The number for the
decision in front of you.
Founderpath has a calculator for almost every SaaS number. The harder question is which one matters for the call you are about to make. This hub maps growth, retention, efficiency, profitability, and cash to the decisions they inform — then points you to the tool.
Tell us what you are deciding and we point you to the three to five metrics that matter most — with the formula, a plain-language read, and a direct link to the calculator.
You are deciding where to invest to accelerate growth. Focus on these 5 metrics:
(Current − Prior) ÷ Prior × 100
How fast recurring revenue is compounding period over period.
(Start MRR + Expansion − Contraction − Churn) ÷ Start MRR × 100
Whether existing customers grow or shrink on their own — the clearest signal of durable growth.
CAC ÷ (ARPU × gross margin)
How many months until a new customer pays back their acquisition cost.
Growth rate % + profit margin %
The balance between growth and profitability investors expect at scale.
Revenue & Growth
The size and speed of your recurring revenue.
Your recurring revenue run-rate this month, before one-off fees.
The annualized value of your recurring contracts — the headline number lenders underwrite.
How fast recurring revenue is compounding period over period.
The multiple the market applies to your recurring revenue.
Revenue size and speed say nothing about whether that growth is profitable or whether customers stay — read them alongside retention and margin.
Retention
Whether customers stay and expand.
Whether existing customers grow or shrink on their own — the clearest signal of durable growth.
Retention with expansion stripped out — the floor under your revenue base.
The leak in the bucket — how much you must replace just to stay flat.
Retention tells you that customers stay, not why they leave or what they cost to keep — pair it with CAC and product signals.
Acquisition Efficiency
What growth costs to buy.
What it costs to win one customer.
The gross profit an average customer generates over their lifetime.
How many months until a new customer pays back their acquisition cost.
How much organic growth each customer generates for free.
Efficiency ratios assume future cohorts behave like past ones; a shifting ICP or a pricing change can make them stale fast.
Profitability
How much revenue survives to the bottom line.
How much of each revenue dollar survives cost of delivery — the ceiling on everything downstream.
Operating profitability before financing and accounting effects.
The balance between growth and profitability investors expect at scale.
The pricing headroom between what you charge and what delivery costs.
Margin shows profitability today, not the investment you may be deferring — a high margin can mask under-investment in growth.
Cash & Runway
How long your cash lasts and how efficiently you spend it.
How fast you are consuming cash each month.
How many months you can operate before you need more cash.
How much you burn to add a dollar of ARR — capital efficiency in one number.
The volume at which revenue finally covers costs.
Runway is a snapshot at today's burn; it can't foresee a sales slowdown, a churn spike, or a collections delay.
From healthy metrics
to responsible capital.
The same numbers that run your business decide whether you are ready for non-dilutive capital. Lenders underwrite predictability, not hype. Founderpath funds bootstrapped B2B SaaS from $10K MRR — you keep your equity.
Predictable MRR/ARR with a clear growth rate a lender can underwrite.
Net Revenue Retention at or above 100% — expansion offsetting churn.
Churn low enough that the revenue base is durable, not replaced each quarter.
Gross margin healthy enough to service capital without starving the business.
Cash runway long enough that you are choosing capital, not cornered into it.
Group them by the decision they inform: revenue and growth (MRR, ARR, growth rate), retention (NRR, churn, gross revenue retention), acquisition efficiency (CAC, LTV, payback period), profitability (gross margin, EBITDA margin, Rule of 40), and cash (burn rate, runway, burn multiple). No single number is decisive — each answers a different question.
A combined growth rate plus profit margin of 40% or more is the benchmark investors use for a healthy, scaled SaaS business. Below 40% signals you are neither growing fast enough nor profitable enough to balance the two.
Lenders underwrite predictability, not just size: recurring revenue (MRR/ARR) and its growth rate, Net Revenue Retention above 100%, low churn, healthy gross margin, and enough runway that you are choosing capital rather than being forced into it.
The calculators compute a single number, the glossary defines a term, and this hub organizes both around the decision in front of you — pick what you are deciding and it points you to the three to five metrics that matter and the calculator for each.