# I Read 802 Founder Revenue Posts. The Typical One Says $749 a Month. > I read 802 founder posts quoting Marc Lou's monthly revenue updates. The median claim is $749 a month, and the top 10% hold 83% of the revenue claimed. Source: https://anthonyhayes.io/indie-founder-revenue-june-september-2026/ Updated: 2026-10-07 --- Stat post · Founder revenue Every month, Marc Lou posts what each of his products earned, and hundreds of founders quote that post with their own numbers. I collected every quote from three of those months, 802 posts, and pulled out the revenue figures. The typical founder who shared one says $749 a month. Every month, [Marc Lou (@marc_louvion)](https://x.com/marc_louvion) posts what each of his products earned. And every month, hundreds of founders quote that post with their own numbers. That thread has become one of the most honest public datasets in online business. Not because every number is true (more on that below), but because so many people post the small months too. So I collected them. Every public quote of three of Marc’s monthly posts: June, July and September 2026. That came to 802 posts. I kept only the ones that stated an actual revenue figure for a business, which left 389 claims from 314 founders. Here is what they say. ## The headline: most founders are earning less than you think The median claim across all three months was **$749 a month**. The average was **$13,451**. That gap tells you almost everything. A handful of very large numbers drag the average up, while the typical founder is closer to a nice dinner out than a salary. How the claims spread out: Monthly revenue claimed | Share of claims | Under $100 | 28% | Under $1,000 | 53% | $1,000 to $10,000 | 30% | $10,000 or more | 17% | $100,000 or more | 13 claims | More than half of the founders who chose to share were under $1,000 a month. Over a quarter were under $100. And the money is concentrated. **The top 10% of claims account for 83% of all the revenue claimed.** ## Month by month Month | Claims with a figure | Median | June 2026 | 131 | $850 | July 2026 | 138 | $730 | September 2026 | 93 | $671 | The median drifted down a little each month. I would not read too much into that. Who chooses to post changes from month to month, and three months is a short window. There was no August post to quote, so August is missing. ## The founders who posted more than once 58 founders shared a figure in at least two of the three months. 11 shared all three. Of those 58: - **47 went up** - **9 went down** - **2 stayed flat** The median change was **plus 46%**. That looks great. It is also exactly what you would expect from people who choose to post publicly. If your number fell, you are less likely to quote a revenue thread about it. So treat this as “founders who keep posting are usually growing”, not “most founders grow 46%”. ## What the numbers are made of The breakdowns were often more interesting than the totals. - **30 posts listed a salary or day job** in the breakdown. In most of those cases the product income was a small slice. Many people are building on nights and weekends. - **27 posts mentioned freelance income** and **15 mentioned an agency.** Services are still paying the bills while products grow. - **16 posts included X or creator payouts** as a revenue line. - **29 posts mentioned mobile or iOS apps.** Small app portfolios came up again and again. - **13 posts were celebrating their first sale or first dollar online.** Those posts were some of the best in the thread. The most common shape was not “one SaaS at $10k”. It was a stack: a job or freelance base, one product that is starting to work, and a few experiments at $0. ## A word on trust Every number here is self-reported. I did not verify any of them, and only 3 of the 389 claims linked to outside proof. Some posts were obviously jokes and I left those out (one founder listed most of their income as “Dad”). Where people included a salary in their total, I took the salary out so the figure reflects the business only. Claims in euros, pounds or Canadian dollars I recorded but did not convert or include in the figures above. Treat this as a snapshot of what founders say in public. It is not an audit. ## What I take from it - **$749 a month is normal.** If you are there, you are not behind. You are the median. - **Most founders are stacking income, not living off one product.** The job, the freelance work and the small app are all part of the plan. - **The people who keep showing up keep growing.** Posting your number every month is a commitment device as much as a flex. - **The big numbers are real, but rare.** 17% of claims were five figures or more. Use them for inspiration, not as a benchmark. **My Take:** These monthly figures are nice, but there is another way to stack income that hardly anyone in that thread mentions. Last week my daughter Stephanie launched Skribbly as a one-time product on WarriorPlus and did over $12,000 in sales in five days ([the full case study is here](/skribbly-deal-of-the-day-case-study/)). Much of that went to affiliates as commission, but not half of the whole $12,000, because we made more than 100 of the sales ourselves. And she now has a freshened-up list of proven buyers, for internal promotions of our other tools and for affiliate promotions that will keep earning from that list. I will get as many of those buyers as possible into the newsletter and, more importantly, into the WhatsApp group, where I can nurture them. You do not have to choose between a launch and recurring revenue. You can do both, and one pays for the other: the launch de-risks the MRR model by giving you stability while the monthly number grows. A buyers list from WarriorPlus or JVZoo is like a digital ATM. Promote what interests them, they buy, and you earn affiliate commissions. I wrote more about that in [launch on WarriorPlus, then go monthly](/one-time-launch-to-monthly-recurring/). I will run this every month and track how it moves. *Method: I collected every public quote post of Marc Lou’s June, July and September 2026 monthly revenue updates (802 posts) using X’s official API, kept the 389 that stated a business revenue figure, and excluded jokes, $0 months, salary-only posts and anyone who said they were under 18. Figures are as claimed and unverified.* Growth Signals ## Get next month’s numbers first Each monthly founder revenue roundup lands in Growth Signals, the free newsletter, along with the playbooks, case studies and how-tos I find worth stealing. 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