TrustMRR: a revenue leaderboard turned startup marketplace, $300K + $30K in fees in 9 months, vibe coded with Cursor
A website where founders verify their startup revenue with a read-only payment-provider key; it earns from ad spots and a fee on startups sold through its marketplace.
Just over $300,000 in revenue plus around $30,000 in acquisition fees in its first nine monthstotal, Sep 1, 2026, as claimed
- Verification
- Self-reported Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified.
- App type
- Content sites & ads
- Currency
- US dollars (USD)
- Built with
- Cursor
- Got customers via
- X, Word of mouth, SEO, Building in public
- Prior audience
- Well-known maker; says he already had about 100K X followers when he launched an earlier course, before TrustMRR (source)
- Source
- Marc Lou (founder), own newsletter on Newsletter, Sep 1, 2026
“Today, it has made just over $300,000 in revenue, plus around $30,000 in acquisition fees... So I opened Cursor and asked it to build a place where founders could verify their revenue with a read-only Stripe key.”
Editor's note: Marc Lou is a well-known indie maker who also runs DataFast, CodeFast, ShipFast and other products (per his monthly income posts on X). He says he opened Cursor the morning after a Pieter Levels post about fake MRR screenshots, asked it to build a place where founders verify revenue with a read-only Stripe key, and had a two-column leaderboard six hours later. He calls TrustMRR vibe coded in several X posts, but doesn't say how much of the later features (marketplace, chat, escrow) AI wrote. The money comes mostly from ad spots and marketplace fees, not software subscriptions.
How they got customers
A launch post on X that reached 2.9 million views. After that, word of mouth (he says most traffic comes from it), Google search (over 5,000 startup pages indexed by February 2026 and 1 million impressions by March), and features built to be shared, such as one-click revenue images, games and embeds. About 200,000 visitors a month by September 2026.
Steps to try
Build while a topic is hot; he shipped the first version six hours after reading a viral post about fake revenue screenshots.
From the sourceSell a few ad spots from day one and raise the price as demand grows ($299 up to $1,499 a month).
From the sourceListen to odd requests; one founder asking to sell his startup on the site became the marketplace, the main business.
From the sourceMake features useful and shareable, since word of mouth brings most of the traffic.
From the sourceWhen traffic from a launch fades, look for a repeat reason to come back (here, listings and acquisitions) rather than more one-off features.
Our suggestion
"From the source" steps summarize the linked post. "Our suggestion" steps are general practice from us, not claims by the founder.
Source
We summarize and link. Figures are reproduced as stated and are unaudited unless marked Verified. Founder? Request a correction or removal.
Quick answers
How much does TrustMRR make?
TrustMRR reports Just over $300,000 in revenue plus around $30,000 in acquisition fees in its first nine months (total, Sep 1, 2026, as claimed). Source: Marc Lou (founder), own newsletter, Sep 1, 2026. Proof level: Self-reported. Number stated in a post or interview. Not independently verified.
What was TrustMRR built with?
The source says it was built with Cursor.
How did TrustMRR get customers?
Main growth channels: X, Word of mouth, SEO and Building in public. A launch post on X that reached 2.9 million views. After that, word of mouth (he says most traffic comes from it), Google search (over 5,000 startup pages indexed by February 2026 and 1 million impressions by March), and features built to be shared, such as one-click revenue images, games and embeds. About 200,000 visitors a month by September 2026.