There are many different metrics and abbreviations floating around in today's startup world. The more important it is to understand which specific metrics are relevant for your startup to keep track of. On top of that, industry benchmarks act as a helpful guideline to understand the actual metrics' impact.
SaaS Startups
Overview of key metrics for SaaS companies, divided into 4. categories.
- Revenue & Expansion MRR
- Negative Churn & Quick Ratio (QR)
- Churn & Customer Lifetime
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) & Payback Period
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV/CLV) & Unit Economics
Framework to evaluate SaaS companies
Marketplace Startups
Overview of relevant metrics for companies that operate as a marketplace.
- GMV , Net Revenue and Take Rate & Margin
- Growth & Market Share
- Liquidity & Network Effects
- Number of Messages & NPS & User Reviews
- Average Order Frequency & Recurring Buyers (Retention)
- Share of Wallet & Cohorts
- Buyer conversion , Demand Fulfilment Rate & Average Order Value (AOV)
- Number of Listings , Average Revenue per Supplier & Share of Earnings
- Whale Curves, Sector/Geo/Product concentration & Fragmentation
- CPA/CAC, Channel Scalability & Channel Mix
- LTV, LTV/CAC & Unit Economics
Framework to evaluate marketplace companies
Under the following link you can find a framework that codifies the various components and assigns a score.
Prioritization of Metrics
Northstar Metrics - Northstar metrics measure the delivered value as opposed to just the price that was paid (e.g. MRR, paid seats).
Good Northstars are the ones which measure value in bulk (e.g. MAU, DAU, messages sent).
Even better Northstars indicate if product-market fit was reached with a customer (e.g. messages sent within 30 days of signup).
Examples:
- Spotify - Time spent listening
- Airbnb - Number of nights booked
- Slack - Daily active users
- Whatsapp - Number of messages sent
Useful sources
SaaS
B2B Marketplaces
Marketplaces