These are the company-level numbers I report to leadership and finance, the ones a board reviews. My job is to own the canonical definition so the org argues about actions, not about whose number is right.
Benchmarks softened materially in 2023–2024 vs the 2021 peak (growth and NRR down, CAC up). Benchmarkit 2024 ≈ private-SaaS median; Bessemer skews to top-tier cloud.
Shape of it
8 metrics
Sales & marketing spent per $1 of new ARR (the durable way to express CAC).
S&M to acquire / new ARRBenchmark~$1.76 new-customer, ~$1.61 blended (Benchmarkit 2024); goal ≤ ~$1.50
The cost side of growth; a rising ratio signals channel saturation.
Months of gross margin to recover CAC.
CAC / (MRR × gross margin)BenchmarkSMB under 12 mo, mid-market under 18, enterprise under 24 (Bessemer)
How long capital is tied up before a customer turns cash-positive.
Lifetime value relative to acquisition cost.
LTV / CACBenchmark3:1 is the accepted target; well above 5:1 can signal under-investment
The headline unit-economics health check.
Net new ARR generated per dollar of prior-period sales & marketing.
(ΔQtr revenue × 4) / prior-qtr S&MBenchmarkOver 0.75 worth scaling, over 1.0 strong, under 0.5 fix the model first
A fast quarterly go/no-go on adding GTM spend.
Growth rate plus profit margin.
YoY growth % + profit margin %Benchmark≥40 passes; most meaningful past ~$25M ARR. Many medians ran below 40 in 2024
Reconciles growth against burn in one number; heavy valuation input.
Net cash burned per dollar of net new ARR.
net burn / net new ARRBenchmark<1 great, 1–2 good, 2–3 suspect, >3 bad (esp. above $20M ARR)
The capital-efficiency scorecard; increasingly the primary diligence metric.
Net and gross revenue retention (see Customer Success).
BenchmarkNRR median 102% (top quartile 110%), GRR median 84% (Aleph × Benchmarkit FY2025)
RevOps owns the canonical definition used company-wide.
Open pipeline vs. the target across the company.
open pipeline / quotaBenchmarkReverse-engineer from win rate (~1 / win rate), not a flat 3x (Clari 2026)
The aggregate reachability check that anchors the forecast.