Startup Founder Stories
Updated continuouslyΒ·200 founders ranked Β· 40 notable exits

Founder revenue leaderboard

The most current MRR and ARR we have for 200indie and bootstrapped startups, ranked by annualized revenue. All figures sourced from founder disclosures, public dashboards, or reputable third-party trackers, with confidence labels so you can see what's verified versus estimated.

Highest annual revenue
$11.6B
Shopify (Tobi LΓΌtke)
Combined annual revenue
$41.2B
Across 200 ranked startups
Biggest disclosed exit
$12B
Mailchimp β†’ Intuit

Current revenue (200)

#Product / founderAnnual revenueSource
1Shopify
Tobi LΓΌtke
$11.6B
Verified
2Canva
Melanie Perkins
$4B
Reported
3HubSpot
Brian Halligan
$2.9B
Verified
4Printful
Davis Siksnans & Lauris Liberts
$2.3B
Reported
5Printful
Davis Siksnans & Lauris Liberts
$2.3B
Reported
6Klaviyo
Andrew Bialecki & Ed Hallen
$1.2B
Verified
7Figma
Dylan Field & Evan Wallace
$1.1B
Verified
8Cursor
Michael Truell
$1B
Verified
9Whatnot
Grant LaFontaine
$1B
Reported
10Hopper
Frederic Lalonde
$850M
Reported
11NerdWallet
Tim Chen
$836.6M
Verified
12Gymshark
Ben Francis
$814M
Verified
13Brex
Henrique Dubugras & Pedro Franceschi
$700M
Reported
14Mercury
Immad Akhund
$650M
Reported
15Notion
Ivan Zhao
$600M
Verified
16Noom
Saeju Jeong & Artem Petakov
$600M
Reported
17Midjourney
David Holz
$500M
Verified
18Perplexity
Aravind Srinivas
$500M
Verified
19Faire
Max Rhodes
$500M
Reported
20Zapier
Wade Foster
$420M
Reported
21WP Engine
Jason Cohen
$400M
Reported
22Intercom
Des Traynor
$382M
Reported
23BigCommerce
Eddie Machaalani & Mitchell Harper
$359.1M
Verified
24Headspace
Andy Puddicombe & Richard Pierson
$348.4M
Estimate
25ElevenLabs
Mati Staniszewski & Piotr DΔ…bkowski
$330M
Verified
26Replit
Amjad Masad
$300M
Reported
27Airalo
Abraham Burak
$286.2M
Verified
28Gym Launch
Alex Hormozi
$250M
Estimate
29Calm
Alex Tew
$227M
Estimate
30Webflow
Vlad Magdalin
$213M
Reported
31Calm
Alex Tew & Michael Acton Smith
$210M
Reported
32Lovable
Anton Osika
$200M
Verified
33V0
Guillermo Rauch
$200M
Reported
34Patreon
Jack Conte & Sam Yam
$179M
Reported
35Ahrefs
Tim Soulo
$150M
Reported
36Synthesia
Victor Riparbelli
$150M
Verified
37Headout
Varun Khona
$130M
Verified
38Sentry
David Cramer & Chris Jennings
$128M
Reported
39Retool
David Hsu
$120M
Reported
40Gamma
Grant Lee
$100M
Verified
41Customer.io
Colin Nederkoorn
$100M
Reported
42Linear
Karri Saarinen, Jori Lallo & Tuomas Artman
$100M
Reported
43Sweat
Kayla Itsines & Tobi Pearce
$100M
Estimate
44Otter.ai
Sam Liang
$100M
Verified
45Runway
CristΓ³bal Valenzuela
$90M
Reported
46AppSumo
Noah Kagan
$80M
Reported
47Kajabi
Kenny Rueter & Travis Rosser
$75M
Estimate
48Supabase
Paul Copplestone
$70M
Verified
49Thinkific
Greg Smith
$66.9M
Verified
50HeyGen
Joshua Xu & Wayne Liang
$57.5M
Reported
51Descript
Andrew Mason
$55M
Reported
52Unbounce
Rick Perreault
$50.9M
Reported
53Lemlist
Guillaume Moubeche
$50M
Verified
54Framer
Koen Bok
$50M
Verified
55Character.ai
Noam Shazeer
$50M
Estimate
56Contrarian Thinking
Codie Sanchez
$49.2M
Estimate
57YNAB
Jesse Mecham
$49M
Estimate
58Substack
Hamish McKenzie
$45M
Reported
59Substack
Chris Best & Hamish McKenzie
$45M
Reported
60Honeycomb
Christine Yen
$43.6M
Estimate
61ConvertKit
Nathan Barry
$43M
Reported
62Pilot
Waseem Daher, Jeff Arnold & Jessica McKellar
$43M
Reported
63Flightradar24
Mikael Robertsson
$41.4M
Verified
64Close
Steli Efti
$40M
Reported
65Bolt.new
Eric Simons
$40M
Reported
66n8n
Jan Oberhauser
$40M
Reported
67Beehiiv
Tyler Denk
$32M
Verified
68Riverside
Nadav Keyson
$31.2M
Estimate
69Help Scout
Nick Francis
$30M
Reported
70Todoist
Amir Salihefendic
$26.5M
Reported
71Buffer
Joel Gascoigne
$25M
Verified
72Buffer
Leo Widrich
$25M
Verified
73Splitwise
Jon Bittner
$25M
Estimate
74Resend
Zeno Rocha
$25M
Reported
75Gumroad
Sahil Lavingia
$23.8M
Verified
76Triple Whale
Maxx Blank, AJ Orbach & Ivan Chernykh
$21.6M
Reported
77Systeme.io
Aurelian Amacker
$20.1M
Reported
78Blogilates / POPFLEX
Cassey Ho
$20M
Estimate
79Skiplagged
Aktarer Zaman
$20M
Reported
80Opus Clip
Young Zhao
$20M
Reported
81Gumroad
Sahil Lavingia
$17.8M
Verified
82Going
Scott Keyes
$16.8M
Reported
83Kapwing
Julia Enthoven & Eric Lu
$10.4M
Verified
84Scalenut
Mayank Jain
$10.3M
Reported
85Beardbrand
Eric Bandholz
$10M
Reported
86Railway
Jake Cooper
$10M
Estimate
87Late Checkout
Greg Isenberg
$10M
Estimate
88GMass
Ajay Goel
$8.6M
Reported
89Chatbase
Yasser Elsaid
$8M
Verified
90Krea AI
Victor Perez
$8M
Reported
91Loox
Yoni Elbaz & Moran Benisty
$7.6M
Reported
92Creator MBA
Justin Welsh
$6.4M
Verified
93Starter Story
Pat Walls
$6M
Verified
94Awesomic
Roman Sevast
$6M
Estimate
95Part-Time YouTuber Academy
Ali Abdaal
$6M
Reported
96AdamEnfroy.com
Adam Enfroy
$5.7M
Estimate
97Groove
Alex Turnbull
$5M
Verified
98Stratechery
Ben Thompson
$5M
Estimate
99Cal.com
Peer Richelsen
$5M
Reported
100Transistor.fm
Justin Jackson
$4.5M
Reported
101Transistor.fm
Justin Jackson
$4.5M
Reported
102Transistor
Justin Jackson & Jon Buda
$4.5M
Reported
103Kaching Bundle Quantity Breaks
Erikas Malisauskas
$4.3M
Reported
104Tally
Marie Martens
$4M
Verified
105Lenny's Newsletter
Lenny Rachitsky
$4M
Reported
106The Dan Koe Brand
Dan Koe
$4M
Reported
107Cronometer
Aaron Davidson
$3.8M
Reported
108HeadshotPro
Danny Postma
$3.6M
Reported
109HeadshotPro
Danny Postma
$3.6M
Reported
110Taplio
Thibault Louis-Lucas
$3.5M
Reported
111Canny
Sarah Hum
$3.5M
Reported
112SevenAtoms Marketing
Andy Beohar
$3.3M
Reported
113Relume
Dan Anisse
$3.3M
Reported
114Betterpic
Ricardo Ghekiere
$3.2M
Verified
115Plausible Analytics
Uku TΓ€ht
$3.1M
Verified
116Plausible Analytics
Uku Taht & Marko Saric
$3.1M
Verified
117Copilot Money
Andres Ugarte
$2.9M
Estimate
118Sidekiq
Mike Perham
$2.9M
Reported
119GymStreak
Joseph Mambwe
$2.5M
Reported
120Testimonial.to
Damon Chen
$2.4M
Reported
121Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
$2.1M
Verified
122Forte Labs / Building a Second Brain
Tiago Forte
$2.1M
Verified
123Carrd
AJ Ladwal
$2.0M
Reported
124Carrd
AJ
$2.0M
Reported
125Carrd
AJ
$2.0M
Reported
126Indian Type Foundry
Satya Rajpurohit
$2M
Reported
127Smart Passive Income
Pat Flynn
$1.9M
Estimate
128Hevy
Guillem Ros & Desmond McNamee
$1.9M
Verified
129Getlatka
Nathan Latka
$1.8M
Reported
130TypingMind
Tony Dinh
$1.7M
Verified
131DesignJoy
Brett Williams
$1.7M
Reported
132Photo AI
Pieter Levels
$1.6M
Verified
133Typefully
Francesco Di Lorenzo
$1.4M
Reported
134Jack's Flight Club
Jack Sheldon
$1.3M
Verified
135Pallyy
Tim Bennetto
$1.2M
Reported
136Magai
Dustin W. Stout
$1.2M
Verified
137Rootd
Ania Wysocka
$1.2M
Verified
138Swell AI
Cody Schneider
$1.1M
Reported
139GemPages
Chris Koh
$1.1M
Estimate
140Bannerbear
Jon Yongfook
$1M
Verified
141Small Bets Portfolio
Daniel Vassallo
$1M
Reported
142Cubicle to CEO
Ellen Yin
$1M
Estimate
143Wanderlog
Peter Xu
$1M
Reported
144Bannerbear
Jon Yongfook
$1M
Verified
145Snappa
Christopher Gimmer
$1M
Reported
146SparkToro
Rand Fishkin & Casey Henry
$1M
Estimate
147Wanderlog
Peter Xu & Harry Yu
$1M
Reported
148Nomadic Matt
Matt Kepnes
$1M
Estimate
149ProjectionLab
Kyle Nolan
$999.6K
Verified
150Buttondown
Justin Duke
$900K
Estimate
151Buttondown
Justin Duke
$900K
Estimate
152The Curiosity Chronicle
Sahil Bloom
$840K
Estimate
153Simple Analytics
Adriaan van Rossum
$812.7K
Verified
154Podia
Spencer Fry
$811.3K
Estimate
155Creator Science
Jay Clouse
$800K
Verified
156Gleap
Lukas BΓΆhler
$770.0K
Estimate
157Tailwind CSS
Adam Wathan
$700K
Estimate
158Mockuuups Studio
David Stefanides & Marek HrabΔ›
$660K
Estimate
159Ministry of Testing
Rosie Sherry
$600K
Reported
160Hypefury
Samy Dindane & Yannick Veys
$567.4K
Reported
161Hypefury
Samy Dindane
$564K
Reported
162Invoice Ninja
Shalom Stark
$550K
Reported
163Ship 30 for 30
Dickie Bush
$500K
Reported
164Storemapper
Tyler Tringas
$480K
Estimate
165Instatus
Ali Salah
$480K
Reported
166Notion Mastery
Marie Poulin
$480K
Reported
167PostBridge
PostBridge Developer
$462.4K
Verified
168Nomad List
Pieter Levels
$456K
Reported
169Tiiny Host
Elston Baretto
$450K
Reported
170NotionForms
Julien Nahum
$444K
Reported
171Closet Tools
Jordan O'Connor
$420K
Estimate
172Lunch Money
Jen Yip
$408K
Reported
173Runbear
Snow Lee
$400K
Verified
174Big Star Copywriting
Derryck Strachan
$360K
Estimate
175Prompt Genie
Prompt Genie Founder
$360K
Estimate
176Ness Labs
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
$352K
Reported
177HabitKit
Sebastian RΓΆhl
$336K
Verified
178Stagetimer
Lukas Hermann
$300K
Reported
179SiteGPT
Bhanu Teja
$300K
Estimate
180Data Fetcher
Andy Cloke
$276K
Reported
181ShipFast
Marc Lou
$240K
Verified
182ScreenshotOne
Dmytro Krasun
$240K
Verified
183Scrape Creators
Adrian Horning
$240K
Reported
184Minimalist Phone
Martin Moravek
$240K
Verified
185Calendesk
Maciej Cupial
$178.6K
Reported
186Inbox Zero
Elie Steinbock
$120K
Reported
187FounderPal.ai
FounderPal Team
$120K
Reported
188Software Ideas
Kevin Conti
$120K
Estimate
189TrumpExcel
Sumit Bansal
$120K
Reported
190Papermark
Iuliia Shnai
$114K
Reported
191SaaS Pegasus
Cory Zue
$105K
Reported
192AI2SQL
Mustafa Ergisi
$100K
Reported
193Setter AI
Josef BΓΌttgen
$90.1K
Reported
194AI Directories
Sergiu Chiriac
$60K
Estimate
195CSS Scan
Guilherme Rizzo
$48K
Estimate
196SEO Blog
Victoria Kurichenko
$40.0K
Verified
197Tailscan
Erwin Lengkeek
$39.6K
Reported
198Blogging for Devs
Monica Lent
$24K
Estimate
199Fantasy Congress
Allison Seboldt
$11.2K
Estimate
200Write of Passage
David Perell
$0
Verified

Notable exits (40)

Sorted by disclosed acquisition price. Undisclosed deals at the bottom.

Product / founderAcquired byPrice
Mailchimp
Ben Chestnut & Dan Kurzius
Intuit$12B
Brex
Henrique Dubugras & Pedro Franceschi
Capital One$5.2B
Windsurf
Varun Mohan
Google DeepMind (acquihire) + Cognition AI (IP)$2.4B
Semrush
Oleg Shchegolev
Adobe$1.9B
Skyscanner
Gareth Williams, Barry Smith & Bonamy Grimes
Ctrip (Trip.com Group)$1.7B
Depop
Simon Beckerman
Etsy$1.6B
Poshmark
Manish Chandra
Naver Corporation$1.2B
Loom
Joe Thomas
Atlassian$975M
Loom
Shahed Khan
Atlassian$975M
MyFitnessPal
Mike Lee
Under Armour (then Francisco Partners)$475M
Wave Accounting
Kirk Simpson
H&R Block$405M
Teachable
Ankur Nagpal
Hotmart$250M
Anchor
Michael Mignano
Spotify$154M
Make
Ondrej Gazda
Celonis$100M
Morning Brew
Alex Lieberman
Insider Inc.$75M
Gymdesk
Eran Galperin
Five Elms Capital$32.5M
Rome2Rio
Bernie Tschirren & Michael Cameron
Omio$30M
Wirecutter
Brian Lam
The New York Times$30M
The Hustle
Sam Parr
HubSpot$27M
Unicorn Platform
Alexander Isora
MarsX (John Rush)$400K
HeadReach
Kalo Yankulov
LeadFuzeUndisclosed
FeedbackPanda
Arvid Kahl
SureSwift CapitalUndisclosed
Makerpad
Ben Tossell
ZapierUndisclosed
Pocketed
KP
Deloitte CanadaUndisclosed
Drip
Rob Walling
LeadpagesUndisclosed
Merch Wizard
Rick Blyth
Private buyer (via Empire Flippers)Undisclosed
Moz
Rand Fishkin
Ziff Davis (via iContact)Undisclosed
Backlinko
Brian Dean
SemrushUndisclosed
ReplyGuy
Alex Belogubov
Undisclosed buyerUndisclosed
ScrapingBee
Pierre de Wulf
OxylabsUndisclosed
Express Writers
Julia McCoy
Adam and Alicia OakleyUndisclosed
FeedbackPanda
Arvid Kahl
SureSwift CapitalUndisclosed
Copy.ai
Paul Yacoubian & Chris Lu
FullcastUndisclosed
Orbit
Patrick Woods
PostmanUndisclosed
Privy
Ben Jabbawy
AttentiveUndisclosed
Rome2rio
Michael Cameron & Bernie Tschirren
OmioUndisclosed
WooCommerce
Mark Forrester, Magnus Jepson & Adii Pienaar
AutomatticUndisclosed
Precision Nutrition
Dr. John Berardi
Palm Ventures affiliateUndisclosed
Lemon Squeezy
JR Farr
StripeUndisclosed
Milk Road
Shaan Puri & Ben Levy
BitfoUndisclosed

Methodology

  • Annual revenuenormalizes MRR to ARR by multiplying by 12. The original reported figure and period is shown in the "Original figure" column.
  • Verified = founder-published or open dashboard (e.g., Buffer, Plausible). Reported = reputable third-party (GetLatka, Sacra). Estimate = older figure, derived from related metrics, or single weak source.
  • As of is the date the figure was reported. Older dates mean current revenue may differ.
  • We currently track 200 stories with current revenue and 40with acquisition info. Stories not on this leaderboard either don't disclose revenue publicly or have no recent verifiable figure.