Top Founders with Nathan Latka · 2026-07-10
Handwrytten Sends 6 Million Fake Handwritten Notes a Year and Makes $10M
David Wachs (sold text-marketing company Cellit for eight figures in 2012, started Handwrytten the next day) runs a 100%-owned, bootstrapped robot-handwritten-notes business: ~200 self-built robots in Phoenix, ~5-6M notes last year, ~350K notes/month across ~400 active customers. Revenue $2.4M (2019) -> $9.4M (2024) -> $9M (2025, ~$350K profit), targeting $10-11M in 2026. Paid search fails on unit economics, so growth comes from in-house SEO and integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Shopify, Zapier, Claude MCP); new robot-leasing line to 3PLs at $1,000-1,250/robot/month.
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Numbers mentioned
| Who | Metric | Value | Context | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handwrytten | revenue | USD 1M–1.5M/year estimate | 7:59 | |
| Handwrytten | revenue | USD 2.4M/year approximate | 7:59 | |
| Handwrytten | revenue | USD 9.4M/year approximate | 8:07 | |
| Handwrytten | revenue | USD 9M/year approximate | 8:07 | |
| Handwrytten | revenue | USD 10M–11M/year projection | 8:16 | |
| Handwrytten | profit | USD 350K/year approximate | Roughly breakeven; owner-discretionary expenses run through the company | 8:36 |
| Handwrytten | count | 200 robots approximate | Self-built handwriting robots in the Phoenix facility | 2:25 |
| Handwrytten | count | 5M–6M notes/year estimate | Notes sent last year; guest said 'about 6 million' then apparently corrected to 5 million | 2:32 |
| Handwrytten | count | 350K notes/month estimate | Expected notes sent in April 2026 (guest first said four to five, corrected to 3.5 i.e. 350K) | 2:43 |
| Handwrytten | users | 400K accounts approximate | All clients in the customer database (many sent a single note) | 2:58 |
| Handwrytten | customers | 400 customers estimate | Active customers | 2:58 |
| Handwrytten | count | 40K–50K notesper customer /month approximate | Largest clients' monthly volume (other large clients 20-30K/month); heavy power-law skew | 3:17 |
| Handwrytten | count | 30–40 notes/day estimate | Notes sent via iPhone and Android apps (small share; most volume via automations/bulk upload) | 4:55 |
| Handwrytten | cpc | USD 5per click approximate | Google search ad click (e.g. from a realtor) | 3:31 |
| Handwrytten | profit | USD 0.2per click approximate | Contribution margin from a low-volume (e.g. realtor) customer acquired via a $5 Google click | 3:36 |
| Handwrytten | views | 40K clicks/month estimate | Organic search clicks to the site, read by host from an SEO tool; not confirmed by guest | 10:48 |
| Handwrytten | views | 14K clicksper post /month estimate | Organic clicks to the top blog post (best wishes / good luck messages), per host's SEO tool | 10:36 |
| Handwrytten | domain rating | 70 score estimate | 'above a 70' domain rating per host's SEO tool | 10:41 |
| Handwrytten | price | USD 1,000–1,250per robot /month approximate | Robot lease price to 3PL/gifting facilities; build cost is 'much less' on an annualized basis | 18:45 |
| Handwrytten | count | 30 robots approximate | Robots leased out in the field | 18:39 |
| aggregateHandwrytten's robot-lease customers (3PL/gifting) | count | 15 robots approximate | Largest lease customer (in Tempe) | 19:01 |
| Handwrytten | ownership | 100% | Founder's ownership; never raised outside capital | 7:46 |
| Handwrytten | team size | 60 people approximate | From host's closing recap | 20:48 |
| Cellit | exit price | eight figures approximate | 1:10 | |
| Cellit | ownership | 75% approximate | Founder's stake at the time of sale | 9:19 |
| Cellit | count | 1M texts/day approximate | 'over a million' texts per day sent for brands | 1:04 |
| Letter Labs | revenue | 'Fix' (garbled; likely 'six', presumably $6M) estimate | 13:22 | |
| Simply Noted | revenue | 'Two' (unit unstated, presumably $2M) estimate | 13:29 |