What “verified revenue” means on VentureIndex
How VentureIndex verifies revenue with read-only Stripe keys, what each provenance label means, and how founders keep metrics private.
Every number on VentureIndex carries a label that says where it came from. "Verified" is the strongest of those labels, and it means something specific. This post explains what it guarantees, how verification works, and what stays private.
Five kinds of provenance#
Each metric on a company profile shows one of these sources, along with how recently it was updated:
- Verified: read directly from the company's payment provider through a connection VentureIndex controls.
- Connected: read from another connected source, such as an analytics tool.
- Company-reported: entered by the founder. Useful context, but not proof.
- VentureIndex estimate: modelled by us, always marked as an estimate and never shown as fact.
- Public source: taken from public information, with the source noted.
An estimate is never styled to look verified, and we don't promote a company-reported figure to verified, however plausible it looks.
How revenue gets verified#
Today verification works through Stripe. The founder creates a restricted, read-only key that can only read the data we need, and pastes it into their dashboard. We reject full secret keys outright: there is no reason for us to hold a key that can move money.
The key is encrypted at rest and never sent to the browser. Our Stripe client only makes read requests. From the raw data we compute monthly figures such as MRR, revenue, customers and growth, and store those aggregates rather than customer records.
Verification is continuous. The connection is re-synced on a schedule, and the "verified" label shows how fresh the data is. If a founder disconnects, the label is removed. Other payment platforms and analytics sources are on the roadmap.
Why verified data matters for rankings#
The VentureIndex Score caps companies without verified revenue at 60, and most rankings only include verified revenue. This keeps the leaderboards from rewarding whoever types the biggest number.
We also look for patterns that don't add up: impossible jumps, a disconnect right after a milestone, or one payment account connected to several companies. These are flagged for internal review. A company under review is quietly removed from rankings while we look into it. We never publicly accuse anyone on the basis of an automated signal.
Verified does not mean public#
Founders control visibility per metric group:
- Public: the exact value is shown.
- Range: shown as a band, for example $10K–$25K MRR.
- Buyers: visible only to approved buyers.
- Private: hidden entirely.
This is enforced on the server, in one place, for every page, the public API, share cards and embeddable badges. We also prevent indirect leaks: a hidden value can't be worked out from other public numbers, a filter, a ranking position or a score breakdown.
Getting your company verified#
Add your company (it is free), claim it with a work email or a DNS record, then connect Stripe from the dashboard. Verification usually completes within minutes, and the verified badge appears on your profile and in Explore.