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उपकरणGrow · the toolkit

Move the number. See the business.

Eleven figures you can move, for founders and marketers: marketing, performance, SEO, social, digital, finance and strategy. Built for rupees and Indian numbers, each linked to the lesson or page behind it. Free, no sign-up, nothing stored.

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Unit economics

Does one customer pay for the next one?

Cost to acquire a customer (CAC)₹12,000Revenue per customer, a month₹1,500Gross margin70%Revenue less the cost of serving it. Software 70–85%. Marketplaces count take rate as revenue.Monthly churn4.0%4.0% a month is 39% a year.
₹26,250
lifetime gross profit (LTV)
2.2×
LTV to CAC
16 mo
payback, churn-weighted
25 mo
average customer life
₹0₹5,000−₹10,000day 16m12m18m24m30m36mpaid back12-month line
The benchmarks most seed investors carry: LTV at least three times CAC, payback inside twelve months for software and inside six for consumer. The curve weights each month by the share of customers still alive, so churn shows up as a flattening, not a cliff. Gross margin is the number that turns revenue into something that can repay acquisition.

From the lesson CAC, LTV and payback: the three numbers that decide whether you should grow

Retention cohorts

Does the curve flatten?

Shape

Still active after month 182%Where the curve settles45%The share who never leave.How fast it gets there0.75Lower settles sooner.
54%
retained at month 6
47%
retained at month 12
no
curve flattens by month 12
1.8×
lifetime vs a one-month customer
cohortm0m1m2m3m4m5m6m7m8m9
Jan10079726764625050
Feb100866863605857
Mar1008275705654
Apr10078716663
May100857862
Jun1008174
Jul10077
Aug100
0%25%50%75%100%m0m3m6m9
Early churn, then a long tail of customers who stay. Typical of small-business software that works. The grid is a model, not your data; put your own numbers in a sheet in the same shape and read it the same way. Month-one retention tells you about onboarding. Where the curve flattens tells you about the product. If it never flattens, growth is filling a bucket with a hole in it.

From the lesson Retention curves and the flattening test

Performance marketing

Do the ads pay for themselves?

Ad spend, a month₹2 LCost per click₹18Click to order conversion2.0%Average order value₹1,800Gross margin on the order55%After the cost of goods, shipping and payment fees. Before ads.
2.00×
ROAS
1.82×
break-even ROAS
₹900
cost per order (CPA)
₹20,000
profit after ads, first order
Ad spend₹2 LRevenue from the ads₹4 LGross profit on that revenue₹2 L

11,111 clicks, 222 orders. The most a sale can cost before the first order loses money: ₹990.

ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. It is not profit. The break-even ROAS is one divided by gross margin: at a 55% margin, every rupee of ads must bring back 1.82 rupees of sales before the campaign stops losing money on the first order. Repeat purchases can justify spending past that line, which is the job of the unit-economics figure above. Every number here is yours to set.

Go further: Digital ROI, the full calculator

SEO

What is moving up the page worth?

Searches a month, your keywords20,000Click-through where you rank now8.0%Click-through at the position you want25.0%Visit to lead3.0%Value of a lead₹4,000Average deal value times the share of leads that close.
1,600
visits a month now
5,000
visits at the target position
₹2 L
search worth a month now
₹49 L
a year’s gain from moving up
Leads a month now48.0Leads a month at the target position150.0
Click-through by position varies by query, device and how much of the page ads and answers take up, so both rates are yours to set: take them from Google Search Console for the keywords you already rank on. The gap between the two lines is what a better ranking is worth in a year, and therefore the most the work to get it should cost.

Go further: The digital audit, for search and the site

Social

Followers are not the number. Reach is.

Followers25,000Share of followers a post reaches15%Engagement, of those reached4.0%Likes, comments, shares and saves divided by reach.Posts a week4Reached who click through1.0%Value of a visit₹600
3,750
people reached a post
0.60%
engagement by followers
2,598
interactions a month
₹4 L
click-through worth a month
People reached, a month64,950Interactions2,598Visits to your site650
Two engagement rates are in common use and they are often confused: interactions as a share of the people who saw a post, and interactions as a share of all followers. The second is smaller and is the one most rate cards quote. Both are shown. Take reach and engagement from your own analytics; the platforms report them per post.

Digital

Fix the stage that leaks the most.

Visitors a month30,000Visitor to lead2.5%Lead to customer15%Revenue per customer₹25,000Improvement to test20%
750
leads a month
112.5
customers a month
₹28 L
revenue a month
₹68 L
a year from a 20% better page
20% more traffic (bought every month)₹6 L20% better visitor to lead (fixed once)₹6 L20% better lead to customer (fixed once)₹6 L
The three improvements look the same on paper: a 20% lift anywhere in a multiplied chain lifts revenue by 20%. What differs is the cost. More traffic is usually bought every month; a better landing page or a faster follow-up is paid for once and keeps working. That is why the cheapest stage to move is usually the right one to move first.

Go further: Digital ROI

Runway

How many months you really have.

Cash in the bank₹1.5 CrMonthly revenue₹6.0 LMonthly cost₹18.0 LRevenue growth, a month8%8% a month doubles revenue in nine months.Cost growth, a month2.0%
15 mo
runway to zero cash
₹12.0 L
net burn this month
month 9
start the raise by
month 20
revenue covers cost
₹0₹1 Cr₹2 Cr₹3 Crnow6m12m18m24m30m36mraise startszero cash
The rule most investors repeat: start a raise with at least six months of cash, because a seed round in India takes three to six months from first meeting to money in the bank, and the last month is never yours. Cost growth is the number founders forget; hires compound too.

From the lesson Runway: how many months you really have

Burn multiple

What a crore of burn buys you.

Net burn over the period₹4.0 CrCash out less cash in, for the quarter or the year.ARR at the start₹6.0 CrARR at the end₹9.0 Cr
1.33×
burn multiple · great
₹3.0 Cr
net new ARR added
₹75.0 L
ARR bought per ₹1 Cr burned
16 mo
of new revenue to repay the burn
011.5234+1.33×GREAT
Burn multiple = net burn ÷ net new ARR over the same period, as David Sacks set it out in 2020. It punishes every kind of waste at once: churn, discounting, over-hiring, a sales team that does not close. A seed company can sit above 2 for a quarter while it learns; a Series A company that stays there is spending the round on standing still.

From the lesson Burn multiple and the discipline of efficient growth

Dilution

What the founders keep, round by round.

Option pool before the seed10%Seed raise₹3.0 CrSeed pre-money₹15.0 CrSeries A raise₹25.0 CrSeries A pre-money₹100 CrSeries B raise₹80.0 CrSeries B pre-money₹400 Cr
50.0%
founders together after series b
₹240 Cr
what that stake is worth on paper
5.6%
option pool remaining
₹480 Cr
post-money after series b
100%Day one90%10%Pool75%8%17%Seed₹18 Cr60%7%13%20%Series A₹125 Cr50%11%17%17%Series B₹480 Cr
  • Founders
  • Option pool
  • Seed
  • Series A
  • Series B
Each round sells the share equal to money raised over post-money, and every earlier holder shrinks by the same factor. The pool is carved out of the founders first because almost every term sheet puts it in the pre-money. Valuations here are illustrative; the arithmetic is not.

From the lesson Dilution: a cap table you can touch

Market sizing

Count the buyers. Then multiply.

Buyers who could use this6,50,000A count you can defend: firms, clinics, households, students.Share you can reach and serve30%Geography, language, channel, product fit.Share of those you can win8.0%In about five years. Leaders in fragmented markets hold 5–15%.What one pays a year₹60,000
₹3900 Cr
TAM · everyone who could buy
₹1170 Cr
SAM · the part you can serve
₹94 Cr
SOM · what you can win
15,600
paying customers that implies
TAM ₹3900 CRSAM ₹1170 CrSOM ₹94 Cr
Top-down sizing quotes a report and takes a per cent of it; bottom-up counts the people who could pay and what they would pay, and defends every factor. Investors read the SOM and the path to it, not the TAM. A ₹500 crore obtainable market with a believable route beats a ₹50,000 crore total addressable market with none.

From the lesson Market sizing an investor will believe

Growth rate

Five per cent a week is twelve times a year.

Revenue this month₹2 L

Growth stated as

Growth a week5.0%= 24% a month
₹25 L
monthly revenue in 52 weeks
₹3 Cr
annualised run rate then
12.6×
growth over the year
14 wks
to double
₹0₹1 Cr₹2 Crnowwk 13wk 26wk 39wk 521% a week · not yet found5% a week · good7% a week · very good10% a week · exceptional
Compounding is why a growth rate matters more than a revenue figure at the start: 5% a week is 24% a month and 1164% a year. Y Combinator tells its companies to pick one number, grow it every week, and treat the rate as the thing being managed. Rates this high do not last; the point is to find the engine while they can.

From the lesson Growth rate is the only number that matters early

औरMore tools

Four more, a page each.

साथWhen the numbers say something

If the figure worries you, talk to us.

A runway under twelve months, a payback past eighteen, a curve that never flattens: each is fixable, and none is fixed by a calculator. NS Transform 2027 carries the operating cost of a company for twelve months while the method is run inside it.

NS Transform 2027Contact