We reached $1M ARR with zero funding

We really did it! We bootstrapped ProjectionLab to $1,000,000 in annual recurring revenue.

And I’m still processing that this is real. 🥹

Back in 2021, I was inspired by the financial independence movement and wanted a better way to plan my own life. I couldn’t find the right tool, so I started building.

I had no idea that side project would one day help over 100,000 households plan for their financial future too.

How we got here

If this is your first time hearing about ProjectionLab, here’s a quick recap:

When you look beyond the recurring revenue chart, this journey had ups, downs, and moments I wanted to quit.

The emotions behind the numbers

Want to know what building in public from zero to a million dollars a year really felt like? NOT like serenely progressing up-and-to-the-right…

More like riding a dopamine rollercoaster while getting attacked by a bear.

The flat months in the early years? The dips in earnings? The times I woke up to a dozen canceled subscriptions?

Each one had me questioning everything, wondering if I should just focus on the corporate ladder, or maybe try to get into big tech instead.

The financial independence movement is what set me on this path. So on top of worrying about normal business risks, I was primed to think in terms of my time and opportunity cost, and how failure would hurt my own timeline to FI.

But gradually, I learned that emotional peaks and valleys are always a part of entrepreneurship. And that “not giving up” is actually a superpower.

Not giving up

There are loads of people out there smarter than me.

But luckily, success indexes less on IQ and more on consistency. The willingness to doggedly show up every single day can take you to some really suprising and amazing places.

And you know what makes it easier and more rewarding to be that persistent?

Working alongside people you like.

From solo dev to real team

For the first two years, I burned the candle at both ends working solo. 4-6 hours every night after work, entire weekends, holidays, you name it.

404 Day Off Not Found.

That was the only way I could build something this complex in a crowded market as a risk-averse engineer with a day job. And I was fortunate enough to attempt this at a stage in life when I had lots of energy and few family responsibilities.

Plus my trusty sidekick, BB the bird:

But long-term, I knew there would be a choice to face:

1. Keep doing everything myself and watch growth plateau, or…
2. Find someone with a complementary skillset and start building a team.

I was just an ordinary engineer with zero marketing experience. So I figured I should try to team up with someone good at growth & marketing.

Finding a growth & marketing partner

During the first few years, I was approached by dozens of potential “partners.” Several wanted an outsize equity stake to essentially just make suggestions. Others had the wrong skillset or didn’t feel like a complete fit.

But Jon Kuipers jumped right into the trenches and worked to prove himself before asking for anything. He spent a year contributing real value, and when the time came to bring on a growth partner full-time, I didn’t look anywhere else.

Now I stay focused on building, while he handles growth, marketing, partnerships, and some ops stuff.

Building a team

We’ve also added a few contractors to the team.

And these guys are legends. 💪

They come straight from the ProjectionLab user community, and they are doing a great job fielding the arcane finance questions our customers love to ask. Plus hosting 1-on-1 sessions, creating tutorial videos, and more.

Could we have offshored customer success for pennies on the dollar instead? You bet. But having a happy and engaged user community of product evangelists means a lot to us, and I want them all to have the best experience possible.

For multiple years, I was up at all hours answering support questions myself. It interrupted my dev work (and my sleep) constantly. I love the PL community – it’s a big part of what motivated me to keep going back then.

And it blows my mind that the empty discord server I created a few years ago now has over 8,500 fellow personal finance enthusiasts.

But at this point, I serve the community best by focusing on the area where my contributions have the greatest marginal value: building.

And with our team now enabling that, what we’ve shipped this year speaks for itself.

What’s next?

Hitting $1M ARR is just the beginning.

And that only counts recurring revenue. With non-recurring income sources like Lifetime subscriptions and 1-on-1 training sessions, monthly revenue has consistently been 20 to 50 percent higher.

With that momentum, we’re doubling down on what got us here:

• Making a good product that people actually like to use (including us)
• Staying lean, bootstrapped, and aligned with the interests of our customers
• Building thoughtfully and sustainably, not chasing AI hype or growth-at-all-costs

If you’re building something yourself…

Here’s one small piece of advice:

Once you’ve validated your idea, keep showing up to make it a little better every day. Even when there are distractions. Even when growth is flat. Even when it feels pointless.

And even when that voice in your head says you’re not a “real entrepreneur.”

It said that to me too. A lot.

So you know what? Do what most people can’t: actually show up every day. And prove it wrong.

You never know which day will be the one that changes everything.

Whether you’re building a business, just getting started with investing, or working toward financial independence, it’s often the small, consistent actions that compound over time. Just like dollar-cost averaging into index funds, showing up consistently to improve your craft can produce surprisingly powerful results on your path toward a better future.

Thanks to everyone who’s supported ProjectionLab over the years. You’ve literally changed my life, and I wake up every day excited to keep building for you ❤️

–Kyle