Marketing tools
$51.3K/mo
3 yrs in · bootstrapped, solo
JY
Jon Yongfook, a designer & developer
Ex-head of Digital Product & Design at Aviva; designer and programmer for two decades before going solo.
Bootstrapped Bannerbear alone, splitting his time 50/50 between product and marketing.
Building
B
Bannerbear
An API that auto-generates marketing visuals — design once, generate thousands.
Team
Solo
The playbook
3 steps, in the order they took them
1
~2 years
Started with the wrong form factor — twice
Same core image-generation tech, wrong packaging. Two products that never took off before the one that did.
- Launched Previewmojo for open-graph images — some PH interest, not enough demand
- Built a Shopify app — bounced because it required adding code
- Kept the same Rails image-generation core through both
Result
2 failed pivots, same core tech
2
Mar 2020
Repackaged the same tech as an API
The unlockThe packaging was the product. As an API for developers automating marketing visuals, the exact same tech finally clicked.
- Relaunched in March 2020 as Bannerbear, an API service
- Positioned it for developers automating marketing visuals
- Moved up the value chain to better customers
Result
The API unlocked everything
3
ongoing
Split his time 50/50 product and marketing
Most developers do 90/10 the wrong way. Jon treated distribution as half the job.
- Tweeted about what his target audience cared about
- Joined and engaged the communities they hung out in
- Blogged and sent frequent email newsletters
- Leaned on quality so users referred others
Result
$50K MRR, fully bootstrapped