Profitable Founder

I make $1M/year selling access to APIs I don't own

👉 Try Distribb for Free: distribb.io [https://distribb.io?utm_source=buzzsprout-miki] Miki previously built a VC-backed company with hundreds of employees, then quit to start over bootstrapped. He launched Zernio, a social media API that lets SaaS companies plug into Meta, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube without dealing with the bureaucracy themselves. In 10 months, he scaled it to $1M ARR using Google Ads from day one, even when his acquisition cost was double his lifetime value. Find Miki on X: https://x.com/paletmiki [https://x.com/paletmiki] Try Zernio: https://zernio.com [https://zernio.com] 👋 Apply to join Profitable Founder Community: https://tally.so/r/dWZ5Jz [https://tally.so/r/dWZ5Jz] Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:53 - Zero to $1M ARR in 10 months 1:19 - Running ads from day one 1:46 - From VC-backed to bootstrapped 2:51 - Why he quit the VC path 4:22 - The two projects before Zernio 5:19 - How he finds startup ideas 7:15 - What Zernio actually does 8:22 - Real use case breakdown 9:26 - The full growth timeline 11:14 - Google Ads and SEO strategy 14:03 - Balancing growth and churn 15:36 - Building the team 16:43 - The month MRR doubled 18:28 - Managing ad spend without going broke 20:11 - What VC taught him about bootstrapping 21:16 - The Google Ads funnel explained 22:50 - How he built V1 in a weekend 25:30 - First keywords and first campaigns 25:54 - Why he ignored acquisition cost 28:02 - Combining ads with SEO 29:56 - Other distribution channels 31:26 - Talking to customers daily 32:25 - 150 support tickets a day 34:12 - Why he rebranded 35:41 - The real cost of rebranding 37:02 - Building from Europe 39:20 - Vision and next steps 40:58 - Biggest lessons from 7 years of building 43:38 - How much time he wastes on Twitter 44:26 - The playbook to do it again from zero 46:08 - Advice for founders who are struggling

I Make $5M/Year Giving My SaaS Away for Free

👋 Apply to join Profitable Founder Community: tally.so/r/dWZ5Jz [https://tally.so/r/dWZ5Jz] Marie and Philip (her co-founder and life partner) launched Tally, a free form builder, from their living room during COVID lockdowns. Five years later, they hit $5M ARR with just 10 people and zero funding. In this episode, Mari shares how giving their product away for free became their biggest growth engine, why she said no to their most requested feature for 5 years, and the unexpected channel that 5x'd their revenue almost overnight. Try Tally for Free: tally.cello.so/QZlNWuM7kjG [https://tally.cello.so/QZlNWuM7kjG] Find Marie on X: x.com/MarieMartens [ttps://x.com/MarieMartens] 👉 Try Distribb for Free: distribb.io [https://distribb.io?utm_source=yt-marie] Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 1:04 - From corporate job to startup life 6:44 - The failed startup before Tally 9:43 - How Tally was born during COVID 11:08 - Why simplicity is their biggest edge 13:11 - The freemium flywheel that drives growth 15:28 - How they decide what to build 17:46 - Getting real feedback from users 22:41 - Building in public: does it actually help? 25:37 - Key lessons from 5 years of building 28:39 - The channel that changed everything 32:35 - Making freemium actually work 38:28 - What they would do differently 42:27 - Building a team after years as a duo 47:31 - The future of Tally and the SaaS apocalypse 50:24 - How to protect your SaaS from AI

I made $46K in 35 days with OpenClaw 🦞

🔷 Try Distribb for Free: https://distribb.io?utm_source=yt-nevo Nevo David built Postiz, an open-source social media scheduler, and grew it from $0 to $66K MRR. It took him 3 years to go from 0 to $20K MRR. The last $46K took 35 days. Thanks to one viral article and the OpenClaw wave. In this episode, he breaks down every growth hack he used, how he made his SaaS agentic-first, and why this is the biggest blue ocean for founders right now. Try Postiz:https://postiz.com/ Follow Nevo: https://x.com/wickedguro 🦞 Join the OpenClaw Community: https://openclawlab.xyz Chapters: 0:00 - $2K/day from a SaaS nobody expected 0:50 - "When you're lucky so many times, it's not luck" 2:41 - How Postiz started as a completely different product 5:17 - His first Reddit launch got 250K views 6:29 - Why open source (and why it's not for everyone) 8:33 - "Open source got very AI sloppy" 9:56 - Why contributors work for free 11:33 - The 9 growth hacks that got him to $20K 12:31 - How he wins Product Hunt every time 15:46 - The "gray area" growth tactics 16:57 - [Distribb] How to automate your distribution 18:15 - Start now or it's too late for mid-tier SaaS 19:16 - Riding trends: N8N, MCP, and Starter Story 22:41 - Don't be the hype, ride the hype 23:42 - How he deals with failure 25:55 - Finding your real ICP (it wasn't who he expected) 29:04 - The OpenClaw story begins 31:45 - 200 followers, 7 million views, 700 trials 33:42 - X articles are the new Reddit 36:42 - Paying 200-follower accounts to write articles 37:41 - "LLMs are starting to recommend my tool" 38:12 - How to make your SaaS agentic-first 40:55 - You just need a skill, a CLI, and an API 43:40 - "Postiz doesn't even need a dashboard anymore" 46:40 - "When everybody can do everything, nobody makes money" 47:21 - Why enterprise SaaS is in trouble 50:36 - Managing virality as a solo founder 52:20 - "Being overwhelmed is the worst thing for a founder" 54:11 - Automating support with AI agents 56:09 - Burnout and context switching 57:27 - His daily priority system: bugs first, marketing second 1:00:42 - The personal chat assistant era is here to stay 1:03:06 - Who should go all-in on agentic as a service --- Find me on X: https://x.com/floriandarroman Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florian.darroman/ Get customers from Google and AI on autopilot: https://distribb.io Join 300+ founders building with OpenClaw: https://openclawlab.xyz Website: https://floriandarroman.com All podcast episodes: https://profitablefounder.xyz

I built a $1M Startup in 117 days (I had 16 followers)

🔷 Try Distribb for Free: https://distribb.io?utm_source=yt-yasser Yasser Elsaid built ChatBase from 0 to $1M ARR in 117 days with just 16 followers on X. No funding, no sales team, no connections. In this episode, he shares the mindset that got him there, how he stayed locked in during the chaos of early growth, why he didn't sell at $1M, and what he believes separates founders who burn out from those who break through. Now ChatBase does $8M ARR and serves thousands of companies worldwide. Find Yasser on X: https://x.com/yasser_elsaid_ Try ChatBase: https://link.chatbase.co/florian-darroman Join 3,000+ readers: https://floriandarroman.beehiiv.com/ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:50 The Hardest Milestone 2:11 What Tesla and Meta Didn't Teach Him 3:51 From Side Project to Chatbase 6:21 Posting With 16 Followers 7:45 Where Self-Belief Comes From 9:42 Managing Virality 10:22 Staying Locked In During Hypergrowth 12:07 Sleep and Balance? Not Yet. 13:49 Why He Didn't Sell at $1M ARR 16:16 Finding a Clear Path 17:52 Reaching Out to Peter Levels 19:18 Best Founder Advice He Got 21:13 What Makes a Perfect Product 24:02 PLG Explained 27:02 How to Build a Product That Sells Itself 28:52 Launching Features to Capture New Markets 31:42 The Shopify Partnership 34:41 Influencer Marketing: What Stopped Working 36:26 Best Channels for B2B SaaS 39:29 Why a Developer Started Doing Video 41:13 When to Stop Making Every Decision 43:05 Why Most Agencies Failed Him 44:16 Hiring Rule: 100% or Nothing 46:04 Cutting Churn From 27% to 8.8% 48:32 The $100M Vision 49:45 The Future of AI Agents 52:38 Why Founders Should Embrace Boredom --- Find me on X: https://x.com/floriandarroman Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florian.darroman/ Get customers from Google and AI on autopilot: https://distribb.io Join 300+ founders building with OpenClaw: https://openclawlab.xyz Website: https://floriandarroman.com All podcast episodes: https://profitablefounder.xyz

How I got 1,000 paying users for my SaaS with only 2 videos (copy me)

Get 50% off your first month on Velio using the code « florian »: https://velio.co/?ref=florian59 In this video, Marcus shares the best SaaS marketing strategy to get your first 1000 customers without ads. Marcus Jones grew one of the biggest YouTube education channels to nearly 500K subscribers and launched his SaaS, Velio, to 1000 paying users in just 60 days with only 2 YouTube videos. In this conversation, he breaks down his complete playbook: - The 6 things that actually matter on YouTube - How to find video ideas with built-in demand - Why most founders make "solution aware" videos instead of "problem aware" ones, - The exact video structure that has generated over 7 figures in sales. Whether you're a SaaS founder, app builder, or indie hacker trying to grow without paid ads, this is the roadmap. Marcus Jones' YouTube Channel: @Marcus-Jones Join OpenClaw Lab: https://openclawlab.xyz Find me on X: https://x.com/floriandarroman Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florian.darroman/ Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 1:05 - Why start YouTube as a founder? 2:00 - The real problem with YouTube advice 3:51 - The 6 things that actually matter 4:28 - #1: How often should you post? 6:24 - #2: What makes people choose you? 10:33 - How to find your X factor 15:10 - #3: The consistency trap 19:00 - When quitting is smart 21:33 - Aristotle's rule for YouTube 25:07 - #4: Retention isn't production quality 30:17 - #5: Why your packaging is broken 32:44 - How long to spend on thumbnails? 34:14 - His team behind the scenes 34:50 - A/B testing that actually works 38:09 - When to start hiring 40:43 - #6: The one thing that trumps everything 44:02 - Finding ideas with built-in demand 47:03 - The metric nobody talks about 52:44 - You don't need data skills for this 55:31 - How he got 1000 users with 2 videos 57:36 - Problem-aware vs solution-aware videos 1:01:12 - The video structure that made 7 figures 1:06:45 - Starting from zero: the exact plan 1:13:38 - Stealing formats from other niches 1:18:09 - The biggest mistake to avoid 1:20:15 - The mindset that keeps you going --- Find me on X: https://x.com/floriandarroman Find me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florian.darroman/ Get customers from Google and AI on autopilot: https://distribb.io Join 300+ founders building with OpenClaw: https://openclawlab.xyz Website: https://floriandarroman.com All podcast episodes: https://profitablefounder.xyz