In 2017, Roam was nothing but a prototype with one user. Three years later, it has more than 60,000 users and generates $1 million in annual recurring revenue.. In May 2020, internet celebrities like Ali Abdaal and Thomas Frank started making videos about Roam.. Soon, Roam’s servers were overloaded. Thus, logging in often took more than 5 minutes and data got lost occasionally. The tool literally went through the roof.. Conor and his team knew they would have to react quickly. They closed the doors of Roam for new members on May 5th. Nobody was able to create a new database or a new account.. From there on, only a few people had access to the immensely hyped product „Roam Research“. — The tool was exclusive.. And what happens to exclusive tools that already have a big fanbase? They gain even more hype. People went crazy on Twitter while waiting for the doors of Roam to open. Nearly everybody is a blogger, influencer, or content creator.. Startup accelerator Y Combinator rejected him five times, he said, perhaps because he sent his application video from his van, where he was living to keep costs for Roam as low as possible. Seed investors had a similarly cool reaction.. Later, Roam raised $1.4 million from early-stage venture firms Chapter One and Village Global.. “It’s OK to have a tool that requires a little bit of a paradigm shift,” White-Sullivan said.