How did ConvertKit grow to $30K in monthly revenue?
Through direct sales to people already using a competitor, then referrals. Nathan Barry, ConvertKit's founder, published the numbers on 15 October 2015 in Growing ConvertKit to $30,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue. ConvertKit, an email marketing tool then aimed at professional bloggers, had dropped to $1,337 a month in revenue in September 2014. Halfway through October 2015 it passed $30,000 a month. Barry's summary of the year: "what worked came down to just two things: direct sales and referrals."
The turnaround started with a decision. In April 2014, Hiten Shah had told Barry to either focus on ConvertKit full time or shut it down. In October 2014 Barry took that advice seriously: ConvertKit became Barry's full-time focus, work on books and courses stopped, the product got a niche, and direct sales began. In December 2014 Barry invested $50,000 and hired David Wheeler as lead developer.
ConvertKit is now called Kit; Barry's own site describes Barry as the founder of Kit. All figures in this post are Barry's, self-reported at the time. The method is what makes the story useful today: it is cold and warm outreach to a competitor's customers, run by a founder, with a migration offer that takes the work of switching off the customer.
Who did Nathan Barry email, and what did the email say?
Bloggers who already used a competitor. Barry's process was to make lists of blogs using MailChimp, AWeber and Infusionsoft, then reach out by email. Because Barry had connections in the blogging world, only about a third of those emails were cold.
The choice of list came from what Barry had learned about the best customers. In a March 2015 post, Barry wrote that ConvertKit's best customers didn't start an email list from scratch; they switched their list over from another provider.
The email had three parts, as Barry described it:
- An introduction.
- A question: is there anything that frustrates you about MailChimp, AWeber or Infusionsoft, whichever they used?
- An offer to show them ConvertKit if they had time.
The frustration question did the work. Barry wrote that it usually got good responses, often the same reasons ConvertKit had been built: paying for duplicate subscribers, lack of automation, no tags.
An earlier round of outreach gives a comparison. In Growing ConvertKit to $5,020 in Monthly Recurring Revenue, published on 11 March 2015, Barry described emailing the top sellers on LeanPub and Udemy while ConvertKit was aimed at authors. Out of about a hundred personal emails, ConvertKit picked up 5 to 7 customers. Barry called the result not great but not bad, especially for such an early stage.
If you want a starting point for your own version, our cold email templates include short, question-led openers.
What happened after a blogger replied?
A call, then a migration done for them. Barry continued the conversation and tried to set up a Skype demo, sending a calendar link so the prospect could pick a 30-minute slot. In Barry's words: "If the call goes well then I talk them through the migration process (which we usually do for them)."
Three details made it repeatable:
- Tracking. Conversations went into a ConvertKit Sales board in Trello. The March 2015 post describes adding a prospect to its Interested column straight after a chat at MicroConf. By October 2015, Barry tracked only potential customers with more than 10,000 subscribers.
- Targeting. After a mastermind retreat described in the March 2015 post, the plan was to talk to professional bloggers with lists of 30,000 to 250,000 subscribers and get them to switch.
- Migration as the offer. The same retreat set the plan to keep providing concierge migrations, and the March post told readers that ConvertKit would handle the entire migration for them.
Barry also argued that this kind of selling scales. Each new customer makes the next one easier, because you can point to known names. Referrals mean one sale can bring in three or five customers, since bloggers tend to copy each other. Talking to customers shows you their objections, which you can turn into marketing emails and webinars. Later, a team can take over the prospecting, outreach and demos.
ConvertKit's MRR, month by month
These figures come from the timeline in Barry's October 2015 post. All are self-reported, and some months have no figure.
| Month | Revenue or MRR | What Barry says happened |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 2014 | $1,337 a month | Revenue drops; Dan Gamito hired for support and operations on Barry's blog and training business, and starts on ConvertKit support |
| Oct 2014 | No figure given | Full-time focus; niche set to email marketing for authors; direct sales start |
| Nov 2014 | $2,100 MRR | Sales efforts continue |
| Dec 2014 | $3,237 MRR | $50,000 invested; David Wheeler hired as lead developer |
| Jan 2015 | $3,885 MRR | Direct sales land larger accounts; Barry starts to realise authors are not a good market |
| Mar 2015 | No figure given | Site refocused on email marketing for professional bloggers |
| Apr 2015 | No figure given | Leo Babauta of Zen Habits switches, a major credibility boost in sales conversations |
| May 2015 | $8,500 revenue against $13,000 monthly expenses | Team members temporarily laid off to avoid running out of money |
| Jun 2015 | $10,000 MRR | Webinars start; tags feature released |
| Jul 2015 | 48% revenue increase | Big new clients including Pat Flynn; everyone back to full time |
| Aug 2015 | $18,296 MRR (25% growth) | |
| Sep 2015 | $24,699 MRR (32% growth) | Passed $25,000 a month two days later |
| Mid-Oct 2015 | Over $30,000 a month (Barry gives 40% growth) | Excludes another 100 customers and $13,000 from one webinar, counted as one-time income |
The two posts give different low points. Barry's March 2015 post says MRR had slid to $1,207 in October 2014, then reached $1,646 by the end of that month. The October 2015 post gives revenue of $1,337 a month for September 2014 and does not call it MRR, so the two figures may measure different things. The table uses the later post's figures.
In a reply to a reader in the comments on the October 2015 post, Barry added that growth came from direct sales and referrals, with referrals mostly from existing customers talking about ConvertKit (those from Pat Flynn had only started in a major way in the previous 30 days), and that the majority of revenue in June, July and August came from direct sales.
What else moved the numbers?
A sharper niche, known customers, a generous affiliate offer and webinars, all on top of the sales work.
- A niche, then a better one. ConvertKit chose authors in October 2014. In January 2015 Barry started to realise authors were not a good market; the March post says customers who identified most strongly as authors had the smallest accounts, needed the most help and were the most likely to cancel. In March 2015 the site switched to email marketing for professional bloggers.
- Names prospects recognised. Leo Babauta switching in April 2015 gave a major credibility boost in sales conversations, and Pat Flynn became a customer in July 2015.
- A 30% recurring affiliate commission. Barry saw bloggers recommending AWeber, which paid a 30% recurring commission, over MailChimp, which gave app credits. ConvertKit matched the 30% and quickly signed most of its customers up to the affiliate programme. Barry's advice: commissions of 5 to 15% won't motivate anyone.
- Webinars and features. Webinars started in June 2015, the same month the tags feature shipped.
It was not yet a profitable business. At $30,000 a month, Barry wrote that none of it was profit: almost every dollar went back into the company, and Barry took a salary of $3,000 a month. Five months earlier, with $8,500 a month in revenue against $13,000 in expenses, Barry had temporarily laid off team members rather than run out of money.
Reaching $30,000 also took longer than the 13 months the table shows. Barry started ConvertKit in January 2013 and wrote in October 2015 of coming up on three years of work on it.
What can a 1 to 5 person B2B team do this week?
Run Barry's process on a small list of a competitor's customers. These steps are our adaptation for a B2B team in 2026; the template is ours, built on Barry's three parts.
List 50 companies on a competing tool
Look for public signs: job posts that name the tool, partner or integration pages, case studies on the competitor's site, and people posting about the tool on LinkedIn or X. Note who owns the tool at each company.
Send the frustration question
Our example: Hi Priya, I run Acme. I saw your team uses ToolX for onboarding emails. Is there anything about it that frustrates you? If it's the same things we hear, I'd be glad to show you how we handle them in 30 minutes. My calendar is here: [link]. Start with ten a day.
Offer to do the switch
Barry's migration offer removed the work of switching. Decide what you can migrate for a customer by hand, and say so in the first reply.
Track every conversation on one board
Stages: emailed, replied, call booked, migrating, live. Set a size threshold, as Barry did with 10,000 subscribers, once you know which accounts are worth a call.
Ask each new customer who else should know
Barry saw one sale bring in three or five customers through referrals. Ask every new customer for two names, and if you run an affiliate programme, make the commission worth talking about.
Finding people who already discuss a competitor is the slow part. Siela's AI SDR can track competitors on LinkedIn and X and turn the people who post about or engage with them into leads, each scored with a one-line reason. Our post on buying signals for small teams covers other signals to watch.
Frequently asked questions
How long did it take ConvertKit to reach $30K MRR?
About 13 months from September 2014, by Nathan Barry's own account. Revenue was $1,337 a month in September 2014, and halfway through October 2015 ConvertKit passed $30,000 a month. Counting from the start, it took longer: Barry began ConvertKit in January 2013 and wrote in October 2015 of coming up on three years of work on it.
What email did Nathan Barry send to win ConvertKit customers?
Barry described a three-part email to bloggers using MailChimp, AWeber or Infusionsoft: a short introduction, a question asking whether anything frustrated them about their current tool, and an offer to show them ConvertKit if they had time. Because of Barry's connections in the blogging world, only about a third were cold. Replies led to a 30-minute demo call.
Was ConvertKit profitable at $30K MRR?
No. In October 2015 Barry wrote that none of the $30,000 a month was profit, because almost every dollar went back into growing the company, and that Barry's own salary was $3,000 a month. In May 2015, with $8,500 a month in revenue against $13,000 in expenses, Barry had temporarily laid off team members to avoid running out of money.
What affiliate commission did ConvertKit pay in 2015?
A 30% recurring commission. Barry noticed bloggers recommending AWeber, which paid 30% recurring, over MailChimp, which gave app credits, even when they rated the two products about equal. ConvertKit matched the 30% and quickly signed most of its customers up. Barry wrote that commissions of 5 to 15% won't motivate anyone.
Why did ConvertKit stop targeting authors?
Barry's March 2015 post says customers who identified most strongly as authors had the smallest accounts, needed the most help and were the most likely to cancel. The best customers had switched an existing list from another provider and saw themselves as bloggers or course creators. In March 2015 ConvertKit repositioned as email marketing for professional bloggers.
Sources
- Nathan Barry: Growing ConvertKit to $30,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (published 15 Oct 2015)
- Nathan Barry: Growing ConvertKit to $5,020 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (published 11 Mar 2015)
- Siela: AI SDR (checked 20 Oct 2026)
- Nathan Barry: About (checked 20 Oct 2026)