Mark Lu, the founder of TrustMRR.com, runs the largest public database of verified startup revenues (the only bigger one belongs to Stripe, but they don’t share nearly this level of detail). Thousands of founders voluntarily connect their Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, and bank accounts so their real monthly recurring revenue (MRR) or annual recurring revenue (ARR) can be tracked and displayed publicly.
The data is brutal, and it cuts through the highlight-reel illusion that most startup media feeds us.
Here are the actual numbers as of late 2025:
Overall revenue distribution
- 81% have earned at least $1 lifetime;
- 44% have earned at least $1,000 lifetime;
- 4% have earned at least $1,000,000 lifetime;
- Only 0.4% have reached $10M+ ARR.
Current monthly revenue
- Median MRR across all tracked startups: $334 per month.
Time to milestones
- From $0 → first $1: 5 months on average;
- From $1K → $10K MRR: another 6 months;
- From $100K → $1M ARR: another 2.2 years on average.
Current breakdown by revenue band
- 20% still at $0;
- 34% between $1 and $1K;
- The rest are fighting in the thinner and thinner air above that.
These aren’t projections, guesses, or “post-money valuation” fantasies. These are real dollars hitting real bank accounts, verified automatically every day.
What the numbers really tell us is simple: the startup journey is dramatically longer, slower, and more grueling than almost anyone admits publicly.
You will spend months - often many months - just trying to get the very first person to pay you a single dollar. Once you do, the next leap (from a few hundred to a few thousand) still takes half a year for those who eventually make it.
And if you ever dream of seven-figure ARR, you’re looking at multiple additional years of consistent execution, iteration, and - above all - survival.
The media loves the 18-month unicorn stories because they’re exciting. Reality is far more likely to resemble a seven-to-ten-year grind with plenty of $334 months along the way.
The path is not impossible; 4% do cross a million, and 0.4% do eventually hit eight figures. But those outcomes are extreme outliers, not the baseline expectation.
So if you’re considering starting a company, ask yourself one question before anything else: Are you ready for a multi-year moral marathon where most months the outside world will see little or no visible progress, and where the main enemy is your own motivation on the days when the MRR number refuses to move?
If that sounds unbearable, that’s okay - startups simply aren’t for everyone. But if you look at these TrustMRR numbers and still feel the pull, then welcome to the 20% who at least got off zero. The rest is just execution, persistence, and time. A lot of time.
Also read:
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Thank you!
