SaaS Social Media and Updates

Persistence Pays Off: 9‑Year Journey to $25M ARR

I found a letter I wrote to myself in May 2016. 9 years later, it breaks my heart to read it. I wrote down exactly what I wanted: $25M ARR, lean team, freedom, and the lie I couldn’t afford while stuck at $2.5M. August 2025 is when I hit it. Everything came true. But it took 4 years of hopelessness after writing that letter for something to finally work. Not in 2017 after the first failed swing. Not in 2018 after the second. Not even in early 2019. November 2019 is when I started GetEmails(.)com, now known as Retention(.)com. That was the thing that finally worked. The version of me who lived through those years had no idea he’d make it. If you're stuck right now, you might be on day 450 with no idea if you have 1 year left or 6. That uncertainty makes it 10x harder. But the guy who wrote that letter in 2016 had no idea November 2019 was coming. He just kept going.