The $100,000 Chrome Extension: Built in Just 50 Hours
Hello Tribe,
Welcome to another exciting edition of Moneymint! We're more than just a newsletter—we're a community of go-getters, dreamers, and doers.
Today, I’m going to share the story of a self-taught developer and how he made $70,000 while travelling. Get ready—this could be your next big opportunity!
Easier said than done, I heard you, but this guy turned his frustration into a browser extension that is earning him thousands of dollars today.
Guilherme Rizzo from Brazil without a CSS degree was tired of inspecting the CSS of websites' elements. Just like many of us are, but instead of cursing the pattern he took things into his hands.
According to Rizzo, it was fun to code CSS Scan. He recorded all the development from 1st version but to develop Chrome extensions, Firefox add-ons and Swift, he had to learn coding. It was important to learn them to create the Safari App extension.
He says that he learned much more than just coding and that is how to run a business.
And this is how CSS Scan was developed in 1 month. Yes, just 30 days. But little did he know that this would become a $100,000 in coming times.
He wanted to know about box-shadow or font family, and border-radius has. Rizzo was inspired by WhatFont? and finally decided to create a unique tool.
You will be surprised by what he thought. He created a tool that wherever the mouse points, shows the computed CSS of the element. It was an initial idea, according to him.
Rizzo created the 1st version of the tool in 50 hours, amounting to around 30 days. Here have a look at the speed video:
To validate his tool, he reached out to some Brazilian Developers' Facebook groups. He asked them if they would pay $1 for this browser extension. Impressed by the results and feedback from them, Rizzo started coding.
After a month, he launched it on Product Hunt and was way more successful than his previous launches.
Rizzo made online friends and started creating websites and apps with them and learned programming alongside them. They together built 6 websites and that's how he learned coding.
In 2017, he participated in “Maratona de Aplicativos", a Brazil national competition for high school students organized by Google.
He and his friends developed Teacch.me which was an educational app. It helps parents of autistic children to organize routines with interactive exercises.
Later on, it was discontinued, but their hard work paid off and they won the competition.
Then the group got inspired by Silicon Valley, they moved to São Paulo to start a fashion company. There he started learning Information Systems, and switched to Marketing, but after 10 months he dropped out and continued learning coding through projects.
Rizzo is also an expert behind startups like Toast.log and AI Logo Art. With his marketing background and IT degree from FIAP, he took his developed extension to another heights.
In 2018, when Rizzo arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, he only had a Mac Mini and only worked from his apartment because he didn't have a monitor.
It is worth praising how a young ambitious person climbed the ladders of success when he cannot afford a monitor.
He always opted for apartments with TVs for this reason. But now, he has a Macbook and can work from anywhere he wants.
How come without a CS degree Rizzo learned coding?
When Rizzo was 9 years old, he received RPG Maker from one of his friends. He developed his 1st 2D game at the age of 9 but it received a lot of criticism.
However, after 1 or 2 years, when he needed a platform for his games. This is when he was introduced to HTML and CSS.
He soon realized that he could create various projects with this which could be helpful to everyone.
Things that helped his tool attain such success are as follows:
Rizzo understands the market and launched his browser extension on Product Hunt. With this, he gained initial traction with the tech-savvy audience of the platform.
Then he approached the Facebook Group's Developers to build a community about his product. He aimed for 2 birds (user acquisition and obscurity) with 1 stone (strategic community engagement).
By eliminating mental barriers of monthly payments along with creating a sense of urgency and value, Rizzo masterminded the pricing strategy. He offers a lifetime license for $80 only.
Initially, he followed the Pay What You Want pricing model (with a min. of $1.99) but people were readily paying $5, $10, and $25. This encouraged him to raise the price and slowly it was around $10.
He converted it to fixed pricing but on his wife's suggestion, he added packages of licenses and kept raising the price.
The Lifetime License of CSS Scan extension now costs around $80 only.
More than 7k people from 116 different countries are using Rizzo's browser extension and he has earned a revenue of over USD $100,000.
Soon, he brought in subscription models with extensions CSS Scan Pro for $20/month and $120/year range.
Rizzo did not spend money on paid ads and all, instead, he just let his product's effectiveness do the work. His satisfied users spread the word, bringing organic traffic.
Every time someone uses CSS Scan, Rizzo ensures that he/she mentions it to their colleagues.
In 2021, he also launched beachguide.co. It was a crowdsourced database of the best beaches in the world.
He also says he is readily available to help people in extension revenue models, launch, bootstrapped business and much more.
What Rizzo is Advising?
Rizzo mentioned that Codecademy courses (free) helped him a lot, especially the JavaScript. He recommends it to others who want to get into coding but do not have a CS degree. With more practice, everyone can learn.
"Remember that you can do anything you want. But there are 3 levels of "want". I want, I will, and I commit myself. Commit yourself to learn and make it happen."
If anyone wants to try travel just as I did, sure they should, but only if they are confident. Otherwise, consider the safer approach: save money and work on side projects.
If you found this newsletter informative and thought-provoking, why not forward it to someone you think would enjoy it?
Thank you for reading. See you in the next time.
Gd
Awesome 👍