Launch (Day 1)
Twitter viral demo
Posted a 20-second demo video to 16 Twitter followers showing the streaming ChatGPT-like interface. Explicitly named the AI tools used (LangChain, Pinecone) in the tweet, prompting those companies to reshare to their own audiences, creating a viral loop.
→ Tweet went viral; generated first paying customers within days
Early Growth (first weeks)
Product-led growth
Set up a simple Stripe button on the landing page with no sales process. Core feature was 'upload a PDF, chat with it.' Focused on zero bugs and a clean UI so users converted and retained without hand-holding.
→ 2-3 sales per day consistently, leading Yaser to drop out of university
Month 1 2
Build in public — Twitter
Framed every new feature release as a standalone launch tweet written for someone with zero prior context — not a 'feature update' but a fresh product story. Posted consistently about what he was building day-to-day.
→ Sustained viral moments with each release, compounding audience growth
Month 1 4
Reddit community seeding
Went into book and influencer subreddits and built free Chatbase chatbots for famous books and public figures (Paul Graham, Naval Ravikant, etc.) at his own cost. Goal was domain authority, brand exposure, and converting curious visitors who landed on the Chatbase landing page.
→ Increased domain authority and organic discovery; some free users converted to paid
Month 1 4
Linkedin sponsored posts
On days without a product launch, paid for sponsored posts with large LinkedIn pages. Structured the posts as direct product showcases.
→ $4,000 in revenue from a single sponsored LinkedIn post
ChatGPT API launch (Month 2 3)
Twitter news cycle hijack
When OpenAI released the ChatGPT chat completions API and the topic was trending, Yaser posted a tweet framed as 'in the last 48 hours I built this' — positioning Chatbase as the premier example of what developers could build with the new API.
→ Second major viral moment, large new user acquisition spike
117 Days
Product-led growth
Maintained pure PLG with no sales team — Stripe button, strong landing page, single core feature. All marketing done externally (social, Reddit, sponsorships); website just needed to convert.
→ $1M ARR reached in 117 days
MRR $83k
Scale (2.5 years in)
Product-led growth
Continued 100% PLG with no funding. Expanded model support (OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Gemini, Groq) and added affiliate program via Dub to incentivize word-of-mouth.
→ 10,000 paying customers, 600,000 registered users, $6.8M ARR
MRR $567k Users 600k users