Every indie hacker has a spreadsheet they don't trust.
It started well. First customer signed up, you added a row. Second customer, another row. You felt in control.
Then you forgot to remove a customer who cancelled. Then two annual subscribers got added at full price instead of divided by 12. Then a payment failed and auto-renewed three months later and you're not sure if that's in there or not.
Now your spreadsheet says $2,100 MRR. Is that right? You genuinely don't know. You've been rounding up in your head when you tell people your revenue, just in case.
This is the private spreadsheet problem. It's not a discipline problem — it's a structural one.
The open startup movement got something right
Around 2015, a handful of bootstrapped founders started doing something unusual. They began posting their exact revenue numbers publicly — monthly, on their own sites or on platforms like Indie Hackers.
Baremetrics did it. Buffer did it. Pieter Levels did it with Nomad List. The results were surprising.
Not just in terms of followers or attention — those founders reported that making their MRR public changed how they managed their business. They updated numbers more consistently. They noticed downturns faster. They felt more motivated to fix problems because other people could see them.
This became the open startup movement: the idea that revenue transparency isn't just good marketing — it's good management.
The psychology of public accountability
Here's what's happening psychologically when you make your MRR public:
Private data is easy to rationalize. When only you can see your MRR, you can tell yourself any story you want. "$1,200 MRR, but a few customers are about to sign up and it'll be $1,800 by next month." A public number is just the number.
External visibility creates commitment. This is the same reason people who post workout goals on social media exercise more consistently than people who write them in a journal. When others can see your number, your relationship with it changes.
Comparison provides context. A private dashboard tells you what your number is. A public leaderboard tells you what your number means relative to other founders at similar stages. Knowing you're at $800 MRR is different when you can see that founders who were at $800 MRR twelve months ago are now at $8K MRR. The trajectory becomes real, not abstract.
Milestones become shareable. Hitting $1K MRR in a private spreadsheet is a private victory. Hitting $1K MRR on a public MRR tracker with a Verified badge is something you can show people — and something people will celebrate with you.
Why a public MRR tracker beats a private one
Beyond the psychology, a public MRR tracker has practical advantages over maintaining your own numbers:
It calculates MRR correctly. If you connect your payment processor (Stripe or Lemon Squeezy), the tracker reads directly from your subscriptions. Monthly plans, annual plans divided by 12, failed payments, upgrades, downgrades — all handled automatically. No spreadsheet formulas, no manual updates, no guessing.
It's always current. You don't have to remember to update it. The number reflects what's actually happening in your business right now.
It's verifiable. When mrr.fyi connects to Stripe and shows a Verified badge, it means the number is pulled from real payment data — not self-reported, not estimated, not aspirational. That badge matters when you share your profile with potential customers, investors, or co-founders.
It gives you a permanent URL. mrr.fyi/yourproduct is a shareable link you can put in your Twitter bio, on your landing page, in your cold emails. A spreadsheet is a file on your Google Drive.
The zero-friction setup that kills excuses
The most common reason founders stick with broken spreadsheets is inertia. "Setting up a proper system takes time, and I'll do it when I have a minute."
The minute never comes.
mrr.fyi is designed for the founder who has five minutes, not five hours. Here's what the setup actually looks like:
- Go to mrr.fyi and create a free account
- Connect your Stripe account via read-only OAuth (one click — you never share credentials)
- Add your product name and description
- Your verified MRR profile is live
That's it. Your profile automatically updates as your MRR changes. You never have to touch it to keep it current.
Open startup MRR in practice
Founders using public MRR trackers share a few consistent observations:
- They check their revenue more often because the check has meaning
- They're faster to react to churn because a public decline feels more urgent than a private one
- They get inbound attention from customers and collaborators who find their profile
- They're more honest with themselves about the state of their business
None of this is magic. It's just what happens when you remove the option to look away.
The spreadsheet you're not updating is costing you clarity
A broken spreadsheet doesn't just give you wrong numbers — it disconnects you from your business. When you don't trust your MRR figure, you can't make confident decisions about pricing, marketing spend, or whether to keep working on a product.
Public MRR tracking solves both the accuracy problem and the accountability problem at once. It's not extra work on top of tracking your revenue. It replaces the broken system with one that works automatically.
Start tracking publicly. The accountability is free, and the clarity is worth more than any spreadsheet.
Make your MRR public with a verified profile. Create a free account on mrr.fyi →