This Guy’s $1M+ A Year Business With No Employees (Incredible Story)

Imagine building a million-dollar business with zero employees, minimal expenses, and all the profits going straight to you. Sounds like a dream, right? Meet Ivan Kutskir, the mastermind behind Photopea, a free, powerful alternative to Photoshop. Ivan’s journey from a small village in Ukraine to creating a globally acclaimed image editor is nothing short of extraordinary. With Photopea attracting 13 million monthly visits and generating $100,000 a month in ad revenue, Ivan has proven that innovation, passion, and perseverance can lead to incredible success. Dive into the captivating story of how this solopreneur turned his vision into a thriving enterprise, and learn the secrets behind his remarkable achievement.

Ivan Kutskir: The Solopreneur Behind Photopea

Photopea is a free Photoshop-like image editor created by Ivan Kutskir. Here’s a snapshot of its success:

• 13M monthly visits
• 1.5M monthly user hours
• $100K monthly ad revenue

Despite managing 500K daily users, Ivan’s maintenance costs are just $700/year, and he keeps all the profits.

How It All Began

Early Life:

• Born in a small village in western Ukraine.
• Moved to the Czech Republic in 2001.
• Received his first computer at age 11 and developed a passion for computer graphics.
• Built his first website at 14.

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University Years:

• Photopea started in 2009 while Ivan was studying computer science.
• Initially, he made money by creating Flash games and monetizing them with banner ads, earning $100-$400 per month.

Birth of Photopea

Ivan identified two major issues with Photoshop:

1. High cost with subscription fees.
2. High computing power requirement, making it inaccessible on slower computers.

In 2012, he envisioned a web-based tool to open Photoshop files without needing the software installed. This idea led to the creation of Photopea.

Development Journey

Initial Features:

• Open .psd files in a browser and download layers separately.
• Gradually added features like creating, deleting, and saving layers.

Marketing Struggles:

• From 2012 to 2016, Photopea had no monetization plan.
• Ivan graduated with only $29K made from Photopea but continued working on it during his post-graduation.

Gaining Traction

Marketing Efforts:

• Ivan posted about Photopea on forums like Reddit and Hacker News, often facing self-promotion flags.
• Approached YouTubers for reviews but was mostly ignored or asked for money he didn’t have.

Innovative Approach:

• Solved 400+ user issues and created open-source libraries.
• Provided excellent customer support, with 80% of users joining GitHub to request features.
• Published blogs detailing new features, attracting a loyal user base.

Viral Success

AMAs on Reddit:

• October 2018: First AMA went viral with 50K upvotes and 2.2K comments.
• Traffic doubled to 3M visits 9 months later with another successful AMA.
• 2021: Hosted another viral AMA on Hacker News.

Current Status

Photopea now enjoys a huge active community and continuous profitability with minimal expenses:

• Monthly Costs:
• $50 for hosting
• $16 for the domain

Ivan’s success underscores the power of creating a better, free alternative to an expensive product. He has single-handedly addressed over 5,000 GitHub requests and issues.

Summary: Ivan Kutskir built Photopea, a free web-based image editor, scaling it to $1M+ annual revenue with minimal expenses. His journey highlights innovation, perseverance, and community-driven growth.