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GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
After launching the paywall, I forgot about the Captions app, but later discovered it was generating over $500,000 in revenue with no employees working on it, and users were retaining it without any support.
Video
E
The App We Almost Deleted-Now a $500M Success | Gaurav Misra, Captions
@ EO
05/02/25
Related Takeaways
GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
Our first project was built in one weekend, quickly gained traction with 600 users per minute without marketing, and I almost deleted the Captions app due to its $10,000 monthly cost, but instead designed a paywall to see if users would pay for it, allowing us to keep it running without incurring costs.
GM
Gaurav Misra
03/27/25
@ Lenny's Podcast
Captions accidentally ignored their most successful product for 1.5 years, yet it still grew to 500K users without updates or support.
GM
Gaurav Misra
03/27/25
@ Lenny's Podcast
The captions app was built in two days and immediately took off, demonstrating the importance of product-market fit.
GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
The decision to focus on Captions instead of another app we were developing was crucial. Once we launched new features, the growth of Captions became exponential, highlighting how small decisions can lead to vastly different outcomes.
GM
Gaurav Misra
03/27/25
@ Lenny's Podcast
After initially exploring various projects, we realized we should have focused on the captions app, which was already successful without any updates.
GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
In building a startup, the small decisions often have a greater impact than the big ones. For example, the choice to keep Captions as a paid app helped filter our user base to those who truly valued the service and provided us with valuable feedback.
GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
When we started Captions, we focused on creating captions for videos, addressing a gap in the market for accessibility solutions.
GM
Gaurav Misra
05/02/25
@ EO
Captions aims to make video storytelling accessible to everyone without the need for recording or editing.
MS
Michael Seibel
05/27/21
@ Justin Kan
Tim Robinson created the subscriptions feature, which became a third of our revenue for years without anyone knowing.