Candy Japan launched on Hacker News and reached 300 subscribers in four months

What they ran

Candy Japan sends subscribers surprise Japanese candies twice a month for $25. The founder started in 2011, before subscription boxes were a familiar idea. Three people agreed to subscribe and got candy before any website existed. Once the site was live, he posted it on Hacker News, as he tells Starter Story in his interview.

What happened

Several blogs then covered the service with no outreach from him. Those backlinks, plus no competition, made the site the top result for "japanese candy". He had 300 paying subscribers within four months of launch. Monthly recurring revenue later passed $10k, per his post on crossing $10k MRR. A paid ad campaign costing over $10k did not make sense to keep running and was stopped.

What the account does not show

Both accounts come from the founder, so the figures are self-reported. He credits Hacker News, blogs and search together, so the share due to the post alone is unknown. The source gives no traffic or signup counts from the post itself. The Starter Story figure of about $8,200 a month, about $1,500 of it profit, sits below the $10k mark from his blog.