COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhead, Founder of Stay22

A Product Market Fit Show | Startups & Founders

His travel startup crashed 90% overnight. Here’s how he used AI to grow past $2M/year—to $2M a month:

For a while, Andrew was crushing it. Accelerator -> $750K pre-seed -> $2M ARR -> $2.5M seed round. Then COVID hit.
He was selling to events like CES, SXSW, etc. Revenue dropped from $160K/month to under $10K... overnight. Investors from his seed round refuse to wire funds.
After nearly going bankrupt, he finds a way to pivot. A year later, his business takes off.

2020 - $0
2021 - $1M
2022 - $5M
2023 - $15M
Now - $24M.

Why you should listen:

- Andrew shares a technique to land early customers. He offered to PAY his customers to use the product.
- Learn how to deal with massive swings in revenue and unpredicted events. Early-stage founders are always one deal, one employee, one fundraise away from success... or failure.
- Learn why you "can never celebrate until the money is in the bank"
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:16) The Start of Stay22
(00:07:15) The Seed Round
(00:11:53) Pivoting the go to Market
(00:19:38) Investors Pulling out Due to Covid
(00:26:56) Finding the Opportunity in the Pandemic
(00:31:31) Tapping into the Blogger Market
(00:37:31) Growing Back from Zero
(00:38:49) Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:39:35) One Piece of Advice

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. COVID nearly bankrupted him. Then with AI he grew from $0 to $25M ARR in 4 years. | Andrew Lockhead, Founder of Stay22 (00:00:00)

2. The Start of Stay22 (00:01:16)

3. The Seed Round (00:07:15)

4. Pivoting the go to market (00:11:53)

5. Investors Pulling out Due to Covid (00:19:38)

6. Finding the Opportunity in the Pandemic (00:26:56)

7. Tapping into the Blogger Market (00:31:31)

8. Growing Back from Zero (00:37:31)

9. Finding True Product Market Fit (00:38:49)

10. One Piece of Advice (00:39:35)