Nico Jeannen grew Talknotes to $7,500 MRR with Meta ads fed by onboarding answers
- $7,500
- MRR after 11 months
- $1,500
- MRR after Product Hunt
- Not disclosed
- Budget
- Not disclosed
- Duration
After directories, Twitter and a Product Hunt Product of the Day took Talknotes to $1,500 MRR, Nico Jeannen made Facebook/Meta ads his main channel — writing new ads from what users said in the onboarding form. He took it from $0 to $7,500 MRR in 11 months and sold it for $200,000.
01The problem
Launch channels gave Talknotes an early bump, but not steady growth.
02The hypothesis
Users' own words about why they signed up make better ad creative than guesses.
03The experiment
Early traction came from directories and Twitter, then a Product Hunt launch that won Product of the Day and took the app to $1,500 MRR.
He then leaned into Facebook/Meta ads. Every new user filled in an onboarding form; he used their answers to learn who they were and why they signed up, and turned that into new ads — a loop of users → insight → ads → more users.
He says good creatives are 80% of the work on Facebook ads.
04Results
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| MRR after 11 monthsfrom $0 | $7,500 |
| MRR after Product HuntProduct of the Day | $1,500 |
| Exit pricesold on Acquire.com | $200,000 |
| Ad spendnot disclosed | Not disclosed |
| MRR growth from the ads loopstated as “MRR doubled in ~2 months” | Not disclosed |
| Spend | Not disclosed |
“Not disclosed” means the source doesn't say. We never estimate or fill in missing numbers.
05What worked — and what didn't
What worked
- Using onboarding-form answers to write new ad creatives
- Treating creative as most of the work on Meta ads
What didn't work
- SEO: in his blog he reports only 3 sales from non-branded keywords
- He burned out in May; bugs slipped in and revenue dropped sharply
06Source & evidence
- View original
Originally shared on X · Jul 2, 2024
I just sold my startup Talknotes for $200,000
- View original
Also on Blog · Aug 30, 2023
TalkNotes — From $0 to $200,000 in 1 year
Public source. Extracted from publicly available content by the founder.
Want to try this?
Copy this experiment
A checklist built from what Nico Jeannen actually did. Their numbers are a reference, not a promise.
- 1
Pick the channel and tactic
Meta Ads — Ad creatives written from onboarding-form answers.
- 2
Set a budget cap
Nico Jeannen didn't say what it cost. Decide your cap before you start.
- 3
Set an end date
Nico Jeannen didn't say how long it ran. Pick a review date before you start.
- 4
Copy what worked
From Nico Jeannen's experience:
- ☐Using onboarding-form answers to write new ad creatives
- ☐Treating creative as most of the work on Meta ads
- 5
Avoid what didn't
Where it went wrong:
- ☐SEO: in his blog he reports only 3 sales from non-branded keywords
- ☐He burned out in May; bugs slipped in and revenue dropped sharply
- 6
Track the same numbers
So you can compare like for like:
- ☐MRR after 11 months
- ☐MRR after Product Hunt
- ☐Exit price
- ☐Ad spend
- ☐MRR growth from the ads loop
- 7
Compare, then share what happened
Nico Jeannen's headline result: $7,500 MRR after 11 months. Yours will differ — that's the point. Win or flop, the result is worth sharing.
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Nico Jeannen hasn't published a step-by-step playbook. If enough readers ask, we'll ask Nico Jeannen for one.
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