Solopreneur case studies — 9/9
Solopreneur and side-business cases
193–201 of 201
Zigpoll: Solo at $125,000/Month — the Day It Realized It Had Misread Who Its Real Customer Was
Jason Zigelbaum runs Zigpoll, a survey SaaS for e-commerce sites, solo — no co-founder, no funding — and reached $125,000 MRR (roughly ¥18.75M) in June 2026. The turning point was realizing he had been locking his best customer segment out of the tier where the features they needed lived.
From unemployed to owner of 3 businesses. A record of ~20 buy offers at an 80% reply rate, stacking up million-yen-class deals
Mr. Yoshida, in his 30s, left his job during the pandemic, sent about 20 buy offers on TRANBI with an 80% reply rate, and successively acquired a rental space in Kagurazaka, an esthetic salon in Chiba, and a call center in the Philippines for 3.7 million yen. On the third deal, sales halved right after closing.
eBiz Facts: $4,199/Month Reviewing Get-Rich-Quick Courses — Why It Pushes Readers Away From the Products It Reviews
Ireland-born Niall Doherty launched course-review site "eBiz Facts" in December 2018. It now averages $4,199/month over the trailing six months, with $2,708 in profit. The turning point was the very first project: buying a course with his own money and testing it for six weeks before writing anything.
Anniversary app "365-Day Anniversary" hit 10,000 yen a month, two months after launching a subscription
The anniversary-management app "365-Day Anniversary" reached 10,000 yen in monthly revenue two months after its subscription feature launched. The turning point was a design decision that didn't remove ads but instead made them always visible — and repurposed those same ads as the reason to buy the paid plan.
¥250,000/month on his 6th solo project — from a 50-yen-per-transaction failure to 50 paying users at ¥4,000/month
A developer who built six solo projects reached about ¥250,000/month in recurring revenue with his fifth product, an Instagram chatbot tool. His first product failed at a 50-yen-per-transaction commission and a few thousand yen a month; rethinking price point and billing model was the turning point.
Buttondown: A Stripe Engineer's Weekend SaaS — 5% a Month for Five Years to $75,000/Month
Justin Duke, a Stripe engineer, started newsletter SaaS Buttondown as a December 2016 side project. Roughly 5% monthly growth for the past five years brought it to $75,000/month (about ¥11.25M). He didn't go full-time until year seven.
A salaried employee's side-hustle secondhand-clothing shop hits ~¥3M in year one, profitable every month on 5-10 hours a week
Wakabayashi, a full-time employee, runs an online secondhand clothing shop across BASE, Mercari, and Yahoo Auctions. 2024 full-year sales were nearly ¥3M, with a strong month at ¥362K and a weak one at ¥127K, run solo from home in 5-10 hours a week.
The Formula Mom: Zero Ad Spend, 175K Followers, Six-Figure Annual Revenue — Joining a Formula Company in Two Years
Mallory Whitmore, a former teacher, started posting about formula-feeding in August 2020 and reached 175K Instagram followers and 30K email subscribers with zero ad spend. Annual revenue reached the low six figures, 80% from digital products and one-on-one consults, before she was acqui-hired by formula company Bobbie in roughly two years.
9,345 AI-generated images uploaded to Adobe Stock: the full record of reaching 878 downloads and $589/month (~¥95,000) over 9 months
A freelancer restarted AI-generated stock photo sales in June 2025 and, over 9 months, reached 9,345 cumulative uploads, 878 monthly downloads, and $589.59/month (~¥95,000). The turning point came in month five: an experiment where he resubmitted rejected images unchanged, tweaking only the tags and title — and about 50% got approved.