We help small businesses grow, one validated app at a time.
Startup Lab 24 is a startup lab in Ann Arbor, MI. Our core mission is to help small businesses increase their revenue and solve consumer problems, by experimentally validating apps through ideation, development, market penetration, and scalability. 5 are live today across 5 shipped projects.
We work like scientists and problem solvers, applying math, algorithms, economics, psychology, social media, AI, and our own innovative judgment to every app we take on.
| PROJECT | STARTUP LAB 24 |
|---|---|
| LOCATION | Ann Arbor, MI |
| FOUNDED | 2024 |
| SHIPPED | 5 PROJECTS |
| STATUS | 5 LIVE NOW |
The direction, written down and left alone.
Two sentences run the lab. Everything we ship gets measured against them, and they do not get reworded to fit whatever we happen to be building.
- VISION
- Small businesses deserve software as good as the big companies.
- MISSION
- We help small businesses increase their revenue and solve consumer problems — by experimentally validating apps through ideation, development, market penetration, and scalability.
THE GOAL
$1M MRR
BY July 1, 2028
Startup Lab 24 reaches $1M in monthly recurring revenue by July 1, 2028 — built on a portfolio of subscription products that help small businesses grow their own recurring revenue.
Four phases. Every app earns the next one.
Every product starts as an ideation and development experiment with one business. A Business Developer embeds on-site with a design-partner business and builds exactly what that business needs. Once the software proves itself in production, we strip the specifics and take it to market penetration and scalability across the whole vertical.
- PHASE 01
Ideation
Every app starts as a hypothesis about a real business's revenue or a real consumer problem — sharpened before a line of code is written.
- PHASE 02
Development
We build working software fast and put it in front of real users early, so the market — not opinion — judges it.
- PHASE 03
Market penetration
Channels, pricing, and messaging are all experiments. An app proves it can win real paying customers, or it teaches us why it can't.
- PHASE 04
Scalability
What survives validation gets hardened and scaled. What doesn't gets discarded — and the lesson rolls into the next experiment.
Business Developers are CS-trained builders. They run the validation experiments with a design-partner business, guided by a US team of entrepreneurs and senior developers. How we work
The most important bond we share with our customers is making a profit, because our MRR comes from their MRR.
It is the first of the six principles below, and the one the other four answer to. If a customer is not making money from our software, we have not earned the subscription.
Six things we believe.
How we operate, in the order that matters. The first one is the bond; the rest keep us honest about it.
- 01
The bond is profit
The most important bond we share with our customers is making a profit — because our MRR comes from their MRR. If a customer isn't making money from our software, we haven't earned the subscription.
- 02
Natural to use
We make software that feels natural to use — no manual, no training. The right thing is always the obvious thing.
- 03
Priced to say yes
Priced so any small business can say yes. Enterprise-grade quality shouldn't carry an enterprise price tag.
- 04
Recurring revenue is the job
The customer's recurring revenue is the product's only real job. Not logins, not features shipped — their money.
- 05
Solve a paid-for problem
We solve the problems a business would pay to make disappear — the painful, recurring, money-losing ones. Never nice-to-haves.
- 06
Scientists, not spec-takers
We work like scientists and problem solvers — applying math, algorithms, economics, psychology, social media, AI, and our own innovative judgment. Experimentation means a willingness to unlearn, discard, and give up dozens of ideas to failure so the ones that survive actually work.
Three products, one pattern: grow their revenue.
Each one began as an experiment with a single design partner, then was validated and made agnostic for its vertical. We build them, we own them, and we run them.
| No | Product | Vertical | Status | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | TrueInvoice Built for one school first — our design partner — and now made agnostic for any education business. Invoicing, payments, and collection tracking that removes the silent revenue bleed of late tuition. | Schools & education businesses | Live | Open |
| 02 | Patient Pro Built for one clinic first — our design partner — then made agnostic for any small practice. Patient records and billing in a single system, so the front desk collects payment instead of chasing it. | Clinics & private practices | In development | Open |
| 03 | Instant Quote Built for one contractor first — our design partner — then made agnostic for the whole trades vertical. Create quotes and invoices on the spot so payment arrives before the tools are packed. | Field contractors | In development | Open |
Every product carries a design partner behind it. Prior shipped work sits in the portfolio, and the lab still runs those systems. See the portfolio
Have a business to grow, or a problem worth solving?
We help small businesses increase their revenue and solve consumer problems. Always glad to talk to small businesses, design partners, and builders: if it's testable, we'll test it.
Evaluate the products
Invoicing, patient billing, on-site quoting. Each one validated with a real design partner before it reached the vertical.
Talk to the lab
Design partners, small businesses with a money-losing problem, and builders who want to work on owned products.
The lab
| FOUNDED | 2024 |
|---|---|
| LOCATION | Ann Arbor, MI |
| SHIPPED | 5 PROJECTS |
| LIVE | 5 PROJECTS |
| FOCUS | SMALL-BUSINESS SOFTWARE / RECURRING REVENUE |
| MODEL | STARTUP LAB, EXPERIMENTALLY VALIDATED APPS |
| CONTACT | imahmood@startuplab24.com |