Proof points: metrics and product-market fit
At pre-seed your story is the metric. At seed, it's traction quality. At Series A, it's proof of product-market fit.
Investors fund evidence. These are the resources that define what good looks like, so you know which numbers to show and how they compare.
Questions answered
- What is good retention? Benchmarks by product type
Good and great retention benchmarks from Lenny Rachitsky: 6-month user retention and 12-month net revenue retention for consumer, SMB and enterprise products.
- How to know if you have product-market fit
Marc Andreessen's definition of product-market fit, and the 40% survey Superhuman used to measure it: the questions, the threshold and how to raise your score.
Early signals
- How Superhuman built an engine to find product-market fit · Rahul Vohra (First Round Review)
The 40% 'very disappointed' survey and how to raise your score. The most practical PMF method there is.
- The only thing that matters · Marc Andreessen
The 2007 post that defined product-market fit and why market matters most.
- How to miss by a mile · Bill Gurley
Why a new product can grow its market far past today's size. Read before your market slide.
- Cohort analysis template · Christoph Janz (Point Nine)
A ready-made sheet to show SaaS cohorts the way investors read them.
- What is good retention · Lenny Rachitsky
Good and great retention benchmarks by product type.
- Why churn is critical in SaaS · David Skok
How churn caps growth, explained with simple models.
Benchmarks
- Growth metrics calculator · ICONIQ
Compare your SaaS metrics with ICONIQ's benchmarks.
- The Enterprise Five · ICONIQ
The five metrics that matter most for enterprise software.
- 16 startup metrics · a16z
a16z's definitions of the metrics investors ask for, so you report them the standard way.
Get your deck reviewed the same way.
Comments on every slide, the words to change highlighted, and the 3 fixes that matter.