Loading page…
Digital loyalty cards that live in Apple Wallet and Google Pay so the coffee shop's customer never installs an app — resold by marketing agencies at roughly $150 a month per account
roughly $150/month per platform account plus volume-based add-ons · 3,000 paid licences and $300K in net revenue from a two-month AppSumo campaign in 2022 · $400K pre-seed (figures as of August 2023)
Fewer bars = easier, cheaper, or faster for an AI-assisted solo builder. Editorial judgments based on the case details.
Mike Inishev spent twelve years running his own digital agency — 54 employees and around $2 million in annual recurring revenue — and came out of it, in his own words, totally burned out on the service business. During the COVID lockdown he decided to build a product company instead. The product is a loyalty platform for small local businesses whose entire economics depend on repeat visits: coffee shops, pizza places, beauty salons. His argument is that those businesses already understand retention and simply have no usable tool for it, because the standard answer — install our app to get your eleventh coffee free — asks too much of a customer standing at a counter. Boomerangme issues loyalty cards as Apple Wallet and Google Pay passes. The customer scans a QR code and the card is in their wallet in two or three seconds, with nothing installed. The shop needs no point-of-sale integration and no CRM: the platform runs standalone, with 111 ready-made card templates and a promotion that can be live fifteen minutes after signup. He sold his agency in 2021, became the first investor in his own product, and hired two developers to build the MVP — about six months before there was anything to sell. For roughly the first two years the company sold directly to shop owners in its Eastern European home market, then opened a Delaware C Corp and raised a $400K pre-seed to go global. The direct-to-SMB motion is not what worked. The AppSumo campaign that followed brought in marketing agencies asking to resell the product to their own restaurant and café clients, and the company rebuilt itself around them. At the time of the interview it was doing about $20K MRR, growing 9 to 10% month over month, with every sale coming through agencies.
9 more sections — how the first customers came, how the first dollar landed, what turned the flywheel, and how they got through the silent stretch. Members read all of it.
Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel in one click · first payment refundable for 7 daysThe quick-reference card — acquisition channels, replication playbook, and risk map — is members-only.
Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel in one click · first payment refundable for 7 daysPaste into Claude Code / Codex and get a working version of this product end-to-end.
Two production-grade prompts per idea — a full build spec and an SEO growth plan — plus 10 tailored build specs a week. Members only.
Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel in one click · first payment refundable for 7 daysEvery claim traces back to a listed source.
Source links and the full captured transcripts — the raw material behind every number — are members-only.
Join the Unicorn Club — $5/moCancel in one click · first payment refundable for 7 daysData credibility: Founder interview on an agency's podcast; every number is self-reported and unaudited, with no dashboard, screenshot or third-party source shown at any point. ⚠️ The interview was published in August 2023, so the $20K MRR, the 9–10% month-over-month growth, the $50K year-end target and the planned $2–3M Series A at a $15–20M valuation are all a snapshot of that moment and say nothing about the company's position now. The AppSumo results (3,000 paid licences, $300K net revenue, roughly two months, 2022) and the $400K pre-seed are the founder's own account. The prior agency — twelve years, 54 employees, about $2M ARR, sold in 2021 — is also self-reported. ⚠️ The founder's dates are internally inconsistent: he says the product began in 2020 in one answer and in 2021 in another, while also saying two years were spent in the home market before the 2021 Delaware incorporation. We have reported what he said rather than trying to reconcile it. Product details (Apple Wallet and Google Pay passes, 111 templates, 14-day trial, 15-minute setup, no POS or CRM integration required, roughly $150/month plus volume add-ons) come from his own description on the call. Location: he states the home market was Eastern Europe and the company opened a C Corp in Delaware to sell into North America; no city or country is named, so none is asserted here. The group file's "India" tag is a search label and is contradicted by the interview.