SaaS Metrics Dashboard

A simple KPI sheet for early-stage SaaS startups with a low-touch sales model.

Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13

VISITORS & SIGNUPS

Visitors 1) 2,456 2,687 2,986

m/m growth visitors 9.41% 11.13%
Signups beginning of the month 2) 245 388 566
New signups
Organic 61 122 97
Paid 82 56 89
Total new signups 143 178 186
m/m growth new signups 24.48% 4.49%
Visitor-to-Signup Conversion Rate 5.82% 6.62% 6.23%
Signups end of month 388 566 752

PAYING CUSTOMERS 3)

Customers beginning of the month 35 54 74

New customers 20 22 24
Conversion rate 4) 15.38% 13.48%
Lost customers -1 -2 -3
Churn rate 2.86% 3.70% 4.05%
Net new customers 19 20 21
Customers end of month 54 74 95
m/m growth customers 37.04% 28.38%

MRR

MRR beginning of the month $3,000 $5,127 $7,499

New MRR
New MRR from new customers $1,980 $2,209 $2,450
New MRR from account expansions 5) $245 $343 $230
Total new MRR $2,225 $2,552 $2,680
Lost MRR 6) -$98 -$180 -$274
MRR churn rate 7) 3.27% 3.51% 3.65%
Net new MRR $2,127 $2,372 $2,406
MRR end of month $5,127 $7,499 $9,905
m/m growth MRR 46.26% 32.08%

ARPA (p.m.) $95 $101 $104

ARPA new customers (p.m.) $99 $100 $102

CAC

Marketing spendings $4,587 $5,012 $4,862

Marketing spendings per signup (blended) $32 $28 $26
Marketing spendings per paid signup 8) $56 $90 $55
Sales spendings $3,000 $3,000 $3,000
Sales spendings per new paying customer 9) $150 $136 $125
Total CAC (blended) $379 $364 $328
Total CAC (paid signups) 10) $550 $861 $548

Time-to-recover CAC for paid signups (months) 5.6 8.6 5.4

CLTV (e) 11) $3,323 $3,089 $2,947
CLTV/CAC (paid signups) 6.04 3.59 5.37

CASH

Cash beginning of month $453,012 $410,624 $359,452

Cash coming in $2,899 $5,100 $8,900
Cash going out $45,287 $56,272 $44,872
Net cash burn $42,388 $51,172 $35,972
Cash end of month $410,624 $359,452 $323,480
Runway at current burn (months) 9.7 7.0 9.0

Visitors & Signups Signups

3,500 25.00% 250

3,000
20.00% 200
2,500

2,000 15.00% 150

1,500 10.00% 100

1,000
5.00% 50
500

0 0.00% 0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 Jan-13 Mar-13 Ma
Visitors 1) Total new signups Total
Visitor-to-Signup Conversion Rate Conv

New MRR
$4,000 $18,000

$3,500 $16,000

$14,000
$3,000
$12,000
$2,500
$10,000
$2,000
$8,000
$1,500 $6,000

$1,000 $4,000

$500 $2,000

$0
$0 Jan-13 Mar-13
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 -$2,000
-$500
MRR beginning of the
Total new MRR Lost MRR 6) Net new MRR New MRR from new cu
$1,000 $4,000

$500 $2,000

$0
$0 Jan-13 Mar-13
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 -$2,000
-$500
MRR beginning of the
Total new MRR Lost MRR 6) Net new MRR New MRR from new cu

CAC
$1,000 $450,000

$900 $400,000
$800
$350,000
$700
$300,000
$600

$500 $250,000

$400 $200,000
$300
$150,000
$200
$100,000
$100

$0 $50,000
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13
$0
Total CAC (blended) Total CAC (paid signups) 10) Jan-13 Mar-13
Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13

2,897 3,012
-2.98% 3.97%
752 919

75 121
92 78
167 199
-10.22% 19.16%
5.76% 6.61%
919 1,118

95 119
26 23
13.98% 13.77%
-2 -3
2.11% 2.52%
24 20
119 139
25.26% 16.81%

$9,905 $13,067

$2,889 $2,560
$459 $389
$3,348 $2,949
-$186 -$256
1.88% 1.96%
$3,162 $2,693
$13,067 $15,760
31.92% 20.61%

$110 $113
$111 $111

$5,111 $5,320
$31 $27
$56 $68
$3,000 $3,000
$115 $130
$312 $362
$472 $721

4.2 6.5
 $3,453 $3,720
7.31 5.16

$323,480 $276,794
$9,569 $12,699
$56,255 $64,999
$46,686 $52,300
$276,794 $224,494
5.9 4.3

Signups & Paying Customers m/m Growth Ra

250 18.00% 0.5
16.00%
0.4
200 14.00%
12.00% 0.3
150
10.00% 0.2
8.00%
100 0.1
6.00%

50 4.00% 0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13
2.00%
-0.1
0 0.00%
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 -0.2
Total new signups New customers m/m growth visitors m/m gr
Conversion rate 4) Churn rate m/m growth customers m/m gr

MRR ARPA
$18,000 $120
$16,000
$100
$14,000

$12,000
$80
$10,000

$8,000 $60
$6,000
$40
$4,000

$2,000
$20
$0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13
-$2,000 $0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13
MRR beginning of the month Lost MRR 6)
New MRR from new customers New MRR from account expansions 5) ARPA (p.m.) ARPA new cus
 $40
$4,000

$2,000
$20
$0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13
-$2,000 $0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13
MRR beginning of the month Lost MRR 6)
New MRR from new customers New MRR from account expansions 5) ARPA (p.m.) ARPA new cus

Runway at current bur

Cash
12.0
$450,000

$400,000 10.0

$350,000
8.0
$300,000

Lef vertcal axis ttle

$250,000
6.0
$200,000
4.0
$150,000

$100,000
2.0
$50,000

$0 0.0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13 Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13
Nov-13 Dec-13 Total 2013
Note: The cells with light blue background are data-entry cells and
contain arbitrary sample numbers which you can change. Everything
else is calculated.

Footnotes

1) Make sure that only visitors to your marketing website are included
here. Exclude visits from existing users who use the application.

2) Signups = Free trials

3) In order to keep this template simple and general, different pricing

plans or multiple seats per account are not modeled here. You may wa
to add this based on your specific requirements.

4) New customers divided by the signups of the previous month,

assuming a 30-day trial. Since the actual time-to-conversion may vary
(e.g. due to trial extensions), this is a simplification.

5) This means new MRR from existing customers, e.g. due to existing
customers buying more seats or upgrading to premium plans or
features.

6) It's important to distinguish MRR churn from customer churn MRR

churn is more important since it takes into if you're losing smaller or
bigger accounts.

7) Lost MRR divided by MRR at the beginning of the month. Another

way to look at this would be to view the difference between new MRR
from account expansions and lost MRR. Based on that metric you can
achieve negative churn if new MRR due to account expansions is bigg
than lost MRR.

8) Marketing spendings per paid signups are more important than the
blended view since it is a better indication of lead generation costs at
scale.

9) This shows the average sales spendings per new customer. If you
have different customer segments (e.g. small customers who get less
attention from the sales team, big customers who get more attention)
you should model this here.

10) For simplification purposes this assumes that organic and paid
signups convert equally well to paying customers. This may not be true
make sure you track conversion rates per marketing channel.

11) This is a crude estimation based on the churn rate. Since churn
doesn't occur linearly over the customers' lifetime you need to do a
cohort analysis in order to get a better approximation.

Explanation of acronyms

MRR = monthly recurring revenue

ARPA = average revenue per account
CAC = customer acquisition costs
CLTV = customer lifetime value

Disclaimer: Please be aware that his model may be inaccurate, incorre

or misleading, use it at your own risk, yada yada yada.
 MRR = monthly recurring revenue
ARPA = average revenue per account
CAC = customer acquisition costs
CLTV = customer lifetime value

Disclaimer: Please be aware that his model may be inaccurate, incorre

or misleading, use it at your own risk, yada yada yada.

Feel free to distribute. If you distribute a modified version, please make

clear what you've changed.

Created by Christoph Ja
at Point Nine Capi

If you have questions or suggestions, leave a comment her

m/m Growth Rate http://christophjanz.blogspot.de/2013/04/a-kpi-dashboard-for-early-stage-saas.h
or eMail christoph@pointninecap.co

Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13

/m growth visitors m/m growth new signups

/m growth customers m/m growth MRR

ARPA

Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13

ARPA (p.m.) ARPA new customers (p.m.)
 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13
ARPA (p.m.) ARPA new customers (p.m.)

Runway at current burn

-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul-13 Sep-13 Nov-13

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 Created by Christoph Janz
at Point Nine Capital

suggestions, leave a comment here:

4/a-kpi-dashboard-for-early-stage-saas.html
eMail christoph@pointninecap.com