Pre launch / Year 1
Google sites embed
Built the first version of the site on Google Sites using drag-and-drop, embedding free online games via iframes. No custom code, no design — purely functional.
→ A few thousand users over time, negligible revenue
Early passive phase (Years 1–3)
TikTok — organic
Posted TikTok videos sporadically, roughly once a day or less, 5 days a week. No structured format, no iteration. Site sat largely dormant while generating small passive AdSense income.
→ $240 in a single day eventually observed — first major revenue signal
MRR $1.0k
Growth phase kickoff
TikTok — organic
After the $240 day, Maddox studied 10–20 competitor TikTok videos to identify top-performing hooks and formats. He then copied the best formats, posting 3 videos/day across 3 TikTok accounts (9 videos/day total), 5 days a week.
→ Rapid spike in daily active users; AdSense revenue graph shows sharp inflection
Growth phase — cross platform automation
Instagram reels youtube shorts snapchat
Used Repurpose.io to automatically cross-post every TikTok video to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat — zero additional effort. Snapchat consistently delivered 20,000+ views per video.
→ One video: 2.1M views on TikTok, 3.2M on Instagram, ~5M total across platforms. Estimated ~$1,000 revenue from a single video.
Growth phase — content iteration system
TikTok — organic
After each batch of videos, reviewed engagement rates and outcomes before filming the next day's videos. Iterated on hooks and formats each cycle. Found a winning visual hook format (filming laptop gameplay on phone) and ran it as a series of 30+ parts with varied hooks.
→ 4.6M total views on main TikTok account
Growth phase — delegation
Creator delegation
Mentored another person to produce videos following his exact format, paying his girlfriend ~$200/week to post roughly one video per week. This freed Maddox to focus on site improvements and AB testing rather than daily content production.
→ Maintained high content volume without founder bottleneck
Monetization optimization
Ab testing onsite
Used PostHog (obtained $50K in credits via their startup program) to AB test site layout and navigation, maximizing both session time and pages-per-visit. More pages = more ad impressions = more AdSense revenue.
→ Helped scale AdSense revenue; contributed to reaching $15K/month peak
MRR $15k Users 150k users
Community building
Discord community
Built a Discord server that grew to 7,000 members. Used it to hype new features and maintain an engaged user community around the site.
→ 7,000 Discord members; improved retention and feature feedback loop
Exit
Direct outreach to acquirer
Recalled seeing a larger company acquire a similar small games site ~1 year prior. Proactively contacted them with his stats. Received a $100K lowball offer, countered, and agreed on a final price. Used Escrow.com as middleman for the transfer.
→ Sold for $120,000