How I Built a $4M Business (Simple Strategy)
Starter Story
Aug 27, 2025
Shaan Arora was struggling to grow his app until he discovered a secret that would take Alia to $4M ARR. In this video, Shaan shares the secret, as well as how founders can apply it to their own apps.
🛠️ Want to build your own app with AI? Check out Starter Story Build → https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=shaan
Follow Shaan's journey: https://x.com/iamshaanarora
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:09 - Who is Shaan
1:30 - What is Alia
2:08 - Early days of Alia
3:01 - From 2 to 100s of customers
3:30 - The idea that changed Alia
4:16 - 'Positioning' strategy deep dive
6:07 - Build your own AI app
6:49 - Why Shaan didn't give up with 2 customers
7:40 - Is niching down scary?
8:35 - Shaan's re-positioning framework
9:34 - The team behind Alia
10:07 - Do only one thing, phenomenally
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
Stack
Transcript
Chapters
Stack
No tools listed for this business.
I'm
Sean
co
founder
and
CEO
of
Aulia
And
by
reading
one
very
specific
book
we
went
from
0
in
revenue
to
4
million
ARR
This
is
Sean
and
he
runs
a
SaaS
tool
doing
over
4
million
ARR
But
it
didn't
start
that
way
It
took
us
about
six
months
to
get
from
two
customers
to
about
20
customers
In
the
first
year
him
and
his
co
founders
were
lost
They
had
a
handful
of
customers
but
no
real
traction
Then
they
made
one
small
change
We
were
a
company
before
We
are
still
this
company
but
we
focus
on
this
new
thing
This
is
all
we
care
about
A
simple
shift
in
how
they
position
the
product
and
then
everything
exploded
And
last
year
we
went
from
0
in
revenue
to
4
million
ARR
once
we
figured
out
our
position
So
I
brought
them
on
the
channel
to
really
break
down
what
they
changed
and
why
And
in
this
video
we'll
get
into
what
positioning
really
means
for
startups
the
specific
changes
that
Sean
made
to
their
product
and
marketing
which
made
them
grow
and
how
you
might
be
able
to
make
a
few
small
changes
that
change
the
trajectory
of
your
business
All
right
this
one's
gonna
be
good
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
Sean
welcome
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
build
and
what's
your
story
I'm
Sean
co
founder
and
CEO
of
Alia
And
what
we
do
is
we
sell
pop
ups
to
e
commerce
brands
Because
of
repositioning
our
company
by
reading
one
very
specific
book
we
went
from
0
in
revenue
to
4
million
ARR
And
before
the
book
we
had
no
product
market
fit
no
revenue
and
no
happy
customers
All
right
before
we
get
into
all
that
I
do
wanna
understand
what
is
Alia
What
does
it
do
What
problem
does
it
solve
Yeah
totally
So
imagine
you're
shopping
online
at
any
e
commerce
brand
and
you
see
this
thing
on
the
screen
and
it
says
enter
your
email
to
get
15
off
Whatever
that
flow
looks
like
and
whatever
that
pop
up
looks
like
is
our
company
We
decided
to
go
all
in
on
that
and
we've
chosen
to
do
nothing
else
besides
that
one
thing
which
is
called
pop
ups
In
terms
of
some
cool
customers
we
have
one
would
be
Nike
Strength
which
was
super
awesome
to
get
Tom's
Shoes
which
is
a
pretty
massive
brand
A
bunch
of
really
really
cool
brands
we
work
with
and
we
have
about
1
500
brands
using
our
pop
ups
which
has
been
super
awesome
All
right
that's
really
impressive
And
you
guys
grew
crazy
fast
You
said
zero
to
4
million
in
just
about
a
year
Before
we
get
into
that
I
do
wanna
go
back
because
I
know
that
when
you
first
started
you
didn't
really
feel
like
you
had
it
all
figured
out
right
away
Can
you
take
us
back
to
the
early
days
of
Alia
we
started
I
was
in
college
I
actually
built
this
at
my
university
for
a
club
like
a
fintech
club
on
campus
I
thought
it
could
be
cool
to
try
it
as
a
business
So
we
did
so
we
decided
that
e
commerce
commerce
would
be
where
we
would
sell
our
software
And
before
it
was
a
pop
up
it
was
kind
of
more
of
a
loyalty
program
an
education
tool
and
the
difficulty
in
me
being
able
to
describe
to
you
what
it
was
kind
of
shows
the
issue
with
positioning
We
started
the
company
we
had
two
customers
One
was
my
co
founder's
cousin
cousin
and
the
other
was
this
girl
from
my
class
at
university
People
were
like
hey
this
is
cool
but
where
does
it
fit
in
my
tech
stack
What
do
I
replace
with
it
And
who
are
you
Once
you're
at
this
place
where
you
had
a
couple
customers
you're
looking
for
what's
the
next
move
How
do
I
take
this
to
the
next
level
What
changed
for
where
you
went
from
two
customers
to
where
you
had
hundreds
of
customers
customers
in
really
just
a
year
So
my
co
founder
reads
a
book
called
Obviously
Awesome
So
we
read
it
and
we
understood
that
the
customers
had
perceived
us
differently
than
what
we
were
selling
And
it
was
a
hard
pill
to
swallow
but
it
was
an
important
one
We
realized
that
we're
actually
not
an
education
tool
we're
not
a
loyalty
tool
we're
a
pop
up
tool
We
decided
to
go
all
in
on
that
What
did
the
book
say
Give
me
the
big
idea
from
the
book
so
that
someone
watching
this
has
no
idea
what
the
book's
about
What
was
the
big
thing
the
book
said
Totally
yeah
so
in
the
book
Obviously
Awesome
essentially
it
talked
about
how
do
your
customers
perceive
you
What
are
they
using
you
as
And
what
do
your
best
customers
think
of
you
as
I
wanted
to
believe
my
best
customers
thought
of
us
as
an
innovative
new
customer
education
tool
The
hard
truth
is
that
they
didn't
think
of
us
as
that
They
actually
thought
of
us
as
a
pop
up
tool
If
our
best
customers
think
of
us
as
a
pop
up
tool
and
they
pay
us
for
that
you
can
extrapolate
and
say
that
a
bunch
of
other
customers
who
think
of
us
as
a
pop
up
tool
might
pay
us
some
money
I
think
we
should
try
to
become
that
thing
and
see
how
the
market
responds
to
it
And
the
market
responded
well
and
we
knew
that
hey
this
is
the
golden
ticket
we
have
here
And
that's
insane
I
mean
you
can
read
one
book
and
it
can
change
your
entire
business
I
would
love
to
learn
more
about
this
positioning
idea
I
know
it's
sort
of
a
high
level
concept
What
did
it
actually
mean
to
go
pivot
your
business
basically
and
reposition
everything
The
way
we
did
it
is
with
four
main
things
The
first
is
changing
the
copy
on
the
website
So
when
we
revamped
our
website
the
biggest
thing
is
what
can
this
tagline
say
As
you
can
see
right
here
the
next
generation
of
pop
ups
And
when
I
think
on
product
this
says
pop
up
features
It
doesn't
say
product
features
because
these
are
only
features
that
exist
inside
of
the
pop
up
which
is
all
that
we
do
We
are
the
best
at
pop
ups
Why
And
then
we
answer
that
why
question
here
So
people
are
like
okay
cool
Like
this
is
why
and
this
makes
sense
to
me
The
second
is
when
you
make
content
you
write
content
about
what
your
business
is
when
you've
repositioned
it
I
actually
have
a
bookmark
post
right
here
We're
at
3
5
million
ARR
pop
ups
That's
all
we
do
Pop
ups
equals
ARIA
ARIA
equals
pop
ups
So
now
when
people
see
this
I
pinned
it
to
my
profile
If
someone
wants
to
look
me
up
this
is
the
first
thing
they're
gonna
see
And
then
this
association
sticks
in
their
head
And
that's
where
you
create
inbound
demand
And
that's
where
you
scale
up
business
The
third
is
sales
calls
right
When
you're
on
a
sales
calls
I
hop
on
a
call
and
say
hey
I'm
Sean
I'm
the
CEO
We
do
pop
ups
That's
how
I
start
my
calls
Right
away
when
you
hop
on
the
call
it's
like
hey
I'm
Sean
We
do
pop
ups
and
we
care
about
pop
ups
And
they're
like
okay
cool
thanks
Like
that's
helpful
context
They
know
what
they're
here
for
Fourth
is
internal
language
Very
very
important
right
Everyone
on
the
team
needs
to
understand
that
we
were
a
company
before
We
are
still
this
company
but
we
focus
on
this
new
thing
so
that
when
they're
doing
CS
when
they're
doing
sales
when
management
is
making
decisions
they
can
speak
the
same
language
that
you
speak
to
yourself
There's
different
tweets
and
Slack
channels
where
people
ask
what's
the
best
pop
up
tool
And
if
you
have
that
connection
connection
between
yourself
and
that
specific
thing
every
single
reply
is
gonna
be
use
Alia
or
use
whatever
your
company
is
because
they
know
that
you
do
that
thing
All
right
before
we
get
back
to
Sean's
story
about
how
he
grew
this
business
to
4
million
ARR
we
gotta
talk
about
what
comes
first
Sean
obviously
didn't
start
with
this
brilliant
strategy
Him
and
his
co
founders
learned
this
on
the
fly
while
building
marketing
and
talking
to
customers
But
here's
the
thing
none
of
these
things
can
happen
until
you
have
an
idea
that
you're
excited
about
And
this
is
exactly
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
In
Starter
Story
Build
you'll
join
hundreds
of
other
builders
you'll
get
access
to
experts
and
we'll
walk
you
through
our
complete
framework
for
ideating
building
and
shipping
your
project
If
you're
ready
to
build
your
idea
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
let's
get
back
to
the
story
You
had
built
this
company
you
had
two
customers
you're
seeing
other
people
online
that
have
hundreds
or
thousands
of
customers
There's
probably
some
uncertainty
something
there
How
did
that
feel
in
that
moment
where
you
didn't
have
it
figured
out
yet
What
gave
me
comfort
was
the
fact
fact
that
they
were
once
in
my
shoes
shoes
and
the
fact
that
they
once
too
had
two
customers
who
didn't
wanna
use
their
product
and
they
ended
up
figuring
it
out
The
way
that
I
was
able
to
set
goals
for
myself
was
very
simple
We
had
two
customers
My
only
goal
was
to
get
a
third
Once
we
got
a
third
my
goal
was
to
get
a
fourth
a
fifth
so
on
So
that
when
you
get
to
three
customers
you're
like
oh
wow
I
got
a
new
customer
And
you're
not
like
damn
this
company
has
20
000
customers
How
will
I
ever
get
there
It's
not
your
job
to
get
there
right
away
It's
your
job
to
get
to
a
third
to
get
to
a
fourth
to
get
to
a
fifth
and
understand
how
you
got
to
those
five
Take
those
learnings
and
then
get
your
next
five
your
next
10
your
next
hundred
your
next
thousand
What
I'm
curious
to
understand
is
when
you
kinda
had
those
20
customers
before
you
made
that
change
I
think
some
people
who
might
be
in
a
similar
position
are
worried
as
what
happens
when
I
go
too
small
niche
down
to
a
small
feature
or
I
cut
out
potentially
other
useful
things
of
my
product
Tell
me
about
in
that
moment
was
it
scary
to
go
and
just
decide
hey
I'm
gonna
just
reposition
the
entire
company
How
did
you
get
the
courage
to
do
that
It
wasn't
all
at
once
I
mentioned
the
four
things
website
content
sales
calls
internal
language
We
didn't
do
all
four
at
once
Let's
hop
on
a
sales
call
Let's
talk
about
pop
ups
Let's
say
we're
a
pop
up
tool
and
let's
see
what
the
close
rate
looks
like
I
noticed
very
quickly
on
the
calls
they
were
shorter
they
were
more
succinct
and
they
closed
more
often
So
okay
sales
calls
are
going
well
Now
let's
try
to
make
some
content
around
it
And
that
content
did
better
than
our
previous
content
Okay
that's
kind
of
interesting
Then
we
changed
the
website
Then
we
did
the
internal
language
and
then
everyone
was
like
oh
okay
this
makes
sense
Let's
flip
everything
now
I
mean
that's
amazing
I
think
this
whole
idea
of
repositioning
is
super
valuable
insight
It's
really
one
of
the
big
reasons
why
I
wanted
to
have
you
on
the
channel
For
anyone
who's
watching
this
right
now
they
may
have
already
started
something
They
may
have
their
first
couple
of
customers
but
they
don't
have
product
market
fit
which
you
clearly
have
had
in
the
last
year
What
would
be
your
framework
for
someone
watching
this
to
potentially
try
what
you
did
So
the
first
step
I'd
say
I
got
no
affiliation
to
the
book
I
just
think
it's
a
good
book
Read
the
book
The
second
activity
is
do
the
positioning
activities
that
they
say
So
in
the
book
they're
like
ask
yourself
these
questions
and
you
should
ask
yourself
those
questions
If
you
have
a
team
if
you
have
co
founders
do
it
with
your
co
founders
Third
is
try
the
positioning
out
on
sales
calls
and
see
the
live
reaction
of
those
customers
See
if
those
close
more
often
see
if
they
understand
the
product
better
and
see
if
they're
more
excited
about
it
If
you
do
those
three
you
will
have
a
good
sense
of
okay
is
this
new
position
a
better
position
Even
if
it
isn't
you
can
go
back
to
step
two
talk
to
your
co
founders
again
go
through
those
questions
again
and
maybe
thinking
about
a
new
position
that's
gonna
be
better
All
right
well
that's
a
great
framework
I'm
also
curious
about
what
does
your
team
look
like
I
know
that
you
bootstrap
this
business
but
you
do
have
some
co
founders
What's
that
like
So
I
have
a
team
of
12
people
Three
of
us
are
co
founders
Corey
and
Bill
have
been
absolutely
amazing
and
the
best
co
founders
possible
And
something
we
have
as
a
mantra
at
our
company
is
Alia
will
be
successful
even
if
it
means
that
we're
selling
hot
dogs
on
the
side
of
the
road
We
can
pivot
we
can
change
become
a
whole
different
company
but
we
are
going
to
stick
together
and
we
are
going
to
be
successful
If
you
can
find
the
people
who
are
willing
to
do
that
with
you
make
the
changes
pivot
accordingly
those
are
the
right
people
to
have
The
last
question
I
have
for
you
Sean
is
if
you
could
go
back
in
time
stand
on
Sean's
shoulders
shoulders
before
you
found
this
product
market
fit
before
you
took
this
business
from
basically
zero
to
4
million
in
the
span
of
about
a
year
what
would
be
your
advice
for
you
or
really
for
anyone
watching
this
right
now
The
first
from
positioning
side
I
would
tell
myself
do
one
thing
and
do
that
one
thing
phenomenally
From
general
founder
advice
when
you're
a
younger
founder
the
one
currency
you
have
that
the
incumbents
of
your
industry
don't
have
is
speed
and
urgency
When
it
comes
to
the
incumbents
they
can't
move
as
quick
as
you
So
when
we
chose
to
reposition
ourselves
we're
now
in
an
industry
where
folks
have
been
there
for
15
20
years
and
they're
gonna
move
slower
than
us
inherently
because
they're
a
larger
company
You
have
that
advantage
Well
thanks
Sean
Thanks
for
coming
on
the
channel
The
business
you
built
is
amazing
The
growth
is
insane
I'm
so
glad
to
have
you
on
and
hope
to
have
you
on
again
in
the
future
Yes
thank
you
for
having
me
I
appreciate
it
Thank
you
again
to
Sean
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
personally
loved
hearing
about
this
simple
change
that
changed
the
trajectory
of
his
business
If
you're
watching
this
today
I
think
that
this
is
one
of
the
most
underrated
concepts
when
it
comes
to
building
and
finding
product
market
fit
So
on
that
note
if
you're
ready
to
build
something
then
I
invite
you
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
In
Starter
Story
Build
we'll
help
you
go
from
a
simple
idea
to
a
real
working
app
shipped
to
the
real
world
in
less
than
two
weeks
If
you're
interested
just
head
to
the
first
link
in
the
description
to
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
Thank
you
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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