GTM Sauce

Cardstock · B2C · sports card value scanner

Bring in friends for a three-way revenue split and teach them to code

Team of three grew to five; revenue from a few hundred a month to ~$1.5M a year

Workedteam-process

What they did

When Cardstock made almost nothing, invited two friends (headed for retail/restaurant jobs) to help and split revenue three ways, even though they barely coded. Taught them to code and worked together for 2-3 years while he kept full ownership.

What happened

Grew from three people making a few hundred dollars a month to five people at ~$1.5M a year
Stage
Early (pre-revenue)

In their words

I Built Two Apps That Make $120K/Month

Play from 3:19
2:56

Kyle FowlerYeah, it's been a long process. I definitely really always loved anything coding, development-related when I was younger. My parents had me doing like coding camps type of things. Found my way into an iOS development course, decided it was boring and was just going to try to make a game on my own, making a little iOS game called Snaking. That was

3:19

Kyle Fowlerreally fun. And then, eventually found my way into trying to make Cardstock. Trying to just like know that I have a problem and looking for the solution until I found it. And then, it grew and grew from there. When I started Cardstock, it was just me and I saw my friends were going to have to work stupid jobs at like Kohl's and a restaurant, so I asked them if they wanted to come help and split the

3:43

Kyle Fowlerrev three ways, even though there was basically no revenue and they didn't know how to code very much. So, I taught them how to do that. We spent like two or three years doing that together where I was, you know, taking 100% ownership, but like helping them.

3:57

Pat WallsPersonally, I love Kyle's approach to building. It's proof that the best app ideas come from personal problems that you notice in your own life. But most people just scroll past these potentially great ideas every single day without realizing it. Well, this is exactly why we put together The Million Dollar Problems database. Inside this database, you will find 90-plus business ideas that have real revenue numbers behind

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Tags: revenue-share, cofounders, hiring-friends