Growth Index

Every Growth Metric, Defined and Calculated

The terms a B2B SaaS operator, a board and an acquirer will each argue about. What the number answers, how it is calculated, and the full article where one exists. Written by the team that builds these programs every day, not a content mill.

63terms
6full articles
3calculators
5sections

Unit Economics & Pipeline

What a customer costs to win, what that customer returns, and whether the pipeline can keep supplying them at the same price.

3 articles
17 terms
1 calculator

Acquisition cost

Term
What it answers
Formula
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
What one new customer costs to win
S&M spend ÷ new customers
CAC payback period
How many months until a customer funds itself
CAC ÷ (ARPA × gross margin)
Fully-loaded CAC
CAC once salaries, tools and overhead are counted
(spend + salaries + overhead) ÷ new customers
Blended vs paid CAC
Whether organic is quietly subsidising the paid number
all spend ÷ all customers vs paid ÷ paid

Customer value

Term
What it answers
Formula
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
What a customer is worth over its life, after margin
ARPA × gross margin × lifespan
LTV:CAC ratio
Whether the model clears its own acquisition cost
LTV ÷ CAC
Gross margin
Whether this is economically a software business
(revenue − COGS) ÷ revenue
Average revenue per account (ARPA)
What the average account pays per period
recurring revenue ÷ accounts

Efficiency ratios

Term
What it answers
Formula
Rule of 40
Whether growth and profitability are in balance
growth rate % + profit margin %
SaaS magic number
Revenue returned per dollar of sales and marketing
4 × Δ quarterly revenue ÷ prior-quarter S&M
Burn multiple
Cash burned to buy a dollar of new ARR
net burn ÷ net new ARR
SaaS quick ratio
Growth measured against what is leaking out
(new + expansion) ÷ (churned + contraction)

Pipeline & conversion

Term
What it answers
Formula
Sales pipeline metrics
Coverage, velocity, stage conversion and weighted value in one view
four calculations
Pipeline coverage ratio
Whether there is enough pipeline to hit the number
open pipeline ÷ quota
Pipeline velocity
Revenue the pipeline produces per day
(opps × win rate × deal size) ÷ cycle length
Win rate
Share of qualified opportunities that close
won ÷ (won + lost)
Sales cycle length
Days from qualified opportunity to closed won
Σ days to close ÷ deals won

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Market, Valuation & Exit

How large the opportunity is, how much of it you already hold, and what that position is worth to a buyer.

3 articles
13 terms

Market sizing

Term
What it answers
Formula
Total addressable market (TAM)
Revenue available if you won every possible buyer
buyers × annual contract value
Serviceable addressable market (SAM)
The slice your product and geography can actually serve
TAM × serviceable share
Serviceable obtainable market (SOM)
What you can realistically capture in the period
SAM × attainable share
Bottom-up vs top-down sizing
Which sizing method survives diligence
Σ (segment × price) vs analyst total × share

Share & penetration

Term
What it answers
Formula
Market share
Your share of revenue in the market you defined
your revenue ÷ total market revenue
Market penetration rate
Your share of buyers rather than of dollars
your customers ÷ total target buyers
Wallet share
How much of an account's category spend you hold
your revenue in account ÷ their category spend
Share of voice
Your share of the category's visible demand
your impressions ÷ category impressions

Multiples & enterprise value

Term
What it answers
Formula
ARR multiple
What each dollar of recurring revenue is priced at
enterprise value ÷ ARR
EV / revenue
The headline valuation multiple
enterprise value ÷ trailing revenue
EBITDA
Operating profit before structure and accounting choices
net income + interest + tax + D&A
Growth-adjusted multiple
The multiple normalised for how fast you are growing
(EV ÷ ARR) ÷ growth rate %
Quality of earnings
Whether reported profit survives a buyer's diligence
adjusted EBITDA vs reported EBITDA

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Revenue & Recurring Revenue

The revenue definitions a board, an auditor and an acquirer each read differently, including the ones that quietly inflate a growth rate.

0 articles
13 terms

Recurring revenue

Term
What it answers
Formula
Annual recurring revenue (ARR)
Contracted recurring revenue on an annual basis
MRR × 12
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
Contracted recurring revenue in a single month
active accounts × monthly ARPA
Committed ARR (CARR)
ARR including signed contracts not yet live
ARR + booked-not-live ARR
Net new ARR
What the quarter actually added
new + expansion − churn − contraction
Expansion revenue
Growth produced by the existing base
upsell + cross-sell + seat growth

Bookings & contracts

Term
What it answers
Formula
Annual contract value (ACV)
Annualised value of one contract
TCV ÷ contract years
Total contract value (TCV)
Everything a contract is worth over its term
(ACV × years) + one-time fees
New vs renewal bookings
Which half of bookings is genuinely new business
new logos vs renewals + upsells
Backlog
Contracted revenue not yet recognised
contracted − recognised

Revenue quality

Term
What it answers
Formula
Revenue recognition
When revenue may be booked, and under what test
ASC 606, five steps
Deferred revenue
Cash collected ahead of delivery
billed − recognised
Unbilled AR
Value delivered but not yet invoiced
recognised − billed
Revenue concentration
How exposed the business is to a few accounts
top 10 accounts ÷ total revenue

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Retention & Churn

Whether the revenue you won stays won, and what the base does on its own before a single new deal closes.

0 articles
9 terms

Churn

Term
What it answers
Formula
Logo churn
Share of customers lost in the period
customers lost ÷ customers at start
Revenue churn
Share of revenue lost in the period
MRR lost ÷ MRR at start
Gross churn rate
Losses before any expansion offsets them
(churn + contraction) ÷ starting MRR
Churn cohort analysis
Whether churn is improving by signup cohort
retained ÷ cohort size, by month

Retention & expansion

Term
What it answers
Formula
Gross revenue retention (GRR)
What the base keeps before any upsell
(start − churn − contraction) ÷ start
Net revenue retention (NRR)
Whether the base grows without new sales
(start + expansion − churn − contraction) ÷ start
Renewal rate
Share of contracts up for renewal that renewed
renewed ÷ up for renewal
Customer lifespan
How long an average customer stays
1 ÷ churn rate
Dollar-based expansion
Growth coming from the existing base alone
expansion MRR ÷ starting MRR

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Organic Growth & Search Economics

The measurements that decide whether an organic program is a line of expense or an acquisition channel with a payback period. The section no SaaS finance glossary carries.

0 articles
11 terms
2 tools

Search demand

Term
What it answers
Formula
Share of search
Your share of the category's search demand
your branded searches ÷ category searches
Branded vs non-branded demand
Whether demand exists before you create it
branded clicks vs non-branded clicks
Keyword difficulty
How hard a term is to rank for, and on whose scale
vendor index, 0–100
Topical authority
Whether your coverage of a subject is complete
subtopics covered ÷ subtopics in the cluster

Program ROI

Term
What it answers
Formula
SEO ROI
Return on an organic program, after margin
(organic gross profit − cost) ÷ cost
Cost per organic acquisition
What an organically acquired customer costs
program cost ÷ organic customers
Organic pipeline contribution
How much of pipeline organic actually sources
organic-sourced pipeline ÷ total pipeline
Organic traffic value
What the same traffic would cost in ads
Σ (clicks × CPC)

AI search visibility

Term
What it answers
Formula
AI Overview citation share
How often you are cited when an AI Overview appears
queries citing you ÷ queries with an overview
LLM brand mention rate
How often assistants name you unprompted
responses naming you ÷ prompts tested
Answer engine visibility
Your presence across AI answer surfaces
surfaces citing you ÷ surfaces tracked

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Know the Number. Then Move It.

Definitions are the easy part. A growth assessment is a structured look at where your acquisition economics actually stand: what CAC is once it is fully loaded, how much of your market you hold, and what a compounding organic channel would be worth against your current spend. If the numbers do not justify the investment, we will tell you that instead.

No generic SEO proposal. No obligation.