# How Draftly went from zero paying customers to $25K MRR with Dodo Payments > Building a global product is hard. Building one without a way to accept global payments is even harder. - **Company**: Draftly - **Industry**: AI - **Payment provider**: Dodo Payments (Merchant of Record) - **Published**: 2026-05-31 - **URL**: https://dodopayments.com/case-studies/draftly ## Key Metrics - **0 -> 700** -- Paying customers, from zero - **$25K MRR** -- Monthly recurring revenue, from zero - **4.5x** -- Traffic growth in a single month --- ## The Company **Draftly: professional 3D websites at a fraction of the cost** Draftly was built by Piyush while he was still a third-year engineering student in Surat. The product helps startups, creators, and businesses generate professional 3D websites using AI, without needing design expertise or agency budgets. A professionally designed 3D website can cost anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000. Draftly brings that cost down to between $25 and $200, making high-quality web experiences accessible to a much wider audience. Growth came almost entirely through social media. By consistently posting content, Piyush grew Draftly's Instagram audience to more than 30,000 followers. When a creator with 750,000 followers shared Draftly organically, the product experienced a viral surge, driving over 170,000 visits and 65,000 signups. It was a clear signal that demand existed well beyond India. Today, Draftly serves customers primarily in the US, Germany, UK, and India--a global audience that required a payment system built for international growth. ## The Challenge ### A global audience, but no way to charge them Draftly's users were already international. The problem was payments. The available options either couldn't support the markets Draftly was serving or weren't designed for a SaaS business with recurring subscriptions. > "Most of my customers are from the US, Germany, and the UK. I needed something that worked everywhere." > > -- Piyush, Founder, Draftly As the product grew, another challenge emerged: tax compliance. Collecting payments from multiple countries meant dealing with VAT, GST, sales tax, and regional regulations--something a solo founder in college had neither the time nor expertise to manage. Without a solution that handled both payments and compliance, Draftly's international growth would be difficult to sustain. ## The Solution ### Global payments with compliance built in Dodo Payments gave Draftly a single platform for payments, subscriptions, and compliance. As a Merchant of Record, Dodo handles: - Global payment acceptance - Recurring subscription billing - Tax collection and remittance - UPI support for Indian customers - Compliance across jurisdictions - Founder-friendly onboarding and support The integration was completed in a single session using Dodo's documentation alongside AI development tools. For Piyush, one of the biggest benefits was discovering that international tax compliance would be handled automatically. > "There's something called tax compliance that I didn't know about, and Dodo handles all of that. That was a big thing for me." > > -- Piyush, Founder, Draftly ## The Implementation ### Integrated in one session The integration was completed in a single working session. Using Claude, Cursor, and Dodo's documentation, Piyush was able to implement payments and subscriptions without needing external help. The process was straightforward enough that approvals, implementation, and testing all happened within a very short timeframe. > "I submitted the documents and started writing the code. By the time I was done, I only had to wait a few hours for approval. We processed the first test payment that same night." > > -- Piyush, Founder, Draftly With payments live, Draftly was finally able to convert its growing international audience into paying customers. ## The Results ### From zero customers to a global SaaS business Dodo Payments didn't just help Draftly accept payments--it enabled the business model. ### 700 paying customers from zero Before Dodo, Draftly had no reliable way to charge international users. Today, the platform serves more than 700 paying customers across multiple countries, with the US, Germany, UK, and India representing key markets. ### $25K in monthly recurring revenue With recurring billing and global payment support in place, Draftly scaled to $25,000 in monthly recurring revenue. For a founder still in college, it transformed Draftly from a side project into a real business. ### 4.5x traffic growth in one month Monthly traffic grew from 30,000 to 170,000 visitors. A major driver was a viral Instagram post that generated 1.6 million views and sent roughly 170,000 visitors to the product. With Dodo handling payments globally, that surge translated into revenue rather than missed opportunity. ### Tax and compliance handled automatically As Draftly expanded internationally, Dodo took care of tax collection and remittance across applicable jurisdictions. Instead of managing compliance manually, Piyush could stay focused on building the product. > "Before Dodo, I had literally zero paying customers. Now I have 700 paying customers and $25K MRR. Dodo just made it possible." > > -- Piyush, Founder, Draftly For Draftly, Dodo Payments turned a product with global demand into a business with global customers. --- ## About Dodo Payments Dodo Payments is the billing and payments platform for AI-first companies. As a Merchant of Record, Dodo handles tax collection, compliance, billing, and payouts across 220+ countries so founders can focus on building. Features include credit-based billing, usage metering, subscriptions, one-time payments, adaptive currency pricing, 40+ local payment methods, and built-in analytics. - [Learn more about Dodo Payments](https://dodopayments.com) - [All case studies](https://dodopayments.com/case-studies) - [Pricing](https://dodopayments.com/pricing) - [Sign up](https://app.dodopayments.com/login)