“If you're an indie developer that's just getting started I would say focus on p50 you want to be better than average if you're already a venture funded startup and you know you feel like you've got a pretty strong product already you probably want to focus on p75 or even P95.”

Stage changes which benchmark tier to target — indie aims for P50, venture-scale targets P95

Carter explicitly calibrates benchmark ambition to company stage. A solo dev optimizing toward P95 wastes cycles chasing benchmarks set by teams 10× larger. P50 is the healthy target for a growing small app; P75-P95 is appropriate once you've raised money and need exceptional performance to justify valuation. Misalignment between stage and benchmark tier leads to either false confidence or paralysis.