Enter ARPU, gross margin, monthly churn, and CAC to get lifetime value, LTV:CAC ratio, and CAC payback. The unit-economics view acquirers underwrite deals against.
Healthy SaaS: 3× or better LTV:CAC and CAC payback under 12 months. Under 1× means the business loses money per customer; above 5× usually means growth is under-funded.
LTV:CAC tells you whether the business can afford to keep growing. A 3:1 ratio means every dollar of CAC returns three dollars of gross profit over the customer's lifetime. That's the SaaS industry benchmark for a healthy funnel.
CAC payback is a separate lens on the same math: how long capital is locked up before it comes back. Under 12 months means the business self-funds growth from its own cash flow. Over 24 months means growth is bounded by outside funding or founder patience.
When evaluating a listing, ask for CAC by channel over the last 6 months. Blended CAC hides paid acquisition efficiency behind organic wins that a new owner may not inherit — especially if a seller's audience or SEO position doesn't transfer.
TrustMRR-verified SaaS on Startup Index. Ask sellers for cohort retention and blended CAC — plug them in above to underwrite the deal.
Create beautiful invoices, quotes and proposals for your clients, manage your projects and tasks, and keep your entire business organized in one place.
All-in-One tool to grow your faceless channel. Generate niche videos with AI from custom prompts, Reddit posts, and blogs. Auto-post to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
DoorsDelivered.com is your trusted online supplier of high-quality internal doors and accessories. We specialise in a wide range of modern and classic solutions, including white doors, black doors, pocket doors, concealed doors, aluminium doors, frameless doors, fire doors, etc.. Designed for homeowners, developers, and trade professionals.With competitive pricing, expert support, and fast nationwide delivery. DoorsDelivered.com makes choosing the right internal doors simple and hassle-free.
Pushouse provides software and technology services that enable e-commerce businesses to automate customer communication, marketing, and sales processes through WhatsApp and other digital channels. The platform offers WhatsApp automation, AI-powered chat flows, order notifications, customer support automation, digital marketing tools, and integration services with e-commerce systems to improve customer experience and increase online sales.
Build fully-autonomous workflows in your browser, easily. Schedule tasks. Manage long-running workflows. Connect your tools via MCP. Spend more time on the work that matters.
BookedIn ai is a no-code AI platform agencies use to create and manage AI receptionists and sales agents across voice, SMS, email, and messaging apps like Instagram. These agents can instantly engage leads after form fills, handle inbound calls, run outbound follow-ups, and reactivate old leads—qualifying prospects and booking meetings automatically to improve speed-to-lead, show rates, and revenue without extra headcount.
LTV = (ARPU × gross margin) ÷ monthly churn. A $50 ARPU SaaS with 80% margin and 4% monthly churn has an LTV of ($50 × 0.8) ÷ 0.04 = $1,000.
3:1 is the healthy benchmark. Under 1:1 means the business loses money on every customer. 1:1–2:1 is fragile — no margin for growth spend. 3:1–5:1 is efficient. Above 5:1 usually means the business is under-investing in growth.
CAC payback is how many months of gross profit per customer it takes to earn back what you paid to acquire them. Under 12 months is strong, 12–24 is normal for SaaS, over 24 is capital-intensive.
Blended CAC (all marketing spend ÷ all new customers) is the honest number for underwriting. Paid CAC excludes organic and referral wins, which flatters the ratio. Use paid CAC only when evaluating the efficiency of a specific channel.
Because LTV is inversely proportional to churn. Cutting monthly churn from 5% to 3% raises LTV by 67%. That's why buyers underwrite retention harder than acquisition — retention drives value more than growth in most indie SaaS.
Directly. A SaaS with $2k LTV and 40% profit margin on that LTV is worth more per customer than a SaaS with $800 LTV, even at the same MRR. Buyers implicitly pay for future LTV — that's what the revenue multiple encodes.