How We Built Aithor - A $1M/Month AI Writing SaaS
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hey! I’m Dmitry Afonov, the founder of Aithor – an AI-writing assistant for students. Aithor helps with research, essay planning, sourcing trustworthy references, and adhering to specific types of writing. We are now transforming into a multitool for handling routine tasks, allowing our users to focus more on their creativity and talent.
Some people compare us to ChatGPT, asking why we are better, so just take a look at this…
Our flagship product is an AI writing assistant designed to help students write excellent papers and coursework. We take care of routine tasks, so that students can focus on their creativity and talent.
We are now expanding to a multitool solution for academic professionals, content creators, marketers, and managers to help them minimize the time spent on routine tasks and maximize their time for creative work.
"We handle the routine, you bring the talent" - this is the driving force at Aithor and how we aim to expand.
Currently, our primary customers are students who are working and seeking to enhance their career prospects by increasing their market value. This includes individuals pursuing undergraduate and master's degrees, PhDs, MBAs, professional diplomas/degrees, and scientific researchers, typically aged 25+.
We are broadening our focus to include content creators such as marketers and managers, while still supporting our existing student base. Our goal is to offer more opportunities for students under 25 and diversify our audience to include content creators, marketers, and managers, simplifying their tasks so they can focus on the creative aspects of their work.
Since our launch in May, we've made $6M in revenue. During peak season, we reached $1.45M per month, and now, despite the low season, we're still consistently making around $1M per month.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
I'm a developer with a background as a software developer and CTO. Before starting Aithor, I worked on two products at a VC. As a CTO, I noticed that CEOs often didn't fully grasp certain technical aspects. This led me to think, why not try being a CEO myself? My first experience as a CEO involved taking an idea and developing the product on my own.
At first, my team and I weren’t sure if we were on the right track. This project didn’t initially stand out from others we had started within the VC. For a long time, it seemed like just another venture.
It wasn’t until about four months after the product launch that we realized we were in the right place at the right time with the right team. That’s when the product began to gain traction and showed signs of success.
There was no clear plan or confidence that we would end up where we are now – generating $6M in revenue. But it became evident that this was not going to be another failed project.
If you doubt whether something should be done – don't do it. Only do what the product can't succeed without.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
In the early stages, my co-developer and I built the first version of our product in just two weeks and made our first sale shortly after. Given the AI boom, our initial product was quite basic. We focused on identifying the value we could bring to customers and cutting out everything unnecessary.
We quickly went to market, attracted new clients, and received valuable feedback, which led us to refine the MVP. We worked on features like ChatGPT integration, Rewriter tool, Paraphrase tool, Paper writer, Article writer and an editor.
Aithor.com in numbers:
Initially, the VC covered just two salaries – mine and the second developer's. As we progressed, our primary costs shifted to marketing. We invested heavily in boosting traffic, spending $70K over four months and generating only $15K in revenue.
Here you see the original name, "Essai," but we had to change it due to patent issues. The new name "Aithor" actually worked in our favor, as it better reflects the tool’s positioning and essence. It remains relevant and highlights our new identity.
This was our initial tactic to grab user attention, quite an aggressive marketing move. We then increased the time progressively — 10, 20, 40, 80 — to encourage people to purchase the product. It annoyed customers, but it worked
Describe the process of launching the business.
The key to success was making our first sale quickly by excluding everything that was unnecessary (If in doubt, don’t do it!). We focused on understanding what the customer needed and what would provide the most value, often looking at competitors for insights.
As the CTO and CEO, I was able to swiftly align the vision with the execution, which can be challenging when these roles are separate. This allowed us to go from zero to MVP and solve problems quickly, achieving rapid initial sales.
When transitioning from MVP to product-market fit, we concentrated on improving conversion rates and making more sales, often prioritizing this over retention. We found it easier to refund dissatisfied customers and maintain our focus on driving new sales.
We aimed to get Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) as close as possible to Average Cheque (AC) with our initial sales. Within 6 months, we achieved a 1:1 ratio, covering our marketing costs with the first sale. By reinvesting revenue, we grew quickly.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
At first, we focused on performance marketing via Google, which generated our first sales. Our major breakthroughs came from combining performance marketing with influencer collaborations.
We have an in-house team dedicated to creating integrations with influencers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube (Reels/Shorts). We then reuse this content in our paid marketing campaigns. Find our favorite video here!
This approach allows us to combine budgets for paid and influencer marketing, boosting the best-performing content. It works like this:
(1) Performance marketing is expensive, while influencer is more affordable. By combining both, we can generate a lot of traffic at a relatively low price.
(2) We reuse the best influencer videos for paid marketing, which helps reduce costs. When our ads start to lose effectiveness, our in-house creative team refreshes and repurposes the content, ensuring a continuous stream of engaging materials. This whole process has been effective in reducing our customer acquisition cost (CAC).
The first six months, 80% of our traffic came almost equally from the US and the UK. Now we have seen aggressive growth all over the world: Latam, MENA, Europe. We have strongly expanded in these markets, and the US/UK now accounts for no more than 30% of our traffic.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
We reached the breakeven point and even achieved a small surplus after the New Year 2023-2024. Our business is now profitable, but we reinvest everything we earn into driving more growth. The goal is to maximize and achieve aggressive growth. Our mentality is that if there is money left over at the end of the day, we are not investing enough back into the business.
We have greatly increased our team, primarily in the marketing and development departments. This has allowed us to fast-track our multitool product offering and move closer to Unicorn status.
We are now represented in all marketing channels:
- Paid marketing
- Influence marketing
- SEO
- Educational content (our own courses/webinars)
- CPA & Affiliate (partnerships)
- Email marketing
We are planning to raise a Series A round soon in order to continue supporting the growth of our team and the development of a global market leading product to become a unicorn.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Building a successful product is one thing. Expanding it globally to achieve market leader status is another.
My skills as a CEO/CTO were enough to create a successful product, but a successful product and a globally known business are two different things. At different stages of the business and product lifecycle, different skills are required.
If we want to achieve a winning product and global success, we must learn from the best and recruit top talents. At some point, this means bringing in someone stronger than you to keep moving the business forward.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
(1) Do it simply and quickly to sell it right away – bring the product to market faster.
The picture of the product you have in your head is biased 99% of the time and isn’t what users need. Users will let you know what they need much faster, so trust the customers rather than your assumptions.
Don't think about anything except bringing the product to market!
(2) If you doubt whether something should be done (e.g. a new feature) – don't do it. Only do what the product can't succeed without.
There are 2 types of founders at opposite ends of the spectrum:
– Those who think they are the coolest and that their ideas will change the world. “I'm Steve Jobs, I'll make an iPhone and it will skyrocket.” They overestimate the value and importance of their idea to the world and clients. I would advise these people to first ensure the idea is truly valuable.
– Those who do too much research, interviews, and methodologies, spending a lot of time on it. To them, I would say you don't always need to spend months researching the market and validating the idea through communication with users. If somebody else has already proven that the idea works, why would you waste your time? Just to look at your best competitors and deliver your MVP as quickly as possible.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
C-levels are always welcome!
Thanks to our current team, we've achieved significant milestones. To reach unicorn status, our current pace isn't enough. We're planning to hire more C-level professionals, stronger than us, right at the top. We prefer to work with the best to make the best Aithor-decision on the market.
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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