Marie Martens

Co-founder of Tally^{Source [10]}^{Source [1]}^{Source [2]}

SaaSBootstrappingBuilding in publicProduct-led growthMarketing

Unclaimed profileLast verified Oct 2, 2026

About

Marie Martens is a Belgian founder and the co-founder of Tally, a bootstrapped online form builder based in Ghent that she runs with her partner Filip Minev. She is one of the more prominent European voices in the building-in-public movement, sharing Tally's revenue and decisions on X and on the company blog.^{Source [3]}^{Source [4]}^{Source [1]}^{Source [2]}

Before Tally she spent about ten years in B2B marketing, most recently as marketing manager at a digital product studio in Belgium. In 2019 she and Minev, who had earlier co-founded the crypto portfolio app Delta (later acquired by eToro), started Hotspot, a marketplace connecting hotels with travel influencers.^{Source [3]}^{Source [5]}^{Source [6]}^{Source [7]}

When COVID-19 cut Hotspot's customer base in half, the pair pivoted in August 2020 to a form builder after struggling to find a suitable form tool themselves. Martens handles marketing, customer support and running the business, while Minev builds the product.^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}

Tally has never raised outside funding. By Martens' public updates it reached $2M ARR with a team of five in February 2025 and $6M ARR with 2.5 million users and a team of 10 in September 2026; these figures are self-reported on the company blog. She speaks at events including Web Summit and SuperNova.^{Source [8]}^{Source [4]}^{Source [9]}^{Source [5]}

Career

Hotspot

2019 to 2020

Tally

2020 to now

Company	Years	Role	Status
Tally Co-founded the form builder Tally with Filip Minev in 2020 and runs marketing, support and the business side while he leads product and engineering; she writes its public revenue updates.^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}^{Source [4]} Drove early growth by personally reaching out to thousands of makers found on Product Hunt and indie communities.^{Source [11]} Led the March 2021 Product Hunt launch (1,400+ upvotes) and the September 2023 Tally 2.0 launch, named #1 Product of the Month.^{Source [6]}^{Source [12]} Has published Tally's MRR openly at each milestone, from $1K MRR in 2021 to $6M ARR in September 2026.^{Source [4]} Grew the company to 2.5 million users and a team of 10 without outside funding (self-reported).^{Source [4]} Suggest a correction to Tally	2020 to now	Co-founder^{Source [6]}^{Source [10]}	Active
Hotspot Founded Hotspot with Filip Minev, a marketplace connecting hotels with travel influencers, and pivoted away from it in 2020 after the pandemic cost it half its customers.^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]} Validated the idea by contacting hotels on Instagram until 100 had shown interest.^{Source [6]} Quit her marketing job in January 2020 to work on it full time.^{Source [6]} Suggest a correction to Hotspot	2019 to 2020	Founder^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}	Status unknown

Company

Years

Role

Status

Tally

Co-founded the form builder Tally with Filip Minev in 2020 and runs marketing, support and the business side while he leads product and engineering; she writes its public revenue updates.^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}^{Source [4]}

Drove early growth by personally reaching out to thousands of makers found on Product Hunt and indie communities.^{Source [11]}
Led the March 2021 Product Hunt launch (1,400+ upvotes) and the September 2023 Tally 2.0 launch, named #1 Product of the Month.^{Source [6]}^{Source [12]}
Has published Tally's MRR openly at each milestone, from $1K MRR in 2021 to $6M ARR in September 2026.^{Source [4]}
Grew the company to 2.5 million users and a team of 10 without outside funding (self-reported).^{Source [4]}

Suggest a correction to Tally

2020 to now

Co-founder^{Source [6]}^{Source [10]}

Active

Hotspot

Founded Hotspot with Filip Minev, a marketplace connecting hotels with travel influencers, and pivoted away from it in 2020 after the pandemic cost it half its customers.^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}

Validated the idea by contacting hotels on Instagram until 100 had shown interest.^{Source [6]}
Quit her marketing job in January 2020 to work on it full time.^{Source [6]}

Suggest a correction to Hotspot

2019 to 2020

Founder^{Source [6]}^{Source [3]}

Status unknown

Milestones

2026-09Announces Tally crossed $6M ARR and 2.5 million users with a team of 10.^{Source [4]}
2026-08Discloses a Tally data breach via a third-party analytics tool and emails the full user base.^{Source [4]}
2026-01Publishes Tally's plan to optimize for quality over revenue in 2026.^{Source [13]}
2025-10Tally reaches $4M ARR, fully bootstrapped.^{Source [14]}
2025-02Tally crosses $2M ARR with a team of five.^{Source [8]}
2023-09Launches Tally 2.0, later #1 Product of the Month on Product Hunt.^{Source [12]}
2021-10Tally reaches $5K MRR and 11,000 users in its first year.^{Source [15]}
2021-03Launches Tally on Product Hunt.^{Source [6]}
2020-09Launches the Tally MVP with Filip Minev.^{Source [6]}
2020-08Decides to pivot from Hotspot to a form builder.^{Source [6]}
2020-01Quits her marketing job to work on Hotspot full time.^{Source [6]}
2019-06Starts building Hotspot.^{Source [6]}

Boards, investments and other roles

Organization	Role	Years
Web SummitMedia	Speaker^{Source [9]}
SuperNovaMedia	Speaker^{Source [5]}

Links

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Sources

X profile @MarieMartens (via fxtwitter API), X. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Marie Martens (author page), Tally blog. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Marie Martens, Co-Founder of Tally, IdeaMensch, 2022-03-11. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
6 years in, $6 million far, Tally blog (Marie Martens), 2026-09-22. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Marie Martens, Co-founder, Tally, SuperNova. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
How we ended up building the simplest way to create forms, Tally blog (Marie Martens), 2021-04-08. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
X profile @filipminev (via fxtwitter API), X. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
We crossed $2M ARR with a Bootstrapped Team of 5, Tally blog, 2025-02-24. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Marie Martens, Co-founder, Tally (speaker profile), Web Summit. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
About Tally: Meet the Team Behind the Form Builder, Tally. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
How Tally bootstrapped to $4M ARR with radical simplicity, How They Build (Timothe Frin), 2026-04-02. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Becoming #1 Product of the Month: our Product Hunt launch results, Tally blog, 2023-10-03. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
In 2026, we're optimizing for quality, not revenue, Tally blog, 2026-01-14. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
How we grew Tally to $4M ARR, fully bootstrapped, Tally blog, 2025-10-15. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.
Year 1: How we bootstrapped Tally to 11K users and $5K MRR, Tally blog, 2021-10-11. Accessed Oct 2, 2026.

History

Oct 2, 2026: Profile created from public sources (Founded editors)

Compiled by Founded editors from the cited public sources. Editorial policy / Request removal