Most early-stage founders lose credibility not by having weak numbers but by computing them inconsistently. This playbook fixes the definitions so your numbers survive diligence unchanged.
Core definitions
- MRR - recurring revenue only. Exclude one-off implementation, hardware and pass-through costs.
- Gross margin - revenue minus hosting, payment fees, support and delivery cost of the service.
- CAC - total sales and marketing spend in a period ÷ new customers acquired in that period.
- Payback period - CAC ÷ monthly gross profit per customer.
- Net revenue retention - (starting MRR + expansion − contraction − churn) ÷ starting MRR, for a fixed cohort.
- Burn - net cash out per month. Runway is a date, not a count of months.
Benchmarks worth knowing
- CAC payback under 12 months at seed; under 18 months at Series A.
- Gross margin above 70% for software; state the path if you are below it.
- Net revenue retention above 100% for B2B SaaS is a strong signal at any stage.
- Monthly logo churn below 2% for SMB; below 1% for mid-market.
- Growth: roughly 15–20% month on month at seed on a small base.
The monthly investor update
- Headline: revenue, growth rate, burn, runway date - four numbers, first line.
- What worked, what did not, in two short paragraphs.
- The one metric you are trying to move and the current experiment.
- Specific asks: intros, hires, customer introductions, named where possible.
- Send it on the same date every month, including the bad months.
How numbers lose credibility
- Changing a definition between two updates without saying so.
- Presenting cumulative totals where monthly figures are flat.
- Reporting bookings as revenue, or gross transaction value as revenue.
- Excluding founder salaries from burn.
- Runway calculated on average burn when burn is rising.