0 to 8 figure exit in 18 months

How TweetHunter went from 0 to millions in 18 months.

0 to 8 figure exit in 18 months
Do not index
Do not index
Canonical URL
Hide CTA
Hide CTA
Related to Authors (1) (Content)
Earlier this year in January, Tibo and Tom, founders of TweetHunter, sold their startup for 8 figures.
It was started as a tiny twitter project just 18 months before that - A collection of viral tweets.
Turned into a Thread scheduling tool, reached $1 Million ARR in 12 months.
And eventually sold to Lemlist for an undisclosed (7 figure+) amount.
Top framework of their success?
  • Building in Public
  • Strategic Partnerships
  • Side Project Led Growth
This is their rough deal structure at the time of the acquisition -
notion image

Initial Validation

Tibo and Tom didn’t want to dwell on the wrong idea for too long. It’s better to fail fast and move on than to fail slow and get stuck.
So they decided to launch a bunch of projects - 1 new project every week.
In about 4 months, they shipped 11 products.
Only 1 took off - Tweet Hunter.
notion image

Strategic Partnership

Tibo and Tom partnered up with Twitter ghostwriter JK Molina to boost growth.
JK had a huge audience in the “money Twitter” niche - A market where TweetHunter had no presence.
This follows the broader trend that people buy from people, not from faceless companies. So influencer partnerships can yield better results than running paid ads.
notion image

Side Project Led Growth

They kept shipping tiny side projects every month around their niche, and they kept growing.
They launched these projects on Product Hunt with much fanfare.
Every PH launch is a big event that generates a ton of eyeballs for Tweet Hunter. And since these side projects were free, people loved using them.
Some of their most successful side projects include:
They even acquired tiny products around Twitter growth.
One of the coolest side products Tweet Hunter acquired is called WhatToTweet.
It’s a tweet prompt generator. And it ranks on the first page of Google when someone searches for Tweet Inspiration.

Building in Public

Building in Public doesn’t work for all products.
But it is the perfect growth strategy for a Twitter scheduling tool. Because BIP is part of Twitter culture.
So Tibo and Tom shared their journey openly on Twitter every day.
This built up their following, and eventually the top of the funnel for Tweet Hunter.
A good example of building in public is this very thread where Tibo openly shared the story of the exit and the deal terms.
notion image

Top Lessons

  • Partner with people with completementary skills/resources. Find a co-founder, or collab with influencers.
  • A good product is table stakes these days, killer distribution is the real needle mover.
  • Side projects help with virality as well as SEO.
  • Building in Public works - more so if you’re building a social media tool.
Do read Tibo’s thread about the exit, it’s enlightening.
Also read a deep dive I wrote last year when they reached $1 million in revenue -

Proud Moment

Quite proud that this week my tiny AI startup Elephas was named one of the top Mac AI apps according to Setapp's 2023 Mac apps report 😍
More in this tweet.
We also got mentioned in Techcrunch this week. Do read this article -

Weekly Marketing Checklist

Made a rough weekly marketing checklist.
If you're not sure what marketing activities you should be doing every week, this might be useful -
notion image
More in this tweet.

Useful links you don't want to miss -
Last week’s top link -

🤗 How can I help?

Whenever you’re ready, consider joining the Indie Masterminds community. The goal of this newsletter is to inspire and motivate you, but the goal of the community is to help you take action and go to the next level in your journey.
So if you’re at that stage where you don’t need more inspiration, but you do need to take the right action, then come join us!
We’re here to help 🫂
 
 

Get 1 new actionable framework every week

Proven strategies for creators, indie hackers and solopreneurs. Read in less than 5 minutes every week. Sent to exclusively to 2600+ readers

Join for FREE
Ayush

Written by

Ayush

Eternally Curious. Writing, Learning, Building in Public. Writing about Ideas + Inspiration + Insights for creators, solopreneurs and indie hackers | Simple tips and frameworks to help you build a sustainable solo business

Related posts

$23k MRR - Stupidly simple PDF converter$23k MRR - Stupidly simple PDF converter
$145K MRR - simple employee scheduling tool$145K MRR - simple employee scheduling tool
$106K MRR - Upwork Lead Gen tool$106K MRR - Upwork Lead Gen tool
$293K ARR - stupidly simple bookmarking tool$293K ARR - stupidly simple bookmarking tool
$13K MRR selling peace of mind$13K MRR selling peace of mind
$19K MRR - SEO SaaS + service$19K MRR - SEO SaaS + service
$704K MRR - Solo Founder SaaS$704K MRR - Solo Founder SaaS
$291K a month teaching backend courses$291K a month teaching backend courses
$100K MRR - Simple Form Builder$100K MRR - Simple Form Builder
$24K MRR - Simple email forwarding service$24K MRR - Simple email forwarding service
$22K MRR - Simple “Link in Bio” tool$22K MRR - Simple “Link in Bio” tool
$19K MRR with a simple OCR app$19K MRR with a simple OCR app
$33K MRR with a simple Slack bot$33K MRR with a simple Slack bot
$1M ARR with single page site builder$1M ARR with single page site builder
⛵$13K/m while living on a boat⛵$13K/m while living on a boat
📝 $32K MRR editing words📝 $32K MRR editing words
$15K MRR - simple AI video editing app$15K MRR - simple AI video editing app
27 Best Micro SaaS Ideas to Build Right Now in 2024 (With REAL Examples)27 Best Micro SaaS Ideas to Build Right Now in 2024 (With REAL Examples)