Starter Story · 2026-05-21

I Make $1.7M/Year In The Most Boring Niche Imaginable

Bohdan 'Bo' Drozdov co-founded Savvy Nomad, which helps US citizens abroad change their state domicile to stop paying state taxes. Three subscription tiers billed upfront: $140K MRR, ~$1.7M ARR, 1,400+ customers, 120-150 new a month, ~$10M in taxes saved, six employees. He explains why the unsexy niche worked (real demand, little competition, high pain, quantifiable value), shares three adjacent ideas, and a playbook: find overpaid painful problems, weigh competition against opportunity, productize one workflow with a recurring layer.

Play the episode

4 tactics

Savvy Nomad · B2C · state tax exit service for expats

Turn one painful tax chore into a step-by-step product, then charge a subscription

$140K MRR, ~$1.7M ARR, 1,400+ customers

Instead of building a platform for all of international taxation, pick the most common, most painful workflow and turn it into a repeatable step-by-step product: for Savvy Nomad, changing a US citizen abroad's state domicile. Target the gap between DIY (blog posts, Reddit threads) and hiring a professional for thousands of dollars. Build a recurring layer on top of the one-off workflow (subscription plans).

Workedpositioning-nichepricing

Starter Story · 2026-05-21

Savvy Nomad · B2C · state tax exit service for expats

Focus on Americans abroad, the most underserved group your last startup kept seeing

Became a ~$1.7M/year business with little competition

While running a digital-nomad tax startup (later shut down), Bo kept seeing that Americans were the biggest, most underserved group. His co-founder met California surfers who had lived abroad for years and were still paying California state taxes. They built for exactly that group, choosing a market with real demand, high pain and few capable founders competing.

Workedmarket-selectionpositioning-niche

Starter Story · 2026-05-21

Savvy Nomad · B2C · state tax exit service for expats

Ask a few questions, show how much tax they could save, then suggest a plan

Most customers finish the online part in under an hour; no conversion numbers

The web product opens with qualifying questions, then shows the customer's potential tax savings next to the cost of the service (the 'likely financial benefit vs what our service costs' framing that makes the decision rational), then shows the plans with the most suitable one for them. Built on Bubble.

Unknownonboardingpaywall

Starter Story · 2026-05-21

Savvy Nomad · B2C · state tax exit service for expats

Offer three plans for different customers and charge upfront

Middle plan is the most popular; $140K MRR

Three subscription plans for different customer types: basic Domicile, a mid-tier plan (the most popular), and Domicile Premium. Customers are charged upfront via Stripe, so net volume runs slightly above MRR.

Unknownpricingpayments-checkout

Starter Story · 2026-05-21

Numbers mentioned

Who	Metric	Value	Context	When
Savvy Nomad	arr	USD 1.7M approximate		1:02
Savvy Nomad	mrr	USD 140K approximate	Stripe dashboard; net volume slightly higher because customers are charged upfront	1:32
Savvy Nomad	customers	1,400 customers approximate	'Over 1,400 customers'	1:02
Savvy Nomad	new customers	120–150 customers/month approximate		1:32
Savvy Nomad	customer savings	USD 10M approximate	State taxes saved for customers to date	1:02
Savvy Nomad	team size	6 employees approximate		0:16
marketAgency fees for handling a US immigration process	price	USD 8,000–15Kper customer /one-time approximate	What people pay agencies for what Bo calls essentially a workflow problem	6:49