tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post8453028549151762720..comments2023-05-21T13:20:47.722+02:00Comments on The Angel VC: A KPI dashboard for early-stage SaaS startups – new and improved!Christoph Janzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07905463949262014311noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-49631474221651079512015-05-03T02:43:13.444+02:002015-05-03T02:43:13.444+02:00I care about my karma. Glad there's a LinkedIn...I care about my karma. Glad there's a LinkedIn option - better audience to share with for me.Mariah Lichtensternhttp://www.about.me./Mariah.Lichtensternnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-6984084725294835972015-03-04T11:57:15.378+01:002015-03-04T11:57:15.378+01:00Is this similar to GoodData? Either way, this seem...Is this similar to GoodData? Either way, this seems like a great tool for startups. We are currently considering a dashboard and analytics page, but gathering feedback on it http://support.helprace.com/i131-does-helprace-have-reporting-featuresVitaliyhttp://helprace.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-65254242658690739802015-01-18T23:06:17.285+01:002015-01-18T23:06:17.285+01:00Error (403)It seems you don't belong here! You...Error (403)It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in. Check out our Help Center and forums for help, or head back to home.Daniel Bartelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-84800849324809437882014-09-27T22:39:56.182+02:002014-09-27T22:39:56.182+02:00Thanks Stefano, glad you've found it useful!Thanks Stefano, glad you've found it useful!chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-58492319386720402162014-09-26T17:44:40.905+02:002014-09-26T17:44:40.905+02:00Hi,
really appreciate you spent the time looking ...Hi, <br />really appreciate you spent the time looking into it again. I had reached the same conclusion and totally removed this section from the modified template I am working with. The entire up/downgrade issue makes it too confusing. I think the bottomline net churn is really what matters and everybody should just spend some time trying to understand if that comes from downgrades or simple churns. Again, your template is a fantastic starting point, we are using it already on 2 companies, a b2b saas product and a more consumer based subscription product. Great work for everybody.stefano zorzinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-34960516332355627262014-09-26T12:11:10.191+02:002014-09-26T12:11:10.191+02:00Hi Stefano,
Thanks again for spotting this issue....Hi Stefano,<br /><br />Thanks again for spotting this issue.<br /><br />After looking into it and almost getting a knot in my brain I think i can confirm that you're right. That said, I think there's even more wrong with the formula in row 162-167. ;-) <br /><br />If you look at row 162, e.g. C162, in the numerator (which represents the net churned MRR), it includes:<br /><br />- C129 (which is the MRR gained from the Basic > Pro upgrades)<br />- C131 (MRR gained from Basic > Enterprise upgrades)<br />- C138 (lost MRR from Basic customers who churned)<br /><br />However, instead of C129 and C131 it should be the MRR lost for the Basic plan because of these upgrades (the price of Basic, not the difference between Pro/Enterprise and Basic): <br /><br />- For the Basic => Pro Upgrade it's C63 x C84<br />- For the Basic => Enterprise Upgrade it's C65 x C84<br /><br />...and MRR gained for the Basic plan due to downgrades from Pro and Enterprise needs to be considered, too.<br /><br />Do you agree?<br /><br />After thinking through this again, I think a) it's too complicated to be useful and b) it doesn't make sense to look at "net MRR churn" on a plan-by-plan basis because it produces misleading results, namely, that an MRR increase due to an upgrade from Basic to Pro is considered as churn for the Basic plan. I think I'll therefore just kill rows 162-167....chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-85617400662093239552014-09-12T11:36:01.472+02:002014-09-12T11:36:01.472+02:00Hi Stefano,
Thank you for your comment. Great ca...Hi Stefano, <br /><br />Thank you for your comment. Great catch, I think you're right! I'm looking into it now...<br /><br />Best regards<br /><br />Christophchrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-31502285358983022012014-09-11T22:20:09.865+02:002014-09-11T22:20:09.865+02:00Hi, this comes quite late but i think there is an ...Hi, this comes quite late but i think there is an error in the net MRR churn rate formula (row 161 and below). If you consider upgrades from e.g. basic to pro as a "positive" you shouldn't have the negative of them. If you consider them as a "negative" (which i think is correct) since this is MRR moving away from "basic" then you should add the "lost MRR" but you are actually detracting it (adding a negative number). <br /><br />I think you should rewrite the formula in row 162 (and following) as: -(C129+C131-C138)/C112stefano zorzinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-40318039123621081852014-07-29T03:51:51.219+02:002014-07-29T03:51:51.219+02:00Thanks Chris. I actually do have another question ...Thanks Chris. I actually do have another question about the funnel. It's along the same line - we have a freemium model + a free trial for the premium products. In this case, how do you suggest us do the calculation of monthly funnel conversion rate from free users to free trial users? Since users can use the free product forever, how can I avoid data source inconsistency when calculating the conversion from free to free trial on a monthly basis? <br /><br /><br />Again, thanks so much for your response. I quite literally have been customizing your spreadsheet for building up our internal metrics dashboard. I learned so much from just working with it. So thank you so much for making this available!David Chennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-31854779660704924372014-07-29T00:48:29.527+02:002014-07-29T00:48:29.527+02:00All right! Thanks David! Let me know if any other ...All right! Thanks David! Let me know if any other questions come up.chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-34772835930573560522014-07-28T15:50:37.514+02:002014-07-28T15:50:37.514+02:00I actually just saw that you assume a 30 day free ...I actually just saw that you assume a 30 day free trial. That make sense then. thanks Chris!David Chennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-45901817908036753922014-07-28T15:27:53.151+02:002014-07-28T15:27:53.151+02:00Hi Chris,
Thanks so much for your spreadsheet. I...Hi Chris, <br /><br />Thanks so much for your spreadsheet. It's really helpful. I do have a question about one particular calculation. <br /><br />The way you calculate signup-to-paying conversion is by having "new customer of the month/new signup(trial) of the month". What if there's a 2 week trial period. Say someone sign up for the trial on Jan 25th, and don't convert to pay (or churn) until Feb 10th, the calculation by this model will effectively use customers who sign up for trial in January to divide the new trials in February. That seems to be a data source inconsistency right? It would be great if you can tell me how you can resolve it. Thanks a lot!<br /><br /><br /><br />DavidDavid Chennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-31268814405985772752014-02-24T05:41:08.806+01:002014-02-24T05:41:08.806+01:00Thanks for sharing these graphs. It's very hel...Thanks for sharing these graphs. It's very helpful especially for entrepreneurs with great startup ideas planning to pitch for angel investors. Angel group/investors, like <a href="http://iseed.co" rel="nofollow">iSeed</a> , would be very interested for well laid out startup ideas!gwenconnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-74370515940959101392014-02-06T17:03:28.001+01:002014-02-06T17:03:28.001+01:00Got it, thanks!
Yes, I think the way you're d...Got it, thanks!<br /><br />Yes, I think the way you're describing it it makes sense.chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-74703118448867033222014-02-06T16:58:05.333+01:002014-02-06T16:58:05.333+01:00Oh, I should have explained that I guess.
We pro-...Oh, I should have explained that I guess.<br /><br />We pro-rate on a daily basis and charge at the beginning of every month for the used resources within the last month.<br /><br />So if a customer signs up mid Jan for a plan which is $100, she will be charged $50 beginning of February, $100 beginning of March, etc.<br />This is typical in hosting, PaaS, DBaaS, etc.<br /><br />Currently when filling out the cell for "New MRR from new customers" for a given month I will fill in the amount they have signed up for, not the actual charges we have made for that month (since those will be pro-rated).<br /><br />Does it make sense? Do you have any suggestion on how to do this differently with your spreadsheet?<br /><br />Thanks!albertoperdomonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-6852666318637191392014-02-06T16:30:41.992+01:002014-02-06T16:30:41.992+01:00I didn't go into that level of detail, i.e. th...I didn't go into that level of detail, i.e. think about periods less than one month, but your suggestion sounds good. (Although I don't understand why the example customer would pay only $50 if you charge monthly?)chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-89297357260740417502014-02-06T15:10:38.143+01:002014-02-06T15:10:38.143+01:00This is not included in the model at the moment. I...This is not included in the model at the moment. I would add an additional row for that.chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-23438250803676098972014-02-06T13:04:13.185+01:002014-02-06T13:04:13.185+01:00Hi Christoph,
where/how would you include non-re...Hi Christoph,<br /><br /><br />where/how would you include non-recurring revenue in your model? Revenue coming from premium support or one-time setup fees for instance?<br /><br /><br />Thanks!albertoperdomonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-28602874719688876592014-01-19T18:22:35.718+01:002014-01-19T18:22:35.718+01:00Christoph, That's an amazing contribution, and...Christoph, That's an amazing contribution, and I look forward to giving it a try! Thanks so much. You had mentioned in the earlier post about one day hooking the spreadsheet up to a Geckoboard dashboard. Have you done that yet?David S. Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-83812236100102143632014-01-13T21:27:15.735+01:002014-01-13T21:27:15.735+01:00Hi Christian,
great feedback, thanks a lot! Its ...Hi Christian,<br /><br /><br />great feedback, thanks a lot! Its true, CMRR is best B2B SaaS with maybe >2 months cycles. I would argue that despite the implicit "churn forecast" it is still a better representation of how the company is doing and how sales dep is performing, since it accounts for all closed deals.<br /><br /><br />Using this, I think I can also ditch the sheet with planned data and think of all past months as actual data and all future months as planned data.Miro Wilmsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-76162474864009562602014-01-07T00:09:02.247+01:002014-01-07T00:09:02.247+01:00Usually the cut between marketing and sales is don...Usually the cut between marketing and sales is done at the "lead", "qualified lead" or "trial" level. So all costs associated with getting leads/trials should be considered marketing spend, and all costs associated with turning them into paying customers should be considered sales spend.chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-14902145337692644632014-01-06T12:11:21.731+01:002014-01-06T12:11:21.731+01:00I am moving my data over to this updated xls file....I am moving my data over to this updated xls file. What is the diff between marketing spend and sales spend? If I have a marketing manager then where would his/her salary go?Sahil Parikhhttp://www.sahilparikh.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-26063751886311299542014-01-04T22:04:30.175+01:002014-01-04T22:04:30.175+01:00Thank you for your comment Miro, and greetings to ...Thank you for your comment Miro, and greetings to the countryside! :)<br /><br />1) MRR vs. CMRR<br /><br />To make sure we're on the same page, I'm assuming the definition of CMRR is:<br /><br />CMRR = MRR + purchase orders for future recurring revenues - revenues that is likely to churn within the year<br /><br />(taken from http://cracking-the-code.blogspot.de/2007_07_01_archive.html)<br /><br /><br /><br />In principle I agree with Philippe's statement that CMRR is an even better representation of a SaaS company's health than MRR. The reason why I didn't include it in the dashboard, at least not yet, is:<br /><br /><br />- CMRR is more relevant for enterprise-y SaaS companies with longer sales cycles and my dashboard is primarily geared towards SaaS startups with a low-touch sales model<br />- Based on the above definition there's an element of subjectivity ("revenue that is likely to churn") which I'm not too happy about<br /><br /><br />2) Plan vs. actual<br /><br /><br />Great idea to merge it into one sheet. How about you have 2 columns for each month, one for plan, one for actuals? If you want to take it even further you can add a 3rd one for the forecast (=updated forecasts based on actuals as they come in).chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-2737880173438873012014-01-04T21:52:07.200+01:002014-01-04T21:52:07.200+01:00Cool, thanks for the comment!Cool, thanks for the comment!chrijanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18867375.post-19463097217608895362014-01-04T21:51:57.117+01:002014-01-04T21:51:57.117+01:00Pleasure! Glad you like it.Pleasure! Glad you like it.chrijanoreply@blogger.com