In 2022, I was learning how to make my first pull request on GitHub. Today, my development studio hit a $56K month milestone, with just three people on the team.

It's surreal to see just how much has changed. Looking back at my posts from 2022, I was just getting into open source, experimenting with new programming languages, doing Hacktoberfest, and exploring GitHub for the first time. A lot has changed since then. I worked as a software developer for about 1.5 years, then started my own web and app development studio with my partner.

Coming from learning how to squash and merge on GitHub to now managing client projects serving thousands of people around the world is a big jump, and it all happened in under 3 years.

A big thank you to the dev.to community. It is the first platform that welcomed me to share my coding journey, no matter how beginner my questions were or how small my wins seemed.

The Brutal Start

Diving into entrepreneurship was always part of the plan. I always had this deep desire and need to be involved in creative work where I'm in control—a place where I can get my hands dirty, live in the startup chaos, and even dream in pixels. No, really, I actually dream about my work nowadays. Is that normal?

I've always wanted to create and build applications for others that are as solid in the backend as they are scroll-stoppingly beautiful in the frontend. Most importantly, my definition of success in this world is the freedom to choose what projects I want to work on while creating value for others, especially other business owners.

So, I founded Foam On Latte Inc.

Foam On Latte is a full-stack product studio building web and mobile apps for startups worldwide. Here, I can not just work with amazing clients but also have creative control over my work.

Baby Steps, But We're Getting Somewhere

The first few months of starting Foam On Latte were brutal. We were SO scared to charge our clients because we were afraid of losing them!

Honestly, it was a totally valid fear.

We had zero projects in our portfolio at this point, $0 in revenue, and among thousands of mature development agencies out there, it seemed impossible to convince clients that we would be a valuable addition to their team. So, we underpriced ourselves to get our foot in the door.

We started working with very early-stage startups who also had no revenue or budget for their MVP development.

Did we burn out? Yeah, a lot. But was it finally worth it? Absolutely.

Outside the Comfort Zone

Everything changed when we decided to stop competing on price and start competing on value.

Our big break came when we landed a client who was already in business for 6+ years and had 8 figures in revenue.

Now, the scary part—we were, for the first time ever, going to charge higher than we had before.

We fired off the proposal and sat in silence for a few hours, thinking and overthinking that maybe the quote we sent was too high.

Did we just ruin everything? We were constantly battling these crippling thoughts, and my co-founder and I started arguing over the number.

I even called my mom asking if the quote I sent was too high.

Maybe the number should have been lower. Maybe... just maybe.

And THEN, a few hours later, our proposal got signed and approved! It all happened too fast for us to process. We started working on it the very next day.

This was suddenly the most money we had made from a single project deal—a $17,000 client.

Our confidence was restored, and it all felt like a fresh start.

A 17K Win and Then Silence

But things weren't all rosy and beautiful after that. There were many months of downtime after that initial win. We did not have a proper customer acquisition system in place.

We were just relying on luck.

After all, can you blame us? We were just a two-person team at this point.

The winter months, coupled with no projects on the map, were severely affecting my mental health. I started falling into depressive episodes, and my co-founder and I were questioning if we were cut out for being founders.

The Tipping Point

The whole notion of entrepreneurship was starting to feel like a house of cards. The dream that people sell of a digital nomad's life on the beach felt like a scam. But just as we were again taking some small projects that underpaid us, we got another massive break.

What happened next was unfathomable.

We landed a client in HealthTech, and then in the same month another client in FinTech, and then again in EdTech.

Three back-to-back huge clients who already had thousands of customers, established products, and good budgets.

And that became our biggest month — with $56,000 in contracts signed.

Our clients came in expecting to work with just another dev shop but found a deeply caring tech partner who became part of their team.

They became our biggest advocates, brought in other clients, and extended our contracts to become multi-phase projects.

Scrappy and Happy

Suddenly, I was also doing a whole lot more accounting, keeping track of invoices and learning how to set up payroll accounts. With that money flowing in, we finally had breathing room and space to experiment with a lot of side project ideas that had been sitting and rotting in our Notion folders.

Honestly, it all happened too fast. We are a small and scrappy team, deeply passionate about our work and in creating value.

Our unfair advantage is our team size and, dare I say, youth. Being twenty-something and full of energy really keeps us delusional enough to say yes to big projects and deliver, then overdeliver.

With nothing but work to think about all day, we work incredibly efficiently. We live in our Discord servers, pair program effectively, and plug in AI tools where necessary to speed things up.

What's Next

Working with clients has been great, but now we have a few more projects of our own. With AI prototyping now making it easier than ever to validate an idea, I understand there are no excuses not to build.

The journey from GitHub newbie to running a profitable dev studio taught me that the biggest barriers are often in our own minds. Sometimes you just need to be delusional enough to believe you can do it, even when you don’t feel ready, then put in the work to make it happen.

Our goal is to continue increasing monthly revenue through a mix of client work and our own suite of SaaS products. Honestly, we have a LONG way to go, but I am very happy with how far we have come.

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If you're thinking about starting your own business or have questions about our journey, feel free to reach out. Always happy to help fellow builders.