50 Companies That Use Unsplash [2024]

A 22-year-old Korean American entrepreneur shares the story of how he pivoted from a beard growth cosmetic business to a beard care brand, built a strong community with a 30% customer retention rate, and scaled to a six-figure revenue with primarily Facebook ads.

Suffolk Latch Company, an online store specialising in traditional and hand forged ironmongery, has experienced a 20% increase in turnover compared to the previous year despite economic turbulence, attracting and retaining customers through a multi-pronged approach of Google ad campaigns, reviews and social media, blog articles, and selling through eBay and Amazon.

SWAGGER Magazine is a digital lifestyle magazine for men, with a focus on lifestyle, fashion, gear, food, dating and business and careers, pulling in 1-2K per month in revenue through sponsored posts and celebrity features, and growing rapidly with 60k social media following and a growing audience.

How Tortuga bootstrapped their way to seven figures in revenue, by solving a problem for travelers with their carry-on sized travel backpacks, after overcoming challenges in design, manufacturing, and advertising.

Novo Watch creates unique, handcrafted watches made from reclaimed materials, with the Coalbanks collection watch selling out immediately and achieving their first-ever $16,000 day.

Blue Coffee Box increased its monthly revenue to $14,000 by offering a specialty coffee subscription service that curates from various roasters after being inspired by a trip to the United States and learning about the niche coffee subscription service they offer. 

Unofficial Shopify Podcast has generated 750,000 downloads and has four sponsors, resulting in significant monetary gain for ecommerce consultant and host, Kurt Elster, who has created a thriving business and community around his podcast.

From blogging about the best technology ideas to earning $10K/month through paid newsletters and courses, this case study explores the journey of entrepreneur and blogger Thomas Oppong and his successful online platforms.

A primary school teacher found his passion for jewelry-making, turning it into a successful business generating $2500-3000 per month through sales at the Creative Queenstown Arts and Crafts Market, online, and through stockists, with plans to expand and eventually make it his full-time profession.

Jonathan Pritchard, a former world-traveling comedy Mentalist, now generates about $20k per month through his business consulting for companies and the sale of his book and speaking engagements.

Professional cuddler, Sam Varnerin, developed her successful one-to-one cuddle service, Snuggle with Sam, as a result of recognising the universal human need for connection and touch, which also led to her opening Sam’s Snuggle School, a course for aspiring professional cuddlers.

A licensed mental health counselor increased her income by creating Coping Skills for Kids, which now has a gross revenue of approximately $10,000 per month, from selling products such as the Coping Skills for Kids Workbook and the Coping Cue Cards that help children manage stress, anxiety, and anger.

The Vacation Hunt, run by Roshni and Jeff, is a surprise travel service that has gained popularity through social media sharing and word of mouth, offering unique packages that are created individually for each traveler based on their survey responses.

Woodies, a wood sunglasses brand founded by Cory Stout, reached over $3.5M in revenue in 2018, despite starting with only $15K from a failed business and has succeeded through Amazon sales, spending $50K monthly on PPC and keeping ACOS at 30%.

Let's Work Remotely, co-founded by Steven Lin, has built the largest remote community possible with over 100,000 members, including four Facebook groups with engagement from over 60% of members, growing at a rate of 100 members per week and ranked in the top 0.1% of websites in the world, with plans to monetize the platform through a freemium job posting model.

Learn how two friends bootstrapped a SaaS business to $55k monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by creating a simple graphic design tool for non-designers and focusing on content marketing for customer acquisition.

Scribly.io, a subscription-based copywriting service providing high quality content that helps businesses scale at roughly 50% of the cost of hiring in-house, created by Dani, a first-time entrepreneur who started with just a few hundred dollars worth of projects and with the help of three other writers; as of last month, Scribly.io topped $14K monthly revenue.

ByteStand, a software development company run by ecommerce experts, created Shopify apps, including FreshCredit and FBA Shipping, which generate approximately $17,000 per month in revenue, with over 2,000 shops using their software.

The Adventurous Mailbox, founded by Andrew Bliss, sells adventure-based educational packages to schools, homeschoolers, and gift-buyers for kids aged 8-12, with initial launch costs coming in at $50k for its eight-book series, and despite its original launch failing, forecasts $20k/mo in revenue by end 2019 from its relaunch with a narrower target market.

This case study follows founder Chris Casseday's journey in creating 513 Kicks, an online sneaker shop that went from sporadic income to an average profit of $2,000 per month within two years through strategic branding, SEO, social media, and email marketing.

A successful podcast production company that grew from one client making $15/hour to a team of 10 contractors producing over 30 shows per week with revenue of over $10k/mo, primarily through referrals and with a focus on providing high personal touch and being picky about working only with clients who are a good fit.

Bonify co-founders successfully transition from a small web development agency to a lifestyle SAAS company by building Shopify apps, reaching $15,000 monthly revenue and planning to double it by year end through improved marketing and new features.

Whisked Away Surprise Travel is a curated travel service for clients overwhelmed by the planning process, with revenue growth exponentially increasing each year since its launch in March 2017.

Vowed Box Co. is a line of curated, quirky gift boxes with non-traditional brides in mind, offering four different products that have helped the business become profitable most months since its launch in 2018, with a monthly income of roughly $600.

Joel Runyon built an iPhone fitness app called MoveWell that currently brings in about $1,200-$1,800 per month, and is looking to expand the business by adding coaches, more content, and branded partnerships.

Serial entrepreneur grows modern vintage-inspired travel patch company to over $5,000 in monthly sales volume with a 100+% growth rate by expanding product line and utilizing online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon.

Lazy Jar is a fitness app that charges users for failing to meet their weekly fitness goals, launched by Justin Anyanwu, which currently averages $250 per month and has been featured in publications such as TechCrunch, LifeHacker, and Fast Company.

A founder shares how he launched Really Simple Store, an ecommerce platform for people who "simply have something to sell," generating less than $100 per month but with a lot of potential for growth and improvement, and emphasizes the importance of building a community while growing a business.

Oliver Anwar, an online personal trainer and founder of Roanwar Fitness, has built a profitable business that offers bespoke training, nutrition and lifestyle coaching to busy professionals which generates around $2,000 USD per month and was featured on the New York Times Best Seller Chris Guillebeau’s Side Hustle Podcast.

Dox Design, a pet industry-focused design agency, grew from $4K to $12K in monthly sales since launching in 2016, with over 12 clients and $22K in closed business in its highest month by providing bespoke branding, graphic and website designs for pet businesses and animal lovers.

Phrase It™ is an English language learning tool that was started with an initial investment of $4,500 and has since grown to an average of 2-3 sales per day on Amazon, with ongoing customer engagement and retention through social media, conferences, influencers, and valuable content.

TheTravelSecret provides a platform where members have access to pricing on travel that is not available to the public, booking hotels, cars, cruises, flights, and vacation rentals at a discount.

Trini Pepper Sauce co-founder and co-owner, Mustafa Mannan, shares how he successfully imported and manufactured his family's unique pepper sauce recipe and launched it through a Kickstarter campaign, now selling an average of $3,000/month in revenue.

This case study follows the story of Stacey Haynes, founder of Thrivette, a business consulting and resource community that helps people start and grow their businesses, and how she and her husband have made over $10k per month through consulting and merchandise sales on platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify.

Recruiter Written, a resume and LinkedIn profile writing service founded by Alex Benjamin, successfully launched with a startup cost of $600 and has since generated an average gross profit of around $1940 per month primarily through referrals, and plans to expand to downloadable PDF Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writing guides.

Sex blogger turns a free WordPress blog into a $2,000 a month part-time digital business by investing in education, self-hosting, and building relationships within the NSFW community.

Proposify, an online business proposal SaaS company, currently serving over 8,000 customers and doing over $7M in annual recurring revenue, was founded by CEO Kyle Racki who turned his old proposal app idea into a successful business by focusing on user pain points, building a great product, and prioritizing customer service.

How founder Nick Swan started and grew SanityCheck.io, a SaaS tool helping businesses rank higher on Google, while also navigating his daughter's leukemia diagnosis and treatment.

Bar Games 101 is an authority website about classic bar games with over 200K monthly visitors and revenue over $4,000 for the month of August, achieved through consistent publishing of researched articles and outsourcing by the founder.

Forgotten Mermaids creator Anslea shares how she started a passive income business while living out of a van, creating mermaid temporary tattoos and accessories, and has grown to average $1,000 per month in mostly passive income over the last six months.

Fantôm Agency founder Luis Camacho shares how he built his digital advertising agency from scratch, focusing on helping mid-to-late stage SaaS companies scale through paid advertising channels and generating around $8,600 per month without significant overhead costs.

Leave Me Alone, a web service that helps users easily unsubscribe from unwanted emails, launched in January 2019 and made $1,186 in revenue in its first month, with a successful Product Hunt launch and a focus on being an open startup contributing to its success.