The Startup Metrics That VCs Want to See

Nate Morris

From working with hundreds of customers and users, we get a lot of questions around ‘what kind of information should I be including updates to my investors?’

We break this down to 4 different sections.

  1. Financial
  2. Key Growth Metric
  3. Industry/Market Standards
  4. Investor/Advisor/Board suggested

1. Financial

– Money money money. Finances are the lifeblood of a company, you can tell how well a company is growing, how smart they are spending, how healthy they are, or how many more months they have left before they disappear.

-Look at any standard Cash Balance Sheet and Income Statement, you should have the major line items of this for your investors.

-Depending on what kind of product you sell, there could be some important ones to highlight like gross margin or wages or marketing expenses. Always highlight the items that affect the company the most.

2. Key Growth Metric

– There are lots of things that accrue a company’s growth, but there is normally just one or two numbers that you look at for showing your growth and success. We talk about how to find your ‘Most-Valuable-Metric’ and the best way to tell your company’s story in The Ultimate Guide to Startup Data Distribution

-This can be a numeric or monetary amount, and it changes for each company/business plan/industry. For SaaS, this could be MRR, for a messaging app, it could be number of users, average messages per user.

Main Point: This metric(s) is(are) they key segment(s) that needs to grow to continue your success to Unicorn Ranch.

3. Industry/Market Standards

Don’t reinvent the wheel. When you’re growing a company in a specific industry or market, there are always benchmark numbers and stats people talk about. Use these for your own reporting so you can have your stakeholders look at the market, their experiences or expertise, and your company (aka – make them work for that equity they bought/earned). For SaaS (I’m in SaaS so I talk SaaS), this would be items like Churn Rate, Average MRR Value, Total ARR, Cost per Acquisition, Lifetime Value, etc.

4. Investor/Advisor/Board Suggested

– Your key stakeholders (investors, advisors, board members), if you picked them right, will have experience, knowledge, connections, and more to help you become even more successful. From speaking with them, they’ll probably find a few metrics not already covered that they want you to focus on or track. This only helps leverage them in the future and allow them to be proactive towards that ten-figure exit.

Checkout Visible’s list of Most-Valuable-Metric and see if there is something you have been missing.

Enjoy Your Day, Go Create Something, and Make Someone Smile

Nate Morris

You may also enjoy:
Product Updates
Shaping the Future: Unveiling Our Brand Refresh
Visible started as a way for founders to update their investors but has since transformed into a purpose-built platform for both founders and investors. Since 2014, we’ve powered over 3M interactions between founders and investors. Our brand refresh represents our commitment to equip founders and the investors who back them. Founders can now manage their investor relationships and capital raises from start to finish. Investors can centralize data, uncover insights, and report to their LPs and stakeholders—all from one place. We are excited to unveil our refreshed brand, marking the beginning of the next decade in our dedication and commitment to founders and investors. Equipping Founders and Investors for Growth Raising capital is fundamentally about building relationships. Founders and investors spend months forging connections that, once solidified by a term sheet, can evolve into partnerships lasting 8 to 10 years and beyond. We set out to highlight the people behind the investments, not just the companies or firms they represent. As we continue to grow, you'll notice more familiar faces from different startups and venture funds featured on our site (👋 Hi Lacey!). Shaping Our Future Across our website and marketing assets, you’ll see 3D shapes floating in the background. While they add aesthetic appeal, they also carry a deeper meaning. For example: We believe raising capital from VCs or LPs closely resembles a fundraising funnel, a concept brought to life through the funnel shape that appears across various pages and assets. Sphere, torus, and pill shapes symbolize the connections between VCs, founders, and stakeholders, reflecting the interwoven nature of these relationships. These forms also symbolize forward momentum and the continuous progression within the venture ecosystem. As our product has evolved to offer greater flexibility in moving data into and out of Visible, you'll notice pipes integrated into the design, visually representing the seamless flow of data through our platform. Logo and Wordmark To maintain and perpetuate our brand equity, we opted to anchor our brand to our current logo and wordmark. The Visible logomark is made from three overlapping, equilateral triangles. Each triangle is slightly transparent, allowing the mark to interact with other design elements. These triangles represent human relationships and the connection between founders and investors, which is core to our mission and vision for our company. Color Palette Our signature black primary color remains, but we've refined our palette for a fresh look. We've transitioned from a complex, rich color scheme to a more cohesive and defined palette, creating a unified and bold approach to color across our brand. Introducing the new Visible color palette: Product Guided by our core values of trust and transparency, we designed our product to embody these principles. Our product visuals across the site are predominantly high-fidelity for the first time, highlighting its capabilities visually rather than relying solely on words. The updated typography and refined color palette are seamlessly integrated into our product screens, further enhancing the overall brand experience. Voice & Tone A brand is more than just its visual identity; it requires a voice and tone that harmonizes with its design. We aimed for our voice to be authentic, credible, and consistent, supporting both investors and founders alike. This commitment led us to define key principles for our voice and tone: Be a guide Less is more Recognize that different users face different challenges As you explore our marketing site, we hope Visible reflects these values and resonates with you. Transparency = Trust As we noted earlier, raising capital is fundamentally about relationships. Trust and transparency form the foundation of any strong connection. Throughout our website, you'll notice subtle transparency elements that embody this core principle. This new iteration of our brand is built to scale, but that doesn’t mean we won’t continue to evolve and elevate the experience for the betterment of our prospects and customers. Here's to shaping the next 10 years! Up and to the right,  The Visible Team
Product Updates
Product Update: Turn Emails Into Insights With Visible AI Inbox
Customer Stories
Case Study: Airtree Venture's Transformation with Visible
Fundraising
9 Tips for Effective Investor Networking