Chrome Extension Now has 400k Users

Host: Today’s guest is Tim Leland, founder of T.LY, a URL shortener and link management product with a browser extension that has grown to more than 400,000 active users.

Host: Bitly has been around forever. What did you build that let you win users in this space?

Tim: The biggest lever was the extension. I built a URL shortener extension that made creating short links a one-click process, then built T.LY as the service behind it. The extension created distribution, and the product gave those users something more powerful once they wanted branded links, analytics, and API access.

Host: What are people actually paying for?

Tim: Basic short links are free. Paid plans unlock custom domains, smarter redirects, analytics, API access, and more control over the destination behavior. If someone wants one short URL that behaves differently by device, browser, or country, that is part of the paid offering.

Host: What did pricing look like when you launched?

Tim: I started at $5 per month. My thinking was that existing tools were often too expensive, especially if all someone wanted was a branded short domain and reasonable usage. In hindsight, I know that is a common bootstrapper instinct: start too cheap. But I wanted something simple and accessible.

Host: How many paying customers did that turn into?

Tim: At the time of the interview, a little over 600 paying customers and more than $4,000 in monthly revenue, depending on which plans people were on. The business launched in 2020 and I was still running it as a side project on top of a full-time job.

Host: And you still had three kids at home and all of that?

Tim: Yes. It is very much a nights-and-weekends business.

Host: Your pricing still sounds low, especially at the top end.

Tim: That is fair. The plans scale up based on usage and team needs, but I have always leaned toward affordability. At the high end I was offering very large link volumes for much less than some competitors. That could come back to bite me, but it was part of the strategy to be the easier, lower-friction option.

Host: How much does the business cost to run?

Tim: Hosting was already more than $300 per month, and that grows with traffic. Link shortening is not just about generating the short code. Redirect traffic, analytics, storage, and abuse prevention all add cost.

Host: You mentioned acquisition interest. Would you sell?

Tim: I had received interest, and the biggest number anyone floated was around $60,000. It was enough to think about, but I wanted to keep growing the business instead of selling early.

Host: So how did the extension reach 400,000 users in the first place?

Tim: I had already been building browser extensions since 2015, including Weather Extension. One of the biggest growth drivers for the URL shortener was timing: Google shut down its own URL shortener, and I had an alternative ready. That created a big wave of demand. I also use my existing extensions to cross-promote new ones.

Host: Did you deliberately optimize for Chrome Web Store search?

Tim: Yes, at least as much as you can. Naming matters a lot. My extension is called “URL Shortener,” which lines up directly with what people search for. I also learned over time that reviews and descriptive copy matter, but the title itself can be a huge advantage in store search and Google search.

Host: So the extension became the growth engine.

Tim: Exactly. If someone installs one of my extensions, I can point them toward the others. That built-in network effect is valuable when you are still a solo builder and do not have a big paid acquisition budget.

Host: You were fully solo and bootstrapped through all of this, right?

Tim: Yes.

Host: The interview ended with a quick rapid-fire section: your favorite recent book was Atomic Habits, you follow Taylor Otwell, Laravel is your framework of choice, you aim for eight hours of sleep, and one thing you wish you had done earlier was start building businesses sooner.

Tim: That is right. Looking back, I wish I had used more of my free time in college to start building products instead of waiting until later.