Romain Torres is the founder of ArcAds.ai, an AI-powered video ad platform that helps marketers create and scale ad creatives with zero production overhead. In just 20 months, he scaled the company from $5K to over $10M in ARR—completely bootstrapped.

In this episode, Romain shares how he validated demand without even having a dashboard, the growth playbook that drove viral traction, and the three channels fueling ArcAds' revenue engine today: paid ads, sales, and influencer marketing. He also dives into usage-based pricing, churn recovery, and what's next for the company.

Notes:

Growth Levers
- Reached $10M ARR in under 2 years
- From $5K to $64K MRR in 1 month after a viral tweet
- Paid ads, influencer virality, and enterprise sales are main levers
GTM Strategy
- Started with direct outreach and manual fulfillment
- Product-led motion with a transition into high-touch enterprise sales
- Events and conferences (Affiliate World, App Growth Summit) for pipeline
Revenue & Pricing
- Usage-based pricing (number of generated ads, actors, etc.)
- Highest ACV in the six figures
- Profitably bootstrapped despite heavy infrastructure/API costs
Churn & Retention
- Early churn spike due to product breaking after viral growth
- Rebuilt platform in one month post-refunds
- Retention improved with onboarding and product stability
Scaling Operations
- 8-person lean team managing 210+ live ads
- Internal use of ArcAds platform to generate their own creatives
- Strong rev-per-employee metrics
Data & Tech Stack
- Sits on top of GenAI models from OpenAI, Google, ByteDance
- Auto-selects best model per prompt based on use case
- Internal feedback loops using ad performance data to improve UX and features
Founder Insight
- Tested market fit without a product UI
- Hired sales after passing $5M ARR
- SEO and enterprise sales are next big focus areas

What you'll learn:

Founder Story

How Romain validated the idea with no product
Why ArcAds went viral and what broke
Bootstrapping vs VC-backed strategy

Pricing & Revenue

Usage-based monetization and six-figure ACVs
Profit margins despite high API costs
Leveraging viral growth to fund product rebuild

GTM & Outbound

Transition from product-led to outbound sales
Scaling via events, outreach, and Twitter content
Building a two-person sales team to close big brands

SEO & AEO

Organic strategy and plans for future growth
Why they've done no SEO so far—and why that's changing
How content virality and influencer posts fueled spikes

Acquisition & Scaling

Managing churn during hypergrowth
Operating a multi-million ARR business with 8 people
Systems for testing, tracking, and scaling 200+ ad creatives

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