Templates for fundraising metrics

Fundraising is a daunting, yet inevitable task for many startups. While no founding team looks forward to the litany of questions potential investors will ask about the health and viability of your business, the more compelling and data-driven your answers are, the better your pitches will be.

The templates below provide examples for calculating many of the most common metrics that investors expect to see during a pitch. These dashboards are built using datasets from common sources like Segment, Stripe, and Facebook Ads.

Monthly Revenue Growth

This template calculates how much money you're bringing in each month, and how quickly it's growing. SaaStr's Jason Lemkin estimates that 10% month-over-month revenue growth is a good benchmark for a growing startup to aim for.

T2D3 Rule

Neeraj Agrawal of Battery Ventures proposed that startups should aim to "triple-triple-double-double-double"—triple revenue each year for two years, then double revenue each year for the next three. Calculate how close you are to this "T2D3" standard.

New Logo Growth

Adding new customers—new logos—is critical to a growing business. This template shows a simple dashboard for displaying how many new customers you're bringing on board each month.

Logo and Revenue Retention

"Retention is king." "Retention is the silent killer." Growth experts, like Jamie Quint and Brian Balfour, know how critical understanding retention—and its inverse, churn—is for a startup. This template presents examples for two of the most important types of retention: customer retention and revenue retention.

Customer LTV and CAC

Comparing customer lifetime value (LTV) to customer acquisition costs (CAC) is one of the most powerful ways to understand the long term profitability of a startup, according to Matrix Partner's David Skok. (Skok says companies should aim for a ratio above 3.) This template shows how to calculate those two metrics.

SaaS Magic Number

Lars Leckie popularized a metric he called the "Magic Number" as a way to measure the health of a SaaS business. By comparing revenue growth to marketing and sales spend, this number summarizes how efficiently you're acquiring new customers and revenue. According to Leckie, a magic number greater than 0.75 is a good, and above 1.5 is great. Calculate your magic number.

Quick Ratio

This template computes your quick ratio, a metric for comparing how much new revenue you add to how much revenue you lose through churn. Jonathan Hsu of Tribe Capital argues that startups, especially subscription-based companies, should aim for quick ratios above 4.

Payback Period

"One of the most powerful levers for SaaS companies to master is payback period," says Redpoint's Tom Tunguz. Payback period measures how long it takes for a customer to pay back the sales and marketing cost of acquiring them. Most investors recommend keeping your payback period under 12 months. Calculate your payback period..