1M.chat
  1. Home
  2. Case studies
  3. Case

Startup Fame: startup listings and backlinks, $1.7K MRR: free review

Startup Fame sells reviewed startup listings, do-follow backlinks and premium placement for founders and startups. Its $1.7K MRR is verified through the payment provider's API by TrustMRR (Stripe), as of September 30, 2026.

What it actually sells

Startup Fame sells reviewed startup directory listings, do-follow backlinks and premium placement. Its site describes Free Verified listings with a badge and paid Highlight and Spotlight placement for founders and startups.

Founders enter a website URL and Startup Fame uses AI to fill in the startup details. Each listed startup receives a dedicated page, unlimited edits and outbound links with UTM tracking parameters.

How it charges

The product's price could not be identified on the pages we read. The site says, “Verified is free when you add a Startup Fame badge to your homepage and pass review.” Startup Fame also offers premium Highlight and Spotlight placement.

Month by month

Monthly revenue as read from the payment provider by TrustMRR, in US dollars, as of September 30, 2026.

MonthRevenue (USD)
2025-10$518
2025-11$1,127
2025-12$1,062
2026-01$986
2026-02$995
2026-03$1,173
2026-04$1,615
2026-05$1,630
2026-06$1,451
2026-07$1,528
2026-08$1,815
2026-09$2,395

Where customers come from

Startup Fame says, “We accept modern companies, micro-startups, and side projects.” Its site also provides a free account and a flow for adding a startup, and it reports “10K+ monthly visits.”

What stands out

Startup Fame reports a Domain Rating of 80+ and “10K+ monthly visits.” It displays founder testimonials, including “I found @StartupFame, where I was able to get a strong backlink for free,” and publishes startup-related articles and guides.

From the official site

We accept modern companies, micro-startups, and side projects.
Unlimited startup edits

Excerpts from the official website, fetched October 1, 2026.

Where it sits in the data

Startup Fame's $1.7K MRR is higher than 81% of the 5,602 projects with payment-verified revenue in our dataset; the median across them is $150. Within the “Marketplace” category (134 projects) it is higher than 68% (category median $308). Snapshot: 2026-09-02 to 2026-09-30. The dataset only covers founders who chose to publish their numbers, so it leans toward businesses that work; use it for scale, not as an average.

Currency

All figures are in US dollars as published. A rough yuan or euro conversion is not applied here because prices, taxes and acquisition costs differ by country.

Could you build something like this?

My view is that demand would come from founders, micro-startups, side projects and teams that want visibility, backlinks and a public startup listing. Distribution would need a clear acquisition path, such as founder communities, startup directories, relevant articles and direct outreach.

The difficult parts would be earning directory reviews, maintaining link quality, producing useful editorial content and supporting users who need listings or campaign tracking. Any version would also need to address applicable regulations, competitive pressure and the support load created by managing submissions and edits.

Verdict: Needs real work.

One thing to take from it

My view is that the clearest product lesson is to combine a free submission path with a review process and paid placement options. The directory listing, backlink, tracking and multi-startup dashboard give users several connected parts of the offer in one place.

Sources

  1. Startup Fame official website, fetched October 1, 2026
  2. Startup Fame pricing page, fetched October 1, 2026
  3. TrustMRR: revenue verified through the payment provider's API by TrustMRR (Stripe), as of September 30, 2026

Revenue, team and start-cost figures are what the founder reported at the interview date, not current figures and not a prediction of what you will earn. Product and pricing facts come from the business's own website as checked on 30 September 2026. Method & sources · Disclosure

More case studies