The Story
Anton built Letterly - a voice-to-text app that turns your speech into well-written text. The app makes $250,000/month with 30K monthly active users, 20K paid subscribers, and 150,000 total downloads over 2 years.
But here's the thing: Anton spent 15 years trying to create startups before this one worked. He tried 6-7 different startups, and all of them failed. What changed with Letterly?
The idea came while building something else. Anton noticed apps using ChatGPT and OpenAI transcription were powerful but poorly implemented - they felt like prototypes. He thought: "This is something I need, but I can't use these apps because they're not implemented well enough."
Instead of adding more features, Anton obsessed over simplicity. Every screen, every interaction is about eliminating friction. This is their competitive advantage. "Everyone can build a product. But there are really few that are very simple and easy to use."
When they asked early customers why they used Letterly instead of ChatGPT (which is free), everyone said the same thing: "It just feels much easier to start recording with Letterly - click a button, click stop, and the text is ready."
Key Insights
The Simplicity Philosophy
- •User experience is a multiplier to everything you do
- •Helps onboard users, retain them, convert to sales, and attract referrals
- •Every feature you add might be killing your sales
- •Find something that's already working and make it much better and simpler
The Iteration Process
- •Prototype iteration - Draw, discuss, try out, simplify
- •Build iteration - Before release, stop and ask: "Is it really as simple as we dreamed?"
- •Release iteration - Get feedback, see people using it, understand what you missed
- •Repeat constantly - sometimes postpone promised features to make existing ones better
What Makes Letterly Different
- •One-click recording widget
- •Real-time transcription (text appears instantly)
- •Multiple rewrite options with favorites for quick access
- •One-click copy and share to Google Docs, Notion, etc.
- •Add to existing notes seamlessly
Tech Stack
- •React Native → Swift (iOS)
- •Python (backend)
- •Team of 10 people (~$30K/month salaries)
- •AI costs: ~$5K/month
- •Advertising: ~$200K/month (heavy investment in growth)
Advice for Builders
- •Work with co-founders from day one
- •Build something you can launch in 1-2 months
- •Choose an idea that's novel but validated by someone else
- •Don't spend lots of money validating completely new ideas
- •When you see traction, go all in - leave your job and focus 100%
- •Build something that generates money from day one
Resources
- •Follow Anton: https://x.com/Samarsky
- •Letterly: https://letterly.app/