Pre launch (2018–2019)
Co working and bootstrapping
Saba and Tim worked out of a shared co-working space (sharing one entry card), cut all operating costs to the bone (e.g. negotiating Crisp Chat down from $100 to $20/month), and cycled everywhere to save money. They iterated on early product ideas to prove they could ship.
→ Built foundational shipping muscle; no meaningful user or revenue growth at this stage
Early product (2019–2020)
Organic direct
Launched a simple browser-based video editor (trim, crop, add text) inspired by Gyazo's GIF editor. Kept the product extremely simple and focused on removing friction from basic video editing tasks.
→ Initial users but no meaningful traction or revenue
Survival mode — both founders got day jobs
Salary reinvestment
Both Saba and Tim took full-time jobs but religiously contributed half their monthly salaries back into the company bank account. Used that money to hire two engineers to continue building the product.
→ Kept the company alive; enabled continued product development
Growth phase (while working day jobs)
Seo landing pages
Identified ~500 high-intent video-related search terms (e.g. 'trim video,' 'crop video'). Built a dedicated landing page for every single term, writing all copy himself despite being dyslexic. Pure volume and intent-matching with zero paid budget.
→ 0 to 30,000 monthly users in ~8–9 months
Users 30k users
Growth phase (alongside SEO)
Youtube content
Recorded a YouTube video paired to every SEO landing page, creating a content loop that reinforced search rankings and provided how-to context for each use case.
→ Amplified SEO-driven growth; contributed to 30k monthly user milestone
YC rejection → monetization pivot
Direct user monetization
After YC rejection specifically called out the lack of paid users, Saba and Tim implemented a paywall over a single weekend and emailed YC Monday morning to say they had 20 paying users. YC still rejected them, but the monetization switch stayed on.
→ 20 paid users acquired within a weekend; revenue stream established
Post YC rejection — full focus on growth
Seo landing pages plus youtube
Back in the UK, Saba set one and only one goal: make traffic and revenue higher than the day/week before. Doubled down on the SEO + YouTube content engine as the sole growth lever, since there was no budget for paid acquisition.
→ $0 to $1M revenue in first year of full focus
Rapid revenue scaling
Seo landing pages plus youtube
Continued compounding the SEO and content flywheel. Revenue accelerated non-linearly: hit $1M, then $2M 4 months later, $3M 2 months after that, $6M 6 months later.
→ $1M → $6M ARR within ~12 months; ultimately scaled to $10M, $20M, $30M, $40M+ in revenue