10 most impressive companies that have generated millions in revenue with 0 employees

I want to offer some motivation to solo developers out there, as I am a solo founder myself. Y Combinator advised me to find a co-founder using their matching tool, but it's challenging for me because I have trust issues.

Many people might say that you need co-founders, workers, etc. to hit your $1M goal. However, I strongly believe that's not the case. If you are putting effort into solving a problem and providing value in people's lives, then you don't have to worry about anything.

Here are some companies who achieved the result as solo warriors;

Stardew Valley

• It's a country-life role-playing game
• Developed by Eric Barone
• It has generated $300M+ in revenue in 6 years
• Eric could become the first 1-person founder to do $1B+ in sales

BuiltWith

• It helps you find what technologies and services a website uses
• Founded by Gary Brewer
• It generates $14M in revenue per year

Viral Nova

• It's a curation site for the most viral content on the Internet (similar to Buzzfeed)
• Founded by Scott Delong
• At its peak, it generated $5-$10M per year in revenue and 100M readers per month with 0 funding and 0 employees

Photopea

• It's a free photo and graphics editor
• Made by Ivan Kutskir
• It generates 10M visits per month and ~$1.5M in revenue per year
• People spend 1.5 million hours a month using Photopea

Digital Inspiration

• It builds google plugins for docs, sheets, slides, and more
• Founded by Amit Agarwal
• It gets 5M visits per month and earns $10M in revenue per year
• 40M+ have downloaded the plugins

Rego apps

• 3 of its apps (5-0 police scanner, remote for tesla apps, and police scanner+) are the most downloaded apps in their category
• Founded by Allen Wong
• He has made over $100M+ from these apps

Portfolio of diverse businesses

• Justin Welsh has built several businesses that generate $3M+ in revenue (94% margins)
• He earns through consulting, courses, paid community, newsletter sponsorships, and more

Brumate

• It sells adult beverage (beer, wine) cans to keep them cold for 24+ hours
• Founded by Dylan Jacob
• He made $20M in revenue with 0 employees
• It has 2.5M+ worldwide customers

Portfolio of diverse businesses

• Pieter Levels has built several companies—remote job marketplace, AI photography, nomad community, and others—that make ~$3M+ in revenue

Carrd

• It's a one-page website builder
• Founded by AJ
• It generates $1M+ ARR
• 4M+ sites have been built on Carrd

I wrote this post in my newsletter to encourage my readers to adopt a positive mindset towards their work and projects. It's important to keep moving forward and remember that success is a gradual process. I want to highlight the importance of learning to be patient and taking pride in every little accomplishment along the way.

Comments

[Digital Alchemyst]

Interesting article ! I want to learn more about the challenges these ventures faced and how they scaled up without a team. Insights into their journey can motivate solo developers like us.

[Akshay Raveendran]

Thank you! I am currently working on that and I'll let you know when I finish:)