Project Management Software

3 Project Management Software Success Stories [2024]

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Updated: September 6th, 2024

Looking to streamline business operations and improve productivity? Consider developing project management software. This business involves creating digital tools that help teams plan, execute, and track projects efficiently.

Your software will provide a centralized platform for managing tasks, timelines, and resources, bringing clarity to complex projects. Teams will benefit from features like task assignment, progress tracking, and communication hubs—all designed to enhance collaboration and efficiency.

Developing project management software requires dedication to understanding user needs, coding, and continuous optimization. However, the payoff can be significant, with demand growing as more companies seek digital solutions to project and team management.

If you're interested in tech and organization, this could be your path to creating a valuable and in-demand product.

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

1. Inflectra Corporation ($9.96M/year)

Adam Sandman, founder and CEO of Inflectra Corporation, came up with the idea for his business while working at Sapient. He and his colleague realized that there was a need for a more affordable and agile requirements and project management system in the software industry. This led Sandman to quit his job, code the first version of SpiraTest himself, and launch Inflectra.

How much money it makes: $9.96M/year
How much did it cost to start: $20K
How many people on the team: 50

This Solo Founder Built A $10M ARR Tool For Software Teams

Inflectra Corporation's Founder and CEO Adam Sandman shares how he went from being a stay-at-home dad to running a tech company with $10MM in ARR, offering insight on launching and marketing a tech product in the industry.

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2. HMS ($2.7M/year)

Chris Vandersluis founded HMS Software back in 1984 after securing a contract to create a project management tool and timesheet for Philips Electronics. Through iterations and feedback from both project management and finance teams, Vandersluis and his team developed a unique timesheet system that could serve both purposes, ultimately leading to the creation of TimeControl. HMS Software has grown organically and made between $2 million and $3 million in revenue last year, with a profitable margin of approximately 30%.

How much money it makes: $2.7M/year
How much did it cost to start: $999
How many people on the team: 15

How We Built A Timesheet Solution And Grew It To $2M/Year

Montreal-based software company HMS Software generated between $2 million and $3 million in revenue last year, boasting a 20-30% net profit margin and a successful self-funded model. Its project-based timesheet software, TimeControl, is used by a plethora of large private and public organizations to track both activity-based time for updating project management plans and timesheet data for finance.

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3. GanttProject ($36K/year)

Dmitry Barashev came across GanttProject while searching for open-source Gantt chart drawing software to use on Linux. He made a contribution by implementing a command-line export feature and eventually took over leadership and administration. With no paid advertising, GanttProject has grown steadily and generates $3000-5000 in monthly revenue, with loyal customers and a low churn rate. The team is now working on GanttProject Cloud, a low-cost commercial product offering collaboration features and online project storage.

How much money it makes: $36K/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 0

I Grew My Open-Source Software Side Project To $3K/Month [$0 Spent On Ads]

GanttProject, a popular free open-source project scheduling application, generated $3000-5000 monthly through the pay-what-you-want model, despite not spending a single dollar on paid traffic, and has now grown to over 2-3k monthly active users.

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Read by 4,652 founders