Vitalii Dodonov@vitaliidodonov
Here’s my backstory on how we took Stan Store to $30m ARR:
When my co-founder and I started Stan, it was just the immigrant grind for years with lots of frugality and sheer hustle.
There was even a time when we returned an IKEA table after using it in an Airbnb for some time, asking ourselves:
"Are we building something that looks like a startup?
Or something that actually helps people make a living?"
And that question drove everything that followed.
Early on in our journey to $30M ARR, we made a decision most advisors disagreed with.
- No transaction fees to use Stan
- Flat subscription, no upsells
- $29/month price.
People told us we were leaving millions on the table by not charging a transaction fee. Like every single one of our competitors did.
And guess what? They were right.
We left the money there on purpose.
Because we realized that the moment you take a cut, you’re no longer on the Creator’s side.
You’re just the middleman.
We wanted Creators to win more because they used Stan. Not win less because we skimmed the top.
Trust compounds faster than revenue.
That turned out to be true.
As growth picked up, so did the pressure.
“Hire faster”,
“Build a big team”,
“Spend to show momentum.”
We ignored all of this.
Instead, we asked one question over and over:
"What breaks if we don’t hire?"
Most of the time, the answer wasn’t “people”
… but systems.
So we instead, we automated and simplified as much as we could. Deleting features. Building self-serve tools.
Then, and only then, we hired people.
Today, Stan serves 80,000+ Creators:
They make $200M+ per year using the platform.
Three years into building, we celebrated:
~$30M ARR.
~30 people.
~7 engineers.
And a relentless focus on:
– trust
– speed
– product
– and not doing work that doesn’t need to exist
So when I see posts that talk about Stan as the “fastest-growing startup I’ve seen”…
I get it.
But the real story that needs to be told is not the one about speed.
It’s the one about restraint.
We said no more than we said yes and we didn’t optimize for looking successful. What we optimized for was being helpful and creating fundamental value for our customers.
We like to say that we didn't build Stan alone.
The Creators built it with us.
One at a time.
Over the years.
And that, out of any ARR, MRR or GMV…
That’s the only leaderboard that actually matters.
