How David Brusser Built FormulaBot to $226K MRR Using No-Code and Reddit

TL;DR: In July 2022, David Brusser was working a full-time job and about to have his youngest child. He had 6 weeks of paternity leave and decided to build something. His problem was junior analysts constantly asking for Excel formula help, so he built an AI-powered Excel formula generator using Bubble.io despite having no coding experience. The MVP took just a couple weeks to build. He launched on Reddit's Excel subreddit where it became the top post, then someone suggested posting to r/dataisbeautiful where it got 10,000 upvotes and went viral for months, bringing thousands of users. The initial virality cost him $5,000 in OpenAI API costs within days, forcing him to add a paywall and monetization. He used donations and small sponsorships to survive the early days. Despite 10+ copycats appearing within weeks and Microsoft announcing plans to integrate AI into Excel, David expanded from a simple formula generator into a full data analysis platform. The key competitive advantages were convenience (works inside Excel without leaving your spreadsheet) and customization (multi-language support). The product evolved based on customer emails and phone calls where users sent actual Excel files showing needs beyond formulas. Now FormulaBot has 750,000 users, 5,000 paying customers, and generates $226K MRR.