A side project just sold for $80 million.

Shlomo built it largely on his own, about eight people by the time of the sale, and not a dollar on ads. Just him. And the growth was the headline. Within months, Base44 passed 250,000 users, including businesses like eToro and SimilarWeb, and reportedly cleared close to $200,000 in monthly profit, all in roughly six months.

No ads. He built in public, posting his progress, his numbers, even his costs on LinkedIn and X. His first users came from begging friends to try it and fixing what broke while they watched. Then came one simple loop. Give people extra credits for sharing what they built, so every app someone made became a small advert for Base44.

On June 18, 2025, Wix bought Base44 for about $80 million in cash, plus earn-outs through 2029 that could bring Shlomo's personal total to around $90 million. The company was six months old. Worth a grain of salt. Wix confirms the price and date, but not the user or revenue numbers. Those come from press and the founder, not an audited filing.

Here's the catch. A six-month, $80-million exit is the exception, not a recipe. Shlomo caught a wave and rode it, and you won't sell to Wix by Christmas. But two things are yours to copy. The tool is real. It genuinely turns plain English into a working app, no developer required, something you can try this week. And the growth needed no budget. He didn't buy attention, he made the product hand it to him. Every app a user built was a free advert for Base44.