# Laper Teardown: From $3,145 Across Its First 5 Months to $51K/Mo — Inside a $1.47M AI Screenwriting Listing

- **Case ID**: BID-012 (Laper)
- **Category**: AI Screenwriting & Storyboard Studio · 1,503 Subs · Listed at $1.47M
- **Published**: 2026-11-05
- **Author**: Jimmy (https://www.jimmydecodes.com/en/about/)
- **Canonical URL**: https://www.jimmydecodes.com/en/cases/laper/

## The Short Answer (Verdict)

> Laper proves writers will pay $32.37/mo ARPU for a 'Whole Product' that locks screenplay formatting, character sheets, and storyboards in one project — but an Aug–Sep plateau ($46.0K to $46.1K) and a 7.8x LTM cash multiple make its $1.47M ask aggressive.

Built 100% with Claude Code by a former screenwriter turned developer, Laper collected just $3,145 total across its first 5 full months (1.7% of all-time cash) before surging to $51,697 in 30-day cash ($141K in the last 3 months) and listing for sale at $1,470,500.

## Key Numbers (Evidence-Graded)

| Metric | Figure | Evidence Level | Source & Basis |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Verified MRR | $48,645 (+11.1% MoM, 1,503 active subs) | Verified | TrustMRR read-only Stripe sync (Oct 27, 2026) |
| Rolling 30-Day Cash | $51,697 (+12.4% MoM, ~$51.3K chart header) | Verified | Annualized run-rate $583.7K–$620.4K (Ranked #420) |
| LTM / All-Time Cash | $189,655 / $189,855 | Verified | First 5 mos = $3,145 (1.7%); Last 3 mos = $141,160 (74.4%) |
| Current Asking Price | $1,470,500 (8,799 views, 4 offers) | Verified | Cut from $2.2M–$2.3M initial Aug 17 listing across 5 revisions |
| Claimed Margin & Team | 68.0% profit margin / 2–5 staff / Bootstrapped | Self-reported | Self-reported on TrustMRR (.md); ad & salary deduction unstated |
| ARPU & Multimodal COGS | $32.37/mo ARPU; $5.49–$12.86/mo typical AI COGS | Our estimate | Modeled on Anthropic & Google Gemini/Veo 3.1 Fast official rates |
| 12-Month Modeled Valuation | $715K – $4.11M | Our estimate | At +6% / +2% / -4% compound monthly growth & FE multiples |

## What It Sells: A Screenplay-Centered 'Whole Product' Built with Claude Code

Film and vertical micro-drama scripts follow rigid formatting rules where changing one character detail ripples across dozens of scenes and storyboard panels. Laper's homepage headlines 'AI Novel & Screenplay Writing' (while its TrustMRR listing pitches 'AI Screenwriting Software, Without the AI Aftertaste') — keeping one editable screenplay at the center and letting AI fix structure, generate character portraits, and build storyboard frames inside selected scenes. Its footer notes it was '100% Built by Claude Code.'

An English open letter on the homepage is signed by CEO ChunXiang Zhao (matching chunxiang.ai); while TrustMRR lists Hong Kong, its May 10, 2026 Terms of Service name Delaware corporation Laper,Corp. Pricing spans five tiers: Junior ($0, 10 chats/mo) plus Senior ($20/mo), Elite ($60/mo), Master Popular ($100/mo, unlimited AI chats), and Legend ($400/mo), with 20% off annual plans.

## The Ledger: $3,145 in 5 Months Before an 8.6x Inflection

Per the October 27, 2026 read-only Stripe sync, Laper logs $48,645 MRR (+11.1%), 1,503 active subscriptions ($32.37 ARPU), and $189,855 all-time cash (#420 on TrustMRR). Against ChartMogul's 2025 SaaS Growth Report (6,525 companies, where only 13.4% reach $1M ARR within 3 years), scaling to a $583.7K run-rate in one year is a standout trajectory.

Yet its first 5 full months on the ledger were tiny: Dec 2025 $760, Jan 2026 $294, Feb $162, Mar $1,334, and Apr $595 — totaling just $3,145 (1.66% of all-time revenue). After shipping 11-language localization (Nov 23, 2025) and AI storyboarding (Jul 8, 2026), monthly cash jumped 8.6x in May ($5,136), reached $15,857 in June, $27,108 in July, and hit $45,999 in August — with the last 3 months ($141,160) accounting for 74.4% of all-time cash.

## Three Risks: Aug–Sep Plateau, Buyout Rivals & Multimodal Tail Risk

First is the late-summer plateau: August ($45,999) to September ($46,079) grew by just $80 (+0.17%), right as the founder listed the company for sale on August 17 at $2.2M–$2.3M and revised the price five times down to $1,470,500 (8,799 pageviews, 4 offers, public changelog frozen at Jan 9, 2026). Second is incumbent and low-cost competition: industry standard Final Draft 13 sells for a one-time $249.99 ($199.99 on sale — just 2.5 months of Laper's $100 plan), while fiction tool Sudowrite starts at $10/mo annual.

Third is contract hygiene and multimodal COGS: Laper's Dec 8, 2025 Credits Policy expires monthly credits at month-end (§5.2), bans non-fraud chargebacks under penalty of account termination (§6.4), and leaves an unedited `[Jurisdiction]` placeholder in §10, while ToS §5.1 omits the $60 and $400 tiers. On $32.37 ARPU, Stripe HK takes 5.0%–7.5% ($1.63–$2.44), and a typical user running 250 chats + 30–60 images + 2–3 Veo 3.1 Fast clips costs $5.49–$12.86/mo (leaving 47%–74% gross margin before payroll and Google/X ads). However, a heavy writer running 2,000 long-context script passes on the $100 'Unlimited Chat' tier burns $70–$140 in Claude Sonnet/Opus 5.5 text tokens alone — forcing ToS §3.3 throttling.

## Is $1.47M Fair? Two Yardsticks Side-by-Side

FE International's August 2026 SaaS valuation benchmark notes that sub-$1M ARR software businesses trade at 2.0x–3.0x ARR, or 2.5x–4.0x Seller's Discretionary Earnings (SDE) as the primary yardstick.

At $1,470,500, Laper asks 2.52x its $583.7K ARR run-rate (2.4x on TrustMRR's card), which fits the 2x–3x band — but 7.75x its actual trailing 12-month cash ($189.7K). Even accepting the self-reported 68% margin ($397K–$422K annualized SDE), the ask is 3.49x–3.70x SDE, near the 4x ceiling. Across our 12-month Bull ($1.17M), Base ($740K), and Bear ($358K) scenarios, modeled valuation spans $715K to $4.11M.

## Can You Do It? The B2B Short-Drama & Webtoon Pre-Viz Wedge

Two Laper mechanics are worth copying immediately: ToS §§4.1 & 4.5 explicitly promise writers 100% IP ownership and zero training on public models, while its hybrid credit architecture pairs generous text chat with strict expiring image/video credits.

In China, People's Daily Overseas (Dec 29, 2025) cites 696M micro-drama users, 100,200 related firms, and a ¥67.79B market (with Hongguo paying ¥70M+ in October script sharing), while China Literature's 2025 annual report (¥7.366B revenue, ¥100M+ from AI comic dramas) confirms its AI 'Writer Assistant' is now open industry-wide. Don't sell $20/mo B2C subscriptions to solo writers; sell B2B Novel-to-Storyboard & Character-Consistent Pre-Viz packages to production studios.

## Three questions to ask about businesses like this

1. Is the valuation multiple based on 1 month × 12, or trailing 12 months of collected cash? — Laper's $1.47M ask is 2.5x its current run-rate, but 7.8x its $189.7K LTM cash.
2. Does the self-reported profit margin deduct paid ads and team payroll? — A 68% margin with 2–5 staff and active Google/X ads likely reflects gross margin before founder/engineer salaries.
3. Does it charge a premium for single-shot generation, or for a workflow-locked production format? — Locking screenplay structure, character sheets, and storyboards in one file is what justifies $32.37 ARPU.

## FAQ

### Q: What is the answer to the opening quiz? How much did Laper make in its first 5 full months?
A: Option A ($3,145 total). From Dec 2025 through Apr 2026, monthly receipts were $760, $294, $162, $1,334, and $595 — just 1.66% (~1.7%) of all-time revenue, whereas the last 3 months generated $141,160 (74.4%).

### Q: Why does TrustMRR show only 3 to 12 monthly visitors for Laper?
A: Inspecting laper.ai's HTML source reveals explicit code comments (lines 2 and 53–56) disabling Google Tag Manager for Mainland China timezones and static pre-render builds (__PRERENDER_INJECTED), leaving visitor analytics severely under-counted.

### Q: How can a non-coder launch a B2B short-drama storyboard service in one weekend?
A: Use our Tally + Google Sheets + Make + Claude Sonnet 5.5 + Character-Reference pipeline ($42–$70/mo Lean Validation Stack) detailed in the 30-page operator report.

## Sources

1. Verified Stripe revenue, 1,503 subs, monthly timeline, rank #420 & $1,470,500 asking price (Oct 27, 2026): TrustMRR Laper: https://trustmrr.com/startup/laper
2. TrustMRR machine-readable snapshot (Founded 2025-09-28, 68.0% margin, 2–5 staff, Bootstrapped): https://trustmrr.com/startup/laper.md
3. Metric reconstruction up to 30% variance & full-amount escrow note: TrustMRR FAQ: https://trustmrr.com/faq
4. Homepage headline, founder open letter, '100% Built by Claude Code' & GTM script gate comments: Laper homepage: https://laper.ai/
5. Founder ChunXiang Zhao public portfolio linking Laper: chunxiang.ai: https://chunxiang.ai/
6. 5-tier pricing ($0 / $20 / $60 / $100 Popular / $400, 20% off annual) & credit rules: Laper pricing: https://laper.ai/pricing
7. Changelog (0.0.1 on Oct 6, 2025; 11-language localization in 0.3.0 on Nov 23, 2025; last entry Jan 9, 2026): Laper changelog: https://laper.ai/changelog/
8. Early assistant powered by Claude Sonnet 4 (Oct 13, 2025): Laper recent highlights: https://laper.ai/recent-highlights/
9. AI storyboarding architecture launch (Jul 8, 2026): Laper AI storyboarding page: https://laper.ai/features/ai-storyboarding/
10. Delaware entity Laper,Corp., IP ownership & no public training (§§4.1/4.5), throttling (§3.3) & §5.1 tier mismatch (May 10, 2026): Terms of Service: https://laper.ai/legal/terms-of-service/
11. Laper Privacy Policy (updated May 10, 2026): https://laper.ai/legal/privacy-policy/
12. Monthly credits do not roll over (§5.2), non-refundable (§6.1), chargeback termination (§6.4) & unfilled `[Jurisdiction]` (§10): Credits Policy: https://laper.ai/legal/credits-policy/
13. 6,525 SaaS companies study (13.4% hit $1M ARR within 3 years): ChartMogul 2025 SaaS Growth Report: https://chartmogul.com/reports/saas-growth-report/
14. Final Draft 13 one-time buyout pricing ($249.99 list / $199.99 promo): Final Draft Store: https://store.finaldraft.com/products/final-draft-13
15. Sudowrite AI fiction pricing ($10/mo annual Hobby to $59/mo Max): Sudowrite: https://www.sudowrite.com/
16. Stripe Hong Kong USD settlement (3.4% + $0.30), +0.5% intl card, +2% FX & +0.7% Billing: Stripe HK pricing: https://stripe.com/en-hk/pricing
17. Claude Sonnet 5.5 ($2/$10) & Opus 5.5 ($4/$20) official API pricing: Anthropic: https://claude.com/pricing
18. Gemini image generation & Veo 3.1 Fast ($0.10–$0.12/sec) official API pricing: Google Gemini Docs: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
19. Private SaaS ARR multiples (2x–3x) & SDE multiples (2.5x–4x): FE International (Aug 25, 2026): https://www.feinternational.com/blog/saas-valuation-multiples
20. China micro-drama 696M users, 100,200 companies, ¥67.79B market & Hongguo ¥70M+ Oct script sharing: People's Daily Overseas (Dec 29, 2025): http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/pc/content/202512/29/content_30127582.html
21. China Literature 2025 annual results (¥7.366B revenue, AI comic drama ¥100M+, open Writer Assistant & Comic Assistant): HKEX filing (Mar 17, 2026): https://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2026/0317/2026031700357_c.pdf

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*Citation note: When citing figures from this teardown, please credit "Jimmy Decodes (https://www.jimmydecodes.com/en/cases/laper/)" and include the stated evidence label (Verified / Self-reported / Third-party / Our estimate).*