From 2 to $3M ARR: How We Bootstrapped Tally With a Tiny Team

We’re still wrapping our heads around it. When we started building Tally in 2020, we didn’t have a 5-year plan, funding deck, or big growth hacks. We just had a simple idea: forms could be better. A lot better.

Fast-forward to today, and more than 800,000 creators, marketers, product teams, and startups around the world have used Tally to build forms they actually enjoy creating, and that people actually enjoy filling out.

If you’re new to our journey, here’s a quick visual of how we got here—from two people and an MVP to where we are now.

Sept. 2020	$0K	How we ended up building a form builder
Mar. 2021	$1K	From MVP to Product Hunt launch
Oct. 2021	$5K	Bootstrapping to $5K MRR and 11K users
Dec. 2021	$8K	Wrapping up 2021
Feb. 2022	$10K	Bootstrapping to $10K MRR and 20K users
Jun. 2022	$20K	Growing from $10K to $20k MRR
Oct. 2022	$30K	Bootstrapping our SaaS to $30K MRR
May 2023	$60K	Bootstrapping our SaaS to $60K MRR
Sept. 2023	$75K	Launching Tally 2.0
Feb. 2024	$100K	Bootstrapping to $100K MRR
Nov. 2024	$150K	Bootstrapping to $150K MRR
Feb. 2025	$175K	We crossed $2M ARR
June 2025	$258K	Here we are 📍

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What’s Changed Since Our Last Update?

The rise of Tiny Teams

Tiny teams are taking over the world, and we’re here for it. Over the past few years, we’ve learned that when you stay scrappy, focused, and close to your users, a small team can punch way above its weight. Today, Tally is run by just 8 people (4 full-time, 4 part-time). And honestly, we like it that way. We’re small by design.

We’ve never raised VC money. That’s not a badge of honor, it’s just the kind of company we want to build. A profitable, user-driven business with full creative freedom and a healthy pace.

Bootstrapped from day one, we’ve always had to do more with less. That constraint became our superpower. And with the rise of AI, our ability to move fast and build smart has only accelerated.

But let’s be clear: staying small only works if you’re relentlessly focused. Here’s what’s helped us get this far:

• Keep it simple
  This runs through everything: our product, design, pricing, messaging, the way we work. Simplicity is harder than it looks. But it’s also the best way we know to stay clear-headed and user-focused.
• MVP everything
  We don’t try to ship perfect. We ship small, learn fast, and improve in public. We only go big on things that prove they’re worth it.
• Ruthless prioritization
  We’re not trying to be everything for everyone. Our focus is crystal clear: build the best form builder on the internet—beautiful, fast, and delightful to use.That means no Swiss Army knife, no feature bloat, and no distractions. (Also: no unnecessary meetings and calls. Ever.)
• Hire A-players
  With a small team, every hire shapes the culture and product. We only bring in A-players, and only when it really matters.

When people ask how we’ve grown so quickly with such a small team, the answer isn’t some secret playbook. It’s just consistency, caring a lot about the details, and saying no to 99 things so we can say hell yes to the 1 that really moves the needle.

We Started Shipping Paid Features (Again)

From the very beginning, Tally has had a generous free plan. It’s a big part of how we’ve grown:

1. Anyone can use Tally for free with unlimited forms and submissions.
2. Free forms include a small “Made with Tally” badge, which turns our users into advocates.
3. About 2% of users eventually upgrade to Tally Pro. That’s how we make money.

This model has been our engine since day one. We’ve never had big marketing budgets, we just focused on making something people want to tell others about.

But from early 2023 to early 2025, we mostly focused on free features. It was the right thing for our growth at the time. This year we made a shift and began rolling out our most requested premium features, especially around customization.

The result? A clear uptick in Pro upgrades, without compromising the free experience.

AI-Powered Search Became Our Biggest Acquisition Channel

This one we didn’t see coming.

Tally has always grown through word of mouth and organic search. But this year, something new happened: ChatGPT became our #1 referral source.

The past months, we see over 2,000 new users signing up via AI tools and those are just the ones we could track. Our onboarding survey (where we ask how users find Tally) shows that the actual number is a lot higher.

Now why the sudden spike? The most likely theory: GPT-4o’s rollout with default web browsing.

• Launched in April 2025 with improved reasoning, memory, and browsing, it became better at surfacing new or niche tools (like Tally) and more likely to recommend alternatives based on user intent (e.g. “simple or clean form builders”).
• Inclusion of web browsing is turned on by default, which made forums, Reddit posts, blog mentions, and authentic UGC part of the AI’s source material.
• We’ve invested for years in showing up in those places by sharing what we learn, answering questions, and being human.

That authentic presence seems to be paying off as UGC and forums are winning in AI search.

We don't know where this is heading, but we’re looking at prompt gaps, doubling down on public conversations, and staying close to our users.

Community Is Still Our Superpower

None of this would have happened without the people who believed in us early, and who continue to cheer us on.

This year, we’ve made it a priority to show up more in real life.

We joined No Code Week Italy, and even met our newest teammate Laura there! (Welcome, Laura 🎉)

We also hosted our first in-person meetup at Tally HQ together with the amazing folks at the Next Play community. It was surreal (and very fun) to meet the people behind the usernames.

Community has always been part of our DNA. From day one, we built in public, answered every message we receive, and celebrated every milestone, no matter how small.

And we’re not slowing down. Emily (our community & social lead) is planning new meetups, experiments, and campaigns to keep our community close.

So, What’s Next?

We honestly don’t know where the ceiling is.

Tally started as a form builder. But it’s become something more: a home for makers who want simplicity over complexity, craft over bloat, and connection over scale.

We’re still learning. Still building. Still listening.

And we’re more excited than ever for what’s ahead.

Thanks for being here,

— Team Tally 🫡