An honest breakdown of what this diagnostic can (and can't) tell you about your growth.
The diagnostic delivers objective truth calculated from your own numbers. No industry benchmarks, no external assumptions beyond two basics:
The tool uses 70% for SaaS and 40% for agencies/services, based on industry norms. Used to calculate LTV and payback period. If your actual margin differs significantly, results will be directionally accurate but not precise.
The tool assumes steady monthly customer additions vs. exponential hypergrowth. Simpler, more conservative, and more realistic for $1-10M companies.
Net New Customers/Month: New customers - Lost customers
Growth Rate: (Net new / Total customers) x 100
The Gap: Customers needed per month to hit 12-month revenue goal
CAC: Marketing spend / New customers acquired
LTV: (Revenue per customer x Avg lifetime x margin) - 70% for SaaS, 40% for services
Payback Period: Months to recover CAC from gross profit
Cost to Scale: Additional monthly spend needed to close the gap at current CAC
Rough estimates work fine. The tool is designed for directional insights, not precise predictions. If you're within 20% on your inputs, the diagnosis will still be valuable. What matters is identifying the bottleneck, not getting decimal-point accuracy.
Not directly. The tool assumes revenue scales linearly with customer count. If you have significant expansion revenue (customers growing MRR over time), your actual trajectory may be better than the tool suggests. That said, the bottleneck diagnosis (acquisition vs retention) will still be directionally correct.
Use your "typical"month or an average. Seasonality will make month-to-month numbers swing, but the underlying unit economics (CAC, LTV, churn) and bottleneck diagnosis will still be valid. The tool helps you see the structural problem, not predict next month's revenue.
The diagnostic uses smart benchmarks, not generic ones.
The tool applies different thresholds based on your business type:
But it doesn't compare you to competitors or show league tables. The diagnostic shows what YOUR numbers require to hit YOUR goal, then flags if your current path is financially inefficient compared to what's achievable in your segment.
Example: If you're spending 40% of revenue on marketing, the tool will flag that as unsustainable - not because "the average is 25%", but because the math shows you'll burn cash even if you hit your goal.
This is about YOUR internal consistency + realistic benchmarks, not external comparison.
Yes. The tool adapts to your business model.
Software/SaaS businesses typically have:
Agencies/Services businesses typically have:
When you select your business type in Question 7, all calculations and benchmarks automatically adjust. This ensures you get accurate unit economics and realistic strategic advice for YOUR business model - not generic SaaS formulas applied to a services business (or vice versa).
All calculations happen in your browser. Unless you choose to generate a shareable link, your financial data never leaves your device.
If you do create a shareable link, the results (not the raw inputs) are stored so the link works for anyone you share it with. You can also download your results directly and skip the link entirely.
Basic usage analytics (like whether the tool was started or completed) are collected to improve the experience, but these never include your financial numbers.
That's actually the most valuable outcome - it prevents you from scaling a losing model. If LTV:CAC is under 1, you lose money on every customer. Scaling that just loses money faster. The diagnostic shows you this BEFORE you burn cash, not after. From there, you can work on improving retention (increasing LTV) or reducing CAC before scaling.
No - that's not the goal. This tool diagnoses WHERE your problem is. A growth expert helps you figure out HOW to fix it (improving retention, optimizing CAC, scaling channels, etc.). Think of this as an X-ray that shows the broken bone. You still need a doctor to set it.
You can download your results as a PDF to share with your team or advisors. If the diagnostic shows problems you need help fixing, you'll have the option to schedule a conversation to discuss execution. But there's zero pressure - the tool is useful on its own.