Short playbooks on running a software business. Every one of them starts from something we measured rather than something we reckon: real revenue from 8,651 tracked startups, 823 acquisition listings, and what founders actually say when they are not pitching.
The median product with any revenue at all has 8 paying subscribers. Ten customers is not a starting line, it is most of the race.
There is no market rate for something that did not exist last month. Here is the number to anchor to instead, and what comparable products actually charge.
Most cancellations are decided in the first week and executed before the second invoice. What actually keeps people past it.
Agency quotes, freelance rates, no-code stacks and AI builders, against what these products actually earn once they exist.
Four in ten products with real revenue are shrinking. Validation is the step that decides which side you land on, and it costs a week.
The honest test for whether you are shipping early or hiding in your editor, and what has to be true before you show anyone.
The median product with any revenue at all has 8 paying subscribers. Ten customers is not a starting line, it is most of the race.
A name you can say on a phone call, a domain you can actually buy, and a way to stop relitigating the decision every week.
What no-code can and cannot carry, and what acquisition listings say about whether buyers actually discount it.
There is no market rate for something that did not exist last month. Here is the number to anchor to instead, and what comparable products actually charge.
Most founders are priced at the 25th percentile and treat it as a law of physics. The mechanics of moving up without a churn event.
What to have ready before launch day, what to do in the first 48 hours, and the three things that break in public every single time.
A warm list of 200 beats a cold spike every time. How to build one from zero when you have nothing to show yet.
Most cancellations are decided in the first week and executed before the second invoice. What actually keeps people past it.
Five emails, one job each, written against the moment the user is actually in. Take the sequence.
One founder, same-day replies, no helpdesk contract. The system, and the point at which you should stop doing it by hand.
How to decline the request without losing the customer, and how to tell the requests worth taking from the ones that will eat your roadmap.
Agency quotes, freelance rates, no-code stacks and AI builders, against what these products actually earn once they exist.
Four in ten products shrank last month. A weekly review that catches that early, and the numbers you should stop opening daily.
What to set aside, what sales tax and VAT actually do to a software business, and the point where an accountant pays for itself.
The guides are the short version. The database behind them holds 1M+ complaints, reviews, revenue records and acquisition listings you can search directly.
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