Category
48 posts in this category.
I hired my first employee at $9,000 MRR and it was the best decision I had made, until revenue slid from a $27K peak back to $22K and a fixed salary became a slow leak. A 2026 diary on the math I avoided, why I waited four months too long, and how to do a first layoff with decency.
A solo founder pours three months into a version 2 and a Product Hunt launch at $13K MRR, and it moves revenue by about $190. The real story is the month after, and what actually grew the business.
The month my SaaS hit $21,000 MRR I signed my first enterprise deal: one $40,000-a-year contract worth 16% of my revenue. A first-person 2026 diary on the 280-question security review, the SSO build I pulled off the roadmap, net-60 cash delays, concentration risk, and the three rules I wrote afterward.
The month I finally quit my day job my SaaS read $11,200 MRR. A first-person 2026 diary on the number that actually let me leave (it was not the gross one), the test I used before giving notice, the runway math, and why my first full-time month grew slower, not faster.
A competitor cloned my SaaS the month it hit $30K MRR. The real 90-day revenue ledger, what the lawyer said, the three weeks I wasted, and the moat a copy cannot take.
The month my SaaS crossed $4,300 MRR I was finally ramen profitable. A first-person 2026 diary on what actually cleared my account after fees and tax, why the milestone felt smaller than the fantasy, and the checklist I use now.
One acquired customer walked out with almost a third of my $24K MRR in a single month. A first-person 2026 diary on customer concentration risk, the cashflow scramble, and the concentration cap I live by now.
My SaaS MRR climbed 27 percent in a quarter while gross churn quietly doubled and net revenue retention slid below 100 percent. A first-person 2026 diary on catching the leak.
ConvertKit was three months from dying at $1,337/mo. The bootstrapped playbook Nathan Barry used to reach $29M ARR, every figure sourced.
Everyone copies Justin Welsh's audience. The number that actually explains his one-person business is the margin.
As of 2026, Gumroad's own revenue was about $21 million in 2023 with roughly $9 million in profit, up from $11 million in 2022 (Sacra estimates). The twist in the Gumroad revenue story: the company Sahil Lavingia publicly called a failure in 2019 became quietly, durably profitable, while the eye-catching $142 million figure is what creators earned on the platform, not what Gumroad made.
