Time BETWEEN milestones — unique data from 204 founder journeys with 3+ milestones tracked. See how long each transition really takes.
We track time between milestones, not just time to them.
How long does each transition take on average?
139 founders tracked from first paying customer to $100K ARR
Key insight: The complete journey from first customer to $100K ARR averages 2y 11mo — that's about 2.9 years. But the fastest founder did it in just 13 days.
Founders who went from First Customer to $100K ARR fastest
After selling my previous AI company Headlime for seven figures, I took time off in 2021. I was growing increasingly bored when an idea struck me: why...
We built Tailwind CSS as an open source project, then launched Tailwind UI as a commercial product. The first day made $500K. Building in Open Sour...
David Holz bootstrapped Midjourney to profitability within months, building a billion-dollar AI art platform on Discord without VC funding.
Based on data from 160 founders, the average time to go from $1K to $10K MRR is 1 year. The fastest founder did it in 1 days.
Getting your first paying customer is typically the hardest part. After that, momentum builds. The transition from First Customer to $1K MRR takes 8 months on average, while $1K to $10K takes about double (1 year) but represents 10x revenue growth.
From first paying customer to $100K ARR, the average journey takes 2y 11mo (about 2.9 years). This is based on 139 complete journeys in our database. The fastest recorded was 13 days.
Most resources only track time TO a milestone. We track time BETWEEN milestones — showing how long each transition actually takes. With 204 stories tracking 3+ milestones and 95 with 4 milestones, this is unique founder journey data you won't find anywhere else.