Tally Turned a 2% Conversion Into $5M ARR

Five years bootstrapped, tiny team, $5M ARR, and a 2% free-to-paid conversion the founder has no intention of lifting. Marie says AI search is now their #1 acquisition channel. Almost every operator reading that headline will draw the wrong conclusion and spend Q3 trying to "optimize for LLMs." The interesting part of this case is what they actually did between 2020 and 2024.