Who This Helps
This is for growth marketers who feel like they're spinning plates. Revenue is up, but cash feels flat. You want to run fewer experiments and get more signal. The Founder Finance Basics Mission Pack is built for exactly this moment.
Mini Case
Meet Ben. He runs growth for a SaaS team. Last month, paid channels brought in 12% more leads, but cash runway shrank by 7 days. He had no idea which channel was eating cash. Using the CAC Payback Triage mission from the Founder Finance Basics Mission Pack, Ben ran one calculation per channel. He found that LinkedIn ads had a 14-month payback period. Email referrals paid back in 3 months. He paused LinkedIn and doubled email. Runway stabilized in two weeks.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Pull your last 90 days of channel spend and new customer count. No estimates. Real numbers.
- For each channel, divide total spend by new customers. That's your CAC.
- Divide your average revenue per customer by your gross margin. That's your monthly contribution.
- Divide CAC by monthly contribution. That's your payback period in months.
- Sort channels by payback period. The shortest one is your next experiment. Run it.
Avoid These Traps
- Don't average CAC across all channels. It hides the cash-eaters.
- Don't include salaries in CAC. Keep it to direct spend only.
- Don't run three experiments at once. Pick one channel and go deep.
- Don't ignore gross margin. A high-revenue channel with low margin can still drain cash.
- Don't wait for perfect data. Use what you have and adjust.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you'll have a ranked list of your channels by payback period. You'll know exactly which one to prioritize. No more guesswork. Just a clear next move. And maybe a little more sleep.