How I Built A $1M Business in 117 Days
Starter Story
Jul 2, 2025
This is how Yasser Elsaid built an AI app to $1M ARR in 117 days.
Set your business up for success → https://go.starterstory.com/yasser
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Follow Yasser: https://x.com/yasser_elsaid_
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🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:43 - Who is Yasser
1:02 - Idea for Chatbase
2:12 - The $1M Tweet
3:30 - Build in public playbook
4:29 - Future-proof your business
5:47 - Growing from 0 to $1M in 117 days
7:10 - Numbers behind Chatbase
7:36 - Growth hack: PLG
8:19 - AI agents
9:30 - Tech Stack
10:10 - Lessons learned
11:07 - "Think bigger"
12:07 - The final word
This video is an educational case study of one founder’s experience. It is not financial advice and does not guarantee any income or results. Every business is different and your results may vary.
Chapters
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Transcript
Chapters
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No tools listed for this business.
A
few
weeks
ago
I
got
a
DM
on
X
from
this
guy
named
Yasser
We
got
to
chatting
and
he
told
me
something
I
couldn't
believe
He
took
his
app
from
zero
to
one
million
in
just
117
days
And
what's
even
crazier
is
he
did
it
with
zero
audience
When
I
launched
I
only
had
16
followers
I
brought
Yasser
onto
the
channel
to
talk
about
how
he
did
it
and
he
shared
everything
including
a
breakdown
of
the
tweet
that
changed
his
life
how
to
make
millions
with
AI
agents
and
what
most
people
get
wrong
when
it
comes
to
building
their
MPP
This
one
you
can't
miss
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Yasser
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Okay
so
my
name
is
Yasser
I
built
Chatbase
to
seven
million
in
ARR
with
no
funding
I
launched
it
two
and
a
half
years
ago
as
a
solopreneur
to
my
16
followers
on
Twitter
and
it
went
viral
Wow
Okay
that's
insane
I
haven't
seen
numbers
like
that
before
Tell
me
about
how
you
came
up
with
this
idea
for
Chatbase
So
I
followed
the
bootstrapping
movement
on
X
like
Peter
Levels
all
those
guys
I
was
doing
actually
internships
in
fan
companies
but
once
I
got
there
I
realized
maybe
it's
not
for
me
I
looked
at
people
five
10
years
ahead
of
me
in
their
career
and
it
was
not
something
that
I
was
looking
up
to
But
when
I
saw
people
like
Peter
people
like
Danny
Postma
especially
in
the
AI
wave
I
thought
hey
I
can
actually
do
this
I
saw
people
doing
demos
of
how
you
can
build
a
chat
GPT
for
your
data
and
stuff
like
that
but
no
one
was
building
a
product
around
it
I
knew
this
is
a
good
idea
I
didn't
do
any
validation
or
anything
I
just
said
if
I
don't
do
this
someone
else
will
So
I
released
Chatbase
to
my
16
followers
It
went
viral
All
of
this
was
happening
in
my
final
year
of
university
This
was
just
a
side
project
right
I
was
happy
made
money
but
I'm
not
going
to
drop
out
yet
But
when
I
saw
the
first
sale
and
then
it
kept
going
I'm
like
this
is
significant
I
had
two
or
three
sales
every
day
and
I
dropped
out
All
right
so
you
mentioned
that
you
tweeted
something
out
to
your
16
followers
It
went
viral
and
essentially
this
one
tweet
kind
of
changed
your
life
Can
you
walk
me
through
this
viral
tweet
I
think
this
was
my
third
tweet
ever
in
my
life
For
this
one
three
things
made
it
work
well
One
a
familiar
interface
the
streaming
interface
where
the
text
is
streaming
in
a
chat
interface
Yeah
this
was
a
very
chat
GPT
thing
which
at
the
time
was
going
viral
So
I
think
taking
a
glance
at
the
demo
it's
just
interesting
The
other
part
was
minimizing
the
seconds
to
the
aha
moment
I
think
I
did
that
well
here
It's
a
very
simple
demo
right
But
it
just
shows
you
exactly
what
I
built
was
capable
of
in
the
first
20
seconds
And
I
think
the
other
thing
I
did
is
mention
the
tools
that
I
was
using
two
and
a
half
years
ago
There
was
a
bunch
of
new
AI
companies
AI
tools
starting
out
No
one
had
any
customers
because
they're
all
new
So
every
company
was
trying
to
show
people
like
hey
this
is
something
that
is
being
used
by
real
people
building
real
products
When
I
mentioned
like
Langchain
and
Pinecone
and
stuff
like
that
it
made
sense
for
them
to
push
it
too
because
no
one
else
was
building
stuff
like
this
on
their
platforms
yet
because
it
was
all
very
new
And
they
wanted
to
promote
like
their
AI
features
and
stuff
like
that
When
I
mentioned
this
those
people
picked
it
up
and
they
were
like
going
viral
So
my
thing
also
went
viral
and
then
it
created
this
viral
loop
And
I
think
yeah
most
of
the
initial
traction
was
from
that
I
really
do
like
the
kind
of
build
in
public
thing
that
you're
doing
You're
kind
of
sharing
what
tools
you
were
using
and
that
was
a
big
piece
in
it
If
you
could
break
down
the
build
in
public
playbook
because
I
know
you
kind
of
did
this
over
and
over
again
Tell
me
what
you
learned
and
what
works
there
Yeah
so
I
think
the
easiest
thing
is
just
to
share
what
you're
doing
every
day
That's
like
the
most
basic
thing
you
can
do
First
two
or
three
months
if
you're
not
lucky
it
will
just
be
you
practicing
what
works
and
what
doesn't
It's
not
going
to
get
any
views
because
you're
trying
to
build
a
brand
you're
trying
to
build
a
story
One
tweet
is
not
going
to
do
it
right
People
need
to
see
your
face
a
lot
Preferably
if
you
can
do
videos
too
post
them
on
X
A
few
people
in
the
build
in
public
space
are
doing
that
and
they're
doing
very
well
because
not
enough
people
are
doing
that
so
you
stand
out
more
Frame
it
as
like
I'm
building
something
I'm
learning
a
lot
along
the
way
I'm
going
to
take
you
on
that
journey
I
would
say
also
an
important
part
is
not
to
be
boring
I
think
it's
better
to
be
more
personal
share
like
your
personal
story
Have
a
personality
like
have
controversial
takes
maybe
if
it's
something
you
actually
believe
in
because
that's
how
you
get
people
to
notice
you
All
right
before
we
get
further
into
how
Yasser
built
this
business
to
over
6
million
ARR
I
want
to
call
out
something
a
lot
of
early
founders
forget
about
your
bank
Yeah
I
know
not
the
sexiest
part
of
your
stack
but
when
your
app
goes
viral
revenue
jumps
and
your
user
base
explodes
overnight
the
wrong
bank
can
become
a
massive
bottleneck
Low
card
limits
slow
payouts
manual
everything
that's
what
happens
when
you
use
a
finance
system
that
wasn't
built
for
startups
That's
why
we've
partnered
with
Brex
the
modern
finance
platform
designed
for
builders
like
you
With
Brex
you
get
up
to
20x
higher
card
limits
built
in
expense
tracking
automated
payments
high
yield
returns
and
same
day
liquidity
so
you
can
move
fast
when
the
moment
hits
One
in
three
US
startups
already
use
Brex
and
they
put
together
this
free
guide
for
you
The
Startup's
Guide
to
Modern
Banking
It
breaks
down
how
to
extend
your
runway
protect
your
cash
and
avoid
the
kind
of
finance
headaches
that
kill
momentum
Just
click
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
grab
the
guide
Thank
you
to
Brex
for
supporting
the
channel
Now
let's
get
back
to
Yasser's
story
Before
we
jumped
on
this
call
you
told
me
something
crazy
which
was
that
chat
base
went
from
zero
to
a
million
ARR
in
117
days
which
is
less
than
half
a
year
just
a
couple
months
That
doesn't
even
seem
believable
to
me
So
I'd
love
if
you
broke
down
how
that's
even
possible
that
an
app
can
grow
that
fast
and
how
yours
did
After
the
first
initial
viral
moment
I
kept
adding
more
features
and
with
every
new
release
I
would
frame
it
as
a
new
launch
I
think
some
people
when
they
tweet
they
frame
the
second
or
third
launch
as
feature
launches
So
if
someone
new
is
looking
at
that
they
don't
have
any
context
right
So
they're
very
likely
to
skip
it
So
I
tried
to
frame
every
single
launch
to
make
it
make
sense
sense
to
new
people
that
don't
know
me
that
don't
know
chat
base
The
other
thing
was
just
being
creative
around
going
viral
without
spending
any
money
So
what
I
did
for
example
going
into
subreddits
of
books
I
would
create
a
chat
GPT
for
their
book
It
was
for
free
I
was
losing
money
on
this
The
only
point
of
doing
this
is
to
have
my
domain
opened
by
a
lot
of
people
So
I
get
more
domain
authority
Maybe
they
click
on
it
and
then
they
see
the
landing
page
They
see
hey
I
can
actually
pay
money
for
this
I
kept
doing
that
for
all
the
books
I
did
that
for
a
lot
of
influencers
too
I
did
this
for
Paul
Graham
for
Naval
Lastly
also
sponsored
posts
were
very
big
If
I'm
not
launching
something
today
then
I
have
to
do
a
sponsored
post
with
a
big
page
We
did
one
with
a
page
on
LinkedIn
That
day
I
think
we
did
4
000
So
yeah
I
think
sponsored
posts
if
you
structure
them
well
they're
a
very
good
way
to
get
your
product
out
there
Awesome
All
right
right
Well
can
we
dive
into
some
of
the
numbers
behind
this
business
How
big
is
this
thing
become
Yeah
right
now
we're
exactly
at
6
8
million
ARR
It's
growing
very
fast
And
right
now
it's
only
PLG
We
just
passed
actually
two
days
ago
10
000
customers
that
are
paying
us
between
40
and
500
a
month
which
is
insane
And
I
think
registered
users
is
around
like
600
000
something
Okay
that's
insane
You
mentioned
PLG
What
is
that
So
this
is
product
led
growth
You
just
have
a
stripe
button
on
your
website
You
do
most
of
the
marketing
outside
of
your
website
You
just
have
a
good
landing
page
People
can
just
go
in
buy
a
subscription
put
on
their
credit
card
You
don't
have
to
have
a
lot
of
features
Just
have
like
one
core
feature
In
my
case
it
would
just
upload
a
PDF
and
talk
with
it
Just
have
like
a
good
UI
don't
have
any
bugs
Have
like
a
good
MVP
and
then
launch
it
into
the
universe
Find
the
balance
between
launching
fast
and
not
launching
garbage
Have
a
good
quality
tool
so
that
you're
proud
of
when
people
are
using
it
And
then
people
would
be
excited
to
use
it
more
if
they're
not
like
frustrated
using
it
All
right
well
let's
talk
about
AI
agents
That's
what
you've
been
building
for
a
long
time
You
know
a
lot
about
this
How
can
people
watching
this
learn
how
to
build
with
AI
agents
What's
the
right
kind
of
framework
for
learning
these
and
where
to
go
If
you
want
to
build
products
then
you
go
to
sources
like
OpenAI's
cookbooks
or
like
their
documentation
Read
about
their
agents
SDK
Do
the
same
with
Vercel
has
a
library
called
the
AI
SDK
which
is
very
powerful
Just
read
like
their
documentation
Look
at
the
examples
Look
who's
using
them
Learn
how
those
companies
tell
you
how
to
build
AI
agents
I
think
actually
maybe
a
good
idea
is
to
find
something
that
you
can't
build
yet
And
the
only
bottleneck
is
the
AI
model
itself
Like
the
intelligence
is
not
there
yet
And
then
start
building
that
And
just
like
bet
that
in
a
year
you're
going
to
have
GPT
5
which
is
capable
of
doing
that
And
then
you're
going
to
have
one
full
year
like
a
head
start
on
everyone
else
I
think
something
very
similar
happened
to
me
I
started
working
on
chatbase
before
that
chat
GPT
API
So
I
had
like
the
product
ready
I
was
people
were
using
it
And
then
all
of
a
sudden
chat
GPT
launched
their
chat
API
So
I
just
released
a
tweet
that
said
in
the
last
48
hours
I
built
like
this
Cool
new
product
And
because
everyone
was
talking
about
the
new
chat
GPT
API
and
how
what
you
can
build
with
it
This
also
went
very
viral
So
yeah
I
think
I
think
you
can
do
something
similar
All
right
right
Let's
talk
about
tech
stack
How
did
you
build
this
app
What
kind
of
tools
and
languages
and
stack
did
you
use
to
build
this
Yeah
so
it
changed
over
time
Now
I
think
the
stack
we
landed
on
is
Vercel
for
hosting
We're
also
using
their
AI
SDK
for
a
lot
of
our
AI
infrastructure
We're
using
Superbase
for
the
database
And
then
we're
using
all
the
AI
labs
So
OpenAI
Anthropic
Anthropic
Cohere
Google
Gemini
Grok
We're
using
all
of
them
So
in
chatbase
you
can
have
a
drop
down
and
choose
which
model
works
best
for
you
And
of
course
Stripe
for
billing
Dubb
for
affiliates
Mentalify
for
our
documentation
Cool
You
have
built
this
amazing
business
You've
been
doing
it
for
many
years
You've
had
some
successful
things
some
not
so
successful
projects
What
have
you
learned
through
the
process
that
surprised
you
Yeah
so
I
think
going
into
it
where
we
assume
that
there's
like
a
blueprint
on
how
to
build
a
good
business
It's
just
it
was
going
to
be
working
hard
But
what
I
realized
is
that
there
is
so
many
different
ways
to
build
a
good
company
From
like
how
you
work
together
performance
reviews
in
person
or
remote
What's
the
culture
like
All
of
that
can
change
a
lot
between
company
to
company
This
is
actually
good
because
this
means
that
you
don't
need
a
lot
of
experience
to
start
a
company
company
Mostly
the
advice
you're
getting
from
people
that
have
done
this
before
It's
just
good
to
listen
to
but
mostly
irrelevant
because
no
one
knows
your
situation
as
much
as
you
The
best
practices
change
so
much
from
situation
to
situation
The
people
that
give
good
advice
will
tell
you
the
same
thing
They
would
give
you
what
they
think
is
right
But
in
the
end
they
will
say
actually
like
you
should
trust
your
gut
mostly
because
you
know
your
situation
more
than
me
Cool
I
love
that
Last
question
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
Starter
Story
If
you
could
go
back
two
and
a
half
years
or
however
long
it's
been
stand
on
Yasser's
shoulder
what
would
be
your
advice
to
young
Yasser
Yeah
I
think
for
me
specifically
I
wasn't
thinking
big
enough
in
the
beginning
My
goal
was
to
just
get
my
10K
move
to
Bali
live
the
indie
hacker
lifestyle
I
just
realized
like
why
not
shoot
for
the
stars
right
Why
not
build
the
first
100
million
ARR
bootstrap
company
I
was
too
worried
that
because
everyone
was
saying
it's
like
a
chat
GPT
wrapper
It's
not
going
to
work
This
got
into
my
head
because
it
was
true
It
was
just
a
chat
GPT
wrapper
So
I
think
I
wasn't
aggressive
enough
I
was
too
shy
about
what
I'm
building
I
was
too
reserved
I
think
if
I
go
back
I
would
have
moved
a
lot
faster
I
would
have
put
more
on
the
line
So
yeah
just
aim
higher
I
would
say
for
me
Cool
Well
that's
great
advice
Thank
you
Yasser
for
coming
on
to
Starter
Story
It's
amazing
what
you
built
One
of
the
probably
greatest
success
stories
in
the
indie
hacker
world
and
it's
going
to
keep
growing
and
I
love
it
So
thanks
for
coming
on
Thank
you
for
having
me
Yasser
is
proof
that
you
don't
need
a
big
audience
to
get
started
He
started
his
app
when
he
had
16
followers
on
Twitter
and
in
less
than
three
years
he
grew
it
to
over
6
million
ARR
He
got
started
just
by
building
stuff
And
nowadays
AI
has
made
it
easier
than
ever
to
build
That's
why
I
launched
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
flagship
program
where
in
two
weeks
you'll
find
and
build
a
simple
app
with
AI
Hundreds
of
people
have
joined
and
launched
their
first
app
into
the
world
Head
to
the
link
in
the
description
to
learn
more
Thank
you
guys
for
watching
watching
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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