The First Revenue Stories Database
Helping founders find proof that their path is possible. Because seeing someone who's done it before is the best motivation.
The Problem We're Solving
Founders obsessively search for proof that their path is possible. They ask:
"How long did it take to reach $1K MRR?"
Time-to-milestone is our first-class data point. Filter and compare.
"How did you get your first customer?"
Every story includes the marketing channel that worked.
"Is 6 months to $10K MRR normal?"
Benchmark your progress against real founder data.
The answers exist but are buried in unstructured forum posts, hour-long podcasts, and Twitter threads. We're changing that by making founder stories searchable, filterable, and comparable.
What Makes Us Different
Unlike scattered content across the internet, Startup Founder Stories gives you structured, actionable data.
Time-to-Milestone Data
See exactly how long it took each founder to reach their milestones. Compare against averages. Find the fastest paths.
7 Filter Options
Filter by milestone, product type, marketing channel, founder type, industry, business model, and time range.
Full-Text Search
Search across story content, lessons learned, and tools used. Find exactly what you're looking for.
Free Tools
Milestone Calculator and Founder Matcher—always free. Plus AI-powered premium tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Startup Founder Stories
Startup Founder Stories is a free, searchable database of founder stories focused on first revenue milestones. We curate stories from founders' own published content (blogs, newsletters, tweets) and structure them with data like time-to-milestone, marketing channel, and founder type—making it easy to find founders who've been where you are.
Yes! All 238+ founder stories are free to browse, filter, and search. Our free tools (calculator, quiz, matcher) are also free forever. For deeper insights, we offer Premium at $12/month which includes AI-powered replication playbooks, benchmark comparisons, financial projections, and expert analysis for every story.
We curate stories exclusively from founders' own published content—their personal blogs, newsletters, Twitter/X posts, and Indie Hackers posts they wrote themselves. We summarize each story in our own words and always link back to the original source. We never use content from third-party interviews or podcasts.
Yes! If you've hit a revenue milestone and have published about it somewhere (blog post, tweet thread, newsletter), we'd love to feature your story. Use the "Submit Your Story" form, and make sure to include a link to your original content. Story submissions are reviewed before publishing.
All data comes directly from what founders have publicly shared about their journeys. We extract structured data like time-to-milestone and marketing channels from their stories. While we verify sources and cross-reference when possible, the data reflects what founders themselves have reported.
Startup Founder Stories is an indie project built in public. Check out our public metrics on the /open page and see the development changelog at /changelog. We believe in transparency and sharing our progress openly.
Transparency is Our Thing
Startup Founder Stories is built in public. We share our progress, metrics, and learnings openly because transparency builds trust.
Ready to find your path?
Browse 238+ founder stories filtered by milestone, channel, and more. Or try our free tools to benchmark your progress.
Follow the journey
We're building in public. Get updates on new stories, features, and our own startup journey.