From Side Project to a $190,000 ARR Business
How this former Product Manager turned a weekend coding project into a successful business
Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?
I'm Caspar, the founder of Keep The Score.
I'm a 46-year old jack-of-all-trades from Germany. My background is in product management, but I've always been drawn to the world of web development.
In 2016, I launched Keep The Score as a side project to develop my coding skills. It was one of many different products I launched over the years, but I never expected anything to turn into a full-time job.
In March 2021, I made the decision to quit my job and focus on growing Keep The Score full-time.
Fast forward to today, and Keep The Score has grown into a full-fledged business that enables users to create customizable scoreboards and leaderboards for various applications, from live streaming to sports events and classroom activities.
How did you start this business? Take us through the process.
It was 2016, and I was on a mission to teach myself web development.
I was looking for something really simple to build. The lightbulb moment came when I walked past a whiteboard with names and scores scribbled on it: why not create an online scoreboard that anyone could access and update from anywhere?
The product would be so simple that it would not even require a login. It took me about 3 months to make, working evenings. I was not working flat out, because it was just a fun learning project.
There is a working copy of the first version available here:
I made a post about it to Reddit and that's when growth started. But it was very very slow for the first few years.
At some point I decided to add a Stripe checkout and suddenly I was making 500 USD a month.
That's when I knew I had a working business and decided to quit my job and go all-in.
How did you get your first initial customers?
From day one, I relied on SEO and content marketing.
I never did any other kind of marketing (bar some failed experiments). Content marketing is often under appreciated -- by tiny and large companies alike. But it is an extremely effective tool. I suspect that most people give up too early or are put off by the effort. But trust me: it works and it is 100% worth it.
Content marketing is often under appreciated -- by tiny and large companies alike. But it is an extremely effective tool. I suspect that most people give up too early or are put off by the effort. But trust me: it works and it is 100% worth it.
Content marketing is often under appreciated -- by tiny and large companies alike. But it is an extremely effective tool.
I grew my initial paying customer base purely through SEO and content marketing. I wrote weekly blog posts answering specific problems, like "How to create a leaderboard using Google Sheets." The content focused on being genuinely helpful, with only brief mentions of my product.
I suspect that most people give up too early or are put off by the effort. But trust me: it works and it is 100% worth it.
I learned SEO by watching videos and reading posts on the topic. There are thousands of different resources—don’t overthink it. I just started and didn’t stop.
Since launch, what are your marketing strategies or channels to get new customers?
I still do content marketing. I manage to write around 1 post per week.
Recently I have started working with a content agency. They write 4 articles a month for 2,500 USD. I will continue to use content marketing.
A very important lesson I learned is: work out what works and then stick with it.
I believe a lot of founders think they need to start with Facebook or Google ads to be successful.
This is not true. In fact, building successful ad channels is very hard (and very expensive).
I avoided traditional marketing methods - no paid ads or social media campaigns. Instead, I concentrated on ranking well in Google searches for terms like "online scoreboard." When people found my helpful content, they naturally explored the product.
The strategy worked because I kept the barrier to entry low - users could try the product without creating an account, and then upgrade to the paid tier if they found it valuable.
Here’s an interesting story from my journey:
I noticed a competitor consistently outranking me in search results, so I decided to investigate using Ahrefs. This led to a surprising discovery—they were running a black-hat SEO operation, injecting hidden links across thousands of websites. Once I exposed this, Google penalized them, and I took the top spot.
That experience really showed me the power of SEO in my product category.
How does your business make money?
I make money in 3 ways:
One-off payments: Users can unlock additional features and customization options for their scoreboards and leaderboards by making a one-time payment. This allows them to access premium functionality without committing to a recurring subscription.
Subscription revenue: For users who require ongoing access to the premium features, I offer a subscription model. Unfortunately I have very high churn, and this is a problem I am currently working on.
Advertising revenue: I've recently introduced advertising on the platform, which generates revenue based on the number of impressions and clicks. While this is currently a smaller portion of my overall income, it has the potential to scale as our user base grows.
Gross revenue for the business is hovering around $16,000 USD per month.
I work on the project full time. I have a wife and 2 kids (7 and 9) which keeps me from working flat out. This is a good thing! It means I stay sane.
I spend most of my time on:
developing new features (40%)
SEO and content (30%)
Customer support (10%)
Coordinating my 3 freelancers (20%)
Where can we go to learn more about you and your business?
Here is the product: https://keepthescore.com
I am trying to cut down on Twitter / X and share most of my updates on LinkedIn.
Please follow me there!