100 pro users on New Years Day. Success?

On New Years Day, slightly hazy from the night before, a notification bonged and let me know that Downtime Monkey had 2 new paying subscribers. The 100th and 101st to be precise.

When I first started Downtime Monkey I ran some predictions to estimate the income the would be generated with various numbers of subscribers. I remember thinking two things at the time:

1. that these predictions were pretty much guesswork - I wasn't convinced of their accuracy

2. that 100 subscribers would be a Champagne uncorking point - a point where I feel like the project had succeeded.

I still have the figures and hindsight brings up a few interesting things:

1. The estimations predicted that 100 paying users would provide an MRR of £450 ($585 with the exchange rate at the time). The actual MRR from Stripe now shows as £293 ($400).

The inaccuracy is easily explained: in response to customer requests I added a bunch of new micro plans which are smaller and cheaper that the original plans. With that in mind I'm actually pretty happy with how the predictions held up - they are not orders of magnitude out.

2. That MRR and monthly revenue are different. The monthly revenue over the past year is anywhere between $700 to $200 and it's not entirely predictable.

You can see the verified revenue here: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/downtime-monkey/revenue

This is down to users on annual plans which make up a significant proportion of Downtime Monkey's customer base.

2. That reaching 100 paying subscribers doesn't feel like the huge milestone that I thought it would. The project feels like it has the potential to succeed, and maybe even that it is on the path to success, but it doesn't feel like it has succeeded yet.

I don't think that this is only because the income is lower than predicted. I cant see myself cracking a bottle of plonk when we reach $585 either.

Maybe the idea of success changes as a project progresses - it's always the next milestone that we really want to achieve.