How we make money
Being straight about revenue is part of being trustworthy. This page follows the FTC’s guidance on disclosing paid relationships in plain language. Here is exactly how we earn, and how to tell when a link pays us.
The line we will not cross
We never take any fee that depends on a startup raising capital. Not a percentage of a round, not a bonus tied to a founder closing funding, in either direction. That rule is fixed and it is why our editorial data, our terms explainers, verification dates, dormancy labels, and rankings, is never for sale.
What we earn from
- Flat one-time purchases from founders, like Atlas Pro Data.
- Newsletter sponsorships and placement sold at flat rates and labeled Sponsored.
- Affiliate links to service providers, where a provider pays us a flat fee when you sign up. The fee is the same flat amount no matter what you do next, and it is never tied to any amount raised.
Which links pay us
Affiliate links appear mainly on our founder stack page and, occasionally, inside guides. As of today, signing up through these partners can pay us a flat fee:
- Mercury. Startup banking with a clean dashboard and no monthly fees. What most of the founders we talk to open first.
- Ramp. Corporate cards and spend management. Useful once you have a few people expensing things.
- Gusto. Payroll, benefits, and contractor payments for small teams. Straightforward to set up for your first hire.
- Deel. Hire and pay contractors and employees abroad without setting up a foreign entity. Handy for a distributed early team.
This list is generated from our live partner data, so it stays current. We do not hold equity in these companies, and we receive nothing connected to anyone’s fundraising.
How to tell an affiliate link
You never have to guess. Every affiliate link on this site carries three signals:
- A visible marker next to the link, such as an (affiliate) tag inline or a short disclosure printed inside the card, never hidden behind a hover.
- The link’s HTML uses
rel="sponsored nofollow", the standard way to mark a paid link so search engines and screen readers know too. - A plain-language note explaining that the fee is flat and what it is not.
Editorial independence
Placement is not for sale. A company cannot pay to be added to the stack, moved up, ranked higher, described more kindly, or have its data changed. We recommend a tool only when we would use it ourselves. If that ever stops being true, the tool comes off the list.
Sponsorships
Some parts of the site and newsletter carry sponsorships, always labeled Sponsored. A sponsorship buys attention, never influence: it does not affect our data, rankings, verification labels, or editorial. See the sponsorship rate card for what we do and do not sell.
Read more about our standards on the editorial policy page. This is general education for founders, not investment or legal advice.