Business Tool

4 Business Tool Success Stories [2024]

Pat Walls

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Updated: October 10th, 2024

Imagine a tool that dramatically enhances business efficiency and productivity. A business tool is a software application designed to streamline operations, manage projects, and facilitate communication. Think project management systems, CRM software, or accounting applications.

Starting a business tool company requires technical expertise and an understanding of market needs. The initial phase involves extensive research and development to create a functional and user-friendly product. Testing, feedback, and iterations are crucial to perfecting your offering. Once developed, your focus shifts to marketing and sales, targeting businesses that can benefit from your tool’s features.

If you have a penchant for solving complex business issues with tech solutions, developing a business tool could be a fulfilling venture. You’ll be addressing real-world problems and helping companies run more smoothly, which is a gratifying way to make an impact in the business world.

In this list, you'll find real-world business tool success stories and very profitable examples of starting a business tool that makes money.

1. Upvoty ($240K/year)

With a background in building online businesses, the founder needed a customer feedback solution for his own business.

The founder did not find any suitable tools for his SaaS platform, so he decided to build Upvoty on the side to “scratch his own itch.”

How much money it makes: $240K/year
How many people on the team: 0

Why I'm Building A Side Project On Top Of My Already Successful Business

A case study on the founder of Vindy and Upvoty, who used his experience with his first startup to quickly grow his second startup to over 100 customers and $500 MRR, all while financing everything with the profits of his first company.

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2. Estii ($120K/year)

After struggling with the complexities of project estimation at Deltatre, David Peek and Dom De Lorenzo saw a gap in the market for service-based pricing tools, leading them to co-found Estii. They've since helped clients secure over $8 million in new business and grown their revenue to $20K USD/month within a year.

How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
How many people on the team: 0

Our Pricing SaaS Has Helped Customers Make $8M+ Since Launch

Estii, an estimation and pricing platform for service providers, has helped customers win over $8 million in new business and currently sits at over 50 active workspaces and $20K USD/month in revenue.

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Read by 1,252 founders

3. pgMustard ($36K/year)

When Michael Christofides and his co-founder Dave realized that many developers still needed help despite existing tools for slow PostgreSQL queries, they founded pgMustard and now boast $30k in annual recurring revenue.

How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $5K
How many people on the team: 1

My PostgreSQL Side Project Makes $30K ARR

Case study about pgMustard, an online tool for developers helping troubleshoot PostgreSQL queries, growing steadily with $30k ARR, highlighting the importance of fixing pricing strategies and the impact of COVID on revenue streams.

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Read by 1,222 founders

4. Treendly ($12K/year)

While working on another SaaS product, he wondered about what non-essential feature he could take out from an existing product and put into another market where the feature is essential.

He was already running one of my other software products, where he collected e-commerce data. One of the features of that product was trend-spotting for e-commerce merchants.

And so Treendly was born from a side feature of that other product.

How much money it makes: $12K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0

I Bootstrapped A $12K Trend-Spotting Tool [From Estonia]

This case study is about a jazz musician turned SaaS founder who bootstraps and simultaneously runs nine products with $8k/month revenue, of which Treendly, a platform that discovers emerging trends, accounts for $1k/month and uses self-taught data collection skills to focus on what is important.

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Read by 5,900 founders