1. Verdict
Why a ladder instead of one target
This idea is assessed at six MRR levels instead of one fixed target. Small B2B tools have skewed outcomes: many never get past a handful of customers, some settle at a comfortable monthly figure, and very few break out. A single "$20k MRR" number hides the most useful information: how likely each level is, and what each level costs in hours.
Why there is no base rate
There is no verified base rate for bootstrapped B2B micro-SaaS.
- No public dataset tracks new B2B SaaS products from launch and reports the share that reach $1k, $10k or $50k MRR within 24 months.
- MicroConf, State of Independent SaaS: surveys founders who are still running a business (survivor bias), and the 2024 data sits behind a form. Not verified.
- Stripe, ChartMogul, Baremetrics: publish growth and churn for companies that already have revenue, not the share that ever get there.
- RevenueCat, State of Subscription Apps 2026: the anchor used for the consumer ideas in this portfolio. 17.3% of new apps reach $1k/month and 4.6% reach $10k within 2 years. It measures consumer mobile apps, so it's shown for reference only.
- No verified solo-founder revenue example exists for an accessibility monitoring tool (see 10, R10). The companies with revenue are funded or long-established: accessiBe (~$51.3M in 2024, a GetLatka estimate, not company-reported), Siteimprove, Level Access, Deque, Silktide, Pope Tech, Equalize Digital.
The odds below are therefore judgment estimates, set by reasoning from the evidence and kept consistent with the other ideas in this portfolio.
What pushes the odds up and down
Up:
- A real legal driver with fines in national law: up to €100k per offence in Germany, up to €50k per service in France (10).
- Visible cases: French disability groups took Auchan, Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Picard to court. On 4 June 2026 a court ordered Carrefour to make its site and app fully accessible within six months, with a €500/day penalty.
- B2B pricing: ~50 agency accounts is $10k MRR.
- Cheap to build: axe-core and Playwright are free and mature.
- The biggest overlay vendor is discredited (FTC $1M), which leaves "honest" as an open position.
Down:
- No confirmed EAA fine reported by mid-2026. Auchan's case was dismissed on 5 May 2026 (under appeal).
- Most small stores are exempt (under 10 staff and ≤€2M).
- Scanning is commodity-priced: $25–29/month self-serve, and $225/month for unlimited sites (Pope Tech Business Plus).
- A permanent liability ceiling: you can never promise the outcome buyers want.
- Agency sales take calls and trust. Both scale with hours and language.
- The founder's location, language and accessibility background are unknown (09).
Odds at each MRR level (reached by month 24)
| MRR at month 24 | Base rate | As described (agencies or stores, 4 features) | Store app only (Shopify / WooCommerce app stores) | Direct to in-scope mid-size businesses (sales-led) | Recommended, ~15 hrs/week | Recommended, full-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1k | No verified base rate | 30% | 25% | 35% | 45% | 60% |
| $3k | No verified base rate | 15% | 10% | 20% | 27% | 40% |
| $5k | No verified base rate | 9% | 5% | 12% | 18% | 28% |
| $10k | No verified base rate | 4% | 2% | 6% | 9% | 16% |
| $20k | No verified base rate | 1.5% | 0.5% | 2.5% | 4% | 8% |
| $50k | No verified base rate | <0.5% | <0.5% | <1% | 1% | 2.5% |
Recommended means honest EAA monitoring and evidence for EU web agencies in one market, as set out in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md, with the 3 conditions met:
- an accessibility professional as advisor or partner;
- access to agencies in one EU market, in their language;
- 5 agencies paying before building.
If any one condition is missing, multiply the recommended odds by about 0.6.
Notes on the alternatives:
- Store app only competes in app stores full of overlay widgets and free scanners, sells at $0–29, and most of its buyers are legally exempt. They "scan once, fix, cancel". It is the weakest version.
- Direct to in-scope mid-size businesses (10–249 staff, over €2M) has buyers with a real obligation and budget. But each deal needs a call, often in the local language, and procurement is slower. It works better as a second line than as the lead.
- As described splits effort between both, with no single message.
How to read the ladder
- $1k–3k is realistic if 5–15 agencies use it for client reporting. That's achievable with founder-led calls at limited hours.
- $5k–10k needs resale. Agencies must sell a monthly care plan across 15+ client sites each, so accounts expand.
- $20k and above needs a repeatable channel: a platform partner programme, an agency network, or strong search visibility in one market, plus visible enforcement.
- The odds fall fastest between $3k and $10k. That's where founder-led selling stops being enough and enforcement news has to do some of the selling.
Portfolio definitions (for comparison with other ideas)
| Tier | Definition | As described | Recommended, ~15 hrs/week | Recommended, full-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier A (venture) | $1M ARR within 36 months, ≥70% gross margin, ≥50% month-12 logo retention | <0.5% | <0.5% | ~1% |
| Tier B (profitable business) | $20k+ MRR within 24 months, profitable, ≥80% gross margin, ≥70% month-3 retention | ~1% | ~3% | ~7% |
Tier B sits slightly below the $20k rung because it also requires profit after the advisor retainer and insurance. Gross margin is not the constraint (~85%, see WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md).
How this compares with the other ladder-scored ideas:
- Higher than BhashaCity at every level. It is B2B, needs 50 customers for $10k instead of 4,000, and has no free incumbent doing the same job.
- Similar to AstroCompanion at $1k, and a little lower at $10k–20k. The legal driver is real but slow, and the product can never promise the outcome.
Fundable in current form?
No. A scanner on open-source rules, in a market with $25/month self-serve tools and funded enterprise vendors, is not an investable asset. The venture-scale players (Level Access, Siteimprove, Deque) sell audits, training and enterprise platforms, which is not this. See 06-fundability.md. The business doesn't need funding to reach the levels where its odds are reasonable.
One-paragraph verdict
The regulation is real and the gap is real. Most sites still fail basic checks (95.9% of the world's top million home pages had detectable WCAG failures in 2026, per WebAIM), and the honest end of the market is under-served for agencies. But the idea as written aims at the wrong half of the market: small shops are mostly exempt and already have cheap scanners and overlay apps. It also leads with the part that is free (scanning). Pull the evidence file, country-specific statements and white-label agency reporting to the front, sell to agencies in one market, and never claim compliance. On those terms, $1k–3k MRR is a reasonable expectation, $5k–10k needs agencies to resell it, and $20k+ is a stretch that depends on enforcement turning visible.