Introducing VerifyArr: buy and sell startups on revenue nobody typed in

Most conversations about buying a small software business start with a screenshot. The seller shows a Stripe dashboard cropped to the good months, the buyer squints at it and asks for more, and both sides spend weeks working out whether the number at the top is real.

VerifyArr skips that step. It is a marketplace for startups whose revenue is read directly from the payment provider. The seller doesn't type in MRR, can't edit it and can't pick which months to show. Buyers see the same figures the seller's own billing system sees, kept up to date every hour.

How revenue gets verified

When you add a startup, you connect the account that takes its payments. Today that is Stripe for web and SaaS products, or RevenueCat for App Store and Google Play apps.

You connect it with a restricted, read-only API key. We reject keys that can write: a full Stripe secret key is refused outright, and a RevenueCat key is tested to confirm it can't change anything before we accept it. Keys are encrypted at rest, and we only ever read. We can't move money, issue refunds or edit your customers.

From there, the worker syncs every hour:

• From Stripe, we fetch subscriptions and balance transactions and compute the metrics ourselves: MRR, revenue over the last 30 days, total revenue, active customers, churn and 30-day growth. On the first connect we also rebuild the last 12 months of MRR from your subscription history, so a new listing starts with a full chart instead of a single dot.
• From RevenueCat, we read the MRR, revenue and churn it already calculates from store receipts.

MRR follows strict rules. Only active and past-due subscriptions count; trials, unpaid and cancelled ones don't. Annual and weekly plans are normalised to a monthly amount, and discounts are applied. One payment account can back only one startup, so the same revenue can't be listed twice.

Revenue is stored in the account's own currency and shown in US dollars, converted with reference exchange rates that are refreshed daily. That way a startup billing in euros and one billing in dollars can be compared side by side.

What buyers see

Every startup has a public profile with its MRR chart, the metrics above and when they were last synced. A few things on that page exist to answer the questions buyers usually ask on their second call:

• Quality flags. For Stripe-connected startups we flag the patterns that make a headline number less than it seems: one customer making up more than 30% of MRR, more than 20% of subscription value sitting on 100%-off coupons, or a Stripe account less than 90 days old.
• Domain verification. Sellers prove they own the startup's website with a DNS TXT record or a meta tag on the homepage, so the listing and the product are connected.
• Asking price and multiple. Listings for sale show the asking price next to the revenue it is buying, and the site highlights listings priced below the median multiple for their category.

You can browse startups by category, revenue and price, save the ones you are watching, and see the whole market on the stats page, including a leaderboard of every verified startup ranked by MRR.

Talking to sellers

When a listing is interesting, you can message the founder directly on VerifyArr, or reveal the contact details they chose to share and talk wherever you both prefer. Public comments on a startup's page are open to members too, for questions whose answers other buyers would want to hear.

The deal itself happens between you and the seller. VerifyArr gets both sides to the table with numbers they can trust; the contract, escrow and handover are yours to agree.

Selling on VerifyArr

Listing takes a few minutes:

1. Connect your revenue. Paste a read-only key from Stripe or RevenueCat. The setup screen walks through creating one with exactly the permissions we need.
2. Describe the startup. Name, tagline, category, what is included in the sale and why you are selling.
3. Verify your domain. Add a TXT record or a meta tag and we check it.
4. Review and publish. Set an asking price and put the listing live. Not ready to sell? A verified startup still shows its numbers and its place on the leaderboard without a listing, and you can list it whenever you decide.

The sell page also gives an instant valuation estimate, based on the multiples of comparable listings, so you have a starting point before you set a price.

You stay in control after that. You can mark a listing as sold, withdraw it, or opt out of the public leaderboard. If a sync fails, for example because a key was revoked, we email you so the listing doesn't quietly go stale.

What it costs

Nothing, for now. There is no listing fee, no success fee and no card on file. If that ever changes, you'll get at least 30 days' notice by email, and fees will never apply to a sale agreed before then.

Why we built it

Small software businesses change hands all the time, but the market still runs on trust in screenshots. The buyer has to trust the seller's numbers, and an honest seller has no easy way to prove theirs. Reading revenue straight from the source fixes the first problem for both of them, and makes the rest of the conversation about the business instead of the spreadsheet.

If you run a startup with recurring revenue, add it. Even if you aren't selling, a verified profile shows your numbers on the leaderboard and puts you in front of buyers for the day you are.