In Jan 2022, the three internet strangers formed a Whatsapp group and began working on developing an AI Meme Generator as a side project. Fast forward to now, it’s generating $15,000 in annual revenue and averaging 500 signups a day without any marketing spend.
As I write this blog, I’m scrolling through a years worth of Whatsapp conversation between the three of us to share the highlights of this year!
Static Meme Generator
The initial iteration of our product was designed to create memes on a particular subject. It was straightforward; users could select a topic, find a template, and the AI would generate several memes based on the chosen topic.
For example, this is an AI generated meme on product managers (Sorry PMs)
You can even upload your own image, like a selfie or screenshot and Supermeme.ai will create a meme for you with that!
As we started sharing these memes on social media, we were happy to see a lot of interest but we weren’t sure if someone would be willing to pay for what we built. Until someone actually did. (Thanks, Nelson)
Search
However, we still only had a limited number of pre-existing meme templates available. We soon realized that a significant challenge in meme creation is selecting the appropriate template. Not everyone is a meme expert and may not be familiar with a specific meme, such as the "Batman slapping Robin" meme, until they actually see it.
That's when we developed our own search engine specifically for memes. The unique aspect is that users don't even need to know what they're looking for specifically. They can input an emotion or expression and our Supermeme.ai would present the appropriate meme template for them to use
Product Hunt Launch
If you have a product and you don’t launch it on Product Hunt, do you even have a product? We thought so too. Few months in, we decided to launch Supermeme.ai on Product Hunt. It was one of the most intense days for us.
While we ended up becoming #1 Product of the Day, we didn’t know about it until the very end because we were still not the most upvoted product. But thanks to the Product Hunt algorithm, we ended up on top
Going Multilingual
We never intended to go multilingual this quickly but we were getting a lot of visitors and signups from non-English speaking regions. That’s when we invested in building a multilingual meme generator which can generate memes in over 110+ languages
Text to meme
We wanted to make the meme generation process even simpler. Staying true to our vision of democratising meme creation, we introduced Text to Meme which can create memes from text using AI
We wanted anyone to literally just convert their thoughts into memes. No need to think of templates, no need to think of a funny copy. Just type in any text and AI creates a meme for you.
APIs
APIs has been one of the most requested features for us! We were curious but weren’t really sure how people planned to use it.
Turns out, there are so many use cases! We’ve rolled out our v1 of the APIs and planning to work closely with people who are interested to see how it’s going to evolve. Personally, I’m excited for this one.
MRR Growth
The last few months have been quiet for the three of us as we were busy with other things. But that’s when Supermeme.ai saw the biggest revenue boost! In the last couple of months, we would wake up to find a new customer.
We also grew our signups massively during this time period averaging almost 500 signups per day. All of it was organic. We did not spend $0 on marketing (We couldn’t afford it anyways)
The Road Ahead
While 2022 looks great for us, we know so much can be made better. And with paying customers validating Supermeme.ai, we’ll be focusing on improving the current experience and adding new features.
Our primary focus would be to enhance the quality of memes generated (both on relevance and humour) and also building features that will enable business to use it for their marketing (APIs, Collaboration, branding).
We’re immensely grateful for all the support we received from you this year. For 3 independent creators building this on the side, this is very encouraging.
P.S If you want to support our journey, you could consider nominating us for Golden Kitty award on Product Hunt
