John Hu's Stanley Hits $3 Million ARR After 14-Day Build for LinkedIn and Instagram
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Jul 8
John Hu's Stanley Hits $3 Million ARR After 14-Day Build for LinkedIn and Instagram
2 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Jul 8
Summary
$3 million in annual recurring revenue now comes from Stanley, John Hu's AI content tool for LinkedIn and Instagram, while parent company Stan is nearing $41 million ARR overall.
14 days after Hu and his cofounder built the first version, Stanley for LinkedIn launched in June 2025, reached $200,000 ARR within six weeks and crossed $1 million by October 2025.
March 2026 brought an Instagram version that added to the growth, with Hu crediting fast iteration, public posting and customer validation over a longer development cycle.
About 200 LinkedIn creator profiles were used to find early beta users, and Stanley itself drafted cold emails and content ideas to test demand and convert prospects.
The product sits alongside Stan Store, which contributes $38 million of the company's ARR, showing AI tools are still a smaller but fast-growing part of the business.