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How We Built It: $900K Open Source SaaS
Starter Story
Aug 16, 2025
This is how Iuliia and Marc built a $900K/year SaaS. But their approach was different: make it open-source. Today, we'll dive into why that was the best decision for their business.
Automate compliance (and get $1,000 off) → https://go.starterstory.com/papermark
Build your own AI app→ https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=joshmohrer
Follow Iuliia: https://x.com/shnai0
Follow Marc: https://x.com/mfts0
🔔 Follow the Second Channel: @StarterStoryBuild
🏁 We're hiring: starterstory.com/jobs
This video is an educational case study of these 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.
I'm
Yulia
co
founder
of
Papermark
And
I'm
Mark
We
bootstrapped
Papermark
to
75K
MRR
This
husband
and
wife
duo
built
a
near
million
dollar
business
thanks
to
this
Open
source
SaaS
Yeah
I
think
off
the
bat
being
open
source
was
the
right
bet
for
us
In
just
a
year
and
a
half
they
took
a
weekend
open
source
project
to
75
000
MRR
Papermark
started
as
a
tweet
So
I
asked
both
of
them
to
come
onto
the
channel
and
break
all
of
it
down
In
this
video
you'll
learn
why
open
source
is
actually
a
really
genius
business
model
how
there
are
loads
of
big
companies
just
waiting
to
be
open
sourced
and
how
to
grow
in
open
source
if
you're
just
starting
out
today
All
right
let's
dive
in
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
welcome
Mark
and
Yulia
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
Hey
Pat
I'm
Mark
co
founder
of
Papermark
It's
the
open
source
successor
to
DocSend
for
sharing
documents
and
data
rooms
securely
Papermark
started
as
an
open
source
project
on
the
side
without
the
idea
to
actually
go
commercial
And
we
are
close
to
reach
our
first
million
MRR
Okay
that's
crazy
In
1
5
years
you
guys
basically
built
a
million
dollar
business
Let's
go
back
to
how
you
guys
found
the
idea
for
this
How
did
you
find
the
idea
for
Papermark
Yeah
it's
actually
funny
It
started
as
a
tweet
I
pushed
out
a
tweet
and
I
basically
said
like
I'm
going
to
build
an
open
source
alternative
to
DocSend
And
it
went
just
like
crazy
Within
a
couple
of
hours
it
got
like
40
000
views
Lots
of
people
mentioned
that
they
would
love
to
see
this
as
an
open
source
project
So
over
the
weekend
I
actually
built
it
at
least
their
first
MVP
the
first
version
that
was
usable
and
pushed
out
on
Monday
the
launch
tweet
And
it
got
like
100k
views
And
then
soon
after
the
first
customers
came
and
were
asking
like
can
we
give
you
money
to
buy
the
service
And
that's
kind
of
how
it
kicked
it
off
That's
crazy
The
amount
of
founders
that
I
talked
to
that
have
built
a
business
based
off
a
single
tweet
is
actually
way
higher
than
you'd
think
I
just
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
what
Papermark
is
and
what
it
does
for
our
audience
who
may
not
totally
be
in
this
space
Can
you
briefly
explain
what
Papermark
actually
does
So
essentially
the
Papermark
is
a
document
analytics
and
sharing
platform
So
you
kind
of
turn
your
document
into
the
link
which
you
later
can
share
protect
with
the
password
with
the
watermark
and
then
get
the
whole
analytics
So
they
can
see
exactly
okay
someone
was
on
my
document
for
five
minutes
on
this
slide
one
minute
here
So
you
know
exactly
what
happened
And
the
Papermark
is
essentially
alternative
to
the
DocSend
And
other
data
room
providers
which
exist
already
for
10
years
or
more
but
they
don't
innovate
anymore
They
don't
produce
anything
new
They
mostly
focus
on
the
enterprise
customers
That's
why
the
open
source
kind
of
new
solution
was
needed
in
this
market
All
right
right
So
the
main
reason
I
wanted
to
bring
you
guys
on
the
channel
is
that
you
built
this
business
on
top
of
open
source
which
is
a
super
cool
model
You
guys
managed
to
find
a
way
to
not
only
build
an
open
source
project
but
build
a
really
really
nice
business
on
top
of
it
Can
you
first
explain
to
me
just
what
open
source
is
And
then
we'll
get
into
the
business
side
of
things
Yeah
of
course
So
open
source
like
the
name
says
the
source
code
that's
powering
the
project
is
publicly
available
So
anyone
can
look
at
it
anyone
can
contribute
to
it
And
the
cool
thing
is
that
the
entire
history
of
the
project
is
also
publicly
available
It
also
opens
up
the
project
globally
to
any
developer
in
the
open
source
ecosystem
that
likes
to
contribute
or
that
is
interested
in
the
project
and
wants
to
contribute
to
it
There
are
of
course
licenses
that
have
some
protective
mechanism
And
in
the
end
you
have
these
communities
that
form
around
each
project
And
they
can
be
larger
or
smaller
smaller
depending
on
the
popularity
of
the
project
or
the
maintainer
as
well
A
lot
of
developers
these
days
they
want
to
show
off
their
work
Maybe
they
can't
find
a
job
but
they
can
do
open
source
projects
They
can
contribute
to
open
source
in
order
to
advance
their
own
career
So
attracting
early
users
open
source
is
great
because
you
can
just
ultimately
ship
in
public
All
right
So
can
you
break
it
down
for
me
So
you
have
open
source
all
the
code
is
free
Anybody
can
use
it
How
does
this
actually
work
for
your
business
And
how
do
you
make
money
So
the
business
model
for
PaperMark
is
basically
you
can
either
self
hosted
for
free
or
for
many
of
the
users
that
maybe
not
be
tech
savvy
that
don't
want
to
host
it
themselves
because
they
don't
want
to
deal
with
the
overhead
or
the
maintenance
We
have
a
hosted
version
that
we
charge
for
For
the
open
core
model
our
core
software
of
PaperMark
is
open
source
and
self
hostable
And
then
if
you
need
advanced
features
you
can
acquire
a
license
license
and
still
run
it
on
your
infrastructure
as
a
self
hosted
version
but
just
with
our
enterprise
license
attached
to
it
so
that
you
can
enjoy
the
full
suite
just
as
it
is
on
PaperMark
com
Looking
back
what
are
the
benefits
to
building
open
source
that
you've
realized
Number
one
it's
highly
defensible
because
you
have
nothing
to
hide
behind
You
essentially
give
away
the
core
product
for
free
There's
no
need
for
anyone
else
to
kind
of
build
the
same
project
and
charge
anything
for
it
because
it's
essentially
already
as
low
as
it
can
get
Number
two
it's
very
scalable
because
there's
essentially
zero
barrier
to
entry
We
have
people
coming
to
our
project
every
day
looking
at
it
either
contributing
to
it
running
it
for
their
small
teams
or
then
seeing
the
open
source
project
and
converting
actually
to
PaperMark
com
because
they
don't
want
to
deal
with
the
self
hosting
of
it
They
just
come
to
us
because
we
do
the
best
service
in
hosting
the
solution
Number
three
we
have
that
community
driven
R
D
velocity
Incumbents
only
have
like
the
employees
that
basically
maintain
the
software
We
have
the
community
that
basically
looking
through
the
projects
monitoring
it
seeing
where
they
can
contribute
new
features
If
they
find
like
issues
they
can
immediately
swoop
in
and
like
provide
a
solution
for
it
The
velocity
with
the
community
is
just
like
immense
And
number
four
it's
very
secure
and
has
high
trust
The
code
can
be
audited
by
any
third
party
You're
not
hiding
behind
proprietary
software
that
we
need
to
grant
access
to
someone
at
a
bank
bank
that
is
trying
to
evaluate
whether
it
would
be
a
great
fit
for
the
infrastructure
They
have
to
run
through
so
many
checks
and
they
can
do
that
very
easily
but
just
by
auditing
our
open
source
code
and
seeing
that
nothing
nefarious
is
going
on
and
everything
is
extremely
secure
All
right
before
we
move
on
with
the
interview
I
do
want
to
talk
about
one
thing
As
a
founder
you're
likely
moving
fast
towards
product
market
fit
your
next
funding
round
or
your
next
big
enterprise
deal
But
with
AI
accelerating
how
quickly
startups
are
building
and
shipping
security
expectations
are
higher
earlier
than
ever
Getting
security
and
compliance
for
your
business
right
can
unlock
growth
but
it
can
also
stall
it
if
you
wait
too
long
With
deep
integrations
and
automated
workflows
built
for
fast
moving
teams
Vanta
gets
you
audit
ready
fast
And
it
keeps
you
secure
with
continuous
monitoring
as
your
models
infrastructure
and
customers
evolve
Fast
growing
startups
like
LangChain
Writer
and
Cursor
trusted
Vanta
to
build
a
scalable
foundation
from
the
start
Go
to
vanta
com
slash
starter
story
to
get
1
000
off
Vanta
and
join
over
12
000
ambitious
companies
already
scaling
with
the
platform
That's
vanta
com
slash
starter
story
for
1
000
off
I'll
put
a
link
in
the
top
of
the
description
for
you
to
check
it
out
Thank
you
Vanta
for
sponsoring
the
channel
I
love
the
platform
that
you're
building
And
without
further
ado
let's
get
back
to
the
interview
For
anyone
watching
right
now
who's
a
developer
who's
excited
about
open
source
what
are
the
opportunities
right
now
to
build
an
open
source
and
also
build
a
business
on
top
of
it
With
the
era
of
AI
founders
can
target
much
smaller
niches
and
smaller
markets
It
just
makes
it
so
easy
to
create
a
very
small
differentiated
business
off
of
an
existing
incumbent
The
key
markets
that
I
see
today
that
are
being
rebuilt
is
anything
that
has
to
do
with
a
CRM
They
have
become
so
large
that
the
software
itself
is
very
complex
And
they
try
to
do
this
one
size
fits
all
where
of
course
course
once
you're
in
at
the
highest
tier
you
can
then
customize
it
to
your
own
use
case
But
why
not
build
a
very
targeted
CRM
for
veterinarians
or
office
building
managers
that
have
a
very
specific
use
case
to
use
the
CRM
and
don't
need
the
entire
complexity
Think
about
reducing
complexity
in
what
existing
businesses
are
there
and
just
build
it
very
simple
Think
to
yourself
is
there
an
open
source
alternative
Does
it
make
sense
to
build
an
open
source
alternative
Is
the
market
massive
Is
there
enough
room
for
other
players
in
the
market
Because
oftentimes
you
will
find
that
software
is
not
really
the
differentiator
So
being
open
and
open
source
is
no
detriment
to
you
or
your
business
Okay
let's
change
subjects
a
little
bit
Let's
talk
about
growth
I
mean
zero
to
900
000
ARR
there's
something
here
whether
it's
open
source
whatever
it
is
But
if
you
guys
can
just
break
down
how
did
you
grow
this
quickly
What
were
the
right
decisions
that
you
made
Yeah
I
think
off
the
bat
I
think
being
open
source
was
the
right
bet
for
us
Building
in
public
with
open
source
is
extremely
natural
because
you
have
nothing
to
hide
behind
already
There's
no
downside
to
sharing
the
small
progress
even
that
you're
making
Even
if
the
features
are
not
100
complete
share
that
on
Twitter
on
LinkedIn
just
with
anyone
And
you'll
slowly
gather
community
around
that
Then
lastly
in
terms
of
growth
we
also
participated
in
this
month
long
open
source
hackathon
called
Hacktoberfest
There
was
like
a
cycle
where
we
built
faster
more
customer
notice
that
we're
building
and
shipping
features
whereas
the
incumbents
are
slow
and
like
sleeping
And
then
they
start
switching
because
now
the
feature
sets
are
reaching
feature
parity
and
even
going
beyond
that
Cool
And
thanks
for
sharing
that
Can
you
break
down
some
of
the
numbers
behind
the
business
So
in
the
first
year
we
grew
to
20
000
MRR
To
middle
of
the
second
year
we
grew
to
75
000
MRR
So
we
are
getting
closer
to
our
first
million
middle
of
the
second
year
We're
serving
around
30
000
users
because
there's
like
a
lot
of
free
users
Then
we
serve
around
1
000
customers
60
contributors
7
000
stars
Maybe
the
focus
if
our
North
Star
metric
is
the
amount
of
views
on
the
shared
documents
So
we
have
800
000
views
on
the
shared
documents
It
means
that
people
upload
their
documents
then
share
the
link
and
then
800
000
view
their
documents
Let's
change
topics
a
little
bit
I
know
a
lot
of
people
watching
this
are
developers
even
people
building
an
open
source
Let's
talk
about
TechStack
Tell
me
about
how
this
business
is
built
Yeah
so
we
run
PaperMark
as
two
projects
in
Next
js
So
one
project
is
our
website
and
our
marketing
content
and
the
other
project
is
the
open
source
project
which
powers
like
app
papermark
com
It
runs
Next
js
with
TypeScript
On
our
day
to
day
of
course
we're
like
so
many
others
are
using
cursor
as
kind
of
like
our
AI
IDE
Everything's
hosted
on
GitHub
PaperMark
is
hosted
on
Vercel
PlanetScale
for
our
Postgres
database
Trigger
it's
a
background
tool
Resend
is
I
think
like
a
fan
favorite
these
days
for
like
easy
email
It
gets
delivered
to
your
inbox
like
in
terms
of
transactional
emails
like
really
quickly
And
then
of
course
On
that
same
note
can
you
break
down
some
of
the
costs
and
margins
to
run
this
business
What
does
it
look
like
to
run
a
business
built
on
open
source
Yeah
so
our
main
cost
is
spending
on
freelancers
and
founder
salaries
around
80
Then
we
have
around
15
on
different
experiments
with
marketing
and
growth
and
6
to
5
it's
the
tools
Thank
you
for
sharing
that
Last
question
that
I
have
is
advice
For
anyone
who
wants
to
build
an
open
source
do
things
in
open
source
potentially
even
build
a
business
in
open
source
what
would
be
your
advice
to
someone
watching
this
I
think
being
an
open
source
alternative
to
like
in
any
market
to
any
big
incumbent
isn't
a
surefire
success
You
need
to
reach
at
least
feature
parity
with
the
existing
tools
in
the
market
market
And
then
you
need
to
outchip
them
right
You
need
to
be
better
than
the
current
offering
in
the
market
You
want
to
become
the
clear
successor
to
the
incumbents
not
just
be
an
alternative
that's
also
there
And
you
need
to
turn
that
excitement
around
open
source
into
product
momentum
So
convert
them
into
paying
customers
or
even
users
of
your
tool
Only
then
you
can
actually
make
it
a
successful
business
From
my
experience
I
didn't
know
how
to
code
at
all
and
I
decided
okay
I'm
going
to
build
the
first
project
I
took
existing
open
source
to
build
on
top
of
and
then
what
I
build
I
also
made
open
source
And
I
feel
so
much
push
and
support
from
the
open
source
community
and
contributors
I
would
definitely
if
you
want
to
try
open
source
and
see
really
what
it
is
you
need
to
kind
of
jump
into
it
You
will
not
get
the
whole
idea
if
you're
not
going
to
build
that
Just
do
it
open
source
from
the
beginning
try
to
be
part
of
the
community
help
people
contribute
and
they
will
do
the
same
and
you
will
see
how
your
project
grow
All
right
Well
that's
great
advice
Thank
you
Yulia
and
Mark
for
coming
on
the
channel
It's
so
impressive
what
you
guys
built
in
just
a
couple
of
years
Thanks
for
sharing
everything
about
the
open
source
model
building
an
open
source
It
was
awesome
See
you
guys
soon
Thanks
Ved
Thank
you
I
wanted
to
thank
Mark
and
Yulia
for
coming
onto
the
channel
I
loved
hearing
about
how
they
grew
PaperMark
and
their
unique
approach
to
building
this
project
with
open
source
However
I
must
remind
you
that
it
all
still
started
with
a
simple
idea
And
nowadays
that's
all
you
need
to
potentially
build
something
that
changes
your
life
And
that's
why
we
launched
Starter
Story
Build
We'll
help
you
take
that
idea
up
here
and
turn
it
into
a
real
app
using
only
AI
tools
So
if
you're
ready
to
launch
your
project
then
head
to
the
link
in
the
description
description
and
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
All
right
that's
it
for
this
episode
Thanks
again
for
watching
We'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
Bye
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