Marc Lou

@marclou

The serial launcher behind ShipFast, CodeFast, DataFast and TrustMRR. A decade of small bets, a million-dollar boilerplate, and the uncomfortable question of what happens after a launch goes viral.

Updated 20 October 2026

$3mCumulative revenue claim · Sep 2026 [2] ↗

$90.4kHomepage monthly figure · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗

$1.09mShipFast connected-account total · snapshot [3] ↗

The numbers behind the story

Dated disclosures

The new products now carry the portfolio

Homepage sales for the previous 30 days, including one-time purchases. Checked 20 October 2026. [3] ↗

TrustMRR

$46,342

DataFast

$31,716

CodeFast

$5,330

Ship or Die

$3,591

ShipFast

$1,694

View the data

Observation	Value
TrustMRR	$46,342
DataFast	$31,716
CodeFast	$5,330
Ship or Die	$3,591
ShipFast	$1,694

Dated disclosures

ShipFast: the launch machine slows down

Revenue by completed month for the connected accounts. [3] ↗

2025-11

$21,021

2025-12

$20,879

2026-01

$17,185

2026-02

$8,169

2026-03

$9,463

2026-04

$6,325

2026-05

$6,576

2026-06

$3,338

2026-07

$4,832

2026-08

$3,039

2026-09

$1,743

View the data

Observation	Value
2025-11	$21,021
2025-12	$20,879
2026-01	$17,185
2026-02	$8,169
2026-03	$9,463
2026-04	$6,325
2026-05	$6,576
2026-06	$3,338
2026-07	$4,832
2026-08	$3,039
2026-09	$1,743

Evidence, in pictures

The founder’s September 2023 launch report: the first ShipFast sales. [4] ↗

ShipFast’s original landing page, preserved in the launch essay. [4] ↗

Marc’s public portfolio screenshot, published with the five-month ShipFast report. Each product shows its own revenue scale. [5] ↗

The bets, detours & strange details

$0 → $6k

A week beat a year

In his 2023 launch account: a year on his first startup produced no sales; a year on a habit tracker produced $5,000; seven days building ShipFast led to $6,000 in its first 48 hours. [4] ↗

$250k

The boilerplate becomes the business

He reported $250,000 of ShipFast sales in its first five months and claimed a 90% profit margin. The code removed work he kept repeating across his own launches. [5] ↗

$46,342 / 30d

A revenue database that earns revenue

TrustMRR is both his product and a source used to discuss indie-business income. He publishes his own portfolio figures there. [3] ↗

The tiny products stay on the shelf

PoopUp shows $9 for the last 30 days; LaunchViral and BioAge show zero. His portfolio leaves the small and unsuccessful bets visible alongside the winners. [3] ↗

6 years

Six years in Bali, then a move

In January 2026 he publicly explained leaving Bali, citing pollution, walkability and distance. His current homepage lists Cyprus. [6] ↗

2026

Analytics as a fictional office

MACRODATA turns website visitors into the “innies” of Severance: pages become departments. A playful wrapper around the same analytics business. [7] ↗

Failures, disputes & the other side

2024

ShipFast’s speed promise meets security criticism

October 2024: customer and developer Kristian Freeman said he had rewritten authentication and email components and could no longer recommend ShipFast after public vulnerability reports. He asked for an audit. [8] ↗

$35k exit

MakeLanding sold, but the customers were not all happy

Before the $35,000 sale listed on his portfolio, Marc described low conversion, angry customers and refunds. The launch essay reported $12,000 in sales over a few months; it did not disclose the refund total. [4] ↗

$80k total

COVID killed the first recurring winner

His own project archive says VirallyBot reached $4,000 MRR and $80,000 total revenue before COVID ended the business. No loss or closing-cost figure is disclosed. [3] ↗

22 October 2024

His response: fix the paywall, reject the pile-on

On 22 October 2024 Marc said he had fixed the ShipFast paywall. He also complained about bots hitting API endpoints and people posing as customers in support. The public response acknowledged a repair while disputing the way the findings were handled. [9] ↗

Project index 43

Revenue, exits & abandoned experiments.

Find a project

Project	What it does	Revenue & numbers	Role / status
TrustMRR	Startup revenue directory	$46,342 / last 30 days; $392,464 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
DataFast	Website analytics	$31,716 / last 30 days; $315,868 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
CodeFast	Coding course	$5,330 / last 30 days; $852,350 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
ShipFast	Application starter kit	$1,694 / last 30 days; $1,093,258 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Ship or Die	App-building programme	$3,591 / last 30 days; $118,887 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
MailCheap	Newsletter software	$421 / last 30 days; $421 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Zenvoice	Invoice management	$118 / last 30 days; $20,022 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Indie Page	Founder portfolio pages	$545 / last 30 days; $52,220 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Stalkr	Brand monitoring	$290 / last 30 days; $522 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
PoopUp	Conversion pop-ups	$9 / last 30 days; $7,720 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
ByeDispute	Payment-dispute prevention	$144 / last 30 days; $9,010 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
WorkbookPDF	Language-learning workbooks	$38 / last 30 days; $3,309 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Habits Garden	Gamified habit tracker	$19 / last 30 days; $1,607 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
LaunchViral	Launch-video creation	$0 / last 30 days; $20,914 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
SuperShrimp	Posture coaching	$136 / last 30 days; $7,559 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
BioAge	Biological-age dashboard	$0 / last 30 days; $3,162 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Sponsor My Body	HYROX sponsorship experiment	$0 / last 30 days; $221,137 account total	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
DataMarketTerminal	Financial-terminal analytics view	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
FounderTown	Founder chat rooms	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
LogoFast	Logo generation	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Unicorne	Startup growth directory	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
DataCity	City-shaped analytics visualisation	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Gamify List	Gamified app directory	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Datarot	Short-video analytics view	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Pesticide	Food pesticide dataset	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Insighto	Feature-feedback collection	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
MACRODATA	Severance-inspired analytics	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Hirochika Nakakuki	Experimental web project	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
DataRadar	Radar-inspired visitor visualisation	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
ClipMarc	Creator clip rewards	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
50 Hacks	Productivity-tip voting	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Hero Fit	Fitness-avatar tracker	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
DataEmpire	Empire-shaped analytics	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Fake It Till You Make It	Startup prank tool	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Visualize Habit	Habit-compounding visualisation	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Decision Game	Decision-making game	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Buddy Crush	Social habit tracker	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Books Calculator	Reading-time calculator	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Naval 25	Quote-voting directory	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
Mood2Movie	Mood-based film recommendations	Revenue not disclosed	Listed in founder portfolio · 20 Oct 2026 [3] ↗
MakeLanding	AI landing-page creation	$35,000 sale price	Sold · founder disclosure [3] ↗
GameWidget	Website conversion widgets	$4,000 sale price	Sold · founder disclosure [3] ↗
VirallyBot	Social-marketing automation	$4,000 historical MRR; $80,000 total revenue	Discontinued [3] ↗

Watch & listen

Conversations, product walkthroughs and the reasoning behind the numbers.

Arvid Kahl — The Bootstrapped Founder

Marc Louvion — $50k of one-time sales per month

The launch habit, including the years before ShipFast.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Marc Lou

ShipFast Demo — 2x if too slow 😉

Watch the product workflow behind the speed promise.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Marc Lou

3 lessons from 900 days of coding startups

Marc’s own account of 900 days building products; title figures belong to the recording date.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Outside views & responses

Customer account

A buyer’s warning, not a generic bad review

Freeman separates his experience maintaining the purchased code from the researcher’s reported exploits. His central complaint is trust in a paid starter kit, not whether a solo developer is allowed to ship quickly. [8] ↗

Sources & research notes

Open the source register

Keep exploring

Meet more founders

Michael Truell →

followers 234.5K

$1bn+ — Cursor annualized revenue · Nov 2025.

Nathan Barry →

followers 151K

$50m+ — Kit ARR disclosed · Dec 2025.

Pat Walls →

followers 142.9K

$74k — Starter Story monthly revenue · Sep 2022.

Marc Lou

The numbers behind the story

The new products now carry the portfolio

ShipFast: the launch machine slows down

Evidence, in pictures

The bets, detours & strange details

A week beat a year

The boilerplate becomes the business

A revenue database that earns revenue

The tiny products stay on the shelf

Six years in Bali, then a move

Analytics as a fictional office

Failures, disputes & the other side

ShipFast’s speed promise meets security criticism

MakeLanding sold, but the customers were not all happy

COVID killed the first recurring winner

His response: fix the paywall, reject the pile-on

Project index 43

Watch & listen

Marc Louvion — $50k of one-time sales per month

ShipFast Demo — 2x if too slow 😉

3 lessons from 900 days of coding startups

Popular X posts, ranked by likes

Outside views & responses

A buyer’s warning, not a generic bad review

Sources & research notes

Meet more founders

Michael Truell →

Nathan Barry →

Pat Walls →

Join the makers