Headlines scream, “90% of startups fail.” That’s not the real story.
Software startups aren’t normal businesses.
They’re experiments to find rapid scalability.
Higher failure rates are expected.
But the rewards can be exponentially higher.
I track 6,000 software companies across 12 ecosystems.
I talk to 500+ founders annually.
Here’s the real SaaS success ladder, in my experience:
- 10% of entrepreneurs with an interesting idea build a usable and sellable MVP (product) based on that idea.
- 10% of startups with an MVP get to 10 paying customers
- 10% with some paying customers (~$5K MRR) get to $30K MRR (monthly recurring revenue)
- 10% with $30K MRR get to $1M ARR (annual recurring revenue)
- 10% with $1M ARR make it to $10M ARR
- 10% with $10M ARR get to $100M ARR
- 10% of $100M ARR revenue companies get to $1 billion ARR. There are just a few hundred of these that exist now, in total.
Only 0.1% of companies with $30K MRR ever reach $100M revenue.
It’s not just progressing through life stages.
It’s climbing Everest.
Most don’t make it to the summit.
The goal isn’t to beat all odds—just be in the top 10% of your current stage.
It probably won’t grow up to the next level.
But there’s a chance.
That’s enough.
