He Cut His Marketing Budget to $0 and Revenue Doubled

Angus had a problem.

He'd just quit his job in Hong Kong and needed to know how long his savings would last.

Simple math, right?

Except his bank only gave him PDF statements..

useless for tracking spending patterns across multiple years.

So he wrote some code to extract the data.

Took him a week with a friend's help.

He thought, if he struggled, then chances are…a lot of people did.

They launched bankstatementconverter and bought Google Ads to test it.

People started uploading statements immediately.

But here's where it gets interesting.

Those ads were a disaster.

Spent $1,000. Made back $300.

He tried cold emails, that failed too.

One sale in 3 months, bunch of angry replies.

He tried "building in public"..got attention from founders, zero from customers.

After 6 months of bleeding money, he cut everything.

Almost quit.

Then something weird happened.

Without ads, 2-3 signups started appearing daily.

Organic. Free.

Google sending him customers.

So Angus did what we wouldn’t even think of..

He stopped "marketing" entirely.

No social media.

No growth hacks.

No building in public.

Just fixed what customers complained about.

The result?

$40K/month revenue.

$39K profit (solo, zero employees).

75,000 users.

Still doesn't run ads.

Three lessons that'll save you thousands:

1. Your marketing might be your problem

Angus's business grew AFTER he cut ads. Most founders keep pouring money into channels that don't work because "you have to spend money to make money." Wrong. Sometimes you need to stop spending and let the product do the work.

2. Your customers aren't where you think they are

He wasted months on Twitter building in public. His customers? Accountants and small business owners who've never heard of "building in public." If your marketing isn't reaching buyers, it's just expensive therapy.

3. Two years of $0 beats two months of quitting

Angus didn't cover rent until year 3. Most founders bail at month 6. The difference between a $40K/month business and nothing is often just not quitting when it feels hopeless.

If you're bleeding cash on ads that barely work, or doing "all the right things" but growth is flat…

Chances also could be that your first five minutes are falling flat.

Maybe your landing page is from a tech class.

Maybe your pricing fails when compared against competitors.

Maybe your onboarding, takes long than it takes butter chicken to cook.

When you are sooooo close to the product, you sometimes can’t figure out what’s not working.

I can help you do so.

I’ve helped a lot of founders fix what was stopping their MRR - sometimes their positioning, sometimes their trial, sometimes their pricing, sometimes their landing page.

It’s better to spend money fixing these now, then draining them in $3K worth ads, and then regretting later.

If you’re interested in it, a 90 minute consultation costs $99 with me (this is for the first month only)

You can read more here.

I’m hoping to see you soon!

And to end it…

I'll tell you the ONE thing that's probably costing you the most money.

Most founders need permission to stop doing what doesn't work.

Consider this it.

Cheers,

Arunima