Runway > MRR
We constantly seek MRR. We talk about MRR. We post MRR to our indiehackers product page.
But what does that mean to us as people?
Is there a better stat we can use to determine if what we're working on is giving us the lifestyle we want?
MRR is only 1 Data Point
IF our MRR is $10k a month, and we're spending $3k a week on FB ads, is it profitable?
While in some countries a $1,000 MRR product might be a full time living wage for a maker.
For the past 18 months I've looked at my burn, my runway (in months) and revenue together. This allowed me to make decisions along the way to staff up, to slow down, and to sell.
In poker there's Bankroll
A poker player can look at their bankroll account and immediately know they can enter tournaments with buy-ins around 100th of the size of the bankroll.
In VC backed startups there's Runway.
Looking at MRR and expenses together, and thus knowing your runway, allows you to know if you're default alive or default dead.
What STAT should we use?
What should bootstrappers, indiehackers and solo founders label this?
What's a name for this stat that could help us make decisions?
Some Ideas:
- LifeRev: Monthly Life Revenue
- MLBGAJ: Months Left Before Getting a Job
- JOTD: Job Offers Turned Down Per Month
I call it 'Effective Runway'--basically your runway adjusted for emotional bandwidth, not just bank balance. Tracking burn + revenue is standard, but the real metric is mental peace. I built a small free tool for this exact 'runway anxiety' problem. It visualizes the drop-dead date so you can focus on MRR without panic. If you're curious, search 'Runway Rocket runway calculator' on Google (it's free).
What a great reminder of what is important in life. It's the freedom, not the money 👏
Breathing room?
Nice sentiment.
MRR growth %
In the beginning I personally like to look at the runway. Months before I would have to get a consulting gig or a job.
But if you are profitable, then profits per month makes sense.
Personally I talk about months of holiday before I have to worry about finding money again. Compared with a steady job it introduces a lot of (relative) uncertainty, though for me personally that's a complete non-issue compared with the freedom it brings, both mentally as well as physically.
Also, extending runway is one of the most motivating and satisfying things to measure company growth against. When you have a €300/month passive income gain and a runway of 4 months that'll increase the runway by a month (+- €1200 for me), and only needing to fill the €900 deficit for the months ever after.