep
it
super
simple
I'm
using
a
Laravel
app
which
is
a
really
excellent
PHP
framework
that's
got
tons
of
great
support
And
I'm
just
hosting
that
on
DigitalOcean
But
I
would
say
in
general
that
I'm
not
reliant
on
a
ton
of
external
services
but
besides
the
AI
model
providers
And
it's
just
a
pretty
chill
setup
that
I've
really
been
enjoying
So
in
terms
of
the
cost
to
run
the
business
the
biggest
thing
is
definitely
AI
compute
Today
I'm
probably
spending
about
3
500
a
month
just
on
the
AI
compute
And
that's
coming
from
a
bunch
of
different
model
providers
I'm
spending
about
2
000
a
month
on
ads
And
I
have
another
1
500
a
month
in
other
things
like
web
scraping
hosting
and
sending
emails
to
my
users
Okay
awesome
Thank
you
for
sharing
that
being
so
transparent
about
the
numbers
The
last
question
that
I
have
for
you
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
onto
StarterStory
if
you
could
stand
on
young
Gil's
shoulders
when
you
officially
started
the
bootstrap
business
what
would
be
your
advice
And
what
would
be
your
advice
to
anyone
watching
this
right
now
Well
the
first
thing
is
you
cannot
fall
in
love
with
your
idea
without
validating
it
By
doing
some
sort
of
pre
sale
validating
that
people
are
willing
to
pay
for
it
The
second
thing
is
as
a
bootstrapper
the
number
one
thing
that
you've
got
to
strive
for
is
profit
There
are
many
decisions
you
could
make
as
money
starts
to
come
in
that
could
creep
into
your
profit
whether
that's
hiring
expensive
agencies
who
promise
the
world
to
you
or
whether
that's
going
off
in
a
completely
different
product
direction
Focus
on
generating
profit
from
your
business
and
then
everything
else
will
be
good
It's
better
to
have
profit
than
growth
I
think
if
you're
in
the
bootstrap
game
I
love
it
One
final
question
that
I
want
to
ask
you
one
word
answer
You've
built
VC
businesses
you
built
bootstrap
businesses
like
this
What's
more
fun
Bootstrapping
for
sure
All
right
Thank
you
Gil
for
coming
on
I
love
the
business
that
you
built
Thank
you
for
sharing
all
this
I
think
it's
an
amazing
way
of
approaching
building
something
So
I
hope
people
enjoying
it
are
watching
Thanks
for
coming
on
Awesome
Thank
you
Pat
All
right
right
I
want
to
thank
Gil
for
coming
onto
the
channel
and
sharing
all
that
I
think
what
he
shared
is
one
of
the
most
important
things
you
can
do
if
you
suffer
from
a
little
bit
of
the
builder's
disease
For
some
people
coding
and
building
is
really
really
fun
And
the
scary
part
is
going
out
building
some
audience
getting
in
front
of
customers
But
unfortunately
that
is
what
you
need
to
do
in
2025
if
you
want
to
actually
build
something
This
is
exactly
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
In
Starter
Story
Build
we
will
help
you
take
your
idea
and
turn
it
into
a
real
app
using
only
AI
tools
in
just
a
couple
of
weeks
Why
Because
you
don't
want
to
focus
on
the
build
for
too
long
It's
way
more
important
to
be
able
to
build
quickly
so
you
can
focus
on
getting
customers
building
distribution
and
making
sales
So
if
you
are
ready
to
get
off
the
sidelines
launch
something
build
it
get
in
front
of
the
real
world
then
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
That's
it
for
this
episode
I
hope
you
guys
enjoyed
it
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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