How this solopreneur built a No Code SaaS that makes $400k a year - FormulaBot ($30k MRR)
Today’s case study is about FormulaBot (previously ExceFormulaBot), a startup founded by David Bressler in August 2022.
David is a data guy who worked in analytics for several years, but the emergence of AI apps changed his life and, especially for the 750 million people who use Excel.
In July 2022, David was fascinated by AI progress, especially with the launch of ChatGPT. One night at home, he decided to give ChatGPT a try, as we all did at the time. However, in his case, this led him to found a millionaire online business.
He first asked GPT some simple questions and progressively more complex ones. David, who worked with Excel daily and was the go-to person for Excel help among his colleagues, wondered if there was an AI that could make using Excel easier, specifically generating formulas from text. He searched on Google but found nothing. Realizing the great opportunity ahead, he decided to take action.
Early days…💡
There was one problem standing in David’s way, he had no app development skills, but, with no-code tools this is no longer a real problem…
David discovered Bubble, a no-code web application tool that could integrate with the OpenAI API. He learned how to use Bubble by watching YouTube tutorials and learning through trial and error. He dedicated his nights to studying the OpenAI API documentation, spending roughly three weeks from learning about Bubble.io to launching the single-page application. For the next month, he added more features to the single-page app.
Launching… 🚀
David wanted to validate his idea and get feedback from early users, so he posted about ExcelFormulaBot on an Excel subreddit. Surprisingly, it got a lot of attention with 10,000 upvotes. This convinced him to keep working on it. He started giving out the tool for free to see if people liked it and to get feedback.
After his Reddit post about ExcelFormulaBot gained a ton of attention, David faced a big problem: a hefty API bill of $4,999. He felt that he needed to monetize his product to deal with the bill expenses. To start making money, he swiftly developed a website that operated as a subscription-based SaaS model.
On launch day, 82 people became customers right away, which was more than David expected. The customers came from organic traffic due to the interest generated by his Reddit post.
The product's success continued with a strong Product Hunt launch, making $2.4k in sales the first 24 hours. ExcelFormulaBot was the top 5 most liked for the day, gaining exposure to communities interested in Excel, no-code tools…
Then, a lucky break occurred when a TikTok influencer with 4.5 million followers talked about ExcelFormulaBot, bringing in thousands of new users overnight. The video quickly went viral, amassing 285,000 likes, and David learned about it a day later from one of his colleagues.
Summing up David's FormulaBot journey, it's clear that his story is one of seizing opportunities and embracing challenges with determination and a can-do attitude. By tapping into his industry know-how, David transformed challenges into opportunities, showing us the power of knowledge and strategic thinking in business.
His willingness to roll up his sleeves, learn new skills, and adapt to whatever came his way reminds us that growth often comes from pushing beyond our comfort zones.
Despite the bumps along the road, David's journey with FormulaBot is a shining example of how passion, perseverance, and a willingness to learn can lead the way to success in the ever-evolving landscape of entrepreneurship.
