Sold first SaaS for $250,000
Bhanu sold his first SaaS product, Feather, for $250,000 so he could focus fully on the faster-growing SiteGPT.
Snapshot · Starter Story
The Marketing Playbook That Grew My App to $13K/month | Starter Story
Explore episode
Sep 9, 2026
Where this was said
Introducing Bhanu and SiteGPT
At 3:41 · chapter starts 2:08
Bhanu takes over the mic and delivers a remarkably compact origin statement: two SaaS products built, one sold for $250,000, one growing to $13,000 MRR with approximately $500,000 in cumulative revenue since March 2023 [1] — Bhanu "$500K total revenue since launch: SiteGPT has generated approximately $500,000 in total revenue since its launch in March 2023." 03:48 . He notes immediately that most of his customers come through a strategy he calls 'engineering as marketing,' signalling that the conversation is going to be both tactical and replicable. Pat probes further, asking Bhanu to explain what SiteGPT actually does — it's an AI chatbot builder that gives any website a 24/7 intelligent assistant, sold on a subscription model. The business is real, the numbers are disclosed openly, and the stage is set for a deep dive.
$13K MRR with $0 marketing spend
Bhanu grew SiteGPT to $13,000 monthly recurring revenue entirely through organic channels, spending nothing on paid marketing.
1 million website visitors total
More than 1 million people have visited SiteGPT's website since launch in March 2023, all through organic channels.
$500K total revenue since launch
SiteGPT has generated approximately $500,000 in total revenue since its launch in March 2023.
Similar snapshots
Good product = best marketing
The founder argues that the foundation of all effective marketing is a great product — without it, no channel works.
SEO as primary growth channel
Before other tactics, the founder defaults to SEO as the first and most-used growth channel for new products.
4 marketing channels used
The founder uses four main marketing channels: SEO, social media, directory listings, and cross-promotion.
Cross-promo: users try multiple products
Every user who tries one of the founder's products ends up trying at least one more, and many try all of them.
Social media on 4+ platforms
The founder runs social media marketing on X, LinkedIn, Substack, and Facebook simultaneously.
Directory listings as growth lever
Directory listings are described as a very effective growth channel, especially for AI products that are clickable and interesting.
Clickbait-friendly products win directories
Products that are inherently interesting or clickbaity are much easier to drive traffic from through directory listings.
Cross-promo is unique differentiator
The founder describes cross-promotion across his own product portfolio as a strategy that is quite unique to him.
Hundreds of thousands of users reached
Using these four strategies, the founder has grown multiple products to hundreds of thousands of users.
