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How One Developer Turned a Simple API into a $50K/Month SaaS

From 11 failed startups to a $50K/month success: How Jon built Bannerbear by solving his own problem and growing through transparency, not ads.(~1min 45 secs read)

Author

Sweekar Koirala
September 14, 2025

Jon is an experienced entrepreneur and developer with years of hands-on experience creating and launching software products.

In 2019, he committed to a challenge: build 12 startups in 12 months.
Most flopped. But during this process, he hit a recurring pain point: Marketers and businesses were wasting time creating the same branded visuals over and over again for blog banners, product images, social posts, you name it.

So he built a tool to automate it. It started as a basic image-generation API. He used it himself. Then shared it online.

People loved it.
That project became Bannerbear.

THE PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:

Bannerbear is an API and UI-based tool that auto-generates images and videos from templates and data.

You create a template in the editor.
Then send in data via:

→ Zapier
→ Airtable
→ Google Sheets
→ Webhooks
→ Notion, Forms, CMS tools, etc.

It generates visuals like:Social media graphics, Dynamic product images, Open Graph images, Video snippets

And it works at scale, hundreds or thousands of assets, all on-brand, in minutes.
Teams use it to save time, stay consistent, and fully automate content design.

THE GROWTH PLAYBOOK:

No ads. No cold emails. No sales team.

  • He built in public

  • He shared MRR(Monthly Recurring Revenue) monthly

  • He blogged his learnings and journey

  • Ranked on SEO and indie hacker circles

Here’s the truth: People buy the product when they believe in the builder.

THE OUTCOME:

Today? $50K+/monthly revenue.
Thousands of customers.
Big brands. Solo founders. Agencies.
And Jon still owns 100% of it.

Read Full Case Study Here: How a Solo Founder Bootstrapped a $50K/Month SaaS: Bannerbear Case Study

That’s it for this story.

Keep learning, keep building because even the smallest idea can turn into something big.

Talk soon,
Sweekar Koirala

P.S : New here? Check out thestartupgenic.com for more case studies, tools, and stories you won’t find on mainstream startup media.


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