Andrew Culver

ClickFunnels president, creator of Bullet Train for Rails, founded and sold Churn Buster

@andrewculver Los Angeles, United States7.4K followersBoilerplate & Starter Kit Makers Open Source Makers Developer Tools

About Andrew Culver

Andrew Culver is a Ruby on Rails developer and SaaS founder based in Los Angeles. He started Churn Buster around 2013 as a side project while working as a CTO elsewhere. The tool recovers failed subscription payments through automated dunning emails and card-update flows, and it became one of the better-known products in its niche.

Running Churn Buster alongside a full-time CTO role eventually wore him down, so he sold the business to Matt Goldman and Joelle Steiniger, founders he knew from the MicroConf community. He kept a minority stake after the sale.

His best-known project is Bullet Train, a Ruby on Rails framework for building SaaS apps. It ships with authentication, teams and invitations, roles and permissions, billing and a REST API, so founders don't have to rebuild the same plumbing for every product. Bullet Train started out as a paid starter kit with roots in Laravel Spark. In early 2022 Andrew made the core MIT-licensed open source, keeping billing, real-time conversations and audit logs in a paid Pro tier. Those features have since been open-sourced too.

Andrew organized The Rails SaaS Conference, held in Los Angeles in 2022 and 2023, and co-hosted the Framework Friends podcast with Aaron Francis. ClickFunnels was Bullet Train's main sponsor, and Andrew has risen through its leadership. His X bio now describes him as President at ClickFunnels.

Products by Andrew Culver

Bullet Train

bullettrain.co

MIT-licensed Ruby on Rails framework for building SaaS apps with teams, roles, billing and an API built in.

Churn Buster

churnbuster.io

acquired

Failed payment recovery and dunning for subscription businesses.

The Rails SaaS Conference

rubyevents.org

shutdown

Conference for founders and developers building SaaS products with Ruby on Rails, hosted by the Bullet Train team.

Exit story

Churn Buster

→ Matt and Joelle Goldman (with Ken Johnson) · 2015

Andrew had been running Churn Buster as a side project while working as a CTO elsewhere, and doing both had left him burned out.

by Andrew Culver

Andrew Culver's journey, 2013–20234 milestones · self-reported

First product
Launch / milestone
Started 2013

2013First product: Started Churn Buster as a side project for recovering failed…
2022Launch: Open-sourced the Bullet Train Rails SaaS framework under the…
2022Milestone: Hosted the first Rails SaaS Conference in Los Angeles in October
2023Milestone: Hosted a second edition of The Rails SaaS Conference

Timeline

2013 — Started Churn Buster as a side project for recovering failed subscription payments.
2022 — Open-sourced the Bullet Train Rails SaaS framework under the MIT license, with a paid Pro tier.
2022 — Hosted the first Rails SaaS Conference in Los Angeles in October.
2023 — Hosted a second edition of The Rails SaaS Conference.

How Andrew builds

Don't rebuild the same SaaS plumbing for every product.
Open source the foundations so a community can improve them.
Lean on code generation and conventions so developers spend time on what makes their app unique.
Sell a side project when running it alongside a full-time role stops being sustainable.

Learn from Andrew Culver

[podcast]Free

Framework Friends

Podcast co-hosted with Aaron Francis about building frameworks and developer tools, including Bullet Train's move to open source.

by Andrew Culver

[template]Free (MIT)

Bullet Train starter repository

Open source Rails SaaS starter with authentication, teams, roles, billing and a REST API.

by Andrew Culver

Andrew Culver FAQ

What is Bullet Train?

Bullet Train is an MIT-licensed Ruby on Rails framework for SaaS apps, created by Andrew Culver, that bundles authentication, teams, roles, billing and an API.

What did Andrew Culver sell?

He founded Churn Buster, a failed-payment recovery tool for subscription businesses, and sold it to Matt Goldman and Joelle Steiniger while keeping a minority stake.

What does Andrew Culver do at ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels was Bullet Train's main sponsor, and Andrew joined its leadership team. His X bio lists him as President at ClickFunnels.

Is Bullet Train free?

Yes. The core framework is open source under the MIT license, and features that were once in the paid Pro tier, such as billing and audit logs, are now open source as well.