❤️ Jason's 12K side hustle

Saeed's $20K chrome AI extension

Hey - It’s Farzan & Guy,

We’re on the lookout for more exciting founders to share their stories on Founderoo! If you or someone you know has an amazing founder journey and wants to showcase their business to 20,000 monthly readers, just reply to this email. Ok let’s get into this weeks newsletter.

Estimated reading time: 7 mins

In the mail today :

  1. Founder story: Jason’s $12K side hustle 🔥

  2. Founder story: Saeed’s $20K AI Chrome extension 💪

  3. Founder playbook: The $2B Blinkist deal 😎

  4. Founder advice: Naval’s 4 C’s advice 4️⃣

  5. Founder quote: 5 SaaS founder mistakes ❌

 Founder story

How Jason Leow Built a $12,000/year side hustle with Carrd Plugins.

See how Jason:

💰 Created a $12,000/year Carrd plugins business
🌐 Built a suite of plugins enhancing Carrd website functionality
🛠️ Started by solving his own needs as a Carrd user

5 takeaways from Jason's story:

👉 Leverage your expertise in communities you're already part of
👉 Start with free tools to build awareness and user base
👉 Validate ideas by observing recurring community questions
👉 Use a mix of marketing strategies, including community engagement
👉 Iterate on products based on user feedback and needs

Jason's advice for Founders:

"Being a part of the community was the key. I was a Carrd user just like everyone else. Still am. So, I think I understand their needs too. Building free tools initially helped build a user base and some awareness."

Founder story

See how Saeed built an AI Chome Extension to over $20,000 per month.

Saeed, a software engineer built a ChatGPT browser extension that now makes $20,000-$30,000 monthly. He suggests building for existing platforms or smaller marketplaces. He found ideas by listening to users online and built the extension using basic web technologies. Growth was organic through word-of-mouth. He monetized first with a newsletter, then added paid features. His advice: validate ideas quickly and focus on your strengths.

 Founder playbook 

(founder playbooks are the strategies used by successful founders).

A few notes about Blinkist:

📚 Co-Founded by Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, Tobias Balling, and Sebastian Klein in 2013
🌍 Based in Berlin, Germany
💰 Valued at $100 million (pre-acquisition)
👥 Over 26 million downloads, 1 million paying users
🤝 Acquired by Go1 in 2023 as part of a $2 billion combined valuation

5 takeaways from Blinkist's journey:

👉 Solve a real problem: Blinkist addressed the need for quick, digestible summaries for busy readers.
👉 Simplicity is key: Simplifying their product helped drive their success.
👉 Constant adaptation: Blinkist succeeded by continuously tweaking pricing and marketing strategies.
👉 Build a community: Focusing on membership fostered loyalty and long-term engagement.
👉 Ride trends: Tapping into the audio content boom helped expand their audience.

 Founder advice

 Founder quote

The top 5 mistakes by SaaS founders (by Stefan Smulders).

Today, my SaaS makes $9M ARR. But we've learnt a lot in the last 4 years.

If you're a founder scaling a SaaS, avoid these top 5 mistakes that SaaS companies make (examples of how successful companies avoid them)👇

  1. Founders wait till the perfect product is built. Instead, launch fast and gather user feedback. Ship fast.

  2. Many SaaS product onboarding is too complicated. Make it as simple and clear as possible.

  3. Newly funded startups often hire for 'anticipated needs.' Instead, hire for actual needs. Don't hire 4 people when you need only

  4. Startups tend to price too low, or too high, or bombard users with features. Streamline your pricing tiers and highlight the distinct value of each one.

  5. Founders often get too attached to their ideas; knowing when to pivot is any entrepreneur's superpower.

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See you in 7 days.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo

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