15 KPIs For Founders

Most founders are tracking the wrong numbers.

Here are 15 KPIs they should know 👇

Thank you, Chris Donnelly, for the thinking behind this.

DTC founders focus on follower counts, blended ROAS, and platform impressions.

Those metrics feel good.
They don't tell you if the business is healthy.

Save this if you're serious about where your business is heading:

1️⃣ Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Revenue kept after churn, contractions, and expansions.
For subscription brands, it's the clearest signal of whether your base is growing.

2️⃣ Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Average revenue a customer generates over their relationship with you.
Paired with CAC, it tells you whether your growth model works.

3️⃣ Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Average spend required to win a new customer.
Blended averages hide where you're losing money. Break it down by channel.

4️⃣ LTV to CAC Ratio

Compares the lifetime value of a customer to what it cost to acquire them.
Rule of thumb: above 3 is strong.

5️⃣ Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Unique active customers or users in a given month.
Useful as a directional signal. Dangerous if it becomes your north star.

6️⃣ Churn Rate

Customers or revenue lost in a period.
Rising churn is a product-market fit signal.

7️⃣ Burn Multiple

Cash burned for every dollar of new revenue added.
It tells you how expensive your growth actually is.

8️⃣ EBITDA

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization.
Tells you whether the business is profitable at scale.

9️⃣ Operating Cash Flow

Net cash generated from operating activities.
Confirm the business can fund itself before you press the accelerator.

🔟 Customer Retention Rate

Percentage of customers who keep buying over a set period.
Most brands underinvest here and overspend on acquisition.

1️⃣1️⃣ Revenue Growth Rate

Percentage increase in revenue over a given period.
Growth rate without margin context tells an incomplete story.

1️⃣2️⃣ AI Search Visibility

Prompts where your brand or product comes up in AI-driven answers.
This is becoming a real acquisition channel.

1️⃣3️⃣ Runway (Cash Runway)

How many months the business can operate before running out of cash.
Every growth decision should be made with this number in view.

1️⃣4️⃣ Experiment Velocity

Number of products, content, or growth experiments shipped in a period.
Speed of learning is a competitive advantage.

1️⃣5️⃣ Gross Margin

Profitability after direct costs.
If this is compressing as you scale, fix your structure.

Most dashboards tell you what happened.
These tell you what to do next.

How does your business track signals?
Let me know in the comments.

♻️ Repost it for another DTC business in your network
And follow me, Jacob Rokeach, for more on the signals that drive growth at DTC brands.