Case Study Distribution 12 min read

How Stanley AI Hit $1M with Zero Ad Spend

The 14-Day Distribution Playbook

John Hu and Vitali, co-founders of Stan Store ($30M ARR), locked themselves in London for 14 days to build Stanley — an AI content agent for LinkedIn creators. They vibe-coded the entire product without writing a single line of code, acquired their first customers through personalized cold emails that doubled as product demos, and generated $200K on launch day through a build-in-public organic flywheel. No paid ads. No launch platform. Just distribution fundamentals executed at speed.

Company: Stanley AI (by Stan Store)

Result: $0 to $1M revenue

Timeline: 14 days to build, weeks to $1M

Channels: Build in Public, Cold Email, Organic Flywheel

The Constraint: 14 Days, Zero Code, Zero Budget
Scope Down or Die: Picking the Right MVP
Build and Acquire Simultaneously

Case Study Map

1 The Constraint: 14 Days, Zero Code, Zero Budget
2 Scope Down or Die: Picking the Right MVP
3 Build and Acquire Simultaneously
4 The Cold Email as Product Demo
5 Build in Public as Acquisition Channel
6 The Organic Flywheel That Replaced Ads
7 What Bootstrap Founders Can Steal from This

Also includes Key Takeaways · Frequently Asked Questions

$1M+

Revenue in weeks

Ad spend

Days to build MVP

Lines of code written