I wouldn't venture a guess about the actual failure rate, but I'd bet that there's way more profitable web apps (and correspondingly, lots of failed attempts) o

I wouldn't venture a guess about the actual failure rate, but I'd bet that there's way more profitable web apps (and correspondingly, lots of failed attempts) out there than you think. As a single or small team, $1-2k profit/month is pretty doable when your primary costs are just server hosting. If you can find a way to leverage SEO or inherent viralness in your product, you can rely on a reasonable amount of consistency, but it maybe be averaged over months as opposed to month to month. Some people can work on things on the side of their day job until they reach a good level. For us, we knew we wouldn't get anywhere with such non-committal focus (my co-founder was also in a different city which made it harder). We just made sure we had enough cash runway and quit. Reached profitability about 1.5 years after quitting and have been doing it for 4+ years now. It's amazing how much "business" you learn along the way when you're fighting to stay alive. It's not easy, and definitely more work than a normal job, but it's a fantastic experience.