The Marketing Playbook That Grew My App to $13K/month | Starter Story

September 17, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 2023, Banu built a chatbot called SiteGPT over a weekend to learn about AI. Two weeks after launch, it hit $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Today it makes $13,000 MRR, has served more than a million visitors, and Banu has spent exactly zero dollars on paid marketing. The engine behind that growth is a strategy he calls "free tools marketing"—building dozens of small, single-purpose web tools that rank on Google for low-competition keywords and funnel users toward his paid product.

The psychology of free tools marketing

The core insight is simple but powerful: builders hate marketing, but they love building. Banu is a software engineer who quit his corporate job after eight months and moved back to his parents' house to avoid expenses. He built his first SAS product (Feather) to $6,000 MRR and sold it for $250,000. When he launched SiteGPT, he realized that traditional marketing—cold emails, content writing, sales calls—felt like a grind. Free tools marketing lets him do what he is already good at: build things.

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of Starter Story

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (02:37) **Who Banu Is and What He Built** - Banu introduces himself as a builder of two SaaS products: one sold for $250k and Site GPT, now at $13k MRR.
2 (03:16) **Site GPT Explained: The Product and Its Metrics** - Banu describes Site GPT as giving a website its own AI brain, serving as a 24/7 assistant for business content.
3 (05:20) **Banu's Background and the Origin of Site GPT** - Banu shares his journey from quitting a software engineering job to building his own products, culminating in the creation of Site GPT.
4 (07:09) **The Core Strategy: Free Tools Marketing** - Banu reveals that he gets all his free traffic by building dozens of free tools, which serve as a marketing engine.
5 (10:43) **Why This Strategy Appeals to Builders** - Pat and Banu discuss why free tools marketing is a perfect fit for people who love building but hate traditional marketing.
6 (11:11) **Step-by-Step Playbook for Free Tools Marketing in 2026** - Banu lays out his exact seven-step process for finding and building high-traffic free tools.
7 (14:42) **Tech Stack and Tools Used** - Banu lists the tools he uses to build and run Site GPT and its free tools.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

The Marketing Playbook That Grew My App to $13K/month

Sharing ideas that make money!

-----------------------------

------------ Keywords: saas business, startup founder, indie hacker, micro saas, app flipping, app monetization, tech entrepreneur

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices