Tag
#saas case studies
4 sourced case studies tagged #saas. Every number links inline to the page it came from; self-reported figures are labelled as such.
- Tally: a free form builder that grew to $5M ARR, fully bootstrapped
- Plausible Analytics: $1M ARR with no ads, by picking a fight with Google
- Bannerbear: two years, three pivots, then a steady climb to $50K MRR
- GummySearch: 140,000 users, then shut down by a platform's API policy
Tally: a free form builder that grew to $5M ARR, fully bootstrapped
Tally launched in 2020 with a generous free tier and a 'Made with Tally' badge. Five years later it passed $5M ARR with 11 people.
Plausible Analytics: $1M ARR with no ads, by picking a fight with Google
A two-person open-source analytics tool took 324 days to reach $400 MRR, then grew to $1M ARR through blog posts that hit the Hacker News front page.
Bannerbear: two years, three pivots, then a steady climb to $50K MRR
Jon Yongfook burned a year of savings on 12 startups in 12 months, narrowed to image generation, pivoted to an API, and grew with a strict code-one-week, market-the-next rhythm.
GummySearch: 140,000 users, then shut down by a platform's API policy
A solo-built Reddit audience-research tool earned a large following, then closed in 2025 after failing to get a commercial Reddit API license. A lesson in platform risk.