Startup KPIs Every Founder Should Track
Written by Harry Prabandham
Curated by Rubric Financial
1 / 5
Revenue Metrics
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable revenue your business earns each month from active subscriptions, and is the foundation of SaaS valuation.
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) equals MRR multiplied by 12 and is the primary metric investors use to benchmark SaaS companies at each funding stage.
- Revenue growth rate (month-over-month and year-over-year) signals market traction; top-quartile Series A companies grow MRR 15-20% month-over-month.
- Track new MRR, expansion MRR, contraction MRR, and churned MRR separately to understand the components driving your growth.
Related Resources
What Belongs in SaaS COGS and How to Compute Gross Margin
A practical guide to defining SaaS cost of revenue and calculating gross margin correctly, including AI inference costs and benchmarks.
CFO & StrategyB2B Surcharging: Passing Credit-Card Fees to Customers
How SaaS companies can recover credit-card interchange costs on subscriptions, and the legal and commercial tradeoffs of doing so.
CFO & StrategyBusiness Valuation Methods for Startups
An overview of the valuation methodologies used for startups, from 409A compliance valuations to M&A and fundraising contexts.
About the author
Harry PrabandhamFounder & CEO
Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.
More articles by Harry →Related tools and reading
Startup tax and compliance
Federal and state filings, R&D credits, and multi-state nexus tracking.
GuideWhat Belongs in SaaS COGS and How to Compute Gross Margin
A practical guide to defining SaaS cost of revenue and calculating gross margin correctly, including AI inference costs and benchmarks.
InsightHow We Run Our Own Finance Practice on AI
Every early-stage startup needs a finance team and almost none can afford one. So we changed how the work runs: tested code does the arithmetic, AI drafts the explanation, and an expert signs every number before it leaves. The software can be duplicated; trust cannot. A 20-minute walkthrough of the practice we run on ourselves.
GlossaryMRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Monthly equivalent of ARR, useful for month-over-month tracking.
InsightVC or Not? Most Founders Shouldn't Be Pitching VCs
Venture capital is one financing model, not the major leagues. Here is the test for whether your company is actually VC backable, and what to raise instead when it isn't.
GlossaryInterchange Fees
Fee paid by a business's bank to the card-issuing bank on every credit/debit card transaction, typically 1.5-3% of the transaction.
Want this run on your actual numbers?
A fractional CFO can turn what you just read into a board pack, a forecast, and a spending plan built from your own ledger.
Want the full sample as a PDF?
No spam, ever. If the download doesn't start, email us.
Or talk it through: