Solo founders now make up the majority of new startups—and the best ones are pulling away

Solo founders—defined here as those who incorporated through Stripe Atlas without a cofounder—accounted for 63% of C corporations formed in the second quarter of 2026, an all-time high. But as more people go it alone, the revenue gap between typical solo startups and the top performers is widening.

Among Atlas-incorporated solo startups, median first-six-month revenue in 2025 fell 23% year over year, while top-decile revenue rose 19%. Four years ago, top-decile solo founders earned approximately 34 times the median solo founder's revenue in the first six months. By 2025, that multiple had grown to 61 times. The number of solopreneurs earning over $100,000 per year has increased by a third since 2022.

To understand what separates the outliers, we analyzed thousands of solo-founded Atlas startups incorporated in 2022 and 2023, each with at least two years of revenue data, and compared middle-decile founders with top-decile founders by total revenue in their first two years.

AI-native products outperform across the distribution

Top-decile solo founders were roughly twice as likely as median founders to be building AI-native companies—products whose core functionality depends on AI models. By the two-year mark, AI-native solo startups generated almost double the revenue of other solo startups.

This wasn't driven by a few breakout hits: revenue at the 99th percentile was nearly identical for AI-native and non-AI startups. The advantage came from the broader distribution, with AI-native startups consistently outperforming from about the 50th to the 95th percentile.

Global reach from day one

In their first month, top-decile solo founders sold into an average of 10 countries, versus just three for median founders. The gap widened over time: by month 24, top-decile founders were selling into 40 non-US countries on average, compared with six for median founders.

International sales accounted for 51% of revenue among top-decile solo founders, versus just 2% for median founders. Location played a role—top-decile founders were slightly more likely to be based outside the US, and many sold into the US market early, where software spending is typically highest.

B2B beats B2C, even without outside capital

Top-decile solo founders were nearly 30% more likely than middle-decile founders to build B2B businesses. The performance gap is stark: by month 24, median solo B2B revenue was more than four times that of median solo B2C revenue, and top-decile B2B founders earned nearly twice as much as their B2C peers.

That pattern holds even when funding is stripped out of the equation. Among bootstrapped startups, B2B solo founders outperformed B2C founders at both the median and the top decile.

Early retention separates the best from the rest

Top solo founders kept a substantially larger share of their first-month customers, a sign they reach product-market fit sooner. Nearly 30% of customers at top-decile startups returned the following month, versus 8% at middle-decile startups. By month six, top-decile founders were already winning back churned customers—roughly three months earlier than their middle-decile counterparts.

This advantage compounds. By the start of the second year, first-month customers at top-decile startups were spending 47% more than their initial amount—about twice the increase seen at middle-decile startups. The contrast was particularly sharp in B2B: top-decile solo B2B founders retained first-month customers at six times the rate of median founders.

One likely contributor: top-decile B2B and B2C founders were 26 and 20 percentage points more likely to use recurring billing than their middle-decile peers, respectively.

Teams still lead at the top—except among bootstrapped companies

Early on, solo-founded startups brought in more revenue than multifounder startups, but the relationship flipped by month 24. Top-decile multifounder startups generated 53% more revenue than top-decile solo founders, even after controlling for investor funding.

That advantage nearly disappears when comparing only bootstrapped companies. At the 99th percentile, bootstrapped solo founders came within 5% of bootstrapped multifounder startups after two years.

Top solo founders tend to be resourceful and high-agency—they can build, write, and ship—but the strongest ones also know how to extend themselves through hires, advisors, and founder networks.