How we verify revenue claims

The internet is full of “$100k a month with AI.” What we do differently is publish the evidence, not the conclusion. Cases that fail the bar below either lose their figures or never get listed.

How a case gets published

1. 1

   Find

   Collect candidates from Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, and similar.

2. 2

   Check it is alive

   Open the service URL and record the date.

3. 3

   Identify the founder

   Anonymous lowers the grade.

4. 4

   Find the money evidence

   A payment screen, public dashboard, or interview.

5. 5

   Assign a grade

   A–D, based on how many independent records exist.

6. 6

   Test Korean feasibility

   Payment, tax, and platform limits.

7. 7

   A person reviews and publishes

   The review is logged.

What makes an A — independent records

Records that do not come from the founder. At least one is required before we quote a figure.

• Figures a third party confirmed via a payment integration — e.g. TrustMRR's Stripe link
• Metrics the sales platform itself displays — App Store, Google Play, marketplaces
• Third-party reporting with independent confirmation
• Investor materials and public traffic data

Supporting only — not enough for an A

• A revenue dashboard the founder hosts themselves (open startup / /open pages)
• Payment-screen screenshots posted by the founder
• The official site — does it resolve, and when we checked
• Founder interviews — press, podcasts, Indie Hackers
• Repository activity — GitHub

Interviews sit here for a reason. An editor may select and polish the piece, but the source of the number is still the founder. Someone else retyping it does not verify it. (Moved down from the A tier on 2026-08-14.)

“A revenue dashboard the founder hosts” moved down on the same day. Our A tier means evidence independent of the founder, and an open-startup page is published by the founder on their own server. The list and the definition contradicted each other. It is far better than a one-off screenshot — it stays public, and being wrong stays visible. It is still not someone else confirming it.

What does not count

• A revenue screenshot on the founder's own social account, alone
• Claims made on a page selling a course or ebook
• Round-up articles with no source

An unverifiable testimonial can set tone. It cannot support a number.

The grades

The same revenue is not the same business

“₩5M a month” is a clear target and an empty instruction. The ways to reach it are different jobs. Below are three A-grade cases we verified, placed by revenue per customer against customer count.

These four are not solo side businesses. Checking each official site (2026-08-14; FrameLiq on 08-15): two are companies with staff and investors, and two have unverified operators. They are used here only to show the distribution of price points — not as things to copy. Both unverified ones are listed for sale ($12,000 and $17,000), which says something about what ends up on a list like this.

The dashed line joins every combination that produces ₩5M a month. At the left end you need 103 subscribers at $35. At the right end you need two contracts at $2,084. The first is a traffic-and-automation job; the second is a sales-and-trust job. Different skills, different failure points.

This is why every case records price and customer count. A case with only a total cannot be followed.

Distinctions we keep

• Revenue is not profit. We label MRR, ARR, revenue, profit, and GMV separately.
• We record what the AI did and what the person did, separately.
• We record the expertise the founder already had. A ten-year veteran speeding up is not the same as a beginner starting out.
• “Possible” and “easy” are different claims.

If we got it wrong

Tell us and we will correct or remove it. Contact