20 articles
Customer SupportCost per supported account turns support from an undifferentiated overhead line into a per-customer unit economic. Here is how to calculate it accurately, what the benchmarks mean, and how to use it to make staffing and deflection investment decisions.
FinanceHow to set and manage blended gross margin targets when professional services and subscription revenue are both material, with benchmarks from leading SaaS investors.
Customer SupportSupport gross margin — the margin remaining after subtracting support costs from customer revenue — is one of the most informative signals about whether a SaaS business can scale profitably. Most founders track overall gross margin without ever isolating the support component. Here is what they are missing.
AcquisitionCFOs use blended CAC; growth teams use paid CAC. Both are right — in context. Here's when each metric applies, what the organic subsidy illusion masks, and the channel-level CAC data that actually drives allocation decisions.
Vertical SaaSA frank analysis of why restaurant SaaS unit economics are structurally challenging and what successful restaurant tech companies do to make the numbers work.
FinanceHow to build and interpret a SaaS unit economics model — covering customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, gross margin, payback period, and the LTV/CAC ratio — with benchmarks by stage and practical calculation examples.
AcquisitionEvery paid channel has a cost curve that rises with spend. Here's how to model marginal CAC before scaling, identify the inflection points where efficiency breaks, and implement the guardrails that keep unit economics viable at higher budget levels.
Unit EconomicsOptimizing CAC without gross margin context creates a dangerous illusion of acquisition efficiency. Discover how margin-adjusted CAC payback exposes the real unit economics picture — and why infrastructure-heavy SaaS is most at risk.
PricingCalculate the true margin cost of discounting in SaaS — by segment, deal type, and discount depth. Includes the discount break-even formula, cohort LTV effects, and the metrics that reveal when your discount policy is destroying value.
Unit EconomicsAt sub-$1K ACV, CAC payback math changes completely. Learn the formulas, benchmarks, fully-loaded CAC calculations, and worked examples that determine whether your SMB SaaS unit economics are viable.
Finance & Unit EconomicsGross margin determines your valuation multiple more than growth rate at Series B and beyond. Learn the ceiling by ARR stage, what drives it, and how to engineer higher margins before your next raise.
Finance & OperationsPayroll is 60–75% of SaaS operating expense. When headcount grows faster than ARR, payroll becomes the constraint that caps growth instead of enabling it. Learn how to diagnose the payroll trap and restructure for sustainable scaling.
PricingRate limiting is infrastructure and pricing policy simultaneously. How you design throttle tiers determines your COGS, your developer experience, and which customers stay in which plan.
DistributionHow to model the unit economics of a SaaS reseller channel at each growth stage — margin splits, discount structures, support cost allocation, and when the reseller channel becomes accretive versus dilutive.
Unit EconomicsSupport is the hidden margin killer in SMB SaaS. Learn how to calculate cost-per-ticket, cost-per-account, self-serve deflection economics, and why support costs must be included in LTV and CAC calculations.
AcquisitionSegment-specific CAC payback period benchmarks for SaaS. Learn why SMB payback should be 3-9 months, Mid-Market 9-18 months, and Enterprise 18-36 months — and how to calculate and optimize each.
Growth StrategyThe simple LTV formula ignores expansion revenue and understates true customer value by 40%+. Learn all 3 LTV formulas, when to use each, and how to segment LTV for accurate unit economics.
Growth StrategyGo beyond the basic LTV:CAC health check. Learn the stage-specific benchmarks, how expansion revenue fundamentally changes your LTV calculation, and what investor-grade unit economics actually looks like.
AcquisitionLearn how to calculate CAC payback period, understand what good looks like by segment, and discover strategies to reduce your payback period for faster SaaS growth.
Growth StrategyMaster SaaS unit economics. Learn how to calculate LTV, CAC, gross margin, and the key ratios that determine whether your SaaS business is building value or burning cash.