We Built A $20K/Month AI Resume App
Who are you and what business did you start?
I'm Colin McIntosh, and I'm the creator of SheetsResume.com.
At SheetsResume.com, we've built a suite of free and paid AI tools to help people dramatically improve their odds of success in a job search. Our free resume template has over 4 million downloads, and our AI Resume Builder, AI Cover Letter Writer, and AI Mock Interviewer are helping thousands of job seekers every month. We also just launched a job board for employers to reach amazing candidates before anyone else – at point of resume creation.
Our paid memberships are now generating $30,000+ per month. We offer $99 lifetime and $29 weekly memberships for unlimited access to our suite of AI tools – no recurring fees. We offer a full satisfaction guarantee, with same-day no-questions-asked refunds for anyone who doesn't feel like they got their money's worth.
Because this is a passion project and not our full-time gig, we also give away our AI tools totally for free to anyone facing financial hardship. All they have to do is email us and ask! As former recruiters, we are intimately familiar with how tight money can be during a job hunt, and we never want finances to be a blocker for people who need our tools.
We believe that there are too many tools out there designed for employers, but barely any for job seekers. Why? Because employers have money, but unemployed people don't, so they're ignored by software companies. And that's why job hunts are so often so very miserable; it can feel like you're alone on an island.
But we believe that it is a gift to help people on their career journey. It can change lives, change families' trajectories for generations, and have enormous ripple effects across industries. In the US, it can even get you healthcare (yikes). We are so excited to continually build out SheetsResume.com with more and more helpful features for job seekers.
"Is this resume blessed by God, or what?" – actual review by a user after getting a $20k pay raise
How do you come up with the idea for Sheets AI Resume Builder?
In my early career, I used to be a recruiter (mostly tech) for some of the largest companies in the world. Back in 2018, I ended up writing the most popular resume advice on the internet via a post on Reddit on random Saturday morning that went mega-viral. Since then my resume template has been downloaded over 4M times since then – so I knew without a doubt that there is massive demand for trustworthy, straightforward, actionable resume advice.
Over the years, I've maintained the reddit thread by answering thousands of comments and questions from job seekers, all for free, accidentally positioning myself as redditors' most trusted resume whisperer.
With the advent of AI, I've been able to amplify my time and expertise by training the Sheets AI Resume Builder with my recruiting knowledge. We gave it away for the first week and saw thousands of excited users with great reviews, so we knew we were ready for prime time.
This is very different than my past business experience as Founder and CEO of Sheets & Giggles, a sustainable bedding brand known for its Eucalyptus Sheets.
How did you build the initial version of Sheets AI Resume Builder?
In 2023, I started doing 1:1 resume reviews in my spare time with my good friend and old recruiting colleague Nate, who is also a software engineer at EventBrite. We loved helping people 1:1 and making such a huge impact on their lives, but we just didn't have enough time to help out everyone who came to us. Plus, because each resume review took a ton of time, we had to charge $400, which was prohibitive for a lot of folks who were unemployed.
In 2024, Nate asked me if maybe we should automate our reviews to help more people at a lower price, and voila! The Builder's tech stack is OpenAI, Gemini, PHP (Laravel), RestAPI, AWS, and a few other pieces. We started training an AI with our resume rules and recruiting knowledge, and it took about 4 months (working nights and weekends) before we had the UX dialed in.
We let people build their resume, and then ask them if they'd like to become a lifetime member for $99 – no recurring fees, unlimited usage, and no-questions-asked refunds. We are trying to figure out how to add in a free usage tier, but for now if anyone needs it for free because of financial constraints, they just have to email me and I'll grant them a free temporary membership.
The business is totally bootstrapped.
My image
How did you launch Sheets AI Resume Builder and get initial traction?
To launch our Resume Builder, I included a line about it in my free resume template – which is downloadable from my website and which is the most popular resume template on the internet. I called it an "easy button" vs the DIY version, and made sure folks knew they could ask me for a free membership if they needed one.
We launched it in August 2024, and that first day we did $128 in sales. The next day, $500. It was a surreal feeling.
As a prior physical product founder, I've learned how financially flexible software margins can be – I absolutely adore and have immense gratitude for our paid members, who enable me to give it away for free to those in need. We have people in rehab centers, prisons, universities, and all over the world using our tools for free thanks to our paid lifetime members.
What was the growth strategy for Sheets AI Resume Builder and how did you scale?
We use Google Ads, affiliate marketing, PR, influencers, YouTube sponsorships, podcast sponsorships, and SEO content marketing to drive more website traffic.
We have a robust organic Reddit presence, answering questions freely and often. I think my best tip is that it's important to help people first and foremost, as often as you can, asking for nothing in return... and good things will follow.
What were the biggest lessons learned from building Sheets AI Resume Builder?
I didn't realize that once I started the AI Builder, nobody would want a 1:1 resume review anymore!! Haha I genuinely wish I still got requests for those; I really loved working with and getting to know people 1:1.
For good decisions, we sponsored Ryan George recently and that is always a smart financial and brand decision.
Our biggest mistake is probably the layout of the website. I wish we thought more about how to structure the site with the 1:1 reviews and the AI builder. SheetsResume.com's UI/UX really screams "side project" right now; it's definitely a huge mess that needs to be streamlined and cleaned up.
As for helpful habits I possess, I'm writing this at 3am, so I can function on like 4.5 hours of sleep pretty well. I run Sheets & Giggles as my main dayjob, so I can only work on passions projects like this late at night when all my other to-do's have become to-done's.
Inspo: there has never been a better time to be a solopreneur than right now. I cannot believe the AI tools that are now available to us for copy, coding, image, video, and customer care. Starting a business in 2025 is the easiest, least expensive, and least time-intensive it's ever been – what are you waiting for?!
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More about Sheets AI Resume Builder:
Who is the owner of Sheets AI Resume Builder?
Colin McIntosh is the founder of Sheets AI Resume Builder.
When did Colin McIntosh start Sheets AI Resume Builder?
2024
How much money has Colin McIntosh made from Sheets AI Resume Builder?
Colin McIntosh started the business in 2024, and currently makes an average of $240K/year.
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