PastMaps
"A georeferenced historical map platform with 185K+ high-res maps covering all of America, plus satellite, LiDAR, and 3D layers, enabling exploration through space and time for genealogists, historians, and map enthusiasts."
Marketing Channels
Word of mouth
Creator explicitly states revenue is 'slowly but surely growing through word of mouth'
Hacker News
Posted in the $500 MRR thread, generating positive reception and bug reports from engaged users
Physical map print sales
Customers repeatedly requested physical map prints, creating a natural e-commerce channel that accounts for 40% of revenue and drives discoverability
Growth Levers
- Expand coverage globally in Q1 2025 by crawling public library systems worldwide — currently US-only which limits addressable market
- Deepen genealogy community partnerships since that is the confirmed primary use case driving revenue
- Integrate Overture Maps boundary geometry data to fix search accuracy issues and improve the core discovery experience
- Continue growing physical map print sales, which were customer-requested and represent 40% of revenue with massive product variety
- Diversify map sources beyond USGS to public libraries globally, using the creator's search background for crawling and indexing
First Customer Strategy
The creator, who has a background in search, built PastMaps as a passion project to improve discoverability and exploration of digitized historical maps from the USGS. The primary use case turned out to be genealogy research. Growth has been entirely organic through word of mouth, with the genealogy community being the core audience.
Pricing Insight
Revenue is split 60% premium subscriptions (unlocking advanced features like LiDAR layers) and 40% physical map print sales. The creator didn't plan to sell physical products but added it after repeated customer requests. With 2.2M unique product variants available, the print-on-demand business has become a significant revenue stream. The subscription model monetizes power users (genealogists, researchers) while prints serve casual enthusiasts.
New Market Opportunities
- Genealogy research community Commenter gave an extensive explanation of how old maps are incredibly useful for genealogy — tracing ancestor homes, understanding community changes, environmental shifts. Creator confirmed this is the primary use case.
- International historical map market Commenter asked about Panama Canal Zone maps. Creator confirmed global expansion planned for Q1 2025 using public library sources from across the globe.
- Physical map prints and home decor Customers repeatedly asked for ways to purchase maps for display, leading to a physical e-commerce business with 2.2M unique product variants that now represents 40% of revenue.
Key Takeaways
- • A solo bootstrapped 'labor of love' in a niche market (historical maps) can reach $5K/month growing purely through word of mouth
- • Listen to customers: physical map prints were not in the original plan but now account for 40% of revenue because customers kept asking for them
- • Applying technical skills from a different domain (search/crawling background) to a niche content market creates a defensible advantage
- • Public data sources (USGS, public libraries) can be aggregated and made more discoverable to create significant value without needing proprietary content
- • The genealogy research community is an underserved, passionate, and paying customer segment for historical data products
- • Geographic coverage limitations (US-only) are the biggest growth constraint — international expansion represents a major revenue multiplier
Sentiment Analysis
7 Pos / 3 NeuNotable Quotes
"History is cool yo. And apparently lucrative. — Soupy"
"At a guess, you probably have a very large base of genealogists on there! — registeredcorn"
"This is such an awesome app - great work! — martyz"
"I love this site. I love browsing David Rumsey's map collection — seanconaty"
"I stand on the shoulders of these giants that have done amazing work to digitize the paper maps and I mainly am hoping to just aid in the ease of discoverability and exploration of these assets — Soupy"
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