How Nathan Barry turned ConvertKit from a failing side project into Kit by serving one niche

Kit’s own history says it was founded in January 2013 when Nathan Barry needed a better way to reach his audience as a blogger and creator selling books and courses through email. Barry had built an audience through books and courses, and he decided to build a tool that included the email marketing practices he was using himself.

He announced a public challenge: start a new software company and reach $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue within six months, with only $5,000 of investment. On July 1, 2013, ConvertKit was at about $2,480 a month, roughly half the goal, and Barry says the real figure was closer to $2,000. He went back to focusing on his books, which were bringing in $15,000 to $25,000 a month, and ConvertKit stalled.

By October 2014, Barry reported monthly recurring revenue had slid to $1,207. Hiten Shah, according to Kit’s history, pushed him to either shut the product down or invest everything in making it grow.

Barry’s early customers came from his own audience and from presales. He says he spent slightly more than his initial $5,000 investment, plus about $5,000 that came in from customers. He also ran an experiment called ConvertKit Academy that brought in $7,000 in one month but attracted beginners who complained about price and often canceled.

The turnaround came from narrowing the target. Barry first positioned ConvertKit as email marketing for authors, then settled on email marketing for professional bloggers with large lists. He started tracking every sales conversation on a Trello board, and emailed top sellers on Leanpub and Udemy. About 100 personal emails produced five to seven customers, which he called not great but not bad for the stage.

Kit’s history says direct sales worked in the first month and that each new customer was moved over through a hands-on migration, which became a competitive advantage.

Doubling down in late 2014 meant investing $50,000, focusing on professional bloggers, hiring a small team, and starting direct sales. Kit says monthly revenue was $15,000 by July 2015, with customers referring friends, so the company added an affiliate program. It closed 2015 at $98,000 in monthly recurring revenue and 2016 at $500,000.

In early 2017 the team redesigned the product from scratch, adding visual automations. Kit describes itself as 100% independent and funded by customers. In 2024 ConvertKit renamed itself Kit, with the change reported by BoiseDev in June of that year.