CAC Payback
topic on 3 shows · 22 statements across 22 episodes
the Official SaaStr Podcast 
Top Founders 
20VC
22 statements about CAC Payback, every show
SDR Cross-Selling Works from a CAC Payback Perspective for Multi-Product SaaS
“And so when you have SDR resources that are able to go into the database and be able to find the customers that we are able to cross sell, I mean, we have so many different products. We have the luxury of being able to do that. And it works from, you know, a C…”
David Sacks: CAC Payback and Magic Number are flawed and easily miscalculated
“What I was seeing in metrics like CAC, is that if the finance team simply misattributed a certain expense, then, like, it would make the CAC Payback look great... Magic number is even the worst version of this. Like, no one knows how to calculate. It was const…”
Shen: Startups Over $5M–$10M ARR Should Prioritize CAC Payback Over Burn Multiples
“My big recommendation is for later stage companies, particularly if you're five, if not ten million AR and higher, to definitely start measuring your business by a CAC payback, because it's a true measure of new revenue that you're generating from your sales a…”
JazzHR Maintains a Sub-12-Month CAC Payback of Roughly $2,000
“So we are right now just under a 12 month kind of payback. So we're a little, just about 2000 dollars.”
Brandwatch maintains a 15-month margin-adjusted CAC payback period
“Our CAC payback, we want to get our CAC payback on a margin basis below 15 months, and we're there or thereabouts.”
Miglietti: Toucan Toco's CAC payback period is under one year
“If we add all the sales and marketing costs, which means that the payback is less than a year.”
Matt Dion: Mintent maintains an approximate 12-month CAC payback period
“No, it's about the same. I mean, we're about a one year cap payback.”
Medina: Gross-margin-adjusted CAC payback should never exceed 20 months
“You never want payback to be longer than 20 months. Gross margin adjusted.”
Kannan: [24]7.ai optimizes for a 12-month CAC payback period
“We are optimizing for a 12 month payback.”
Bodenhamer: ShipHawk's CAC payback is sub-eight months, targeting three
“I mean, our CAC payback right now is, is sub eight months. We're trying to get it down to three. That's our target.”
Chawla: ArchiveSocial Maintains Under 12-Month CAC Payback With Zero Burn
“We follow the rule of thumb of payback in under one year. Obviously without us raising outside funds, that's especially, especially important since we do not operate on the burn.”
Lee: ProsperWorks LTV/CAC exceeds 3x with 16-month CAC payback
“So LTV to CAC is greater than three. Our CAC payback is within 16 months.”
Schoenfeld: Calculating LTV on early SaaS cohorts is completely useless
“I don't think about LTV and SAS. I just look at the CAC ratio and then the, and the payback period. Cause I think when you start doing LTV on a half a percent of churn on an early cohort, it's like your LTV is a hundred years or something.”
Oechsle: Swiftpage CAC payback is 5 to 6 months on net new seats
“So, and we so, you know, the payback is less, about six, Five to six months on a net new.”
Palmer: Brandwatch achieves a 15-month margin-adjusted CAC payback period
“Our CAC payback, we want to get our CAC payback on a margin basis below 15 months, and we're there or thereabouts.”
StructuredWeb achieves a one-to-one first-year revenue return on marketing spend.
“We look at the amount of money we spend against new revenue that we generate. And typically it's about one to one. So for every dollar we invest, we would generate one dollar in the same year that we invested that.”
Olson: Pendo's CAC payback period exceeds 12 months
“More than 12. Yeah, I think it is. I mean, it, We should be under 12. But I think a little more than 12 is fine for the stage. Growing in our growth rates, I think it's fine.”
Bird: Fast-Growing Startups Should Focus on CAC Payback Over LTV
“I think people, the LTV number is not a, I don't think it's a good number to focus on. We calculate it and it's in our metrics and everything, but it's I think, you know, again, you know, you have 95% logo retention or dollar retention. You know, that customer…”
Exponea's CAC Payback Period is Around 11 Months
“So like the return on sales and marketing is around 11 months.”
Shen: CAC payback benchmarks for SMB, mid-market, and enterprise SaaS
“If you are a mid-market company, 12 month probably is your right number. But if you're selling to enterprise and you've got hundred K ACV deals, you're driving great upsell, you should think of everything as an LTV to CAC ratio. So if you've got a higher LTV, …”