Outrank: 12 Questions Answered From the Starter Story Interview, With Timestamps

Outrank is a search-traffic tool that its founder says just passed a self-reported $200,000 a month, one of five apps he runs that together make about $700,000 a month. In the Starter Story interview, founder Tibo walks through the 12-step playbook he reuses: ship fast, talk to a few real users daily, go broad only once people stick, then double down on the channels that work. He runs several apps mainly out of fear of losing one.

We transcribed the interview with transcribe.so and asked it the same questions we ask every episode. Each answer below is written in our own words and points to who said it and the exact second, so you can check it in the video. All figures are self-reported by the founder and we have not audited them. We are not affiliated with Starter Story, and we sell a transcription service. The interview does not cover where the Outrank idea came from, how long it took to build, or what it costs, so those questions are left out.

What does Outrank do and how does it make money?

It began as a blog post generator and is turning into an all-in-one tool for growing organic search traffic (Founder, 02:03; 02:30). It is paid software, and he calls it possibly the fastest growing of his products (Founder, 02:03). The interview does not give its plans or prices.

What numbers does the founder share?

Per month, as he lists them (Founder, 02:03 to 03:24):

• A video creation app, his oldest and largest: about $400,000, still growing 10% month over month.
• Outrank: just past $200,000.
• An app for growing an audience on X: just past $13,000.
• A cross-posting social media tool: about $1,500.
• A blogging tool he bought for $250,000: about $10,000.
• Together: about $700,000 a month from 50,000 paying customers, with total revenue growing about 20% a month for over six months (Founder, 02:57; 03:24).

He says four of his apps have passed $100,000 a month over the last four years (Founder, 00:13; 01:35). Two of the five above are over that line today; he does not say which earlier apps make up the other two.

Who is the founder?

A developer from France, by the host's introduction, who has launched dozens of products (Host, 00:03). He built and sold Tweet Hunter and Taplio in what he calls an eight million acquisition, and is trying to grow five apps toward 10 million a year in revenue (Founder, 01:14).

"I failed for five years because I didn't know this." (Founder, 00:33)

Who is the customer?

For Outrank, people who want more organic search traffic (Founder, 02:30). His method for any product is to find the five to ten people most relevant to it, the core audience, and reach them through posts, communities or email (Founder, 07:10); feedback from anyone outside that group teaches you nothing, positive or negative (Founder, 07:37).

What are the steps of his repeatable playbook for launching a SaaS?

Twelve steps, in his order:

1. Ship the first version in days or weeks, taking shortcuts such as no-code tools and boilerplates (Founder, 06:30). Expect to fail about 90% of the time, so speed matters (Founder, 06:43).
2. Find five to ten relevant users and reach out to them (Founder, 07:10).
3. Build a real relationship with each one until you understand their workflow and pain (Founder, 07:37; 08:04).
4. Talk to them every day and look for repeat usage: why people come back, and why they do not (Founder, 08:04). Until a product makes $10,000 a month, its support link goes to his own direct messages (Founder, 08:31).
5. Understand the user's ultimate goal, so you can deliver far more value (Founder, 09:05).
6. Fix the users' problems, not yours, and use your own product (Founder, 09:32).
7. Iterate while keeping that daily contact going (Founder, 10:00).
8. Repeat until users cannot live without it, before chasing acquisition (Founder, 10:27). Complaints are a good sign of commitment (Founder, 10:54).
9. Go broad on channels: launch platforms, social posts and building in public are free (Founder, 11:51; 11:55).
10. Become a media company with a steady pipeline of content, testimonials and case studies (Founder, 12:22).
11. Add channels that scale: search, ads and affiliates (Founder, 13:18).
12. Scale what works and kill what does not (Founder, 14:13).

How did Outrank grow?

In two phases (Founder, 13:45; 14:13):

1. Zero to $20,000 a month by building in public.
2. $20,000 to $200,000 a month by adding ads, hiring someone dedicated to search, and expanding the affiliate program.

For every product, he launches on platforms and talks about it on social media until it reaches $10,000 in revenue (Founder, 12:22). Ads that work at $1,000 a month can often grow to $10,000 or $100,000 (Founder, 13:18; 13:45).

"Growth is pretty much about one or two acquisition channels." (Founder, 14:45)

Why does it win?

He names one big thing that builders skip: talking to people, which is hard for the shy developers who can build software, himself included (Founder, 04:26).

"I want to stay in my cave." (Founder, 04:26)

His edge is doing it anyway, every day, and fixing what users report within minutes, which can turn them into customers for life (Founder, 09:05).

Why does he run a portfolio of apps instead of focusing on one?

Mostly fear. He has a family to support (Founder, 15:52) and feels the field is moving too fast, with new AI releases making startups obsolete (Founder, 16:08).

"this move of creating multiple products is really about being more resilient" (Founder, 16:08)

It has happened to him before: a change of ownership at the social network almost killed Tweet Hunter while it made 200K a month, he says (Founder, 16:35). With several products, losing one would not sink the company.

What does it cost to run?

The interview gives no running costs or margins. The only spending he mentions is a $250,000 acquisition of the blogging tool (Founder, 02:57), plus ads and a dedicated search hire for Outrank, without amounts (Founder, 14:13).

What went wrong?

Five years of failure before he learned to talk to users (Founder, 00:33). The mistake he warns about most is going broad too soon: chasing acquisition with weak retention means nearly everyone you bring in leaves right after trying the product (Founder, 10:27; 10:54).

What is the founder's advice?

"Your job is to deeply understand the core need of your user" (Founder, 17:07)

Two ways to do it: keep a constant line of communication open with users, social media being a good one, and use your own product so you become an expert in the problem (Founder, 17:07; 17:30).

What did the host take away?

The host's biggest takeaway is that builders need to get out of their shell and talk to customers every single day, with a direct line of communication on X, and that this is the difference between those who struggle and those who succeed (Host, 18:03).

What to copy

• Make yourself the support channel until $10,000 a month. Routing support to your own inbox forces the daily user contact the rest of the playbook depends on.
• Earn retention before you buy traffic. Free launches and building in public can carry a product to its first revenue; paid channels only pay once users stay.
• Find your one or two channels, then go deep. Try everything early, then put the effort into the channel that already works, as Outrank did with search, ads and affiliates.

More from this series: the partner audiences playbook for SaaS, every Starter Story episode answered, and our free YouTube transcript tool if you want to run the same questions on any interview.