Equals

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This week, we're revisiting the model that Sean Whitney used to forecast Figma's self-serve business from <$1M to $200M+ ARR. It maps out every business driver, from top-of-funnel traffic to new licenses to retention cohorts. It highlights the sensitivities that drove beats or misses at the bottom line, helping the team steer outcomes for the whole business. Get the full breakdown, line-by-line: https://lnkd.in/grGmnKYu

Managing against Lifetime Value (LTV) is a balancing act, requiring you to maximize the revenue potential of a customer relationship while minimizing the costs of maintaining it. There are two drivers: On one hand is Lifetime Revenue (LTR), or the revenue potential of a single customer. This is a function of customers' longevity—are you providing enough value to retain them?—and their willingness to increase spend over time. On the other hand is Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), or the costs required to service your customer. It hinges on your ability to maximize operational efficiency without compromising on quality to the point that you drive up churn. Get that balance right and you're on your way to sustainable growth. For more on calculating, interpreting, and optimizing the SaaS metrics that matter to you 👉 equals.com/saas-metrics

We've all heard the mantra, "Do things that don't scale." But what comes next? This week on WrapText, our co-founder Bobby Pinero explores how we shifted from a broad and horizontal go-to-market motion to a targeted and verticalized one. By learning from unscalable experiments, we honed in on the use cases that stick to build a sustainable—and yes, scalable—growth engine. Learn how at the link in the comments 👇

It's time for your Weekly Wrap of what's new in Equals! When navigating your workbook, a new shortcut (Control/Command+Home) will instantly return you to cell A1 of your sheet. Plus, we focused on making the experience of working in your connected sheets faster and more fluid: • Selecting a column from the query builder automatically highlights it in your connected sheet • The SQL editor refocuses when accepting AI Assist’s query suggestions • Column selectors in the query builder scroll to selected tables by default For the latest on what's new, improved, and fixed → updates.equals.com

Happy Friday, folks!

When fundraising, it's crucial to OWN THE NARRATIVE. Inevitably (and understandably), investors will ask for raw data. It gives them a sense of completeness and control. But, it also invites low-level questions that can derail the conversation and reduce the probability of closing the deal. So, instead of giving investors a "data dump", give them a well-crafted "Data Deck". Here's ours, from our Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz 👉 https://lnkd.in/d6-aTysC

What's a customer really worth to your business? Enter: LTR. Lifetime Revenue (LTR) is the bedrock of the SaaS model, estimating the revenue potential of a single customer over their lifetime. Calculating it can be straightforward or detailed: • The simple method approximates LTR based on how long a customer might stay (1/Churn) and the average revenue they'll generate each period (ARPA) • The cohort-based method offers a more nuanced view of LTR that accounts for variations in customer behavior over time For a step-by-step walkthrough on calculating, interpreting, and optimizing LTR, check out The Guide to SaaS Metrics -> equals.com/saas-metrics

So you've produced a great analysis. But guess what? Without great storytelling, it's all just numbers. Jiayan, an author of "The Guide to SaaS Metrics," makes her debut on WrapText this week by unpacking the DOs and DON'Ts of communicating your analysis with data vizualizations. It's an incredibly practical guide to ensuring your insights hit home and inspire action. Link in the comments 👇

It's time for your Weekly Wrap of what's new in Equals. We've enhanced one of the spreadsheet's most powerful functions: MATCH. They now accept array criteria, enabling you to identify values based on multiple conditions without relying on redundant helper columns. On top of that, we continued our steady stream of quality-of-life improvements for smoother data handling: • Improved typing focus when switching from the SQL editor to workbook cells • Copies and imports of connected sheets consistently recognize output data • Fixed an issue where data may not register if edits are made during query save For the latest on what's new, improved, and fixed → updates.equals.com