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My two apps made $30M
Starter Story
Oct 1, 2025
This is how Will Cannon built 2 apps that make over $30M... by cloning what's already working.
Save $1K on on security → https://go.starterstory.com/cannon
Build your own AI app→ https://build.starterstory.com/build/ai-build-accelerator?utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=willcannon
Follow Will: https://x.com/iamwillcannon
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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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No tools listed for this business.
I
built
two
companies
doing
over
30
million
in
sales
by
copying
already
successful
businesses
Meet
Will
After
the
real
estate
crash
in
2008
he
lost
everything
and
had
to
start
from
scratch
We
didn't
see
it
coming
and
we
just
totally
got
crushed
Then
he
came
across
the
opportunity
to
build
a
SaaS
but
he
didn't
do
it
in
the
conventional
way
Instead
of
reinventing
the
wheel
and
building
something
that
didn't
exist
yet
he
developed
a
framework
that
led
him
to
make
millions
of
dollars
This
is
kind
of
the
cold
email
framework
that
we
use
for
Uplead
and
I
think
anyone
can
kind
of
use
this
and
apply
this
to
their
business
today
In
this
video
Will
shares
his
million
dollar
research
framework
how
to
successfully
copy
lucrative
businesses
and
the
one
marketing
strategy
that's
made
him
millions
of
dollars
The
playbooks
are
already
out
there
Most
people
just
don't
study
them
Whether
you're
a
seasoned
builder
or
just
getting
started
this
episode
might
blow
your
mind
All
right
let's
get
into
it
I'm
Pat
Walls
and
this
is
Starter
Story
All
right
welcome
Will
to
the
channel
Tell
me
about
who
you
are
what
you
built
and
what's
your
story
My
name
is
Will
Cannon
I
built
Uplead
to
over
30
million
in
sales
and
I
built
SignatureLead
to
over
1
6
million
users
without
raising
a
dime
of
funding
I
did
it
all
without
reinventing
the
wheel
I
took
business
models
that
already
had
product
market
fit
and
I
added
my
own
little
twist
to
them
Okay
cool
We're
going
to
get
all
into
this
framework
of
how
you
built
these
and
took
these
proven
markets
But
first
I
want
to
understand
a
little
bit
more
about
your
background
How
do
you
get
here
to
this
place
where
you
have
these
awesome
software
businesses
So
at
19
me
and
my
girlfriend
who's
now
my
wife
started
our
first
mortgage
company
This
was
during
the
subprime
mortgage
boom
So
there
was
mortgages
being
handed
out
left
and
right
and
we
were
kind
of
new
to
the
industry
We're
like
what's
going
on
We
started
making
so
much
money
we
couldn't
even
believe
it
And
we
thought
we
were
on
top
of
the
world
This
was
2005
2006
2007
Everything
was
going
great
And
then
the
mortgage
crisis
hit
We
didn't
see
it
coming
and
we
just
totally
got
crushed
So
then
it
was
time
to
rebuild
We
were
like
hey
what
are
we
going
to
do
next
When
we
had
our
mortgage
company
we
were
sending
a
lot
of
cold
emails
to
loan
officers
and
real
estate
agents
to
recruit
them
And
we
had
a
couple
of
people
in
our
office
that
would
ask
us
like
hey
do
you
have
a
list
of
loan
officers
or
a
list
of
real
estate
agents
So
we
were
kind
of
selling
lists
on
the
side
But
we
thought
hey
this
could
be
a
business
So
we
started
diving
into
that
further
That's
what
we
did
for
about
10
years
from
2007
ish
to
2017
But
we
kept
running
into
the
same
problem
data
quality
And
that
was
kind
of
the
aha
moment
We're
like
hey
there
has
to
be
a
way
or
a
software
that
can
do
this
for
us
So
that
was
the
thought
behind
Uplead
And
that
was
our
transition
from
10
years
of
building
an
agency
into
SaaS
All
right
well
before
we
get
into
these
businesses
that
you've
built
how
you've
grown
them
and
the
framework
for
finding
these
ideas
for
these
proven
markets
can
you
break
down
how
you
actually
found
the
ideas
for
your
two
big
software
companies
that
you
run
now
For
Uplead
we
were
building
our
agency
So
the
data
quality
from
the
vendors
on
the
market
at
the
time
was
around
50
to
60
accurate
We'd
scrape
the
internet
for
data
And
that
data
was
also
maybe
40
50
accurate
Every
time
we'd
build
a
list
we'd
have
to
verify
the
emails
We'd
have
to
send
the
phone
number
list
to
a
call
center
we
had
in
the
Philippines
to
verify
the
phone
numbers
And
that
was
kind
of
the
aha
moment
We're
like
hey
why
isn't
there
a
tool
that
can
just
do
this
for
us
Why
isn't
there
a
tool
where
I
can
go
in
I
can
punch
in
my
ICP
I
can
say
here's
who
I
want
to
target
I
click
download
or
export
and
it'll
download
and
verify
the
emails
and
verify
the
phone
numbers
in
real
time
We
didn't
find
any
software
We
decided
to
build
it
ourselves
For
Signaturely
which
now
has
over
1
6
million
users
this
is
how
we
found
the
idea
This
was
2020
And
we
saw
everything
was
moving
away
from
face
to
face
So
we
knew
documents
weren't
being
signed
face
to
face
anymore
They
were
being
signed
over
the
internet
So
we
looked
this
model
up
and
we
saw
DocuSign
was
the
biggest
player
in
the
game
They
were
public
They
had
a
ton
of
revenue
But
their
product
was
complicated
It
wasn't
easy
to
use
We
thought
there
has
to
be
a
better
way
Why
don't
we
build
a
simple
easy
to
use
version
of
DocuSign
that
was
so
easy
to
use
your
grandmother
could
use
it
That's
how
we
knew
this
business
could
be
successful
There
was
already
proven
product
market
fit
There
was
a
need
in
the
market
for
customers
that
wanted
a
simple
version
of
a
tool
that
was
already
on
the
market
And
we
used
our
SEO
and
cold
email
and
other
skill
sets
to
acquire
customers
profitably
Okay
so
you
did
this
for
two
very
successful
businesses
You
have
this
framework
for
finding
ideas
that
are
already
proven
and
then
just
going
and
building
them
doing
them
somewhat
differently
Can
you
walk
me
through
this
framework
so
that
someone
watching
could
potentially
do
the
same
Step
one
is
I
would
look
for
markets
that
already
have
product
market
fit
I
mean
I'm
not
Steve
Jobs
I
had
a
1
5
GPA
growing
up
So
I
thought
it
was
a
lot
easier
to
go
into
a
market
that
already
has
product
market
fit
Now
that
you
found
a
market
that
you
want
to
compete
in
the
next
step
is
finding
your
unique
angle
putting
a
unique
twist
on
it
It
can't
just
be
pricing
It
can't
just
be
hey
we're
like
XYZ
but
a
little
bit
more
affordable
There
has
to
be
some
unique
twist
to
it
So
go
look
at
the
one
and
two
star
reviews
and
see
what
people
are
complaining
about
See
what
they
dislike
about
the
best
players
in
the
market
That's
our
twist
Our
twist
is
what
people
dislike
about
the
biggest
companies
in
the
space
because
those
are
the
easiest
customers
to
go
after
and
acquire
And
that's
step
three
acquiring
customers
profitably
Now
this
is
the
hardest
part
but
if
you
can
get
this
right
you
can
build
any
business
This
is
the
hardest
part
because
you
have
to
have
a
skill
set
here
whether
it's
cold
email
whether
it's
cold
calling
whether
it's
SEO
whether
it's
ads
So
my
skill
sets
are
around
cold
email
cold
calling
SEO
and
a
few
others
I
acquired
all
of
these
by
reading
books
by
watching
YouTube
videos
And
step
four
is
execution
Most
people
talk
about
building
a
business
but
actually
building
it
is
a
lot
harder
You're
going
to
fail
You're
going
to
have
to
get
back
up
You're
going
to
have
to
keep
going
In
this
playbook
it
might
not
work
the
first
time
I
failed
at
probably
over
20
different
businesses
before
having
two
successful
businesses
I
think
that
framework
is
awesome
I
love
that
playbook
Clearly
it's
worked
for
you
for
two
very
successful
businesses
But
for
anyone
who's
watching
right
now
I
think
they
might
be
wondering
how
can
I
do
this
right
now
What
are
the
opportunities
that
can
work
in
2025
I'm
sure
you've
come
across
a
bunch
of
painful
problems
that
you'd
love
to
solve
but
you
don't
have
time
for
What
would
you
be
building
right
now
that
the
audience
can
learn
from
One
idea
is
a
super
simple
CRM
Almost
every
business
needs
a
CRM
It's
a
big
market
It's
fragmented
There's
multiple
companies
doing
billions
of
dollars
in
revenue
This
is
an
area
I
would
probably
look
at
if
I
was
building
something
new
today
Number
two
I
would
say
a
payroll
software
for
small
businesses
You
have
a
bunch
of
companies
in
the
space
Again
really
fragmented
multiple
winners
in
this
space
If
you
look
at
FreshBooks
and
their
SEO
strategy
around
templates
and
tools
I'd
probably
copy
that
playbook
right
there
right
They've
built
the
playbook
for
you
There's
an
SEO
advantage
I
would
have
in
that
market
Number
three
I
would
say
a
website
analytics
tool
Every
business
needs
to
analyze
their
metrics
their
funnel
how
much
traffic
they're
getting
to
their
website
attribution
ROI
Your
market
is
almost
infinite
And
if
you
can
tie
in
some
new
things
right
now
around
AI
around
maybe
mentions
on
LLMs
within
the
analytics
tool
I
think
that'd
be
a
cool
tool
to
start
today
All
right
before
we
keep
going
here
I
do
got
to
call
out
something
I've
been
seeing
with
a
lot
of
founders
right
now
You're
moving
fast
Maybe
you're
close
to
product
market
fit
or
you're
prepping
for
your
next
round
but
then
enterprise
prospects
start
asking
about
your
security
compliance
and
suddenly
everything
slows
down
The
reality
is
that
in
2025
especially
with
AI
security
expectations
hit
earlier
and
harder
than
ever
You
can
either
get
ahead
of
it
or
let
it
become
the
thing
that
kills
your
momentum
Vanta
today's
sponsor
basically
solves
that
entire
headache
Instead
of
spending
months
figuring
out
SOC
2
compliance
Vanta's
automated
workflows
get
you
audit
ready
fast
And
here's
what
I
really
like
about
the
platform
It's
not
just
a
one
time
setup
It
keeps
monitoring
and
updating
as
you
scale
Fast
growing
startups
like
LangChain
Rider
and
Cursor
trusted
Vanta
to
build
their
security
foundation
early
which
means
they
can
focus
on
growth
instead
of
getting
stuck
in
compliance
hell
Right
now
Vanta
is
offering
1
000
off
for
StarterStory
viewers
So
check
out
Vanta
com
slash
StarterStory
or
click
the
first
link
in
the
description
Over
12
000
companies
are
already
using
Vanta
to
scale
smarter
Huge
thank
you
to
Vanta
for
partnering
with
us
at
StarterStory
Let's
dive
back
into
the
interview
I
want
to
hear
a
little
bit
more
about
your
businesses
that
you
built
We
haven't
really
talked
about
them
yet
but
can
you
share
the
two
businesses
that
you
built
and
software
that
are
crushing
it
right
now
What
do
they
do
How
do
they
work
And
how
are
they
doing
Uplead
is
a
B2B
data
provider
with
real
time
verified
emails
mobile
numbers
and
buyer
intent
signals
Uplead
has
over
4
000
customers
currently
It's
done
over
30
million
in
sales
and
it
gets
over
100
000
visits
to
its
website
every
month
And
the
other
business
I
have
is
Signaturely
It's
an
e
signature
company
It's
an
easy
and
simple
to
use
alternative
to
DocuSign
Signaturely
has
over
1
6
million
users
It's
done
over
1
5
million
in
sales
and
it
gets
over
800
000
visits
per
month
Okay
cool
And
those
are
amazing
businesses
Beyond
the
framework
for
finding
these
ideas
which
we
talked
a
bunch
about
I'd
also
be
curious
to
hear
about
how
you
actually
grew
and
scaled
these
businesses
Can
you
tell
me
a
little
bit
more
about
that
Uplead
got
its
first
1
million
in
annual
recurring
revenue
strictly
from
cold
email
So
this
is
kind
of
the
cold
email
framework
that
we
use
for
Uplead
And
I
think
anyone
can
kind
of
use
this
and
apply
this
to
their
business
today
So
here's
the
cold
email
that
got
us
our
first
1
million
in
ARR
I'll
break
it
down
The
subject
line
is
hi
first
name
So
hi
James
The
first
line
is
I
was
checking
out
your
LinkedIn
profile
and
thought
this
could
be
of
value
to
you
We
built
a
tool
called
Uplead
which
is
like
ZoomInfo
but
with
real
time
email
verification
and
we're
really
affordable
Are
you
open
to
trying
it
out
at
no
cost
So
the
subject
line
is
hi
James
It
looks
like
it
came
from
a
real
person
The
intro
is
neutral
and
direct
I
saw
your
profile
There's
no
hype
there
The
value
prop
is
clear
and
familiar
We
framed
it
against
the
biggest
company
in
the
market
ZoomInfo
but
better
We
told
what
our
twist
is
And
then
the
ask
are
you
open
to
trying
it
out
at
no
cost
We
try
to
make
the
ask
so
easy
it's
hard
to
say
no
You
don't
need
long
emails
You
need
short
ones
that
feel
human
And
I
think
any
business
can
take
this
They
can
tweak
those
lines
and
they
can
send
out
the
same
cold
email
that
we
did
So
from
Signaturely
we
got
from
0
to
1
6
million
users
mainly
from
SEO
We
use
the
strategy
around
tools
and
templates
and
ranking
for
them
high
in
search
in
order
to
get
our
first
customers
We
built
a
free
online
signature
tool
where
you
can
type
or
hand
draw
your
signature
and
you
can
download
it
And
then
we
push
them
to
go
use
that
to
sign
documents
So
that
was
one
of
the
tools
we
use
as
part
of
our
funnel
And
then
we
also
wrote
templates
So
we
wrote
marketing
agreements
and
construction
agreements
and
landlord
agreements
And
we
ranked
a
bunch
of
templates
templates
and
contracts
And
that
was
how
we
got
our
first
thousand
plus
customers
OK
well
thanks
for
sharing
that
I
mean
SEO
I
love
SEO
Big
reason
Starter
Story
grew
as
well
The
last
question
that
I
have
for
you
that
we
ask
everyone
who
comes
on
Starter
Story
you
built
these
amazing
businesses
What
would
you
say
to
a
younger
Will
if
you
could
stand
on
his
shoulder
shoulder
and
give
him
advice
from
when
you
were
just
starting
out
You
had
the
failed
mortgage
company
What
would
be
your
advice
to
someone
just
starting
out
like
you
Have
these
big
hairy
audacious
goals
these
crazy
goals
these
moonshots
right
I
remember
when
I
was
first
starting
out
I
thought
if
I
could
just
make
5
000
a
month
that
would
be
enough
And
then
you
hit
that
and
then
you
go
to
the
next
level
So
have
big
goals
Another
one
is
things
are
going
to
come
up
every
day
that
get
in
your
way
Don't
sweat
the
small
stuff
Think
about
the
big
picture
Another
piece
of
advice
is
you
have
to
just
keep
going
You're
going
to
fail
You're
going
to
have
to
get
back
up
right
I
failed
at
probably
15
20
different
businesses
before
I
built
two
that
were
super
successful
Well
thanks
for
coming
on
the
channel
I
appreciate
you
sharing
your
story
and
these
amazing
businesses
that
you
built
Hope
to
have
you
on
again
sometime
and
see
your
businesses
grow
even
more
So
thanks
for
coming
on
Thanks
for
having
me
Pat
Thanks
again
to
Will
for
coming
onto
the
channel
and
sharing
his
story
I
love
his
approach
to
building
businesses
where
it's
not
about
creating
a
whole
new
category
but
instead
just
adding
a
small
twist
on
what's
already
out
there
If
you're
looking
to
do
something
similar
then
definitely
check
out
Starter
Story
Build
It's
our
program
where
we
teach
you
how
to
use
in
demand
AI
coding
tools
and
go
from
an
idea
to
a
real
working
app
in
just
a
couple
weeks
Having
coding
experience
is
not
an
obstacle
to
building
real
software
products
anymore
And
if
you
want
to
build
something
just
click
the
link
in
the
description
to
Starter
Story
Build
and
check
it
out
All
right
I
hope
you
guys
enjoyed
the
episode
and
found
it
valuable
I'll
see
you
in
the
next
one
Peace
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