In July I was supposed to meet Chris Baxter in Bali. Back then, his startup was doing about $1.3M ARR.
By the time we actually filmed, it had just gone over $2M ARR.
Chris is 25. Two and a half years ago he was working in real estate in New Zealand. He had no idea how to build a SaaS.
Today he runs Aeva AI, an AI receptionist that answers phone calls for physios and chiropractors, from a villa in Canggu with his best friend from high school.
So I spent a day with him (Muay Thai included) to understand two things: how two founders took it from zero to $1M ARR alone, and how they went from $1M to $2M so fast.
Here is everything I took from it.
He left real estate and moved to Bali alone
Chris was doing well in real estate. He likes to work hard, and the career was going to pay off.
The problem was the end picture. He looked at where that path was taking him and realized it wasn't the life he wanted. He wanted to travel, live wherever he wanted, and build something exciting.
It still took him six months to actually leave, because the money was good.
Then he did something smart. Instead of starting the business in New Zealand, he saved as much as he could and moved to Bali on his own, where the same savings would last a lot longer.
His first year made no money at all. Zero. He lived off savings and kept showing up.
"One day it will work. I just had that faith in my mind."
How he found a $2M idea
As soon as AI came out, Chris started researching what kind of businesses it made possible. He used ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas and came across voice AI before most people knew what it was.
The technology wasn't good enough yet, so he waited. When voice AI finally matured, he knew it was his moment and quit.
He pitched the idea to his best friend Louis, who he'd known since they were 15. Louis was a developer. His answer: "let me build it."
That split still holds. Louis builds the product and wakes up around 4:30am for deep work. Chris runs sales, marketing and now the team.
From agency to one niche
They didn't start with Aeva. In year one they ran an agency, building AI phone receptionists for any industry that said yes.
It barely covered expenses. And the bigger problem was churn: trying to serve every industry meant every product was average.
So they bet everything on one niche: allied health. Physios, chiropractors, small clinics that can't afford a full-time receptionist and don't want to answer calls themselves. Aeva answers every call so patients never hit voicemail.
"It literally makes everything so much easier."
His example: "we make AI receptionists" makes every prospect wonder if you know their industry. "We make AI receptionists for chiropractors in Australia who are between 1 and 10 practitioners" makes those people think you're the expert for them.
Niching down also fixed pricing. When they first priced the medical product, customers kept telling them how cheap it was. So they raised it.
Once they focused, the first proper client came in after about a year. They set a goal of $40K a month. Louis told Chris he was crazy. They hit it about six months later.
Zero to $1M ARR with two people
For the first year of real growth, Chris did all the marketing himself:
- Cold email outreach
- Meta ads, run by himself
- Word of mouth
- Partnerships
Chris was the salesperson. Louis was the whole product team. Just the two of them took Aeva to $1M ARR.
Growth was steady, not explosive: around 10% a month on average since the start. What he credits is consistency. They both showed up every single day.
His take on people who work super hard a couple of days a week and go out partying the rest: "it just doesn't compound."
The $1M ceiling: they couldn't do it alone
At $1M ARR they hit the wall. They were working too hard, and doing everything themselves couldn't take them further.
Here's the funny part. Chris says they never really thought of hiring, because they'd never done it before and didn't know it was possible. Once they realized they could hire people to help, it got much easier.
This year they've hired one new person every month, each time revenue grew enough to hand off another job. The order:
- A developer, because Louis was drowning in customer support requests.
- A salesperson, to free up Chris.
- Two more developers, to keep shipping features ahead of the competition and keep customers happy.
- Two consultants, one of them a growth and revenue mentor (more on him below).
- A customer support person, then a customer success person.
The month we filmed was the first month they ever cracked 20% growth, double their usual 10%. Chris puts a big part of it down to hiring.
Would he hire earlier if he did it again? He says they definitely could have, but it wasn't too far off.
Where Aeva's customers come from
Today a marketing agency runs Meta and Google ads for them. Meta is the main source of customers.
The second big one is referrals. Clinics that use Aeva tell other clinics. There's an affiliate program, but Chris says people come without it and it isn't pushed that hard.
The numbers Chris shared:
- Just over $2M ARR
- About 540 clinics and 3,000+ practitioners as customers
- An average price of about A$269
- Over $14M saved and generated for private clinics
Aeva's site today offers a 14-day free trial, with plans from A$8 a day.
The hiring mistakes he regrets
Chris doesn't sugarcoat it. Recruitment is the part they hate, and recruiters cost them a lot of money. What actually works is time: post the job everywhere and go through applicants yourself.
Their latest hire, a customer success person, took two months and about 3,000 applicants.
His two big mistakes:
- Asking about family plans in an interview. He asked a candidate if they planned to have a family. He learned the hard way that you can't ask that.
- Sending Bali-style contracts. Living in Bali, they were used to contractor agreements. Candidates who weren't used to nomad life freaked out and asked why it wasn't a full-time employee contract. They lost a lot of people before someone finally told him why.
Learning to manage people
"So I'm a terrible manager and that's because I've never done it before."
Chris went from salesperson and operator to manager, responsible for the salaries of everyone on the team. So they're paying for a mentor: a consultant in Bali, about 45, with a lot of experience, helping on growth and revenue.
The biggest lesson so far: he wasn't putting enough pressure on his team. The mentor calls it healthy pressure.
"People want to be pushed."
How he applies it: "I think it's having the tricky conversations. That's all it is." He blocks time every week to go through each person's KPIs, what they hit, what they didn't, and sets deadlines.
And he thinks the new job is better. He's one person who can do one job at a time. Hire five people and their time compounds for the business.
Why he delegates everything (even lunch)
The villa has a chef for breakfast and lunch. Because the team works upstairs and couldn't tell when food was ready, the chef now rings a gong. Everyone in the villa knows it's time to eat.
It sounds like a lifestyle flex. For Chris it's a work decision.
"Every single hour in a day that you get extra, it compounds so much."
That's the Bali advantage he talks about. It lets him delegate almost everything that isn't the business, and put the hours back into work. Then at 2pm it's the gym, padel or Muay Thai, which he uses to clear his head.
The next goal: double revenue again, then decide what comes after.
What to steal from Chris
→ Move somewhere your savings last longer. Runway is time to figure it out.
→ Watch a new technology early, and launch when it's finally good enough.
→ If you're selling to everyone, your product is average. Pick one niche and go all in.
→ If customers say your price is cheap, believe them and raise it.
→ Do the marketing yourself first, then hand it to an agency once you know what works.
→ Don't wait for $1M ARR to hire. Hire the next person every time revenue allows it.
→ Put healthy pressure on your team. Weekly KPIs, honest conversations, deadlines.
→ Buy back hours. Every hour you free up compounds.
If you liked this one, read how Sleek hit $25K a month with one marketing channel (the Bali founders who introduced me to Chris), and how Omar Boukhabrine grew Triips from $0 to $250K a month, my other day with a founder in Bali.
FAQ
Who is Chris Baxter?
Chris Baxter is the 25-year-old co-founder of Aeva AI. He left a real estate career in New Zealand, moved to Bali, and built Aeva with his high school best friend Louis, a developer. They grew it to over $2M ARR.
What does Aeva AI do?
Aeva AI is an AI receptionist for allied health clinics like physiotherapists and chiropractors. It answers every patient call so no one goes to voicemail, and helps clinics turn missed calls into bookings. It offers a 14-day free trial, with plans from A$8 a day.
How much does Aeva AI make?
Chris says Aeva just went over $2M ARR, up from about $1.3M ARR in July. It serves around 540 clinics and 3,000+ practitioners, with an average price of about A$269. These are Chris's numbers from our interview.
How did Aeva AI get its first customers?
Chris did the marketing himself for the first year: cold email outreach, Meta ads he ran himself, word of mouth and partnerships. Today a marketing agency runs Meta and Google ads, and referrals from other clinics are the second biggest source.
When should a SaaS founder start hiring?
Chris and Louis waited until $1M ARR because they didn't know hiring was an option, and Chris says they could have hired earlier. Since then they've added one person a month as revenue grew, starting with a developer, then a salesperson.
Watch more days with founders
Chris went from zero revenue in his first year to over $2M ARR, with one niche, one co-founder and a lot of consistency.
I interview bootstrapped SaaS founders every week on the Profitable Founder Podcast, and spend full days with some of them in Bali.
