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Startup Metrics Textbook

A free, self-paced textbook in 6 chapters. Read a chapter, then drill it with the 100 companion flashcards using spaced repetition.

6 chapters · 100 cards · Updated

Chapters

  1. 1Revenue and Retention Fundamentals

    Monthly recurring revenue, or MRR, is the centerpiece of most subscription-based businesses. It represents the predictable subscription income a company earns, normalized into a mo...

  2. 2Unit Economics and Customer Profitability

    Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, captures how much a company spends on average to win a new customer. It is computed by dividing total sales and marketing spend by the number of...

  3. 3User Activation and Engagement

    Activation rate is the share of new users who complete the action that signals they have experienced the product's first meaningful value, such as finishing onboarding, creating a...

  4. 4Cash and Financial Health

    Runway is the most honest measure of how long a startup can keep operating at its current burn rate before running out of cash. A team growing quickly with negative cash flow may l...

  5. 5Sales Pipeline and Go-to-Market Design

    Sales cycle is the time from a first qualified contact to a closed deal, and it has a direct effect on cash flow, forecasting, and the shape of the go-to-market motion. A short cyc...

  6. 6Strategic Alignment and Avoiding Vanity

    The north-star metric is the single number that captures the core customer value a product delivers, and around which sustainable growth can be organized. Unlike revenue or user co...

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