One Dashboard That Shows if Paid Is Working

Why this matters

Individual metrics lie in isolation. CAC looks fine until you see the payback period. LTV looks healthy until you see the churn driving it. A unit economics dashboard pulls CAC, LTV, LTV:CAC, payback period, and contribution margin into one view so you can see how they move together — and catch the early signal of deterioration before it becomes a cash crisis.

Demo

A minimal unit economics dashboard tracks five metrics over time: CAC (by channel), LTV, LTV:CAC ratio, payback period in months, and contribution margin %. Trend direction matters as much as absolute values.

Try it yourself

1. Add a fourth period (Apr) where CAC rises to 190 and LTV drops to 440 — identify whether LTV:CAC crosses the 3:1 threshold and in which direction.
2. Add a 'contribution margin %' column using the formula from the previous task and observe whether the CM trend leads or lags the CAC deterioration.
3. Research one growth-stage company's investor presentation and identify which unit economics metrics they surface and which ones they omit — hypothesize why.
4. Set a threshold: flag any period where LTV:CAC < 2.5 or payback > 9 months, and print a warning row for that period.

References

• https://www.bvp.com/atlas/scaling-to-100m
• https://a16z.com/16-metrics/