Buzzinga.io

My Simple Game Website Makes $7K/Month

July 18th, 2025

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About
Business

Steven Dennett

Founder, Buzzinga.io

$7.3K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Buzzinga.io

buzzinga.io

from Bridgewater

started January 2025

$7,300

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

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Who are you and what business did you start?

My name is Steve and I'm the creator of Buzzinga.io, an all-in-one platform that allows anyone to create and host custom Jeopardy games with built-in buzzer support. Our primary customers are game night enthusiasts, company employees organizing events, and educators such as teachers and professors running classroom review sessions.

What makes Buzzinga special is that we offer built-in buzzer functionality so players can use their phones or even physical Bluetooth buzzers to create an authentic game show experience. Our automated scorekeeping and intuitive host controls means the host can enjoy the game as much as the contestants. In addition, our generous freemium plan lets up to three players join for free, making it easy for anyone to get started.

Today we bring in about $7K/month.

Four wireless buzzers in front of a custom-made Buzzinga board

How do you come up with the idea for Buzzinga.io?

I came up with the idea while planning a September 2022 vacation with my adult cousins. I wanted to host a custom Jeopardy game filled with family inside jokes and hilarious photos, and I wanted both my role as host and their roles as contestants to be effortless. I explored every existing platform but could not find one that met my expectations or that captured the game show vibe I had in mind, so I decided to build my own.

I knew this was the right idea to work on because I was personally excited about it and knew I'd be motivated enough to see it through to the MVP and beyond.

This business idea was different from others that I've had in that I was partially convinced that people would actually pay for it. I have created other social multiplayer games before but I never thought they could be anything more than a fun passion project.

My background is in Graphic Design but I've spend the past 10+ years working as a frontend software engineer.

I validated my idea by hosting games with my friends and family and seeing their overwhelming positive response. When I launched the site publicly in December 2023, 5 to 15 folks started signing up daily from my Reddit posts and later on many more from Google as SEO started to improve.

How did you launch Buzzinga.io and get initial traction?

I told the world initially by posting in several subreddits such as r/webdev and r/SideProject. I would also carefully comment and post in trivia and teacher related subreddits to make sure I wasn't violating any self-promotion rules.

The response to the initial launch was very positive. Folks were quick to offer feedback for improvement, which was great since I wasn't just developing Buzzinga for myself anymore.

I learned from the launch that it's better to launch early when you're proud of what you have versus waiting until you have every feature or until the product is perfect because you'll never get there. If I were to do it again, I'd launch even earlier to get the initial feedback right away that would inform the roadmap moving forward.

So I launched the site in December 2023, but didn't actually start charging until over a year later in January 2024. On the day I launched the "Pro" version in early January 2024, I sent an email to about 5,000 of my existing users to notify them that some of the features would be gated behind Pro starting in a couple weeks and that they'd have to upgrade to enjoy those features. On that first day I got my first six customers. :)

I initially charged a one-time lifetime $25 for Pro access, which was an attractive price, but I've since eliminated the lifetime access and have been experimenting with different pricing since.

I learned from the launch that what I had been working hard on for the past couple years was so valuable to my existing users that they were willing to pay for it right away even before they even lost access to the features. That was a big "woah" moment for me because even though I knew I was delivering value, I had never been so validated so quickly.

What was the growth strategy for Buzzinga.io and how did you scale?

I have mostly relied on Reddit posts, comments, and then SEO to attract customers. I've written some blog posts like "Best Bachelorette Party Game Idea for 2025...", but I've spent most of my time making sure the homepage is performant and ideal for conversion, e.g. by establishing trust via brand logos of brands that use the product.

I tried Facebook ads in March of this year but Buzzinga wasn't in a position at that time to properly attract mobile customers to such a desktop focused platform. I really rely on folks trying it out by creating a board and seeing how hosting and the buzzers work, which isn't easy to capture when someone is scrolling their phone. I definitely plan to revisit though with video ads.

One strategy I used to grow the customer base was launching to Hacker News in July 2024. I stayed in the top spot on Show for about 24 hours and subsequently ended up on the homepage of Digg.com. This strategy helped us get hundreds more customers but mostly helped boost SEO. I plan to do a one-year update post soon.

My recommendation to aspiring entrepreneurs to grow their business is to use free channels like Reddit and Hacker News to get your product out there. Be helpful in comments but also be insanely helpful to your existing customers. When someone has a question, whether they ask on a Reddit post or submit through the Contact page on Buzzinga, I generally respond within 10 minutes. This builds a network effect and helps drive word-of-mouth growth.

What were the biggest lessons learned from building Buzzinga.io?

One big mistake I made was not charging earlier. By keeping Buzzinga entirely free for over a year, I missed the chance to validate my pricing earlier, and customers came to expect it at no cost. Charging sooner would have given me vital feedback on what people were willing to pay for and provided the validation and revenue to upgrade our architecture before the user base became as strong as it is now.

I also learned early on that shipping something simple and getting feedback early beats perfecting features in private. Part of me always has an excuse to not market my product, but there's no point in waiting for perfection, because what might be perfection to you might not be to your customer base. Show off what you have early and often and get that vital feedback to make sure you're working on what your customers actually want.

One habit that’s served me well is responding to every question within ten minutes, whether it comes through Reddit or our Contact page. That level of service turned one-time event users into evangelists and taught me the value of community.

A mistake I often see other founders make is neglecting free channels. Investing a few hours each week in SEO, content marketing, or niche forums can compound into steady organic growth. Invest in this heavily before investing in paid advertising.

If there’s one thing I’d tell every aspiring entrepreneur it’s this: solve a real problem for yourself first and then for your customers. If you can use it and extract value from it, then that should motivate you to an MVP and then that will allow you to see how others value it.

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More about Buzzinga.io:

Who is the owner of Buzzinga.io?

Steven Dennett is the founder of Buzzinga.io.

When did Steven Dennett start Buzzinga.io?

2025

How much money has Steven Dennett made from Buzzinga.io?

Steven Dennett started the business in 2025, and currently makes an average of $87.6K/year.