8 Team Collaboration App Success Stories [2024]
Here are some real life success stories of starting a team collaboration app:
1. Meister ($12M/year)
Michael Hollauf, one of the founders of Meister, came up with the idea for their apps MindMeister and MeisterTask after realizing the limitations of existing collaborative tools like Google Docs and MindManager. Combining the collaborative features of Google Docs with the brainstorming capabilities of MindManager, they created MindMeister, the biggest online mind mapping app with over 11 million users. They bootstrapped the company initially, but later received a small angel investment of $600K to accelerate development.
How much they make: $12M/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
Current team size: 85
Meister Labs, creators of MindMeister and MeisterTask, have close to $10 million ARR with their Freemium subscription business model, providing software tools for small to medium-sized businesses from all verticals and private users as well, which include 11 million MindMeister and 3 million MeisterTask users.
2. GanttProject ($36K/year)
Dmitry Barashev came across GanttProject while searching for open-source Gantt chart drawing software to use on Linux. He made a contribution by implementing a command-line export feature and eventually took over leadership and administration. With no paid advertising, GanttProject has grown steadily and generates $3000-5000 in monthly revenue, with loyal customers and a low churn rate. The team is now working on GanttProject Cloud, a low-cost commercial product offering collaboration features and online project storage.
How much they make: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
Current team size: 0
GanttProject, a popular free open-source project scheduling application, generated $3000-5000 monthly through the pay-what-you-want model, despite not spending a single dollar on paid traffic, and has now grown to over 2-3k monthly active users.
So... can you actually make money with a team collaboration app?
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. Simul Docs ($120K/year)
Ben, a software engineer, came up with the idea for Simul Docs after applying the principles of version control used by developers to Microsoft Word documents. The initial launch on Hacker News received over a thousand signups and even caught the attention of Microsoft. With a fully functional product, Aaron joined as a co-founder to lead the go-to-market efforts. Today, Simul has over 10,000 users in 65 countries and $140k in annual recurring revenue, relying primarily on organic search for customer acquisition.
How much they make: $120K/year
Current team size: 2
Simul Docs doubles its annual recurring revenue every year, boasting over 10,000 users across 65 countries including Microsoft, Harvard University, Samsung, and Disney. The collaboration tool provides a better way for people to work on Microsoft Word documents and is committed to bootstrapping for a small but highly profitable future.
So... can you actually make money with a team collaboration app?
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:
4. Missive ($1M/year)
At first, Philippe and his co-founders were working on another project called ConferenceBadge. While organizing networking events, Philippe realized the need for an online solution to design and order name badges. During a brainstorming session, they came up with the idea for Missive, a collaborative email tool, and decided to pursue it alongside ConferenceBadge.
How much they make: $1M/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
Current team size: 4
Missive, a collaborative email tool, reached $2M in annual recurring revenues with a team of three co-founders after seven years of constant work, relying mostly on word-of-mouth marketing and creating a solid quality product for their customers.
5. Karma ($492K/year)
How much they make: $492K/year
Current team size:
Karma Bot, the Slack tool designed for tracking team performance and rewards, increased their monthly profits from $14k to $35k thanks to Microsoft and Slack's 500 new monthly trials and their 3% monthly churn rate.
- 4,818 founder case studies
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- 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
