This ugly site makes $5k/mo..

How an Ugly Website Makes $5K a Month Without Breaking a Sweat

Hey — It’s Charlie.

Welcome to the latest edition of Great Startups! Here’s what’s in store:

  • How One Founder Gained 20M Users in a Year:
    Discover the game-changing strategies behind explosive user growth.

  • Why 37signals Dropped Full-Time Managers:
    Uncover the unconventional approach to team management that's shaking things up.

  • Playbook for Top 0.01% Business Success:
    Get the blueprint for scaling your business to elite levels.

  • Why Founders Should Move to the US:
    Explore why the US remains a prime location for launching startups.

  • This Ugly Site Pulls in $5K/Month:
    Learn how a simple, no-frills site rakes in impressive passive income.

Get ready to supercharge your startup with these essential insights!

Resources

  • Playbook for Building a Top 0.01% Business. (LINK)

  • How to use design partners for your startup. (LINK)

  • Why 37signals stopped hiring full-time managers. (LINK)

  • 10 ideas for building a great culture for a distributed team (LINK)

  • How a founder added 20 million users in a year (LINK)

ICYMI

  • Amazon acqui-hires the founders of AI robotics startup Covariant (LINK)

  • OpenAI reports ChatGPT usage has doubled since last year. (LINK)

  • Europe’s Top Court Upholds Google’s €2.4 Billion Antitrust Fine (LINK)

  • Where Allbirds went wrong (LINK)

  • Why founders should still head to the US to launch their startups (LINK)

  • Key lessons from Will Cannon's $75M SaaS success story.

  • HubSpot co-founder on why startups should skip multi-year deals

  • Travis Kalanick’s advice for startups that need to fundraise

  • A playbook to find startup ideas from Reddit

  • Keith Rabois on why stress is actually a positive thing

Nurture, Engage & Convert Users into Customers

v01 is the tool every startup needs to simplify user management. Designed for SaaS founders and growth teams, it automates key tasks, drives growth, and ensures you never miss a revenue opportunity. If your startup has a product, v01 is your go-to for scaling faster and optimizing customer engagement.

The $5K-a-Month Formula

I came across a surprising success story about a simple website making over $5,000 a month. DiskPrices.com, created by Jeremy Grosser, is far from a design masterpiece. Instead of focusing on flashy graphics, Jeremy kept it basic—just grey text, white backgrounds, and simple filters. The site thrives by offering a straightforward way for users to find affordable hard drives through Amazon affiliate links.

The real kicker? Jeremy’s site pulls in around 2,500–3,000 users monthly with minimal effort. There’s no fancy marketing or design tweaks; it’s all about providing genuine value and letting the site’s functionality speak for itself. This story highlights a crucial lesson: sometimes, focusing on simplicity and real user needs can be way more profitable than chasing after the latest design trends. (LINK)

Ok that’s it for this week, We keep refining our newsletter content, just hit reply to let us know what you think about this issue.