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.
đź”–Â Contents on this page:
- SaaS Startups
- Framework to evaluate SaaS companies
- Marketplace Startups
- Framework to evaluate marketplace companies
- Prioritization of Metrics
- 📚 Useful sources
SaaS Startups
Overview of key metrics for SaaS companies, divided into 4. categories.
Framework to evaluate SaaS companies
Marketplace Startups
Overview of relevant metrics for companies that operate as a marketplace.
Framework to evaluate marketplace companies
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
What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2019?
Two weeks ago we released the 2019 edition of our (in)famous SaaS Funding Napkin. If you were in Paris to attend SaaStr Europa, went to our CTO meetup, or joined us for our Café Hours, you might be holding one in your hands already (unless you've used it to dry your tears).
medium.com
The Ultimate SaaS Metrics Cheat Sheet | ChartMogul
Many people ask us for help understanding what all the SaaS metrics mean, why they're useful and how they're calculated. We thought we'd invest some time detailing some of the most important metrics for SaaS businesses into a simple two-page cheat sheet. Print it out, stick it next to your desk as a reference!
chartmogul.com
7 key SaaS metrics to track | Metrics and KPIs
The fastest growing SaaS startups have one thing in common: they're tracking the metrics that matter most. We asked several different venture capitalists and angel investors focused on SaaS the million dollar question: what are the most important SaaS metrics for startups that are scaling?
www.geckoboard.com
SaaS Metrics 2.0 - A Guide to Measuring and Improving what Matters
This article is a comprehensive and detailed look at the key metrics that are needed to understand and optimize a SaaS business. It is a completely updated rewrite of an older post.
www.forentrepreneurs.com
Why your metrics might not be working and ways to fix them
You've spent hours thinking about the perfect set of metrics you want your team to focus on improving. The metrics are displayed on a beautiful large screen dashboard in the office and they're perfectly visualized. But then, the tumbleweed. Nothing's happening. The metrics aren't moving and
www.geckoboard.com
visual.ly
visual.ly
SaaS Churn Rate: What is the Average Churn Rate for SaaS?
It's the question on every SaaS founder's lips: Is my churn rate too high? While it might sound like a simple question on the surface, the answer is anything but. A "good" churn rate for one company might be terrible for another.
www.profitwell.com
Marketplaces
13 Metrics for Marketplace Companies | Andreessen Horowitz
Every company tracks certain success metrics—commonly accepted criteria for the health of a business. But when it comes to marketplaces, those measurements can often be imprecisely defined or muddled in their interpretation. Of course, as marketplaces vary widely in their product category and customer base, so do their benchmarks. But the following list serves as...
a16z.com
10 Marketplace KPIs That Matter
Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) stands for the total value of goods or services transacted on the platform. This is how you should measure the total scale of the business and it is equivalent to Gross Revenue figures in e-commerce businesses.
medium.com
A Guide to Marketplaces: Third Edition - Version One
We're thrilled to announce the third edition of "A Guide to Marketplaces." We published our first edition five years ago and the second nearly three years ago. So much has changed since then - from the rise of B2B marketplaces to new crypto-native platforms. Even as we explore emerging sectors like climate and crypto, we [...]
versionone.vc
Required reading for marketplace startups: The 20 best essays at andrewchen
The current generation of marketplace startups has been incredibly successful. Airbnb, Lime, Uber, Lyft, Instacart, etc. I've been doing a broad survey of the best writing on this topic and wanted to share my list of 20 best links I've seen.
andrewchen.com
The Marketplace Funding Napkin 2018 🚀
If you'd like to be notified of our next posts you can subscribe to our Revenue, GMV, Growth, and Burn 🔥 newsletter . Four high-level metrics stand out when evaluating marketplaces: net revenue, GMV, growth, and burn. Net revenue represents the actual revenue generated by the marketplace and is largely driven by the take rate on each transaction.
medium.com
The B2B Marketplace Funding Napkin 2021
Over the last few years, we've published a number of SaaS funding napkins as well as marketplace napkins. This year, we're shaking things up with our first ever B2B marketplace napkin! Having invested in 9 B2B marketplaces and gathered data from 20+ different investors, here are our findings on what it takes to raise money in 2021 for B2B marketplaces.
medium.com
The Network Effects Manual: 13 Different Network Effects (and counting)
PayPal. Microsoft. Facebook. Uber. Twitter. Salesforce. These are some of the most impactful and significant companies in the world. Each one is very different in a lot of ways, but there's a single property that defines them all and lies behind their success. That property is network effects.
medium.com
The Speedinvest Marketplace Scorecard
The Speedinvest Network Effects Marketplace Scorecard: How to evaluate marketplace businesses At Speedinvest Network Effects, we invest in business models with network effects. Every year we search for 8-10 needles in the haystack - start-ups with the extra bit of potential vs. the countless other great companies we look at.
medium.com
Four Paths to Marketplace Success - Andreessen Horowitz
This week, we published the a16z Marketplace 100, a ranking of the largest and fastest-growing consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies. See the full index and analysis here, and visit a16z.com/marketplace-100 for more marketplace-related content. When building a marketplace, most companies strive to excel on all fronts: high frequency, high retention, and (relatively) high transaction values.
a16z.com
A Rake Too Far: Optimal Platform Pricing Strategy - Above the Crowd
In a casino, the term "rake" refers to the commission that the house earns for operating a poker game. With each hand, a small percentage of the pot is scraped off by the dealer, which in essence becomes the "revenue" for the casino.
abovethecrowd.com
How to Calculate the SaaS Magic Number - The SaaS CFO
Sales Efficiency Metrics - SaaS Magic Number and More As a CFO, the balance between sales and marketing spend and new ARR or MRR creation is critically important to measure and monitor. Over invest in sales and marketing relative to your new SaaS bookings and will you not the see the expected margin expansion or...
www.thesaascfo.com
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