I Built A Micro-Version Of A $1B SaaS. Now I Make $50K/Month
Starter Story
May 29, 2026
David (and his brother Daniel) launched Shipper, an AI app builder. But here's the secret... they didn't reinvent the wheel. They just saw a billion-dollar opportunity and thought, "if we capture just 1% of the market, maybe it could change our lives?" This is the story of how they grew shipper to over $50K/month by building a micro-version of a billion-dollar market.
Free Database: 50+ AI App Ideas Making Millions https://clickhubspot.com/zgul
Follow David: https://twitter.com/chhddavid
Check out Shipper: https://shipper.now/
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Every idea is taken…
0:49 - What’s your story?
1:27 - Business breakdown
2:46 - Founder background
3:29 - More AI App Ideas
4:14 - Idea behind the business
4:54 - Build story
5:45 - Tech stack
6:17 - Growth and marketing
7:21 - Finding the 1% difference
9:15 - Advice to younger self
10:05 - Pat and Gus reflections: Copy & Paste
Chapters
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
Every
good
business
idea
is
already
taken
You've
heard
it
you've
probably
believed
it
but
that
is
completely
wrong
Me
and
my
brother
Daniel
have
bootstrapped
the
SaaS
from
0
to
50K
monthly
Meet
David
He
saw
a
billion
dollar
company
that
was
blowing
up
everywhere
And
instead
of
thinking
that
he
missed
his
chance
he
built
a
tiny
version
of
it
The
plan
was
really
simple
Find
one
common
pain
point
and
triple
down
on
it
And
just
a
few
months
later
that
business
hit
50
000
a
month
So
I
asked
David
to
come
onto
the
channel
to
break
it
all
down
And
in
this
episode
we'll
dive
into
the
1
billion
company
that
he
copied
why
you
do
not
need
to
reinvent
the
wheel
wheel
to
build
a
successful
business
and
his
playbook
for
starting
over
if
he
had
to
do
the
same
thing
again
in
2026
All
right
let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
David
my
man
welcome
to
Starter
Story
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
thanks
for
having
me
I'm
David
and
me
and
my
brother
Daniel
have
bootstrapped
the
SaaS
from
0
to
50K
monthly
in
a
space
where
companies
casually
reach
200
million
ARR
So
I've
built
Shipper
which
is
an
AI
app
builder
Essentially
you
talk
to
AI
and
it
comes
back
to
you
with
a
full
app
It
has
all
sorts
of
suggestions
for
you
to
keep
going
and
it
even
runs
the
business
for
you
Our
pricing
model
is
very
simple
You
pay
for
credits
which
in
exchange
they
let
you
build
apps
Our
cheapest
pricing
plan
is
25
a
month
and
that's
more
than
enough
to
just
experiment
and
even
build
a
full
app
which
you
can
go
on
to
later
develop
further
So
you
built
an
AI
coding
tool
When
I
see
this
I
think
of
like
Cloud
Code
or
Lovable
You
built
a
indie
or
smaller
version
of
that
I
think
that's
super
cool
Could
you
show
me
your
Stripe
dashboards
Show
me
how
much
revenue
this
thing
is
making
So
we're
currently
at
25
6K
MRR
as
you
can
see
here
net
volume
65K
That's
last
month
plus
this
month
ARR
is
307K
So
the
majority
of
our
MRR
is
here
but
we've
migrated
Stripe
accounts
just
maybe
a
month
ago
So
as
you
can
see
this
is
our
old
account
and
it
shows
from
August
pretty
linear
growth
all
the
way
up
to
late
February
to
March
So
90
of
our
revenue
comes
from
subscriptions
and
the
other
10
comes
from
one
off
top
ups
They
have
separate
credits
called
Cloud
Credits
which
allow
people
to
build
backends
whereas
Builder
Credits
let
them
do
everything
else
So
even
though
MRR
says
25K
gross
volume
is
71K
that's
because
of
all
the
top
ups
We
currently
have
around
690
paid
users
and
zero
free
users
We
don't
offer
free
plans
As
much
as
we'd
love
to
we've
decided
it's
better
to
invest
the
money
we're
making
in
building
a
better
product
for
our
paying
users
And
this
is
an
expensive
service
to
maintain
both
in
terms
of
time
and
money
Okay
cool
I
like
that
I
like
to
see
that
you
have
hundreds
of
paying
customers
and
zero
free
customers
If
you're
doing
anything
bootstrapped
or
indie
focusing
on
paid
plans
only
I
think
that's
super
smart
I
want
to
switch
topics
a
little
bit
and
talk
about
your
background
You
built
an
AI
coding
tool
You
must
be
like
a
coding
genius
How
do
you
get
here
and
build
this
app
that's
doing
over
50
000
in
gross
volume
a
month
So
it
all
goes
back
to
2019
My
brother
and
I
have
started
building
SaaS
and
all
sorts
of
tools
since
then
We're
both
non
technical
We
never
really
liked
to
code
So
instead
we've
decided
to
learn
marketing
Our
first
real
success
was
a
luxury
goods
authentication
service
called
LegitCheck
and
that's
what
funded
everything
that
came
after
That
actually
got
featured
in
Starter
Story
back
then
which
is
kind
of
a
full
circle
moment
being
right
now
Since
then
we've
built
scaled
and
even
exited
and
acquired
a
few
companies
So
we've
built
an
AI
coding
app
without
any
coding
experience
David
right
here
is
proof
that
you
should
not
invent
anything
new
You
can
find
a
proven
idea
niche
it
down
build
your
own
version
and
it
can
be
successful
But
to
do
that
you
need
to
see
what
is
actually
working
and
what
apps
are
making
money
right
now
So
knowing
that
I
wanted
to
put
together
a
free
database
of
50
plus
AI
app
ideas
that
are
making
money
right
now
in
2026
and
include
real
revenue
numbers
growth
tactics
tech
stacks
pricing
models
everything
So
you
can
find
the
opportunity
that
fits
your
skills
If
you've
been
struggling
to
find
that
right
idea
then
this
database
will
make
your
research
process
10
times
faster
If
you're
ready
to
find
your
idea
and
build
it
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
and
you
can
download
it
for
free
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
episode
Okay
cool
So
you've
had
some
success
under
your
belt
but
this
idea
it
seems
like
it
could
be
really
big
How
did
you
get
the
idea
to
build
an
AI
coding
app
So
it
was
summer
2025
and
we
saw
no
code
and
AI
app
builders
explode
Just
a
few
examples
Base
44
hit
3
million
ARR
in
six
months
Then
Lovable
went
to
1
million
ARR
in
a
week
from
launch
and
is
now
valued
at
6
billion
We
figured
owning
even
1
of
the
market
would
be
life
changing
for
us
So
the
plan
was
really
simple
Find
one
common
pain
point
and
triple
down
on
it
Okay
cool
I
love
that
you
mentioned
find
one
common
pain
point
triple
down
on
it
If
you
can
even
own
1
of
this
massive
market
which
is
AI
coding
tools
it
could
be
life
changing
We're
going
to
talk
more
about
that
but
before
we
do
let's
talk
about
how
you
build
this
thing
How
do
you
go
about
building
an
AI
coding
tool
It
seems
really
complicated
We
started
really
small
just
us
and
one
developer
and
the
first
version
was
pretty
rough
It
broke
a
lot
but
we
shipped
it
anyway
So
instead
of
waiting
waiting
for
it
to
be
perfect
we
just
focused
on
getting
it
in
front
of
people
Overall
I'd
say
the
first
two
months
were
the
toughest
but
things
started
to
improve
pretty
fast
So
by
month
three
we
had
a
working
product
that
we're
confident
with
By
month
four
we
moved
past
just
catching
catching
up
with
our
competitors
By
months
five
and
six
we
were
already
shipping
features
that
even
competitors
didn't
have
yet
We
also
kept
a
close
eye
on
other
players
in
the
space
looking
at
what
worked
for
them
what
didn't
so
we
could
move
faster
and
avoid
making
the
same
mistakes
that
they
did
Okay
cool
So
you
built
this
AI
coding
tool
even
if
you
had
a
developer
or
two
that's
still
amazing
This
is
what's
possible
building
products
with
AI
So
on
that
note
I'm
curious
what's
the
tech
stack
behind
this
We
use
Crisp
for
customer
support
Notion
for
the
knowledge
base
Thrill
for
our
roadmap
and
Charge
for
email
marketing
Webflow
to
host
our
landing
page
WordPress
for
SEO
on
our
blog
and
PSEO
pages
DataFast
analytics
X
Premium
and
TypeFleet
for
marketing
and
Tolt
for
affiliate
management
On
the
technical
side
we
rely
heavily
on
Entropiq's
cloud
models
GitHub
for
version
control
Vercel
for
hosting
Railway
for
cloud
and
Neon
for
databases
Okay
cool
Thanks
for
sharing
that
Let's
talk
about
the
growth
A
lot
of
people
watching
this
build
stuff
You
could
probably
go
and
build
build
an
AI
coding
tool
right
now
if
you
ask
Claude
Code
how
to
do
it
but
that's
not
going
to
get
you
users
So
how
did
you
take
this
from
no
users
to
over
50
000
a
month
in
revenue
In
short
we
got
our
first
users
through
Product
Hunt
Reddit
SEO
and
then
X
Twitter
To
this
day
we
haven't
used
any
paid
channels
at
all
We
launched
our
MVP
on
Product
Hunt
in
week
one
then
made
our
first
50
MRR
from
that
launch
Reddit
drove
the
initial
traction
We're
regularly
getting
400
upvotes
and
that's
really
pushed
us
from
50
to
1K
MRRs
At
the
same
time
we
focused
on
high
intent
SEO
keywords
like
alternatives
to
X
how
much
does
X
cost
with
X
being
our
competitor's
names
Around
day
50
of
building
in
public
X
started
working
Then
things
went
parabolic
In
one
or
two
weeks
on
X
we
made
about
20K
MRR
by
just
dogfooding
the
product
One
trick
I
learned
from
Rob
Hallam
at
SuperX
was
to
always
add
your
product's
link
in
the
second
tweet
to
squeeze
more
attention
and
get
that
extra
traffic
to
your
website
Yeah
it's
cool
that
you
build
in
public
You
did
all
the
things
the
right
way
But
what
I
really
think
is
cool
about
this
and
one
of
the
reasons
why
I
wanted
to
bring
you
on
the
channel
is
that
it
kind
of
follows
this
copy
paste
strategy
that
I've
been
seeing
a
lot
of
people
especially
indie
developers
like
you
execute
on
really
well
You
find
a
really
growing
market
and
you
simply
execute
them
but
you
do
something
just
a
little
bit
differently
All
you
need
to
do
is
capture
1
of
the
market
and
you
can
have
a
life
changing
exit
right
Someone
watching
this
is
going
oh
okay
let
me
go
copy
DocuSign
or
something
like
that
But
how
do
I
find
what
makes
it
different
How
did
you
actually
find
that
out
So
my
question
for
you
is
when
you
went
to
go
build
this
what
did
you
find
that
you're
able
to
carve
out
that
1
What
was
the
differentiation
that
allowed
you
to
hit
50
000
per
month
with
your
AI
coding
tool
So
most
of
these
other
apps
you
can
only
build
websites
or
web
apps
at
this
moment
With
Shipper
you
can
build
websites
web
apps
mobile
apps
Chrome
extensions
and
all
sorts
of
bots
for
apps
like
Telegram
Discord
you
name
it
We
looked
at
all
of
our
competitors
Trustpilot
pages
we
looked
at
their
public
roadmaps
and
we've
joined
their
discrete
servers
We
were
just
looking
at
what
their
users
were
complaining
about
And
we
even
got
people
on
our
customer
support
chat
saying
I
want
to
turn
this
website
into
a
mobile
app
That's
how
we
came
up
with
the
idea
of
building
mobile
apps
We
started
Shipper
with
the
core
idea
of
eliminating
any
technical
terms
because
even
though
Lovable
or
Base44
were
aiming
to
serve
non
technical
people
they
still
had
certain
parts
that
felt
kind
of
scary
Instead
we
made
it
clear
that
Shipper
transforms
your
thoughts
and
ideas
into
a
live
business
that
can
make
money
with
zero
skills
required
So
from
the
start
we
saw
an
opportunity
to
go
beyond
just
websites
and
web
apps
This
is
the
thing
that
I
think
a
lot
of
people
get
wrong
A
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
looking
for
that
new
idea
Instead
go
look
at
massive
spaces
big
companies
growing
companies
and
then
doing
the
indie
thing
the
bootstrap
thing
and
winning
just
exactly
like
you
are
Last
question
that
we
ask
all
founders
who
come
onto
Starter
Story
is
if
you
could
give
your
younger
self
advice
before
you
got
started
what
would
be
your
advice
I
start
with
something
you
genuinely
know
a
lot
about
or
care
about
Look
at
a
big
industry
and
ask
what
would
this
look
like
if
it
was
built
for
people
just
like
me
That's
where
most
good
ideas
come
from
Taking
what
already
works
and
niching
it
down
to
something
you
really
know
a
lot
about
For
example
maybe
you
could
build
a
Duolingo
app
but
for
learning
how
to
cook
I
think
another
good
example
is
workout
apps
turned
into
a
social
network
Then
you
have
tools
like
Calendly
Typeform
or
Intercom
They're
all
big
proven
products
but
you
can
rebuild
a
simple
smaller
version
Look
for
reviews
on
what
people
commonly
dislike
about
those
giants
and
then
double
down
on
that
I
just
keep
my
head
down
and
just
keep
building
Cool
Well
David
super
cool
to
see
what
you
built
and
I
think
it's
going
to
continue
to
grow
grow
Thanks
for
coming
on
and
sharing
Great
Thanks
for
having
me
All
right
Gus
producer
of
Starter
Story
what
do
you
think
about
this
one
Yeah
I
think
my
favorite
part
of
this
guy's
story
is
the
whole
copy
and
paste
thing
He
saw
this
opportunity
How
many
of
these
lovable
base
44
have
we
seen
just
exploding
I
really
like
mindset
of
can
I
get
just
a
small
percent
of
this
I
think
that's
a
smart
strategy
There's
this
guy
named
Andrew
Chen
He's
a
VC
He
wrote
this
essay
which
is
like
the
reason
why
inventing
something
new
is
so
hard
is
that
you
have
to
change
how
people
behave
or
interact
interact
with
something
To
do
that
is
a
huge
bet
It's
not
logical
to
do
this
as
a
bootstrapper
or
someone
who's
doing
indie
What
do
you
think
about
that
I
mean
yeah
what
I
think
is
we've
talked
to
enough
people
on
this
channel
that
are
building
like
similar
ideas
We
put
out
this
tweet
once
that
was
like
every
business
idea
is
taken
That's
bullshit
Here's
like
a
list
of
50
ways
to
make
your
app
different
I
can
understand
that
starting
something
brand
new
Yeah
it
seems
like
impossible
The
thing
is
that
you
don't
need
to
execute
perfectly
if
you
are
just
in
a
good
market
or
a
good
niche
It's
hard
enough
to
run
a
business
and
do
everything
right
You
can
get
some
things
wrong
and
still
be
successful
if
you
operate
in
a
space
that
is
already
growing
and
popular
and
has
good
margins
If
you're
struggling
to
find
an
app
idea
or
a
brand
new
thing
to
be
building
well
you're
in
luck
because
in
the
description
I'll
put
that
down
there
There
are
over
50
proven
app
ideas
that
you
can
copy
and
paste
just
like
David
did
here
and
change
one
little
thing
see
what
people
don't
like
about
them
and
you
might
have
something
successful
as
well
So
click
that
link
down
there
in
the
description
if
you
want
to
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