17 Software Development Business Success Stories [2024]
Here are some real life success stories of starting a software development business:
1. Twelvedevs ($1.2M/year)
Andrey and his co-founder Alexander were working as programmers in a software development outsourcing company when they decided to start their own company. Inspired by stories of small teams achieving success, they came up with the idea of creating a small team of 12 top developers. However, they soon realized that they needed to expand their teams to grow the company, leading to the formation of Twelvedevs, an IT consulting and custom software development company. Since its launch in 2012, Twelvedevs has completed over 70 projects in various industries, including Fintech and logistics, and has become one of the leading custom software development companies with over $100k in revenue per month.
How much they make: $1.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $300
Current team size: 50
Twelvedevs, an IT consulting and custom software development company, shares its success story after 9 years of completing more than 70 projects across various industries, having over $100k revenue per month, fifty employees, and a soon-to-be-opened branch in the U.S. for Fintech and logistics.
2. Dreamonkey ($360K/year)
Federico Schianchi and his four partners started Dreamonkey after their first project, Check Your Life, failed to take off. With their expertise in web app development and industrial IoT, they shifted their focus to selling their services to enterprise-level customers, leading to a constant growth of 50% per year and revenue of $300K.
How much they make: $360K/year
How much did it cost to start: $40K
Current team size: 2
Italian software company Dreamonkey grew from $90k to $300k in revenue with a constant growth rate of 50% per year, thanks to their focus on high-quality web development, industrial IoT, and open-source software development for web developers.
So... can you actually make money with a software development business?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
3. Keap ($100M/year)
How much they make: $100M/year
Current team size: 398
CRM and sales and marketing automation company, Keap, founded in 2001, rebranded from Infusionsoft in 2019 and has since become a $100 million dollar business with over 2,500 software integrations and a product range that includes Max Classic, Keap Lite, Pro, and Max, the majority of which are Pro.
4. Moralis ($22.2M/year)
How much they make: $22.2M/year
Current team size: 82
Moralis is the largest blockchain coding academy servicing 38,000 users worldwide and distinguishes itself with its unified workflow for high-performance app building.
So... can you actually make money with a software development business?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
5. Castos ($1.5M/year)
How much they make: $1.5M/year
Current team size: 17
Castos, a podcasting platform founded in 2017 by Craig Hewitt, boasts over 10 million podcast downloads, with Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin installed over 30,000 times and 10,000 active users, generating $1.5M in ARR.
6. BairesDev ($524M/year)
How much they make: $524M/year
Current team size: 5000
BairesDev, a California-based nearshore technology solutions provider, saw impressive 50% growth in the last 5 years, thanks to founders Pablo Azorin and Nacho De Marco's ability to tap into untapped tech talent in Latin America.
So... can you actually make money with a software development business?
Of course. There are millions to be made in this industry.
But how?
- Research real, profitable businesses and see exactly how much money they make.
- Study exactly what works, and what doesn’t.
- Take action, because now you have the roadmap.
Join Starter Story and build your next big thing:
7. Ziflow ($8M/year)
How much they make: $8M/year
Current team size: 99
8. ScrapingBee ($99.6K/year)
How much they make: $99.6K/year
Current team size: 2
ScrapingBee, a web scraping tool founded in 2019, has grown to $1M+ ARR in just three years with 99% of revenue attributed to SEO strategies and practices, used by businesses for price monitoring, tracking SERP results, lead generation, and general data mining.
9. NerdPilots ($300K/year)
How much they make: $300K/year
Current team size:
This case study examines how one founder turned a side project into a successful design and development agency bringing in $25k/month.
10. Balsamiq ($6.6M/year)
Balsamiq Wireframes, a low-fidelity wireframing tool, was founded by Giacomo "Peldi" Guilizzoni in 2008. The idea for the tool came from Peldi's experience working at Adobe, where he realized the need for a simple sketching tool that could be used by any contributor in product meetings. With a focus on constant learning and improvement, Balsamiq has grown into a team of 33 people with a monthly revenue of about $550,000.
How much they make: $6.6M/year
Current team size: 33
How Balsamiq became a $550k/month company through staying focused on simplicity and taking care of their team and community.
11. Habu ($12M/year)
How much they make: $12M/year
Current team size: 61
Habu founders made $12M in 2022 from its 50 customers with its SaaS software that produces high-value analytics from regulated datasets while defending customer privacy and data owners' rights.
12. DashThis ($4.2M/year)
How much they make: $4.2M/year
Current team size: 33
Automated marketing reporting tool DashThis was created by IT expert and entrepreneur Stephane Guérin to solve the pain point of manual monthly reporting, since its founding it has saved marketers hours of work and helped the company grow strategically.
13. Abstrakt ($2M/year)
How much they make: $2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $60K
Current team size: 22
"Creator of Conversational Intelligence software launches Abstrakt.ai, a real-time call coaching software valued at $4 million after raising $500,000 in a Seed Round; founder invested $60,000 of his own funds to develop proof of concept."
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
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- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
