Million-dollar Ideas That Failed

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Have you ever wondered how entrepreneurs have grown their business to $1M+/year?

Well, we've got the answers for you, and we've interviewed hundreds of them.

In each interview, we tell you:

• How they came up with their idea
• How they launched their business
• How they grew their business
• and how much they're making today

Here's a list of entrepreneurs who grew their businesses to $1M+/year, and how they built their businesses:

1. Nextiva ($120M/year)

Yaniv Masjedi from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA started Nextiva over 13 years ago, a business communications software.

• Revenue: $10,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 1000
• Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Hi, Everyone! My name is Yaniv Masjedi and I'm the CMO of Nextiva, a leading business communications company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. I've been with the company since the very beginning (spring 2008) when we signed our first customer.

Our co-founder and CEO, Tomas Gorny, came up with the idea for Nextiva after experiencing a ton of inefficiencies in the business phone service and business communication market. He wanted to solve for those and create a company that was focused on continually innovating and delivering the best customer experience the industry had ever seen.

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Yaniv Masjedi, on starting Nextiva ($10,000,000/month) full story ➜

2. Spokeo ($72M/year)

Harrison Tang from Pasadena, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada started Spokeo almost 16 years ago, a white pages tool.

• Revenue: $6,000,000/ month
• Founders: 4
• Employees: 169
• Location: Pasadena, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

My name is Harrison, and I am the CEO and Co-Founder of Spokeo. We are a people information service that helps over 15 million users a month to search and connect with others. Whether it's finding long-lost families and friends, or helping people research before they date, we organize over 14 billion records into easy-to-understand reports so that we can make trust a little easier.

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Harrison Tang, on starting Spokeo ($6,000,000/month) full story ➜

3. ShipMonk ($67M/year)

Jan Bednar from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA started ShipMonk ago, a fulfillment business.

• Revenue: $5,583,333/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 900
• Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Hi! My name is Jan Bednar and I'm the CEO and founder of ShipMonk, a technology-driven fulfillment center based in South Florida.

Our services are primarily geared towards B2C/eCommerce, subscription box, and crowdfunding fulfillment. We also offer FBA prep and B2B/retail services for online merchants. Our clients come from all walks of life, but small to medium-sized businesses are our sweet spot.

We've been operational for about five years now, and we could never have imagined how fast we'd scale. ShipMonk's revenue rose from $130K in 2014 to nearly $30M in 2018. We remained completely bootstrapped until October of 2018 when we raised $10M in Series A funding.

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Jan Bednar, on starting ShipMonk ($5,583,333/month) full story ➜

4. Diesel Laptops ($50.4M/year)

Tyler Robertson from Irmo, South Carolina, USA started Diesel Laptops over 6 years ago, a diagnostic tools business.

• Revenue: $4,200,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 180
• Location: Irmo, South Carolina, USA

My name is Tyler Robertson, and I'm the founder and CEO of Diesel Laptops.

We are a B2B company, and our business is selling diesel diagnostic hardware, software, and services to the trucking and off-highway diesel industry market.

The business originally was started with the idea of making it easier for customers to purchase the products and services they needed. As time went on, I started to create our own software and services that would support the customers. Since I quit my "regular" job to launch this company, we've successfully doubled revenue each year.

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Tyler Robertson, on starting Diesel Laptops ($4,200,000/month) full story ➜

5. Growers House ($37.2M/year)

Nate Lipton from Tucson, Arizona, USA started Growers House about 10 years ago, a gardening tools company.

• Revenue: $3,100,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 50
• Location: Tucson, Arizona, USA

My name is Nate Lipton and I'm one of the founders of a group of related companies in the cannabis and hemp industries.

GG Growth is the name of our parent company that includes: GrowersHouse.com, GrowersNetwork.org, Canna Cribs YouTube series, and TruPotency.com.

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Nate Lipton, on starting Growers House ($3,100,000/month) full story ➜

6. Underground Printing ($36M/year)

Rishi Narayan from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA started Underground Printing almost 21 years ago, a custom prints business.

• Revenue: $3,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 250
• Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

I am Rishi Narayan, co-founder of Underground Printing (UGP), a national custom printing apparel and promotional products provider, headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI. UGP offers screenprinting, digital printing, and embroidery on a wide variety of apparel and promotional products. We have stores throughout the nation in the heart of communities we serve. At UGP, it's our goal to make your order process as convenient and hands-on as possible.

Since launching the company in 2001 while sophomores in college, UGP has 35+ locations across the country. All of our garment print production is done in our state-of-the-art 55,000 sq. ft. production facility and warehouse, located in southeast Michigan. Our technology and infrastructure allow us to provide the best quality, the lowest prices, and with the shortest turnarounds in the industry. It is these traits that have propelled our growth, allowing us to be ranked among Inc. Magazine's 5000 fastest-growing companies for 3 years running.

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Rishi Narayan, on starting Underground Printing ($3,000,000/month) full story ➜

7. Marshal Group LLC ($27.6M/year)

Nathan Huskins from Washington, Illinois, USA started Marshal Group LLC about 14 years ago, a vehicle exporter.

• Revenue: $2,300,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 5
• Location: Washington, Illinois, USA

I am the founder and President of Marshal Group LLC, a licensed Illinois dealer specializing in exporting vehicles from the U.S. and Canada to destinations abroad.

I started my business in 2007 and have grown it substantially by building an agile team, using technologically advanced processes, and nurturing a global network of auto dealers and auto brokers. My company currently serves clients worldwide.

Our first full year, 2008, we had $26MM in gross sales, working from the bedroom of my house with myself and my mom as the only two employees. Sales slowed in 2009 with the recession but from 2010 to 2015 we grew each year peaking at $50MM in sales and 650 vehicles sold.

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Nathan Huskins, on starting Marshal Group LLC ($2,300,000/month) full story ➜

8. Efficy ($25.2M/year)

Pierrard from Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium started Efficy almost 17 years ago, a CRM business.

• Revenue: $2,100,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 200
• Location: Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium

Hey! My name's Cédric Pierrard and I'm the founder of Efficy, the European CRM champion. We are a serious challenger for our American competitors because we provide our customers with the very same features, but with openness, efficiency, and care.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el74L3sKLuM

We are a software publisher. Our flagship products are our extended CRM solutions. We offer sales automation, digital marketing, customer service, reporting as many CRMs. On top of that, we also have project management and document management modules. That's why we talk about extended CRM solutions.

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Pierrard, on starting Efficy ($2,100,000/month) full story ➜

9. Rosa's Thai Cafe ($24M/year)

Alex Moore from London, England, United Kingdom started Rosa's Thai Cafe over 15 years ago, a online food business.

• Revenue: $2,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 373
• Location: London, England, United Kingdom

My name is Alexander Moore and I'm the co-founder and Director of Rosa's Thai Cafe. Rosa's is a Thai food restaurant business I set up with my wife, Saiphin in 2006. We now have 18 sites spread out across the UK and sell authentic modern Thai food, to the beautiful people of all shapes and sizes of the United Kingdom!

Our dishes combine homely authentic Thai food with local ingredients in a casual cafe environment. We built this business from a humble weekend market stall in the East End of London in 2006 and our current run rate revenues are now in excess of $25mil per year and growing.

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Alex Moore, on starting Rosa's Thai Cafe ($2,000,000/month) full story ➜

10. Hunt A Killer ($60M/year)

Ryan Hogan from Baltimore, Maryland, USA started Hunt A Killer over 5 years ago, a mystery game store.

• Revenue: $5,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 62
• Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Hello, my name is Ryan Hogan and I am the Co-founder and CEO of Hunt A Killer, an innovative entertainment company that delivers clues, items and correspondence to your doorstep each month, which immerses Members in an interactive story. We have a total of four brands: Hunt A Killer, our murder mystery for true crime fans; Empty Faces, our paranormal investigation for horror fanatics; Escape The Invasion, our science fiction thriller for those looking to survive an alien apocalypse; and Team Building Kits, our business-to-business product that brings corporate teams together and improves company culture through quarterly experiences that create a fun and challenging environment.

Hunt A Killer started with 146 subscribers in October 2016. In August 2019, we shipped our one-millionth episode and continue to see signs of massive growth in the immersive entertainment space.

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Ryan Hogan, on starting Hunt A Killer ($5,000,000/month) full story ➜

11. SNOW ($60M/year)

Josh Elizetxe from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA started SNOW over 4 years ago, a hygiene product company.

• Revenue: $5,000,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 25
• Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

My name is Josh Elizetxe, and I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college and I did it at 20 years old. I graduated with a degree in CIS and I did it in two years and graduated with honors, Summa cum laude. I started Snow three years ago because I wanted to provide people with the luxury of whitening their teeth from home. Before the creation of Snow, I used to have an online marketing agency that I started in my teens and it was bought out in my early twenties.

My company only sells products that have been designed and tested by us. Our flagship product is our original at-home teeth whitening. It was the first product that created our current loyal customer base. Our typical customer is women 25 and up, women who take care of their appearance and want a beautiful white smile. According to clinical trials, the serum that comes in our wand causes little to no sensitivity and that was a major appeal for our customers because you get the same results without the nasty side effects.

This year we're expecting to do 2 or 3 times more sales last year's Q4 so the team and I are stoked to see our hard work come to fruition.

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Josh Elizetxe, on starting SNOW ($5,000,000/month) full story ➜

12. QALO ($24M/year)

KC Holiday from Santa Ana, California, USA started QALO over 8 years ago, a jewelry making business.

• Revenue: $2,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 45
• Location: Santa Ana, California, USA

Hey there! My name is KC Holiday and I am the co-founder of QALO.

We are a family-first company committed to designing and making products that enable families to share adventures and meaningful experiences—best known for being the creators of the functional wedding ring.

We've created an enormous community of over 2 million people who wear QALO to represent the most important commitment they've made in their life. This year we as a company will eclipse over 100M in total revenue since Ted Baker (my co-founder) and I founded the company from a dining room table in 2013.

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KC Holiday, on starting QALO ($2,000,000/month) full story ➜

13. Hush Blankets ($24M/year)

Aaron Spivak from Toronto, Ontario, Canada started Hush Blankets about 3 years ago, a bedding company.

• Revenue: $2,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 20
• Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Hey there! We're two young entrepreneurs from Toronto working hard to control this "side hustle" which is rapidly turning into our main business because of it's fast growth.

Our product, Hush Blankets, is a weighted blanket that when placed on you, helps instantly reduce anxiety, stress, and insomnia. Our customers are mainly people looking to buy this for their spouses that can't sleep, or as gifts for other family members. Usually women above 40.

We've grown fast, averaging 300% month over month growth, rapidly expanding into new ecommerce channels as well.

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Aaron Spivak, on starting Hush Blankets ($2,000,000/month) full story ➜

14. CanvasChamp ($18M/year)

Jainam Shah from Georgia started CanvasChamp over 9 years ago, a photo printing business.

• Revenue: $1,500,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 180
• Location: Georgia

Hello, my name is Jainam Shah, and I am one of the founders of CanvasChamp. We make a variety of custom photo products for home decor and gifting purposes, most notably canvas prints, acrylic and metal prints. We have a lot many other products already launched and soon will introduce even more.

Our top selling product is Canvas prints, and that's also with the only product that we started our business with back in 2012.

We have a lot of varieties when it comes to canvas prints on our website. We let people design their favorite photos and images into single canvas prints, split photo canvas, multi-panel canvas, hexagon canvas, and many more ways.

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Jainam Shah, on starting CanvasChamp ($1,500,000/month) full story ➜

15. iCard ($18M/year)

Yavor Petrov from Varna, Varna, Bulgaria started iCard over 13 years ago, a digital wallet business.

• Revenue: $1,500,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 200
• Location: Varna, Varna, Bulgaria

My name is Yavor Petrov and I'm the CEO of iCard - a unique and 100% digital bank account alternative.

I've always been passionate about technology and the ways to use it for the sole purpose of making people's lives easier. The early days of my career got me acquainted with my co-founder and a majority owner of the company - Mr. Christo Georgiev.

Together, we've been building iCard since 2007 and today , our app and services support the daily payments of people in over 30 European countries.

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Yavor Petrov, on starting iCard ($1,500,000/month) full story ➜

Adam Witty from Charleston, South Carolina, USA started Advantage Media over 16 years ago, a publishing business.

• Revenue: $1,500,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 81
• Location: Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Adam Witty is the Founder & CEO of Advantage|ForbesBooks and has built the company into one of the largest business book publishers in America, serving over 1,500 Authors in all 50 U.S. states and 63 countries.

Advantage was on the Inc. 5000 list of America's most rapidly growing private companies seven out of the past eight years. In addition to his work with Advantage|ForbesBooks, Witty is a sought-after speaker, teacher, and consultant on marketing and business growth techniques for entrepreneurs and authors. He's shared the stage with Steve Forbes, Gene Simmons of KISS, and Alan Mulally. He's been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business Daily, USA Today, and more. He was named to Young Presidents' Organization 40 Under 40, 50 Most Progressive, and named to the 2011 Inc. magazine 30 Under 30 list of "America's coolest entrepreneurs."

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Adam Witty, on starting Advantage Media ($1,500,000/month) full story ➜

17. Food Fleet ($18M/year)

Jeffrey Mora from Los Angeles, California, USA started Food Fleet almost 10 years ago, a food truck.

• Revenue: $1,500,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 6
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

I started my career at the world-famous Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles Apprenticing under Certified Master Chef Raimund Hofmeister.

Since then I have worked in more than 22 countries around the world working for some of the world's finest chefs from Cas Spijkers, 2 Michelin star Restaurant De Swann Hotel in Oisterwijk, to Paul Prudhomme's K-Paul's Louisiana kitchen. I was on the 92 and 96 US Culinary Olympic Teams.

I have been involved in all aspects of the foodservice industry. My main focus has always been on healthy sustainable foods; working in every aspect of the business from fine dining to airport foodservice and food manufacturing. I personally took care of the Los Angeles Lakers Foodservice providing all meal periods for the team in the season for 8 years including the 3-year title run with two world titles receiving two championship rings for my efforts.

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Jeffrey Mora, on starting Food Fleet ($1,500,000/month) full story ➜

18. Tediber ($42M/year)

Julien Sylvain from Paris, Ile-de-France, France started Tediber almost 7 years ago, a mattress brand.

• Revenue: $3,500,000/ month
• Founders: 4
• Employees: 40
• Location: Paris, Ile-de-France, France

I am the founder of Tediber. Tediber is the leading Bed-in-box company in France. Tediber now sells mattresses, pillows, duvets, baby mattresses, and bed frames online in France, Italy, and Spain.

Many of you might know Casper - we started with the same business model of a bed-in-box mattress delivered right to your door, but it's manufactured in Belgium. Our product also fits the French expectations for bedding which is very different from American or English beds.

We started 3 years ago and in 2018 we have done a total of 15m€ revenues.

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Julien Sylvain, on starting Tediber ($3,500,000/month) full story ➜

Tucker Max from Austin, Texas, USA started Scribe Media over 7 years ago, a publishing business.

• Revenue: $1,300,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 51
• Location: Austin, Texas, USA

My name is Tucker Max, and I'm a 4x New York Times Bestselling Author and the Co-Founder of Scribe Media.

At Scribe, our mission is to help everyone on Earth write, publish, market, (and own) their book. Since we first began as a start-up in 2014, we've worked with over 1,500 authors, including high-profile CEOs, famous entrepreneurs, professional athletes, and many other people with incredible personal stories (like David Goggins and Tiffany Haddish).

We have two primary services, one called Scribe Professional, costs $36k and is an interview-based book publishing service. The other is called Guided Author, where you write the book yourself, but with our guidance and structure, and then we do the editing and publishing.

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Tucker Max, on starting Scribe Media ($1,300,000/month) full story ➜

20. Strategus ($15M/year)

Joel Cox from Denver, Colorado, USA started Strategus about 7 years ago, a online advertising agency.

• Revenue: $1,250,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 21
• Location: Denver, Colorado, USA

I'm Joel Cox, co-founder and executive vice president of strategy and innovation for Strategus, an advertising technology startup founded in Denver in 2014. The company pioneered the first programmatic OTT/CTV (Over-The-Top digital streaming over Connected Television) advertising campaign the following year.

The Strategus Managed Services Platform produces real-time automated ad campaigns that instantly deliver custom, audience-targeted messages to CTVs and other internet-connected devices. With a wide variety of brand and agency customers, our growth has been phenomenal, with revenues of $14.8 million in 2019. We've been on the Inc. 5000 three years running due to our geometric sales increases.

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Joel Cox, on starting Strategus ($1,250,000/month) full story ➜

21. iHeartDogs ($14.4M/year)

Justin Palmer from Anaheim, California, USA started iHeartDogs over 8 years ago, a pet store.

• Revenue: $1,200,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 50
• Location: Anaheim, California, USA

My name is Justin Palmer and together with my co-founder Marshall Morris, we started iHeartDogs, a lifestyle store and blog for passionate dog parents. We're fortunate to have grown one of the largest online communities for dog lovers, with over 25 million members in our Facebook groups, pages, and email newsletters.

We sell a pretty wide range of products for both dogs and dog owners. Most popular is our line of supplements, treats, and CBD oil. We're also known for fun lifestyle products like t-shirts, bracelets, wine glasses, car stickers and magnets, and a lot more. Our customers love anything that allows them to make a statement about how much they love their dogs.

The one thing that ties all our products together is a cause. We're passionate about funding animal rescue efforts through every product sold, and each item donates to a specific program. For example, most products donate anywhere from 3 to 15 meals to animal shelters. We also donate toys, blankets, shelter transports, and help fund service dogs for veterans.

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Justin Palmer, on starting iHeartDogs ($1,200,000/month) full story ➜

22. Bio-One ($0/year)

Nick-Anthony Zamucen from Greenwood Village, Colorado, USA started Bio-One almost 14 years ago, a crime scene cleanup business.

• Revenue: $/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 7
• Location: Greenwood Village, Colorado, USA

Hello reader and thanks for stopping by. Let me start off by saying I hope you're not reading this during the day when you should be working on your business.

Don't use me as a distraction for you to not take action, the action that will either put you on top of your competitors or start your company on the right path.

By the way, my name is Nick-Anthony Zamucen and this is how I approach business, my life and all that is important, which is everything. Everything matters. I founded Bio-One Inc., Best Option Restoration (BOR), Uncle Vito's Pizzeria and St. Home Care, which all are franchised companies.

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Nick-Anthony Zamucen, on starting Bio-One (/month) full story ➜

23. BrüMate ($144M/year)

Dylan Jacob from Indianapolis, Indiana, USA started BrüMate about 5 years ago, a drinkware brand.

• Revenue: $12,000,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 20
• Location: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Hello, my name is Dylan Jacob and I am the founder of BruMate, AKA, The Dehydration Company. We are a unique insulated drinkware brand with a sole focus on the adult beverage community.

Our flagship products are the patented Hopsulator TRiO; which is a 3-in-1 insulated beer koozie that fits 16oz cans, comes with a freezable adapter for 12oz cans, works as a pint glass, and keeps your beer the same temperature from the time you open it until the time you finish it; Our Uncork'd Wine Glasses which are the largest triple-insulated wine glasses in the world and fit over half a bottle of wine; and our Winesulator which fits a full bottle of wine, maintains its temperature for over 24 hours, and allows you to bring wine into glass free zones without hauling around a cooler or ice.

Some upcoming releases include the NOS'R which is the world's first indestructible insulated nosing glass for whiskey, our Hopsulator Slim which is the world's first insulated beer koozie for 12 oz slim cans, and our Hopsulator Juggernaut for 24/25oz cans.

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Dylan Jacob, on starting BrüMate ($12,000,000/month) full story ➜

24. Animal Behavior College Inc. ($12M/year)

Steven Applebaum from Santa Clarita, California, USA started Animal Behavior College Inc. over 20 years ago, a online courses business.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 72
• Location: Santa Clarita, California, USA

Hi! My name is Steve Appelbaum and I started a vocational school called Animal Behavior College (ABC). Having trained dogs for years and seeing how dramatically the pet industry was (and still is) growing, I wanted to create something that would allow passionate animal lovers a real chance to earn a living helping animals.

Back in 1998, the only two educational paradigms I knew were brick and mortar and correspondence type programs. I rejected the brick and mortar model because I didn't have the capital to set up physical locations all across the nation. What's more and I guess in 1998 I was ahead of my time, I believed that the internet would revolutionize education and make many conventional educational facilities obsolete.

Correspondence (distance learning) programs were the other option and while these were not new concepts, I didn't like them because they lacked the hands-on element I knew was vital for people to experience if they wanted to become working dogs trainers. Since the only two options I knew weren't going to cut it, I thought of a third option.

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Steven Applebaum, on starting Animal Behavior College Inc. ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

25. Mobile Pixels ($24M/year)

Jack Yao from Boston, Massachusetts, USA started Mobile Pixels over 3 years ago, a laptop accessories brand.

• Revenue: $2,000,000/ month
• Founders: 3
• Employees: 4
• Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

My name is Jack Yao, our company is Mobile Pixels Inc. We started the company when I was a graduate student at MIT. During an internship at Amazon, I urgently felt the need of using a portable monitor as I was working in a co-working space. The idea came to when I was doing some programming work, I wished that I could have had a monitor that can be expanded from the back of the main laptop display.

When I return to school the following semester, my roommate Stephen and I started to prototype this idea. With funding from Northeastern University and MIT, we launched a Kickstarter/IndieGoGo campaign which raised 1.5MM in presales.

Our product is the Duex monitor, we did 4.3MM in sales in 2019, and are on track to do $12MM for 2020.

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Jack Yao, on starting Mobile Pixels ($2,000,000/month) full story ➜

26. TerrAvion ($12M/year)

Robert Morris from San Leandro, California, USA started TerrAvion almost 9 years ago, a aerial imagery business.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 30
• Location: San Leandro, California, USA

My name is Robert Morris. I founded TerrAvion in 2013 together with Cornell Wright.

TerrAvion is an image delivery service for agriculture. Our core service is called OverView, which delivers subscription imagery, overnight, throughout the growing season. The images allow growers to have a real up-to-date picture of all of their fields as well as synthetic maps and analysis.

Our service works by TerrAvion contracting with flight providers, flying small planes, to operate a sensor that TerrAvion designs and integrates. TerrAvion plans and monitors the routes to ensure quality delivery. Our company's technology is mostly around how to manage and process millions of acres a day, overnight, at a very low cost. We deliver our service first and foremost through our API (application programming interface–an endpoint for computers to talk to each other). Our web and mobile software, as well as partner software, call this API to deliver maps and images to the client.

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Robert Morris, on starting TerrAvion ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

27. Sock Club ($12M/year)

Dane Jensen from Austin, Texas, USA started Sock Club over 10 years ago, a socks business.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 31
• Location: Austin, Texas, USA

Hi, Dane Jensen here, my business partner Noah and I run Sock Club. Our flagship product is socks of course. We started Sock Club as a monthly subscription where we would deliver a pair of unique socks to our customers every month. As we've grown we've developed a manufacturing supply chain here in the United States. Having the ability to make our own socks made it possible to enter the new market of custom socks. Now making custom socks is 90% of our business and the subscription 10%. Last year we did $12M+ in revenue and we plan to do more than that this year.

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Dane Jensen, on starting Sock Club ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

28. Pawstruck ($21M/year)

Kyle Goguen from Los Angeles, California, USA started Pawstruck almost 8 years ago, a dog treat business.

• Revenue: $1,750,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 25
• Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

At 22, I threw away my 2 engineering degrees and started my own e-commerce business. Five years later, and I couldn't be happier with my decision.

My name is Kyle and I'm the founder and CEO of Pawstruck.com. If you have a moment, I'd like to share with you the story of how and why I created my business.

I've been a passionate dog owner my entire life. My first dog, Mali, and I were inseparable growing up, and I now share that same bond with my current dog, Tyson.

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Kyle Goguen, on starting Pawstruck ($1,750,000/month) full story ➜

29. Wyze Cam ($12M/year)

Yun Zhang from Kirkland, Washington, USA started Wyze Cam over 4 years ago, a smart home camera business.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 4
• Employees: 30
• Location: Kirkland, Washington, USA

My name is Yun Zhang and I am the CEO of Wyze Labs, as well as one of the founding members. We founded WYZE Labs in July 2017 and launched our first product, a smart home camera – the Wyze Cam – in October of the same year.

Within our first six months of launch, we've been fortunate to have sold over 300,000 units and foster a thriving user community that we rely on every day for product feedback.

Our mission at Wyze Labs is to make great smart home products and make those products accessible to everyone.

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Yun Zhang, on starting Wyze Cam ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

Johnathan Price from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA started Down4SoundShop.Com almost 6 years ago, a speaker store.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 5
• Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

My name is Johnathan Price, Owner of Down4soundshop.com, we distribute car audio products worldwide to fellow car audio fanatics. Mostly which consists of doing it yourself people that enjoy building their own systems with their friends.

This is my 4th year in business doing this full time and we are projecting to break 10 million dollars in sales.

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Johnathan Price, on starting Down4SoundShop.Com ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

31. Annmarie ($12M/year)

Kevin Gianni from Berkeley, California, USA started Annmarie over 12 years ago, a skin care product line.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 26
• Location: Berkeley, California, USA

I'm Kevin Gianni the CEO and founder of Annmarie Skin Care. Our business started ten years ago and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Annmarie Skin Care is a natural, organic skin care and beauty company that is dedicated to helping people make better decisions about their skin, beauty and overall health. Each product is made with hand-selected ingredients that are then crafted using additional plant extracts to make them effective as possible.

Our flagship products would be everything in our skin care line. We handcraft skin care using carefully selected organic and wildcrafted ingredients including herbs and plant extracts – to meet the highest standards of quality and effectiveness for the skin and body.

I started researching personal and preventative natural health therapies in 2002 when I was struck with the reality that cancer ran deep in my family and if I didn't change the way I was living, I might go down that same path. Since then, I've written 7 books on natural health, diet, and fitness, produced over 900 YouTube videos with over 12 million views and published hundreds of articles.

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Kevin Gianni , on starting Annmarie ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

32. Visiture ($10.8M/year)

Brian Cohen from Charleston, South Carolina, USA started Visiture almost 14 years ago, a marketing agency.

• Revenue: $900,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 100
• Location: Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Hello, my name is Brian Cohen and I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Visiture.

Visiture is an award-winning eCommerce marketing agency, headquartered in Charleston, SC We are one of the fastest-growing agencies in the retail vertical - landing at #753 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list. Currently, we represent over 140 merchants comprised of brand manufacturers, CPG's and retailers - including, Spanx, Gerber Childrenswear, Southern Tide, BarkBox, Cross Pens, Park Seed, Death Wish Coffee, allheart and more.

To date, Visiture has three core service offerings: PPC Management, SEO Management, and eCommerce Web Development. When I started the company in my garage 11 years ago, Visiture had a total of three employees, and we primarily focused on PPC management for lead generation and local businesses. I kept it as a lifestyle company with 7-9 full-time employees until 5 years ago when I decided to focus exclusively on eCommerce.

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Brian Cohen, on starting Visiture ($900,000/month) full story ➜

33. Project Repat ($9.6M/year)

Ross Lohr from Boston, Massachusetts, USA started Project Repat over 9 years ago, a quilt business.

• Revenue: $800,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 2
• Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

My name is Ross Lohr, and I'm a co-founder of Project Repat. We make it easy and affordable for customers to turn their memorable t-shirts into a one of a kind, custom t-shirt quilt backed with cozy fleece.

People buy quilts from Project Repat because we have the most affordable price, which is due to us fine tuning the production process by making more than 250,000 t-shirt quilts over the past 6 years. While traditional quilts can be very expensive, we've found a way to make them at a much more affordable price.

We currently make 2,000 custom t-shirt quilts per week at 2 production facilities in the United States. In 2018, we will make 90,000 t-shirt quilts and do $10MM in sales per year.

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Ross Lohr, on starting Project Repat ($800,000/month) full story ➜

Chris Parr from Marlow Bottom, England, United Kingdom started Pro Bike Tool over 6 years ago, a cycling tools business.

• Revenue: $750,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 2
• Location: Marlow Bottom, England, United Kingdom

Hey, we're Chris and Nicole Parr, husband and wife and owners of PRO BIKE TOOL. PRO BIKE TOOL is a manufacturer, brand and online retailer of essential, affordable bike tools & accessories for riders of all disciplines and abilities. Our flagship products include a Mini Bike Pump with innovative in-line pressure gauge, a CO2 Inflator with a unique gas regulation lever, and a precision calibrated Torque Wrench Set.

Here is a short video of the pump in action:

https://youtu.be/K1UrmLqK4fY

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Chris Parr, on starting Pro Bike Tool ($750,000/month) full story ➜

35. IdeaScale ($9M/year)

Rob Hoehn from San Francisco, California, USA started IdeaScale over 12 years ago, a idea management software.

• Revenue: $750,000/ month
• Founders: 4
• Employees: 53
• Location: San Francisco, California, USA

Hey there! I'm Rob Hoehn and I'm the Co-Founder of a B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) company called IdeaScale. It's crowdsourcing software that companies and government organizations use to gather, prioritize, and transform ideas from the crowd. What do they turn them into? Those ideas become products, public policies, marketing campaigns, workplace improvements, and other fun stuff.

This means our customers are innovators (no eye-rolling, please!) - no, literally about 40% of our customers work in an innovation department. Our other customers are working in other departments, but they're concerned with digital transformation, continuous improvement, business strategy, and other initiatives and they use our software to gather ideas from their employees, customers, partners, or the public on how they can make their organization better and what they should focus on next.

We're a bootstrapped company, which means that we think of our customers as our investors. We are driven by their requests, their successes, their challenges, and their referrals. Over the course of ten years, we've grown our company to almost $750,000/month.

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Rob Hoehn, on starting IdeaScale ($750,000/month) full story ➜

36. Bailey's Blossoms ($9M/year)

Erin E Hooley from Rhome, Texas, USA started Bailey's Blossoms ago, a children's clothing business.

• Revenue: $750,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 35
• Location: Rhome, Texas, USA

Hello! I'm Erin E. Hooley, proud Texas mom of 6 as well as founder and CEO of the e-commerce children's clothing line Bailey's Blossoms and it's sister brand, Peyton Bre.

Bailey's Blossoms started as a hair accessories company at my kitchen table in Arizona back in 2008 and has since grown into a multi-million dollar adventure. Both brands provide fashion-forward styles at a price that won't break the bank!

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Erin E Hooley, on starting Bailey's Blossoms ($750,000/month) full story ➜

37. Jigsaw Health ($12M/year)

Patrick Sullivan Jr. from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA started Jigsaw Health over 16 years ago, a supplements company.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 24
• Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

My name is Patrick Sullivan Jr. I'm the Chief Entertainment Officer (CEO) and co-founder of Jigsaw Health, a dietary supplement company that my dad and I started together in 2005, and then "re-booted" in 2015.

Jigsaw Health is bridging the gap between health and entertainment by providing the highest quality dietary supplements that money can buy, while providing "edu-tainment" — educating consumers on how they can improve their health, in a fun and entertaining way.

Since 2005, we've been developing science-based dietary supplements, including MagSRT®, America's #1 Time Release Magnesium Supplement. (With over 1,300 reviews on Amazon, MagSRT® has 6 times more 5-star reviews on Amazon than the next brand of time-release magnesium.)

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Patrick Sullivan Jr., on starting Jigsaw Health ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

38. Meister ($12M/year)

Michael Hollauf from Vienna, Austria started Meister almost 15 years ago, a team collaboration app.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 85
• Location: Vienna, Austria

My name is Michael Hollauf, I'm one of the founders of Meister, and we currently have two very popular apps for team creativity and productivity on the market — MindMeister is the biggest online mind mapping app with over 11 million users worldwide, and MeisterTask is our new agile task management tool that already has 3 million users and is catching up fast with the likes of Trello and Asana, having won both Apple's and Google's Best of the Year award in its launch year.

Our customers are mostly small to medium-sized businesses from all verticals, but especially with MindMeister we also have many academic and private users.

We're currently close to US$ 10 million ARR with our Freemium subscription business model on both apps.

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Michael Hollauf, on starting Meister ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

39. StoreYa ($8.4M/year)

Eyal from Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel started StoreYa about 9 years ago, a ecommerce platform.

• Revenue: $700,000/ month
• Founders: 3
• Employees: 15
• Location: Tel Aviv-Yafo, Tel Aviv District, Israel

Hi, my name is Eyal Reich and I'm StoreYa's co-founder and COO, along with Yariv Dror, the CEO (and my brother:) and Pasha Zaft, the CTO.

StoreYa offers a suite of marketing and advertising apps that help SMBs increase sales, leads and social following. We support more than 200,000 online sellers that are coming from 186 countries, we also integrate with 30 eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, Woocommerce, etc.

Our flagship product is called Traffic Booster, with it, we automate Google Ads using our unique AI technology. Take the burden off our clients' shoulders, and get the right customers at the right time for the right cost.

40. TribalVision ($8.4M/year)

Chris Ciunci from Boston, Massachusetts, USA started TribalVision almost 12 years ago, a marketing agency.

• Revenue: $700,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 70
• Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

My name is Chris Ciunci and I'm the Founder and Managing Partner of TribalVision. We are an outsourced marketing department for hire, dedicated to helping organizations grow. We do this by first crafting an overall marketing strategy tailored to the client's specific needs. From there, we execute that strategy tactically, acting as our clients' marketing team and keeping their best marketing interests in mind. Digital marketing tactics that we implement include; Google Ads, SEO, retargeting, social media marketing, email marketing, account-based marketing, and more.

Since 2010, we've served a variety of industries, including manufacturers, professional service firms, non-profits, startups, and a myriad of B2C organizations. Our Google reviews speak to the caliber of work we provide and reflect our rapid growth trajectory over the past decade. We've been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company on multiple occasions and are also frequently recognized as the Best Place to Work in the Boston and Rhode Island markets.

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Chris Ciunci, on starting TribalVision ($700,000/month) full story ➜

41. ProMD Health ($12M/year)

Scott R. Melamed from Penfield, New York, USA started ProMD Health about 3 years ago, a dermatology business.

• Revenue: $1,000,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 28
• Location: Penfield, New York, USA

Hello, my name is Scott Melamed and I run ProMD Health, along with my co-founder/business partner and close personal friend Dr. George O. Gavrila, MD. ProMD Health operates in the Aesthetic Dermatology space, but we are so much more than that. I believe that it is every company's duty to do their part to change the world for the better and we accomplish that mission by delivering great results, taking care of our patients, our staff, our vendors, and the community at large through a number of charitable initiatives under our corporate giving program ProMD Helps.

Our core services are focused around helping people to Look and Feel their best. Utilizing the latest tools in Aesthetic Dermatology, think Botox, Dermal Fillers, and Aesthetic lasers, combined with our unique approach to total wellness featuring tools and programs such as Bio-identical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) as well as lifestyle coaching and weight management.

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Scott R. Melamed, on starting ProMD Health ($1,000,000/month) full story ➜

42. SupportNinja ($16.8M/year)

Cody McLain from Austin, Texas, USA started SupportNinja over 6 years ago, a outsourcing business.

• Revenue: $1,399,996/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 1021
• Location: Austin, Texas, USA

How many times have you failed and got back up? My life has been nothing but failures, hurdles, and obstacles, and I continued to get back up. I started my first business when I was just 14, had to borrow my mom's credit card to pay for a reseller account at hostgator.com. The plan was to get rich selling web hosting! I didn't get rich, per se, but after losing both my parents before the age of 18, it was the only thing I had left that gave me purpose.

Today, I'm the founder of SupportNinja and author of the book, From Foster Care to Millionaire. My current company is SupportNinja, which recently ranked #86 on the 2019 Inc. 5,000 list. We handle back-office support and outsourcing for some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. We can't disclose all of our clients but they include HotelTonight, Checkr, RVShare and a few others that you have probably heard of. We have over 500 people in our Philippines office and have around 20 in our Austin, TX HQ.

We primarily do two things, front-end customer support for tech-companies and back-office support for apps, platforms and the like. The customer support is for every channel, social, chat, email, phone, and the back-office is often us servicing their platform inside their platform. For example, we handle a lot of content that is reported by users of social media platforms and apps. The company gives us their guidelines and we set up the necessary amount of staff to process the volume of requests.

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Cody McLain, on starting SupportNinja ($1,399,996/month) full story ➜

43. MarketBeat ($7.98M/year)

Matt Paulson from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA started MarketBeat almost 11 years ago, a newsletter publishing business.

• Revenue: $665,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 6
• Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA

My name is Matt Paulson and I'm the founder of MarketBeat, a financial media company that empowers individual stock investors to make better trading decisions by providing objective financial information and real-time market data.

In other words, we make it easy for investors to research stocks. We publish a series of investment newsletters surrounding different investing strategies, such as following Wall Street analysts' recommendations or investing in dividend stocks. Our flagship newsletter, MarketBeat Daily Ratings, currently has more than 1 million active email subscribers. Our website, MarketBeat.com, offers a variety of financial calendars, original news content, stock screeners and other investment research tools. MarketBeat's network of websites attract more than 8 million visitors each month.

Our company operates on a freemium model. We cover our costs for our free subscribers through advertising on our website and in our email newsletters. We also sell premium subscriptions at $20.00-$40.00 per month which provide additional features, data and research tools. Currently about 75% of our revenue is from advertising and 25% is from subscriptions.

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Matt Paulson, on starting MarketBeat ($665,000/month) full story ➜

44. Private Label Extensions ($7.8M/year)

Mikey Moran from Atlanta, Georgia, USA started Private Label Extensions almost 9 years ago, a hair product line.

• Revenue: $650,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 20
• Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Hi! My name is Mikey Moran and I am one of the owners of Private Label Extensions. We started this company a little over 5 years ago to create another option for women looking for amazing quality hair and entrepreneurs looking to get into the hair industry.

Private Label Extensions is a hair distribution and technology company that builds hair brands from A to Z for entrepreneurs looking to get into the industry. We provide a variety of hair extension products including, hair extensions, wigs, frontals, closures, and much more. We also provide custom hair branding packaging and labels, websites, dropshipping, and wholesale options.

When we began this company we started off with an affiliate model and had distributors that sold our branded products. It wasn't the best model to use in the hair industry and then found a gap, which was people wanting to start their own hair brand versus selling someone else's brand. About a year and a half into the company we pivoted the model so that people couple purchase hair to sell for their own brand.

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Mikey Moran , on starting Private Label Extensions ($650,000/month) full story ➜

45. BAKblade ($7.8M/year)

Matt Dryfhout from Chicago, Illinois, USA started BAKblade almost 9 years ago, a mens grooming product.

• Revenue: $650,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 10
• Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Hello, my name is Matt Dryfhout and my wife is Angelina Dryfhout. We are the co-founders of BAKblade, LLC, a brand offering easy and pain-free solutions to solve back and body management.

While we offer several items including DIY back shavers, blade replacement packs, liquid shower soap, & travel cases, our most popular product is certainly our BAKblade 2.0 back shaver. The BAKblade 2.0 offers the most economical, easy-to-use and pain-free solution to manage back hair.

Our biggest market is certainly millennials who we have found are the most self-conscious generation to date. Since most millennials very self-conscious they often would rather avoid embarrassing, expensive solutions and instead choose a behind-the-door, less expensive, and quick solution in managing this problem.

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Matt Dryfhout, on starting BAKblade ($650,000/month) full story ➜

46. Two Maids & A Mop ($7.2M/year)

Ron Holt from Birmingham, Alabama, USA started Two Maids & A Mop over 18 years ago, a cleaning service.

• Revenue: $600,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 500
• Location: Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Hello dreamweavers, empire builders and world changers. My name is Ron Holt, CEO & Founder of Two Maids & A Mop.

I started my company more than sixteen years ago inside a 250 square foot office space. When I'm dead and gone, there's a good chance my tombstone will read "Crazy Entrepreneur That Out Hustled Everyone". That's been my mantra ever since leaving the uninspiring halls of corporate America and it's a virtue that is based on tiny, small habits eventually evolving into big, massive victories.

So if you're like me, and can't stay focused because you're always wanting to fix another problem….just stop right now because the true secret to my success has been to simply outwork and outpassion everyone in my path, every single day for nearly twenty-five years now.

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Ron Holt, on starting Two Maids & A Mop ($600,000/month) full story ➜

47. Clean Energy Solutions ($7.2M/year)

David Gomez from California, USA started Clean Energy Solutions almost 8 years ago, a solar energy business.

• Revenue: $600,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 20
• Location: California, USA

My name is David Gomez and I'm the founder and CEO of Clean Energy Solutions, based out of Los Angeles, California. We're a solar energy provider that provides homeowners and businesses with low-cost solar power.

From 2014 to 2019 we have grown over 6700%. Our unique solar program allows clients to save money using solar energy, but without having to actually purchase a solar system. We provide the client with a solar system at no upfront cost, and the client only pays for the energy that the system produces, but at a lower price than their utility would charge them.

Our monthly revenue is around $600,000 with big plans to keep growing. A lot of our growth in the new year will be focused on our energy-efficient affordable housing division.

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David Gomez, on starting Clean Energy Solutions ($600,000/month) full story ➜

48. Upcart ($7M/year)

Michael Reznik from Columbus, Ohio, USA started Upcart over 6 years ago, a dolly product.

• Revenue: $583,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 4
• Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA

Hello, my name is Michael Reznik and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of TriFold LLC, the company that invented the UpCart ® line of products. We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility. When people have greater mobility, they can do more and be more productive.

Let's be real, carrying stuff up & down stairs is the worst. The UpCart ® line of products solve this problem with a unique line of all-terrain folding carts and hand trucks that have been engineered to reduce effort while going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain. Our patented technology also allows all of our products to fold completely flat for easy storage or transportation.

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Michael Reznik, on starting Upcart ($583,000/month) full story ➜

49. housepaws ($6.96M/year)

Lisa Aumiller from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, USA started housepaws over 11 years ago, a mobile veterinary service.

• Revenue: $580,000/ month
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 82
• Location: Mount Laurel, New Jersey, USA

HousePaws started 10 years ago this April. I had become disenchanted with practicing in a "normal" veterinary environment: appointments every 10-15 min, stressed owners/ pets/ workers, etc. I was starting work and it was dark outside and leaving work and it was dark outside. Clients, despite liking me as a vet, did not perceive the value of the visit was worth what they were paying, and the hospital I worked out was corporate-minded. The practice had one size fits all plans which were not consistent with how I like to practice. I consider every patient as an individual. Each pet, even those living in the same house, have different lifestyles sometimes.

I decided to go mobile. I wanted to bring high-quality patient care to the pet, in the comfort of their own home. I planned on using my family SUV and visiting patient homes. I thought I would make some money with the low overhead and have plenty of time to spend with my 3 young children.

At the end of 2010, I was working alone, 80 hours a week, and making $60,000 in revenue. Today we have over 100 employees and are making more than 7 million in revenue and thankfully I am not working 80 hours a week anymore!

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Lisa Aumiller, on starting housepaws ($580,000/month) full story ➜

50. Proposify ($6.84M/year)

Kyle Racki from Halifax, Canada started Proposify almost 9 years ago, a proposal software app.

• Revenue: $570,000/ month
• Founders: 2
• Employees: 76
• Location: Halifax, Canada

I'm Kyle Racki, CEO and co-founder of Proposify. Proposify is an online business proposal SaaS (software as a service) company that streamlines the process of creating, sending, and closing proposals, quotes, contracts, and other sales documents. We do this by making the process of creating documents faster and more efficient, and by allowing sales teams to send out beautiful, professional sales documents and get them signed.

We currently serve over 8,000 customers, have 75 employees based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and do over $7M in annual recurring revenue (and growing).

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Kyle Racki, on starting Proposify ($570,000/month) full story ➜

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