Managing Burn Rate When Revenue is Unpredictable

Burn rate is a fancy term for "how fast are you spending money?"

For bootstrapped startups, it's the difference between survival and shutdown.

Our Numbers

Monthly costs:

• Cloud infrastructure: $180
• Domain and SSL: $15
• Tools and services: $50
• Salary (me): Variable

Total fixed costs: ~$250/month

Revenue: $400-800/month (inconsistent)

The Strategy

Keep costs low: Every expense is questioned. Do we need this? Can we build it instead?

Charge upfront: Monthly subscriptions, paid in advance. No 30-day payment terms.

Save the good months: Revenue varies. Expenses don't. Save surplus for lean times.

The Reality

Some months are profitable. Some aren't. Over 6 months, we're barely break-even.

But we're still here, still shipping, still growing.

The Goal

Get to $2K MRR. At that point, the business can pay me a small salary and cover its costs comfortably.

We're 40% of the way there.