Free calculator
Unit economics checker: do your numbers hold up to an investor?
Four inputs, three outputs, one verdict. Enter what you spend to win a customer and what a customer is worth, and see LTV, LTV to CAC and payback compared with the benchmarks investors use for your segment.
| Metric | You | Benchmark | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lifetime value (gross profit) | $3k | ≥ 3× CAC ($3k) | Good |
| CAC payback | 10.0 months | ≤ 12 months | Good |
| Gross margin | 75% | ≥ 70% for software | Good |
| Customer lifetime | 33 months | Annual churn 30.6% | – |
The three numbers investors check
LTV to CAC above 3 says the business creates value per customer. Payback under 12 months says growth can be financed from revenue. Gross margin above 60 percent says it is software, not services. Miss two of the three and the conversation turns to the model rather than the raise.
How LTV is calculated
Monthly revenue per customer times gross margin, divided by monthly churn. A $100 customer at 80 percent margin and 3 percent monthly churn is worth about $2,667. Small changes in churn move LTV more than anything else, which is why retention is the first thing to fix.
Benchmarks by segment
B2B SaaS: payback 12 to 18 months, LTV to CAC of 3 or better. Marketplaces: take rate times GMV per user, payback under 12 months. Consumer subscriptions: payback under 6 months because churn is high. Enterprise: longer paybacks are fine if contracts are annual and net revenue retention is above 100 percent.
What to do if the numbers are weak
Cut CAC by changing the channel before spending more on the same one, raise prices, or move upmarket where churn is lower. The sensitivity tiles show which lever changes the verdict fastest.
Questions founders ask
Should CAC include salaries?
Fully loaded CAC includes sales and marketing salaries and tools. Investors assume you included them; say so if you did not.
What if we have no churn data yet?
Use the churn of the first three monthly cohorts, or a conservative assumption, and label it an assumption in the deck.
Is a 3:1 ratio always required?
No. Very early companies are judged on the trend. But a ratio under 1 means every customer loses money.
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