Starter Story · 2026-01-19
How I Grew My SaaS to $150K/Year With Reddit and SEO
Ayush, marketing co-founder of Elephas (a Mac AI knowledge-base app started by Kamban in 2022), grew it to ~$150K ARR as a two-person team. Phase 1: demo-video feature posts in niche subreddits framed as 'I built this, what do you think?' took it from $0 to $3K MRR in 6 months and shaped the Super Brain feature. Phase 2: SEO, discovered when a support article on OpenAI API keys ranked #1; keyword research for low-difficulty terms and a 'best ChatGPT Mac apps' listicle drove ~$70K from Google in 2023. Sells subscriptions and lifetime deals via Gumroad, Setapp and the App Stores.
Play the episode8 tactics
Numbers mentioned
| Who | Metric | Value | Context | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elephas | arr | USD 150K/year approximate | After ~3 years | 1:18 |
| Elephas | revenue | USD 12K/month approximate | 3:48 | |
| Elephas | revenue | USD 110K/year approximate | Own-website license sales via Gumroad, 'this year' (likely 2025) | 2:20 |
| Elephas | revenue | USD 12.5K/year approximate | Mac App Store revenue on the dashboard shown; period not stated, likely same year | 2:20 |
| Elephas | views | 180K visits/year approximate | Website visits per Plausible | 2:20 |
| Elephas | mrr | USD 3,000/month approximate | Reached from $0 within 6 months via Reddit | 3:48 |
| Elephas | revenue | USD 70K/year approximate | Revenue attributed purely to Google organic traffic in 2023 | 3:48 |
| Elephas | engagement rate | 30–50 upvotesper post approximate | Typical Reddit demo post; some got zero, viral ones 300-400 | 10:39 |
| Elephas | engagement rate | 300–400 upvotesper post approximate | Viral Reddit demo posts | 10:39 |
| Elephas | rank | 1 rank | Google position for the 'how to create OpenAI API keys' help article, held 6-8 months | 11:32 |
| Elephas | rank | 1 rank | Google position for the '18 Best ChatGPT Mac Apps Free and Paid' listicle | 12:43 |
| benchmarkAhrefs keyword filter for a new, low-authority website (guest's rule of thumb) | count | 20 keyword difficulty estimate | Target keyword difficulty below 20 combined with search volume above 500 | 13:46 |
| benchmarkAhrefs keyword filter for a new, low-authority website (guest's rule of thumb) | count | 500 monthly searches estimate | Minimum search volume, combined with keyword difficulty below 20 | 13:46 |
| benchmarkMinimum subreddit size worth posting in (guest's rule of thumb) | count | 5,000 members estimate | Smaller niche subreddits are often better: simpler rules, more forgiving mods | 8:20 |
| Elephas | team size | 2 people | 2:55 | |
| personAyush and co-founder Kamban combined | count | 30 failed projects approximate | '30-plus' failed projects before Elephas | 18:55 |