❤️ Victoria & Obie's 5-figure MRR business

Hey - It’s Farzan & Guy,

I (Guy) went to a 50th last night, and the dress code was ‘sparkle.’ I went all out, head-to-toe sparkle, even an Airbender-style glitter line on my head. But I got stitched up—most people didn’t dress up! I’m a firm believer that if it’s fancy dress, you go all in.

Enough sparkle, let’s dive into today’s newsletter!

Estimated reading time: 8 mins

In the mail today :

1. Founder story: Victoria & Obie’s 5-figure MRR business ❤️

2. Founder story: Thomas’ 2 SaaS businesses making $1000 MRR 🔥

3. Founder playbook: Figma’s rise to the almost $20B Adobe deal 💪

4. Founder advice: Startup founders need to do this to succeed 🚀

5. Founder quote: A cracking quote on failing from Seth Godin ⚡️

 Founder story

See how Victoria & Obie's Olympia reached 5-figure MRR with virtual teams.

See how Victoria & Obie:

💰 Built Olympia to 5-figure ARR in under a year
🌐 Created AI-powered virtual teams for small businesses
🛠️ Developed the platform to solve their own business needs

Our top 3 takeaways from Victoria & Obie's journey: 

👉 Use personal frustrations as inspiration for business ideas
👉 Leverage existing networks for your first customers
👉 Treat customers like family and involve them in product development

Victoria's advice for Founders: "Stay hungry, stay foolish" (Steve Jobs). Victoria lives by this quote, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and bold innovation in the entrepreneurial journey.

Founder story

Thomas reveals how he built two SaaS businesses making a total of $1000 MRR.

See how Thomas Kim built two AI-powered SaaS products, each earning about $500 monthly. Nexus Research aids reading, while Perfect Interview AI assists with interview prep. Both grew through social media marketing. The creator plans to maintain these products passively while focusing on a new, potentially more lucrative project.

 Founder playbook 

Figma's astounding rise: From dorm room to the $20 Billion Adobe deal that almost was.

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

See how Dylan & Evan: 

💰 Built Figma from a dorm room project to a $20 billion valuation
🌐 Created a revolutionary web-based collaborative design platform
🛠️ Transformed the design industry with innovative software

Our top 3 takeaways from Figma's journey: 

👉 Embrace bold decisions (like leaving college for the Thiel Fellowship)
👉 Overcome early challenges through persistence and adaptability
👉 Focus on user-centric design and continuous innovation

"Figma stands out as a beacon of innovation and collaboration, largely owing to its founders, Dylan Field and Evan Wallace. Their story, from college students to tech pioneers, encapsulates a journey of groundbreaking ideas, perseverance, and transformative technology."

💡 Figma's lesson for Founders: Understand your customers' needs deeply, be ready to pivot in response to market demands, and maintain a clear and consistent vision while navigating the ups and downs of the startup world. (that was a mouthful).

 Founder advice

Startup founders need to do a lot of this to make it work.

 Founder quote

The person who fails the most, wins (Seth Godin’s words I think)

“The rule is simple: the person who fails the most will win. If I fail more than you do, I will win. Because in order to keep failing, you’ve got to be good enough to keep playing. So, if you fail cataclysmically and never play again, you only fail once. But if you are always there shipping, putting your work into the world, creating and starting things, you will learn endless things. You will learn to see more accurately, you will learn the difference between a good idea and a bad idea and, most of all, you will keep producing.”

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See you in 7 days.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo