# How to Run an Open Startup Page in 2026

> An open startup page shares revenue and traffic live. What to publish, how to verify it with read-only access, and how to keep it honest over time.

By Dane Dolph. Published 2026-10-10, updated 2026-10-19 on the makerhandle blog. Tags: Building in public, Verified revenue.

An **open startup** publishes its key numbers, usually revenue and traffic, live and in public. The idea spread among indie makers in the 2010s, with founders putting dashboards on an "/open" page of their site. In 2026 you do not need to build a dashboard to do it.

## Why open your numbers

- **Trust.** Customers, partners and buyers can see the business is real.
- **Audience.** People follow numbers that move. Your monthly updates get easier to write.
- **Accountability.** A public number is hard to ignore in a bad month.
- **Helping others.** Real data from small businesses is rare and valuable to other makers.

The costs are real too. Competitors can see what works, and a bad stretch is public. Decide with that in mind.

## What to publish

Start with two numbers and add more only if you will maintain them:

- **Revenue.** [MRR](https://makerhandle.com/glossary/mrr) for subscriptions, or the last 30 days of sales for stores and one-off products.
- **Traffic.** Visitors to your site or page.

Optional extras: customers, churn, costs and profit. Costs are the hardest to keep honest, so only add them if you will update them every month.

## Make it verifiable

A number you type in is a claim. A number read from the source is evidence. For revenue, use a tool that reads from your payment provider with the narrowest access it offers: a Stripe restricted key with Read on Subscriptions and Charges, a Paddle key with Read on Transactions and Subscriptions, or a Shopify app with only `read_orders`. See [what verified revenue means](https://makerhandle.com/glossary/verified-revenue).

For traffic, publish your analytics dashboard directly instead of a chart image.

## A simple setup

On makerhandle:

1. Add your product as a project and connect Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, RevenueCat or Shopify. Verified revenue shows with a check mark and a history chart.
2. Turn on the **public stats page** at makerhandle.com/yourhandle/stats to share traffic.
3. Optionally, let the project appear on the public [leaderboard](https://makerhandle.com/features/leaderboard).

That is an open startup page in about five minutes, and it updates itself. See [public stats](https://makerhandle.com/features/public-stats) and [verified revenue](https://makerhandle.com/features/verified-revenue).

## Keep it honest over time

- **Never pause it in a bad month.** That is when it matters most.
- **Explain big moves.** A refund spike or a one-off deal deserves a sentence.
- **Keep the method stable.** If you change how you count, say so.
- **Show the history.** A chart is more honest than a single figure.

## When to close it

If you sell the business, or the numbers start to help competitors more than they help you, it is fine to stop. Say so publicly, and mark the project with an honest status like **Acquired**. Open startups that close their books gracefully keep the trust they built.

For the wider practice, read [how to build in public](https://makerhandle.com/blog/how-to-build-in-public).

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Source: https://makerhandle.com/blog/open-startup-page
makerhandle: makerhandle is a link in bio for makers and founders: every project with its status and revenue verified from Stripe, Paddle and more.