Design Business Report: 13 Startups Generating $4.7M in MRR

Incomparable: $4K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

On-Demand Design studio

Incomparable was founded by Paul Van Oijen who shares his product design skills in a subscription based format, having previously being laid off from his 9-5 job.

The service allows customers to sign up on a monthly basis to request completion of a range of product design tasks such as user testing, UX, and user interface work. These jobs are setup on a custom backlog and generally carried out within 1-2 days.

There are no billable hours involved, and clients can add as many tasks to the list as they need completing. The pricing starts at $1,999 per month for the first three months, rising to $3,999 per month thereafter. There is an additional $1,499 per month charge to include a developer to the project. Though, plans can be paused or cancelled at any time.

LinkedIn has been the biggest driver of traffic to Incomparable to date, and the business is now generating $4,000 per month in revenue.

Iconbuddy: $6K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

Open-source svg icon platform

Iconbuddy provides more than 200,000 SVG icons, which can be downloaded as they are or edited and customised first. It is owned by Mohd Danish Yusuf, who purchased the open-source business for $4,000 in 2023.

Users can use the search function to find icons they want, or view the 150+ icon categories such as circle flags, emojis, health, weather and more.

At the time of purchase, Iconbuddy was not generating any traffic or revenue, but Mohd was able to gain 4,000 installs within the first month of ownership. The business has since gone on to be used by more than 11,000 customers, including teams from businesses such as Buy Me a Coffee, DigitalOcean, and Google.

Rather than operating on a monthly price basis, customers can purchase a lifetime subscription. Mohd shared in May 2024 that the business was generating over $6,000 in monthly revenue. There are months where the revenue drops lower than this, which he puts down to quieter months of marketing the business via emails and Facebook.

Halaska Studio: $650K in Annual Revenue

On-demand design subscription service

Halaska Studio is a product design studio for AI, finance, tech and web3 businesses which was founded by Chris Halaska in December 2023.

Companies worldwide use the subscription-based service for branding, product and website design tasks. Enabling them to save money when compared to the price of hiring a full-time designer for their business.

Halaska Studio features a number of pricing tiers which customers can select based on the needs of their project.

The Design Lite subscription is priced at $8,000 per month and allows customers to request an unlimited number of tasks which will be worked through one at a time by an experienced designer. A Product Design Monthly tier costs $12,000 and is intended for those wishing to translate a design vision into reality with the help of a product lead and design team.

Within the first two weeks of operating, Chris had grown the business to over $46,000 AUD in monthly recurring revenue, which increased to over $90,000 AUD after just three months. Chris shared that in its first year the business achieved a total annual revenue of $1 million AUD (~$650,000).

Baked Design: $68K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

Product design subscription for startups

Baked Design aims to be an affordable design subscription for startups after being founded by Nick C and Alex Szczurek in March 2023.

Customers can sign up to the service and create task requests, that are then completed by designers designated to that project. The requests can include things like website design, SaaS services, image creation and mobile app work.

Jobs are typically finished within two days and customers can then submit feedback or request tweaks for any additional work that needs to be done.

The service has two pricing tiers.

The first is a basic package costing $4,179 per month, and a pro package for $6,317 each month. The latter allows customers to submit multiple design requests at once, receive shorter turnaround time on job requests and can be used for multiple brands.

After just three months of being created, Baked Design had achieved $65,000 in revenue, with 100% of leads arriving from X. Within the five months the business had grown $100,000 in MRR, and this increased further to over $107,000 per month in November 2023.

12 months on and although this figure has fallen, the business is still generating $67,968 in MRR.

16X9: $1M+ in Annual Revenue

Agency designing PowerPoint presentations

16X9 is a PowerPoint design agency which was founded in 2017 by Courtney Allen. After making over $2 million completing jobs on Upwork, Courtney created the agency to expand her offering to more customers along with her team of designers.

The business delivers a full-service presentation service that includes template building, animations, and high-level design, which can be used for events, pitch decks, and training.

50% of the work the agency completes is for long-term customers. Since launching they've worked with over 1,200 clients in more than 30 countries, including the likes of Adidas, Coca-Cola and Visa.

To date the business has generated more than $4 million in total sales, and now generates $1 million in annual revenue.

Are.na: $108K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

Platform to save content ideas and creations

Are.na is an online software platform for saving and organising content which was founded in 2011 by Chris Barley and Charles Broskoski. The tool is designed to allow users to visualise and structure content ideas over time as they create.

Customers can save individual pieces of content, links, images or videos as blocks, and then add these to collections known as channels, either in public or private. The software also provides the ability for users to add the public blocks of another Are.na community member to their own channels.

The service is free to test and allows users to create up to 200 exportable blocks of content, notes and ideas. The Premium tier is priced at $7 per month (50% off for two years for students) and provides unlimited public and private blocks, table views, and advanced search filters. There is also a Supporter tier costing $120 per month which includes early access to new features and other perks.

There are currently more than 16,000 Premium customers who share knowledge and ideas through the platform. Such is the strength of this community, that in 2018 when Are.na ran a crowdfunding campaign, 75% of the 850 contributors were already existing customers.

Are.na disclosed that the business reached its goal of $1 million in annual recurring revenue, and now generates $108,111 in MRR.

Designjoy: $145K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

Design work request subscription service

Designjoy is a design subscription service which was founded by Brett Williams in 2017. It wasn't until 2021 that Brett began to work on the business full-time.

The one-person studio allows customers to request design work for their brand for a fixed monthly price, that can be paused or cancelled at any time. The selling point is that this should ultimately work out cheaper than hiring a full-time designer.

Customers can post unlimited job requests on a Trello board for things like web design, apps, logos, business cards, signage, packing and more. The work for each task is typically completed within two working days, before the next request is then started.

The Standard pricing costs $4,995 per month and includes unlimited users, brands and requests, sent one at a time. There is also a Pro plan costing $7,995 per month which enables customers to post two requests at a time.

Brett confirmed that Designjoy had surpassed $1 million in revenue for both 2022 and 2023. After recently deciding to spend less time in the business to gain a better work-life balance, Brett is still generating $145,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Gotiva: $2M in Funding

Provides creators with revenue from their images

Gotiva provides a platform for creators to monetise their digital content. The company was launched in 2021 by Adnan Ahmic, Jacek Nijaki, Sebastian Szczygiel and Grzegorz Tarczynski.

The business hosts an application called Jigsaw Puzzle Universe, which enables individuals to earn money by submitting photos, digital illustrations and AI images, which are then converted into jigsaw puzzles and completed by users of the app.

To date, more than 200 creators in over 40 countries have added content to the platform, and many have earned thousands of dollars as a result.

In early 2024 Gotiva received €1.11 million in seed funding, taking the total amount of investment in the business to €1.91 million ($2M).

Photopea: $200K+ in Monthly Revenue

Online Photo Editing Software

Photopea is an online image editor which was founded by Ivan Kutskir in 2012 whilst studying at university, and launched the following year.

The online photo editing software allows users to tweak photos by cropping or resizing, as well as adding filters, effects and text.

The Photopea image editor supports the likes of Photoshop, GIMP, Sketch App, Adobe XD and CoreIDRAW, and features step-by-step guides on how to use the tool.

The software is free to use, and the business generates revenue through advertising. The fact that the site now brings in around 900,000 daily pageviews means that Photopea has a very healthy revenue stream.

Ivan shared in 2021 that he’d made almost $1 million in the previous 12 months. Since then the business has continued to grow and Ivan confirmed ² that Photopea is now driving over $200,000 per month through ads on the site.

Ingenius: $10M in Annual Revenue

WordPress web design agency

Ingenius is a WordPress services agency which was founded in 2019.

The business offers various services, including bespoke website design, site hosting and maintenance, plugin and theme development, and SEO.

Hundreds of customers across a range of industries use Ingenius to build and manage their websites, with the business growing by around 30% year over year.

The company’s CEO Tristan Gatellier shared that thanks to this growth, they’re now managing over 280 websites and generating more than $10 million in annual revenue.

Recraft: $12M in Funding

Image generation and editing tool

Recraft is an AI image and graphic design creation platform which was founded by Anna Veronika Dorogush in 2023.

The software can be used to create images and edit their style for many purposes including advertising, branding and marketing.

To date, more than 200 million images have been generated by 2 million users of the service, including teams from the likes of Airbus, HubSpot and Netflix.

Recraft features a free option with up to 50 credits per day for publicly available generated images. There are then three individual pricing tiers ranging from $12 to $60 per month, with each providing an incremental amount of credits to create private graphics.

In early 2024, the business raised $12 million in investment to continue its early growth and potentially develop its own generative AI model.

Vecteezy: $15M in Annual Revenue

Stock image, photo, and video downloads

Vecteezy is an online stock image provider which was founded by Shawn Rubel in 2007.

Users such as designers, marketers and publishers can use the service to download licensed stock photos, graphics and footage directly from the artists.

There is a free plan available with access to thousands of resources, or for $13.99 per month (36% off if billed annually) users can access millions of Pro resources with unlimited downloads.

The business has continued to grow both its team size and user base, with around 100 remote employees now supporting 100 million customers. This has resulted in Vecteezy now generating over $15 million in annual revenue.

Easy Signs: $23.6M in Annual Revenue

Signage creation and printing business

Easy Signs is a sign creation service which was founded in 2006 by Andy Fryer and Adam Parnell.

The business produces a wide range of custom signage for bollards, business cards, car magnets, gazebos, pull-up banners, and much more. These can be used in industries such as construction, hospitality, and real estate.

Customers can receive an instant quote online after specifying their sign requirements, and Easy Signs can produce the designs within 24 hours for 95% of their range.

A team of more than 180 staff process orders and create signage, which has helped the company generate $23.6 million in annual revenue. This is a huge increase from the $11.7 million it generated just three years prior.