29-year-old founder making $12k/mo is trying to build the next unicorn

29-year-old Farid Shukurov aims to build his product, Beep, into a unicorn. To do that, he's learning how to sell, despite being an introvert.

And he's getting good at it. He just secured $200k in funding and last month's revenue was $12,278.

Let's take a peek at his finances.

From $1 to unicorn status

The first dollar Farid ever made online was from a Photoshop course.

His goal was to make passive income so, after making that first dollar, he created close to 50 courses on the topic. By the end, he had close to 50,000 students worldwide and was making $2.5k and $4k/mo.

That's a good passive income anywhere, but Farid lives in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the average salary is about $500/mo. So this was more than enough to pay the bills. And that's how he got by for four years.

Then, he stopped managing his courses and that revenue slowly dwindled to nothing.

If you’re wondering why he would give up a solid revenue stream like that, it’s because he realized that creating courses didn’t align with his life goals.

His goal is to create a unicorn: a startup big enough to positively impact the entire startup ecosystem in his country. And he says that, while creating courses would continue to give him some income, it would never help him reach this goal.

Becoming a billionaire

Since he is attempting to build a unicorn, it'll come as no surprise that Farid also wants to become a billionaire.

But for him, becoming a billionaire isn’t just about the money; it's about financial freedom. And it is about the impact he can have on other people by using that money.

For example, he dreams of one day opening his own startup accelerator and helping other entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

He says that the most important thing that any entrepreneur needs on their way to making a billion is a knack for sales. You have to be good at selling to make that kind of money.

And he wasn't, at first. He's an introvert who was terrified of selling. But he read books and watched a lot of YouTube videos. And now, he can sell with the best of them.

He says if he can learn it, anyone can learn it. The first step is to actually start selling.

"If you want to have a successful business, sales is just one thing you have to get over. You just have to do it."

Learning to code while building a unicorn

In Farid's case, he also needed to learn how to code. It's something he'd always been interested in, but every time he started, he would soon quit, and then repeat the cycle a couple of years later.

It wasn't until he was working on a mobile app — essentially Google for restaurants — that this pattern changed.

His technical cofounder of three years started working on another project and spent less and less time building the app. This soon began to show and the 200 restaurants that had signed up started to bail. They didn't have the money to hire someone else and, ultimately, the company went under. He had to let all of his employees go.

So he decided he’d had enough — he would learn to code so that this never happened again. And, in 2022, with $5k in the bank, he spent a year learning to code as he built his new product, Beep.

Monetizing a unicorn

Beep is a tool for sharing visual feedback. It allows you to create comments on any site, anywhere on the screen, and tag teammates. It works like a real-time messenger, but the messages can be located on any site, anywhere on the screen.

The business model originally utilized lifetime deals, but Farid is currently transitioning away from these. He says they were helpful in the beginning because they were easier to sell. They allowed Farid to validate the product and make a bit of money. But the upkeep was hard and the income was unstable.

Moving forward, they're using a simple model:: They charge $9/month/user.

Here's what they're bringing in:

• Beep revenue: $12,278 last month — an assortment of monthly, annual, and license sales.

• Other funding: $200k — $100k from an accelerator, $100k from a competition

• Founder pay: $2.5k or less — he prefers to keep as much money in the company as possible

• Business bank account: $20k

• Personal bank account: $3k

Unicorns need funding

Farid got $100k eight months ago when he was accepted into 500 Global’s Eurasia accelerator. He gave 6.7% in exchange for that money, meaning that Beep was valued at about $1.49M. He has about $20k left, with most of it being spent on his team and infrastructure.

He also just participated in a competition called Baku Investment Day. He competed last year and didn’t even make it to the finals. But this year, they were one of five businesses who went home with $100k. In exchange for that $100k, they gave away another 2.5%.

If you're doing the math, that means that within a year, his valuation increased to $4M.

Having access to $120k is a sweet deal. But in Farid's mind, it's not enough to make a unicorn.

"If you want a decent income and a calm life, you should bootstrap. But if you want to build a unicorn, then VC money is the way to go."

So he's currently looking for another $200k. Sure, he could cut costs and prolong his runway, but unicorns need rapid growth, and that means spending more; not less. As he says, “We have competitors, and obviously, they want to take the larger share of the market.”

Investing in the business

Farid invests everything he has into his business, so he isn't currently investing in financial markets. But he did invest in crypto a while back.

He invested about $100 in Iron Finance and quickly cashed out at $1k. The next day, the price crashed to $0.

Pretty lucky. Or pretty savvy, as he was reading up on Iron Finance in Polygon-related forums.

When he eventually gets back to investing, he says he’ll probably diversify across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some big IT companies. But that won’t be for a while. For the foreseeable future, he wants to reinvest everything into his business.

"I believe I can earn more by investing in my own business than by investing in the financial market."

Business expenses

Here are his monthly business expenses:

• Salaries: $10k

• Infrastructure: $200

• Marketing tools: $200

As far as the infrastructure, he uses Heroku for the Node.js backend, AWS to store files, MongoDB Atlas for data, and Vercel for the frontend.

The marketing costs are made up of outreach tools for email and LinkedIn, as well as a help center too and a feature request dashboard.

Unicorns need teams

Farid started his project solo, but with his goal of building a unicorn, he knew he had to invest in a team. Currently, he has a team of five: three cofounders, a contractor, and an intern.

All teammates are full-time because Farid doesn’t believe in side hustles and part-time commitments. He’s all or nothing.

As for why he brought on two cofounders instead of hiring more freelancers, he says that 90% of startups fail, and that percentage is even higher for startups that outsource key elements of their businesses.

Freelancers don't care if the product succeeds. They just want to do their work and get paid. That's why, according to Farid, it's important to give people a reason to care about the work — give them a stake.

Personal expenses

His personal monthly expenses are low, thanks to his location:

• Rent: $600

• Food: $300

• Entertainment: $200

• Money sent to family: $100-$300

He sends money to help his family with expenses. It isn’t a necessity, but he thinks it makes their lives less stressful when it comes to finances, so he likes to help out.

Spending on productivity

Farid only buys things that he needs. Sounds simple, but many people struggle with that.

That’s why he doesn’t budget in his personal life. There’s no need. It's also why he doesn't have any debt.

But one place where Farid does spend money is on experiences: events and travel. He doesn’t care much for materialistic things, but experiences make him happy. And when he is happy, he is more productive.

His other splurges come down to productivity too. He orders food almost every day, as it saves time on cooking and cleaning, meaning that he can spend more time working.

And once a quarter, he allows himself to buy a few items of clothing — no more $200. He says it makes him happy for at least a month each time, and that's when he does some of his best work.

"Saving money is good. But refusing yourself things that would make you really happy is bad. You should find a balance."

Patiently building a unicorn

Farid is going to continue to grow, step by step. He isn't looking for luck or windfalls. He wants to be able to reproduce the steps that he's taking again in the future, both for Beep and future projects.

Yes, he's in a hurry to build his unicorn. But he has the patience to do it right.

"I believe slow progress is better than quick luck."

You can follow along as Farid builds the next big thing on X and YouTube. And check out Beep.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!