#3
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Oct 26, 2026
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4 min read
Card scanners hit $92K MRR from a hobby 🤯
Hobby card scanners at $92K MRR, AND: a $0 directory blitz that landed 9 dofollow links
Hobby card scanners at $92K MRR, AND: a $0 directory blitz that landed 9 dofollow links ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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Issue #3 · Monday, October 26, 2026 |
☕ THE COLD OPEN - 💰 Sports + Pokémon card scanners: $75K and $17K MRR from one founder’s hobbies
- 🍰 A $0 AI directory blitz: 156 submitted, 9 verified dofollow links in 5 days
- 🤖 Claude Duet: an agent that finds unpaid invoices and drafts the chase
- 🍓 Scanemon: vibe-coded in one day, now adding more new customers than Cardstock
- 🎯 Quiz: what share of VC-backed founders walk away with $0?
Money first. Numbers you can steal. 5 minutes. Let’s go. |
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👀 ALSO MAKING MONEY 📬 $1,282 MRR in 10 days: Marc Lou’s MailCheap (usage-priced newsletter ESP from $19/mo; founder-reported). Day 9 he posted a $149 plan signup and 500,000 monthly emails with zero sales calls. 🗂️ ~$6,500 a month: OpenAlternative, a 48-hour open-source-alternatives directory — ~65% ads/sponsorships, ~35% featured listings at $197/month, ~70K monthly visitors (founder-written case study). 🔗 ~$31.5K MRR: Liinks, a nicer link-in-bio + simple site builder Charlie Clark built in two weeks; he quit Squarespace once MRR matched salary (founder-stated, Stripe dashboard in interview). | | |
