How to Track MRR, Burn Rate, and Runway as a Solo Founder

Most startup financial advice assumes you have a team, investors, and a CFO. If you're a solo founder bootstrapping with your own money, that advice is useless. You don't need a 50-tab financial model built for Series A fundraising. You need to know three things: how much money is coming in, how fast you're spending it, and how long you can keep going. That's MRR, burn rate, and runway. Here's how to track them without overthinking it. What MRR Actually Means for Solo Founders Monthly Recurring Revenue is the money you can count on every month. Subscriptions, retainers, or recurring digital product sales. One-time sales don't count. If you sold a $49 template yesterday, that's revenue, not MRR. MRR is the number that tells you whether your business is real or a hobby. The formula is simple: add up all your active monthly subscriptions and recurring payments. That's your MRR. If you're pre-revenue, your MRR is $0. That's a starting line, not a failure. Burn Rate: How Fast You're Spendin