AutoForward SMS Revenue (2023)

AutoForward SMS reported monthly recurring revenue of just over $10,000 at the time of the April 2022 interview, implying an annualized run rate of approximately $120,000. March 2022 Stripe revenue came in at $9,300, which Hüthmayr confirmed live during the interview by logging into his dashboard. At the time of acquisition in early 2021, the app was generating approximately $600 per month, or roughly $7,200 annualized.

AutoForward SMS had 992 paying customers at the time of the April 2022 interview. Hüthmayr noted he expected to cross the 1,000-customer threshold within the following month. Average revenue per user was approximately $10 per month, though Hüthmayr described the distribution as highly scattered, with a meaningful number of users on higher-priced tiers.

Pricing is structured in tiers based on the number of message forwards per month. The entry tier, covering up to 500 forwards per month, is priced at approximately $1.30 per month. A mid-tier covering 500 to 5,000 forwards per month is priced at approximately $5 per month. The top tier allows up to 100,000 forwards per month and is priced at $22 per month. Hüthmayr stated that no customer has ever requested a limit above 100,000 forwards per month. A free tier or trial structure was not described in the interview beyond the historical context of the pre-acquisition pricing.

AutoForward SMS generates revenue through a tiered subscription model billed monthly via Stripe. The core monetization lever introduced by Hüthmayr after acquisition was converting a previously free API-forwarding feature into a paid tier, which he described as the single largest driver of revenue growth.

Monthly operating costs are below $500, which Hüthmayr confirmed during the interview while reviewing his March 2022 Stripe dashboard. March 2022 revenue was $9,300, producing an estimated profit of approximately $8,850 after costs. The engineering partner receives a 20% share of monthly profit, which Hüthmayr estimated at approximately $1,600 to $1,700 for March 2022 based on that profit figure. Hüthmayr retains the remaining roughly 80% of profit.

Monthly gross churn was reported at 8% at the time of the interview. Hüthmayr noted that churn had been elevated by a software bug and was trending downward. He also stated that the business had been growing at approximately 15% per month over the prior year, which he cited as the reason he had not been overly concerned about the churn rate. The business carries no debt and has no outside investors. Profitability is effectively the difference between the approximately $9,300 to $10,000 in monthly revenue and the sub-$500 in monthly operating costs, yielding margins well above 90% before the engineering partner's profit share.

AutoForward SMS operates with a two-person team as of April 2022. Hüthmayr manages the business and handles all engineering work on the legacy Kotlin and PHP version of the app, which generates the majority of revenue. A close friend serves as an engineering partner responsible for a newer version of the app built on Google Firebase and Flutter. The engineering partner is compensated through a 20% profit-share arrangement rather than a fixed salary, and submits a monthly invoice for his share.