My startup made $122K, added $12K MRR, and got 211,707 YouTube views in September

Hey friends, greetings again from Lisbon!

If we haven’t met yet, I’m Bo, co-founder of SavvyNomad, the company that helps U.S. expats cut their tax bill by claiming domicile in states with no income tax.

Each month, I share the raw numbers, the face-palm moments, and the little wins that keep this bootstrapped rocket inching toward $1M ARR.

September is usually a low-season month for us, and we also switched Google Ads to optimize for paywall views instead of sign-ups—so the top-of-funnel has shrunk.

Even so, we set a new record for paid subscribers (122), beating August’s record.

Efficiency carried the month: Signup → Customer hit 13%, churn fell to 2.47%, and MRR reached $71,729 (86% of $1M ARR).

A breakout on YouTube lifted brand searches and drove both direct buyers and coupon redemptions.

More below.

September brought a leaner top-of-funnel but a much stronger business core.

A huge change in conversion rates, website visits, and sign-ups came from a deliberate shift in Google Ads optimization — we stopped optimizing for sign-ups and instead focused on a “paywall view” event, designed to attract higher-intent users and help the algorithm learn which audiences actually convert to paying customers.

That transition caused major swings in the top-of-funnel numbers, but it’s already paying off in deeper-funnel efficiency.

We hit record highs in Added MRR, total MRR, and new subscribers — yet unlike past record months, churn fell to 2.47% instead of rising.

Usually, when we post record-breaking results, churn temporarily climbs due to onboarding volume. But this month was different. YouTube performance became a major driver, with several long-form videos and Shorts generating both direct sign-ups and a visible lift in brand search and awareness.

More on this later.

September became our best month ever for paid subscribers (122 new)—even higher than August, which itself had been a record. What makes this more impressive is that September is usually a low-season month, yet momentum didn’t just hold—it accelerated.

This time, YouTube became the main growth driver. While Google Ads (CPC) brought fewer direct customers as we adjusted targeting toward a higher-intent “payable view” event, YouTube more than filled that gap.

We saw 12 new customers self-attributed to YouTube, 14 coupon-code redemptions tied to video descriptions, and roughly +10 more organic conversions than last month—all supported by a visible spike in brand searches, showing that video exposure is lifting the entire funnel.

Beyond YouTube, the word-of-mouth effect multiplied: family, friends, and professional recommendations rose from 3 → 17 new customers, and social-media discussions from 3 → 14, both clear signs of growing brand trust and community visibility.

September’s organic story was simple: no major ranking or content shifts—just more branded demand driven by YouTube. That showed up as extra clicks to the homepage and a couple of decision-stage assets, with a few small bumps on other articles.

The biggest gains came from branded queries (e.g., “savvy nomad” variants), which funneled people to the homepage.

Flat overall.

In September, we changed the optimization event from sign-up to paywall-view (payment page view). That put campaigns back into learning, so short-term volatility was expected—volume dipped and CPS rose, which is acceptable while the model re-targets toward higher-intent audiences.

We’ll continue scaling while the algorithm stabilizes and, with the agency, likely add more video creatives next month to better align with the new objective.

September was our YouTube inflection. “Trump’s 2025 Tax Law: What Expats Need to Know” exploded in September to 211,707 views, 7.2K watch hours, +7.2K subscribers.

Direct “YouTube → purchase” was meaningful, and the indirect effect was bigger: brand searches spiked, which showed up as extra organic conversions.

We finally moved to a weekly cadence—one send every week—which gave us a reliable distribution rail for new videos and articles.

The list is growing slowly but consistently.

I spent September in Berlin and I’m now back home in Lisbon for a while.

I enjoyed Berlin—especially meeting other founders—but the lack of sun wore on me. It also reminded me of home in some good ways, while the colder cultural vibe made me realize it’s not what I’m seeking anymore, especially after a year in Latin America.

I’m happy to have left on a positive note and to be back in Lisbon to reset.

On the creative side, I published two videos:
our first M&A deal

and the marketing tools we use

To be honest, motivation dipped: I invested more into production— even hired an editor—yet some uploads landed ~100 views. It’s hard to push the next one when the time/money ROI feels off.

The startup is doing great, so it’s a weird mix emotionally; I’ll either change the approach or take a short rest to come back fresh.

As always, I’ll report back next month on what sticks—and what flops.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one:)