You can drown in SaaS metrics. The truth is a handful drive almost every decision, and the rest are diagnostics you only pull when one of the core numbers looks wrong. Here is the short list, in the order they matter for an early-stage company.
Total MRR is your size; the movement — new, expansion, contraction, churn, reactivation — is your health. Track the bridge so you always know why revenue changed, not just that it did.
NRR measures what happens to a cohort of customers over a year without counting new logos. Above 100% means your existing base grows on its own through expansion. It is the metric investors anchor on because it predicts durable growth.
How many months of gross margin it takes to earn back the cost of acquiring a customer. Under 12 months is healthy for most SaaS; over 18 means you're financing growth you can't yet afford.
Lifetime value divided by acquisition cost. A ratio around 3:1 is the rule of thumb — below it you're underpricing or over-spending; far above it you may be under-investing in growth.
(New MRR + Expansion MRR) ÷ (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR). A fast read on growth efficiency. Above 4 is strong; below 1 means you're losing ground.
Net burn is cash out minus cash in per month. Runway is cash ÷ net burn, in months. This is the number that decides when you have to raise or cut. Look at it weekly.
Revenue minus the cost to deliver the service (hosting, support, payment fees). It quietly sets the ceiling on LTV and CAC payback — a metric reported on gross revenue instead of gross profit flatters every other ratio.
Page views, raw signups, NPS to two decimal places, and most "engagement" vanity numbers won't change a decision at pre-seed. Track them later, once the core seven are healthy.
The discipline isn't computing these once — it's seeing them together, every month, so a creeping churn problem or a quietly extending CAC payback is obvious before it's a crisis. That's what a dashboard is for.
The template we recommend puts all seven on a single screen from one pasted billing export, so the monthly review is a glance instead of a rebuild.
For an early-stage company: MRR movement, net revenue retention, CAC payback, LTV:CAC, the quick ratio, burn/runway, and gross margin. Most other metrics are diagnostics you pull only when one of these looks off.
100% is solid, 110%+ is strong, and 120%+ is exceptional. Above 100% means your existing customers expand faster than they churn, so revenue grows even without new logos.
Under 12 months is healthy for most SaaS. Above 18 months means you're financing growth your margins can't yet support.
Page built 2026-06-14 from public, dated buying-intent signals. Updated as new signals land.