Founders naturally love talking about revenue. Their slides glow with charts climbing up and to the right, telling a story of unbridled success. But in the boardroom, investors will nod politely, then flip a few pages forward and start asking entirely different questions. The real evaluation rarely lives in top-line growth alone. It lives in ratios—the kind that identify exactly how the business behaves when conditions tighten.
Three numbers dominate that conversation. Miss them, and no amount of storytelling will save the pitch. Understand them, and even modest revenue starts to look serious and investable.
LTV:CAC shows whether growth compounds or leaks
Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost sits at the absolute core of venture math. It answers a blunt, unavoidable question: does each customer create significantly more value than it costs to acquire them?
A strong ratio signals a business that gets healthier and more profitable as it scales. A weak one hints at growth purchased artificially through unsustainable discounts, heavy incentives, or inefficient ad spend.
Investors look for direction as much as they look for magnitude. A company moving from 1.8x to 3x tells a far stronger story than one stuck at 4x for two years with no sign of improvement. Improvement signals learning and optimization. Flat lines signal stagnation.
The mistake I see founders make here usually lies in presentation. They rely on inflated lifetime assumptions, use blended CAC that hides paid acquisition inefficiency, or project short histories into long, uncertain futures. Experienced investors see through all of it immediately.
Clean, honest inputs matter far more than flattering outputs.
Net Dollar Retention reveals product gravity
Net Dollar Retention (NDR) measures what happens after the sale is made. Take a cohort of customers and track their revenue one year later. Include upgrades, downgrades, and churn. The resulting percentage speaks volumes about the quality of your product.
Anything above 100 percent means expansion is offsetting losses. The product pulls customers deeper over time; usage grows, and spend follows. Investors love this dynamic because it means growth stacks on top of itself effortlessly.
Below 100 percent raises questions fast. Acquisition becomes a treadmill; you must run faster just to stand still. New sales are burned simply replacing lost revenue instead of compounding it.
Early-stage teams sometimes wave this away—"It's too early," "The data is too small," "It's too noisy." Investors still look. Direction matters here too. Improving retention with each subsequent cohort shows product maturity. Flat or declining trends raise serious doubts about long-term defensibility.
Net Dollar Retention exposes whether your growth comes from customer love or sales force.
Burn Multiple tells the truth about efficiency
Burn Multiple cuts through the noise of vanity metrics. Take your net cash burn and divide it by net new revenue. The result shows exactly how much cash disappears to generate one unit of growth.
Lower numbers signal discipline and control. Higher numbers signal fragility.
In forgiving markets, investors tolerated ugly burn multiples in exchange for speed. That era has cooled. Capital now expects restraint. A company burning three dollars to add one dollar of revenue faces intense scrutiny. A company adding one dollar of revenue for each dollar burned earns respect.
Context matters, of course. Early, product-heavy stages naturally carry higher burn. Investors adjust expectations by stage. Still, nobody ignores the trend line. Improving efficiency signals operational control. Worsening efficiency signals denial.
Burn Multiple punishes vanity growth. It rewards substance.
Why these three dominate the room
Revenue answers the question of "what happened." These numbers explain "why" it happened and whether it can last.
LTV:CAC speaks to unit economics. Net Dollar Retention speaks to product strength. Burn Multiple speaks to execution quality. Together, they form a tight, irrefutable narrative about the durability of your business.
A pitch anchored on these metrics feels different to an investor. It feels calmer, sharper, and infinitely more credible. Investors sense when a founder understands the machine behind the numbers, not just the output.
How to prepare before the next pitch
Know these metrics cold. Not just the headline figure, but the drivers underneath. What moved last quarter? What broke? What improved?
Be honest about weaknesses. Pair them with concrete actions you are taking to fix them. Credibility grows through clarity, not perfection.
Revenue opens the door. These three numbers decide whether it stays open.
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