Financial Sandboxes — Founder's Working Manual

Inputs — adjust any value to see the effect

CAC

Customer Acquisition Cost

$

$10$5,000

ARPU

Avg monthly revenue per customer

$

$1$10K/mo

Gross Margin

Revenue kept after delivery costs

%

10%95%

Monthly Churn

% of customers cancelling per month

%

0.01%10%

Derived metrics

$

LTV ✎ edit

$/mo

Monthly GP / customer ✎ edit

mo

Avg lifespan ✎ edit

Health indicators

LTV : CAC Ratio —

—

CAC Payback Period —

—

Monthly Churn —

—

Inputs

Current Cash

Cash on hand today

$

$0$1M

Monthly Expenses

Total monthly operating costs

$

$0$50K

Monthly Revenue

Current MRR

$

$0$30K

Monthly Revenue Growth

MoM growth rate

%

0%25%

Flat burn — no revenue growth

With monthly revenue growth

Inputs

ARR

Annual Recurring Revenue

$

$0$2M

NRR

Net Revenue Retention

%

60%140%

Annual Growth Rate

YoY ARR growth

%

0%100%

Gross Margin

After cost of delivery

%

20%95%

Estimated valuation by exit path

Option A

Hold and Delegate

Own indefinitely, build for cash flow and operational independence

—

Option B

Aggregator Sale

Sell to a micro-PE or SaaS aggregator buying recurring revenue assets

—

Option C

Venture Scale

Take on institutional capital and build toward a large exit or public market

—

Note: These are illustrative ranges based on 2024–2025 SaaS market comparables. Actual valuations depend on quality of earnings, customer concentration, founder dependency, legal cleanliness, and deal structure. Treat as directional, not definitive.