We Are Founders

How Hailr Turned Gamified Ads Into a Growth Engine 🚀 Hailr didn’t begin as a product. It grew out of a need. Agencies wanted faster, cheaper interactive ads. So the team behind Sea Monster built something new. Here’s what happened next: ✔️Launched mid-pandemic, giving the team time to focus on product ✔️Let customer feedback shape the roadmap ✔️Built self-service tools based on what users needed ✔️Gamified the ad experience to drive real engagement ✔️70%+ of traffic becomes engaged users, who return 4+ or more Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eRxVKvQV

Intuit Mailchimp started as a side project for a web design agency's clients. Users didn't just want email marketing, they craved simple, user-friendly email marketing that wasn't clunky or enterprise-focused. So, Mailchimp focused obsessively on ease-of-use and rode the "Freemium" wave with a viral footer link to massive bootstrapped growth. ✔️ Simplicity is a killer feature—people love intuitive tools for complex tasks ✔️ Solve a real pain point you deeply understand ✔️ Freemium + simple viral loops can fuel enormous organic growth without VC Operators can read the full breakdown of their $12B journey here 👇 https://lnkd.in/efdQXfTJ

Karl used to “work from home”, even when he was halfway across the world. His employer wasn’t keen, so he built a workaround. A small device that routes all your traffic through your home. No config. No public IP. Just plug it in. That became KeepMyHomeIP which is now used by remote workers and digital nomads everywhere. Karl's journey in a nutshell: ✅ Scrappy: A DIY solution turned into a global product ✅ Human: Joined forums, helped people, then offered the product ✅ Pivot: Built for privacy geeks, digital nomads showed up instead ✅ Learned: Build for yourself, but pay attention to who actually needs it You can read the full article if you're a Starter or Operator member. 👇 https://lnkd.in/efWFp3ke

Back in 2010, designing an app meant wrestling with Photoshop or Illustrator—tools built for everything except UI. That’s the pain Sketch set out to solve. A small team, focused vision, and a Mac-only app built purely for UI design. Fast, clean, and made for real workflows. Why it worked: ✔️ Solved one problem well: no fluff, just smart tools for screen design. Leaned on the community: plugins and shared UI kits turned Sketch into a platform. ✔️ Embraced constraints: Mac-only wasn’t a weakness—it meant performance and simplicity. ✔️ Figma changed the game later, but Sketch hasn’t stood still. With new collab tools and a browser-based viewer, it's still a solid choice for many designers. Full breakdown (with lessons for founders too) 👇 https://lnkd.in/ekAQxbpc

Monkey Taps is a tiny app studio making ~$20M/year from just three simple apps: Vocabulary, Motivations, and Affirmations. No big funding rounds or hype—just clean, useful apps built fast. Why it works: ✔️ Speed and simplicity beat big, bloated development cycles ✔️ Small teams with AI tools now outpace large, corporate app builders ✔️ Daily value over trends creates compounding success Read more about Monkeytaps and how the app landscape is changing 👇 https://lnkd.in/eeZPes5D

Loom started as a user-testing tool, but nobody cared. Users just loved the fast screen recording feature. So, they pivoted, built around one-click recordings, and rode the Chrome extension wave to massive growth. Key lessons from Loom: ✔️Speed is the killer feature—people love products that solve problems fast. ✔️ Follow user behavior, even if it means scrapping your original plan. ✔️Simple viral loops (like a shareable link) can drive huge growth without paid ads. Operator members get full access here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eu-fRXY5

Flipkart started with $10K, an apartment, and a stack of books. Smart moves—like cash-on-delivery and grabbing Myntra—helped them win big in India's tricky e-commerce scene. Key takeaways: ✔️ Solve one real problem clearly. ✔️ Use acquisitions to speed things up. ✔️ Be ready to fight (and adapt) when giants like Amazon enter your turf. Operator members get full access 👇 https://lnkd.in/ePSSqaUd

Loom's journey shows the highs and lows of rapid growth: 💡Explosive adoption: 1M users by 2019, boosted massively by the pandemic. 💡Valuation rollercoaster: peaked at $1.5B in 2021, acquired for ~$975M in 2023 by Atlassian. 💡Long-term relevance: still a vital part of async workflows in tools like Jira and Confluence. Full story here 👇 https://lnkd.in/eu-fRXY5

Monkey Taps is tiny—but their apps pull in $20M+ a year They don’t chase trends. They don’t overbuild. They ship small, sharp apps that people actually use. ✔️ Big teams can’t move fast. Small ones with AI tools can—and do ✔️ Their apps Vocabulary, Motivations, and Affirmations drive 99% revenue ✔️ They build lean, cut the fluff, test everything and scale what works Read their full story: https://lnkd.in/eeZPes5D

✨ Figma didn’t just match Adobe—it outpaced it. While others shipped software, Figma shipped collaboration. 🌐 They built for the browser when everyone else stuck to desktop. That single decision changed how teams worked forever. 🧪 Figma’s early access strategy wasn’t about hype—it was about feedback. They waited until users loved it before making noise. ⚙️ Figma didn’t need flashy branding or ads to get a $20B offer. They earned it by solving one painful problem—working together in real-time. Want the full breakdown? Read the case study: https://lnkd.in/eMC4A69A