Finance & Metrics

ACV is the average annualized revenue per customer contract, excluding one-time fees. A core B2B SaaS metric for measuring deal size and forecasting revenue.

Accounts receivable is money owed to your company by customers. Accounts payable is money your company owes to vendors and suppliers.

ARR is the annualized value of all active subscriptions. It is the primary top-line metric for SaaS companies and a key signal for fundraising readiness.

Burn rate is the monthly rate at which a startup spends cash. It determines how much runway remains before the company must raise more money or turn profitable.

Churn rate is the percentage of customers or revenue a business loses over a given period. The most important retention metric for any subscription business.

Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold, divided by revenue. The foundational profitability metric that drives SaaS valuation multiples and unit economics.

MRR is the total recurring subscription revenue a SaaS company earns each month. It is the operational heartbeat metric for tracking short-term growth.

Runway is how many months a startup can operate before running out of cash. It defines the time to reach the next milestone or close the next funding round.

Learn how to build a practical startup budget when resources are scarce, priorities shift monthly, and the business model is still evolving.

A founder's guide to understanding the profit and loss statement — what each line means, how to interpret it, and what to fix.

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a goal-setting framework that aligns teams around ambitious, measurable outcomes on a quarterly or annual cycle.

Most founders confuse revenue, profit, and cash flow. Here is what each means, why they differ, and why getting this wrong can kill your startup.

The % of new users who reach your product's core value moment within a defined window. The most predictive early-stage metric for long-term retention.

CAC is the total cost to acquire a new customer, including all sales and marketing spend. A core unit economics metric for evaluating business viability.

A method of grouping users by a shared trait—typically signup date—and tracking their behavior over time to reveal retention trends.

A startup is default alive if its revenue growth will reach profitability before cash runs out. Coined by Paul Graham in 2015.

EBITDA measures a company's operating profitability before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a proxy for core business cash generation.

Expansion MRR is additional monthly recurring revenue from existing customers via upgrades or seat additions — the engine behind net negative churn in SaaS.

LTV is the total revenue a business expects from a customer over their lifetime. The key metric for justifying acquisition spend and evaluating unit economics.

The North Star Metric is the single number that best captures the core value a product delivers to customers and predicts long-term sustainable growth.

NRR measures how much recurring revenue is retained and grown from existing customers. Above 100% means the company grows revenue without any new customers.

Months to recover the cost of acquiring a customer from that customer's gross profit contribution. Best-in-class SaaS is under 12 months.

Growth rate % plus EBITDA margin % must equal or exceed 40. The single metric VCs use to balance SaaS growth against profitability efficiency.

A unicorn is a privately held startup valued at $1 billion or more. The term was coined by VC Aileen Lee in 2013 to describe this rare class of company.

The direct revenues and costs associated with a single unit of a business, used to determine per-unit profitability and scalability.

How to build a startup financial model from scratch — revenue assumptions, burn rate, runway, and investor-ready outputs that hold up in due diligence.

A practical guide to writing and running OKRs in your startup — from setting the right objectives to weekly check-ins, mid-quarter reviews, and retros.

Most founders track vanity metrics. Here are the 10 SaaS metrics that actually predict growth, retention, and unit economics — with benchmarks.

The metrics that matter change as your startup grows. The KPI framework founders should use from pre-seed to Series B, with real benchmarks at each stage.

Pricing is the fastest revenue lever in your business — no new customers required. Here's how to research, set, and raise prices with confidence.