Leo Polovets, General Partner at Susa Ventures, discusses how he evaluates unit economics and customer acquisition costs when considering early-stage startup investments.
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“You know, in the early days, I think unit economics, it's important that you're kind of in the right ballpark. So if it takes you a million dollars to acquire a customer that brings you 10,000 in revenue, like that's not good. But if it costs you 5000 dollars or 8000 dollars or 2000 dollars, all of those are good enough to be promising.”
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