customer acquisition cost

also referred to as: cac

114 statements across 112 episodes · 31 bullish · 5 bearish · 110 people on the record · first statement Feb 25, 2016 by Nick Kneuper · across every show →

Everything said about customer acquisition cost, oldest first

Feb 25, 2016
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kneuper: Electric Styles customer acquisition cost is $6 to $7
“So generally we spend about 15% of the product overall our whole business and our whole product line. So we end up spending about six to seven dollars to acquire a customer.”
Nick Kneuper Feb 25, 2016 ▶ 6:38 From Student to $10m Entrepreneur with Nick Kneuper of Electric Threads Ep 4
Apr 3, 2016 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kit CRM's customer acquisition cost is approximately $21
“Our cost per acquisition is about 21 dollars.”
Michael Perry Apr 3, 2016 ▶ 8:54 LTV, CAC, ARPU Numbers from SaaS CEO Michael Perry of Kitcrm.com EP 222
Apr 4, 2016 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cirrus Insight reports LTV of $750-$800 and CAC of $85
“So our LTV right now is between 758 hundred dollars. You know, cost of customer acquisitions about 85 bucks.”
Brandon Bruce Apr 4, 2016 ▶ 10:58 Cirrus Insight Is Doing $640k in MRR (Dec 2015) With Much Bigger Plans EP 226
Jul 13, 2016 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Berman: Inspire Beats maintains a customer acquisition cost under $40
“So I'd say it's cheap. Probably about, you know, 40 bucks a customer, maybe less.”
Alex Berman Jul 13, 2016 ▶ 10:52 EP 354: $1.3M in Monthly Revenue to Get You Leads with Alex Berman of Inspired Beats
Jul 28, 2016 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kale: AppZen's fully loaded CAC is under $18,000
“So, so far the CAC has been a little less than 18,000 dollars.”
Anant Kale Jul 28, 2016 ▶ 7:53 EP 369: 22 Customers Pay $50K/Year SaaS AppZen.com with Anant Kale
Aug 19, 2016
Disclosure
Fredrickson: Stowaway Targets $40-$50 CAC and $1,000 Customer Lifetime Value
“Keep in mind, this is based off of, say, the idea of a CAC of 40 To 50 dollars, so let's just round it to 40, and knowing that I want to make a thousand bucks off of this woman over a lifetime, and that means having the best possible products and making sure t…”
Julie Fredrickson Aug 19, 2016 ▶ 17:04 EP 391: Why Gary V Led $1.5M Round In This Cosmetics Company
Sep 12, 2016 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Semin: Datanyze customer acquisition cost is around $9,000
“Well right now our customer acquisition cost is around 9000 dollars.”
Ilya Semin Sep 12, 2016 ▶ 6:30 Datanyze $500k MRR, 500 Customers
Sep 29, 2016
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ledgard: KickOffLabs' fully weighted CAC is between $400 and $450
“I mean that if I'm doing that, it comes out to closer to like 400 or four 50.”
Josh Ledgard Sep 29, 2016 ▶ 14:09 EP 432: Boostrapped SaaS Hits $75k MRR, Viral Campaigns, 1000 Customers with KickOffLabs CEO Josh Ledgard
Nov 26, 2016 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
GoldenKey claims zero customer acquisition cost for supply and demand
“I, you know, customer acquisition costs on both supply and demand is zero.”
Tommy Sowers Nov 26, 2016 ▶ 13:34 EP 490: GoldenKey $3.4M Raised, 1000 Units Sold By Agents Using New Technology with CEO Tommy Sowers
Dec 3, 2016 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Woopra spends $1,000 to $2,000 to acquire a customer
“We're actually spending about One to 2000 dollars to acquire a customer.”
Elie Khoury Dec 3, 2016 ▶ 6:13 EP 497: Woopra $1M Raised, $1.6M 2015 Revenue, $300k MRR To Help Businesses Get Smarter with CEO Elie Khoury
Dec 17, 2016 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cullen: Leadiro spends roughly 20% of annual contract value on CAC
“So I mean, their annual plans would look at probably, you know, cost of around 20% to get that customer.”
Ian Cullen Dec 17, 2016 ▶ 12:14 EP 511: How to Pivot $50K MRR SaaS Company with Ian Cullen CEO of Leadiro
Jan 19, 2017 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Boggs: RevBoss has a customer acquisition cost around $2,000
“Like two K.”
Eric Boggs Jan 19, 2017 ▶ 16:28 EP 544: RevBoss $700k 2015 Revenue, Now $90k MRR to Help Customers Drive Revenue with CEO Eric Boggs
Feb 2, 2017
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Hotjar's customer acquisition cost ranges between $35 and $70
“No, I think the range would be something in the range between maybe 35 to 70.”
David Darmanin Feb 2, 2017 ▶ 15:18 EP 558: 2 yr Old HotJar Passes $500k MRR Helping 10,000 Customers See What Website Visitors Are Doing with CEO David Darmanin
Feb 27, 2017
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Socedo's customer acquisition cost is approximately $6,000
“We pay around 6000 dollars to acquire a customer.”
Aseem Badshah Feb 27, 2017 ▶ 15:36 EP 583: Socedo Does $1.5M+ In 2016, $200K MRR Now Helping 200 Customers Close More Leads with CEO Aseem Badshah
Apr 12, 2017 positive
Insight
Mader: Businesses Must Assign Fully Loaded CAC to SEO Content Campaigns
“Very often people say, is there, you can only assign CAC to something on which you're spending money, like an advertising campaign, but you should also do the same thing on your SEO campaigns. Who's actually writing the content.”
Mark Mader Apr 12, 2017 ▶ 16:45 EP 627: SmartSheet $70M Raised, $80M ARR, Helping 65,000 Customers with Project Management with CEO Mark Mader
Apr 12, 2017 negative
Insight
Mader: Blended Averages for CAC and LTV Lead to Destructive Spending
“I see too many businesses look at averages and averages can either completely turn you upside down or completely leave you under investing. So we never look at the average. We always look at the discreet item markets.”
Mark Mader Apr 12, 2017 ▶ 15:36 EP 627: SmartSheet $70M Raised, $80M ARR, Helping 65,000 Customers with Project Management with CEO Mark Mader
May 30, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Artesian tracks a one-year CAC payback period on annual contracts
“We're tracking on, on around about one X in year one, which I, you know, I believe is, is, is world-class”
Andrew Yates May 30, 2017 ▶ 14:39 675: Would you acquire Mattermark? Artesian $700k MRR, $40M Raised w/ CEO Andrew Yates
Jun 17, 2017 neutral
Insight
Scaling ad spend within the eBay seller niche will degrade CAC
“We are laser focused on making the lights of eBay seller much easier, but you know, there's an X amount of eBay sellers out there. So yeah, Even if you want to pour in more money, we will lose the focus in terms of conversion. I mean, our CAC will go up. So we…”
Victor Levitin Jun 17, 2017 ▶ 15:10 693: How to 3x SaaS Revenue in 8 Months from $25k to $85k
Jul 3, 2017
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cladwell's customer acquisition cost sits between $15 and $20
“We're still experimenting a good bit, but we're seeing right around that same range. Like it's around like 15, 20 bucks, something like that.”
Blake Smith Jul 3, 2017 ▶ 16:07 709: 17,000 Using This To Manage Wardrobe Efficiently
Jul 4, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wille: Klipfolio maintains a $700 to $800 customer acquisition cost
“So CAC is still around 700 dollars, 700 or 800 dollars. So we're still running very, very efficiently. So LW to CAC is still relatively healthy, although that's come down a little bit as well as we spend more on advertising. Sure. And then our CAC payback peri…”
Allan Wille Jul 4, 2017 ▶ 15:57 710: How This SaaS Company is Using $20 Million to Scale
Jul 10, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
KnowBe4's customer acquisition cost is approximately $2,600
“CAC sits at the moment about 2600 bucks.”
Stu Sjouwerman Jul 10, 2017 ▶ 11:28 716: Putin is Making This Man $50 Million Per Year
Aug 8, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cayasso: Slidebean acquires customers for around $150 fully weighted CAC
“So we acquire a customer for around a 150 bucks, which is actually very good for us.”
Jose Cayasso Aug 8, 2017 ▶ 7:55 745: At $1.5m Revenue, Is This The New PowerPoint?
Sep 9, 2017 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
MasterClass was instantly profitable on a user's first purchase at launch
“It made it so that on the first per, when somebody buys a class, we are able to make money on the first.”
David Rogier Sep 9, 2017 ▶ 12:15 777: Will Masterclass Win Online Course Wars?
Oct 5, 2017 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Highbox pays a customer acquisition cost of $230 per paying customer
“So we're paying around 230 dollars. That's our cost of acquisition per paying customer.”
Spencer Kuhn Oct 5, 2017 ▶ 16:00 803: SaaS: Email He Used To Get From $0 to $10k MRR
Nov 4, 2017 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tint's customer acquisition cost is approximately $2,000
“The customer acquisition costs will probably be anywhere from 2000 probably.”
Tim Sae Koo Nov 4, 2017 ▶ 12:14 833: SaaS: Almost Broke, Pivots 2013, Now $5m+ in ARR in Social Hashtag Tracking Space
Nov 5, 2017
Disclosure
Muscat Reports a Fully Weighted CAC of $20,000 Per Customer
“20, 20,000 per customer, if you include everything.”
Oscar Nelson Nov 5, 2017 ▶ 12:58 834: SaaS: He Hit 5x YoY Revenue Growth in Performance Marketing Space
Nov 27, 2017
Insight
Hossain: SaaS companies under $10M ARR typically see 12-to-18-month payback
“You want to be able to acquire in SAS a customer that's going to pay back over 12 months, ideally. At this stage, a little bit earlier you know you know, we're under ten million, I mentioned ARR, so typically, you know, if you're 12 months, you're doing really…”
Nadim Hossain Nov 27, 2017 ▶ 14:42 856 SaaS: How Brightfunnel CEO Replaced Himself After Hitting $2m+ ARR, 45 Employees
Dec 16, 2017 neutral
Disclosure
Bizible Targets 12 to 18-Month CAC Payback Period
“So the all in, we target 12 to 18 months payback. For CAC.”
Aaron Bird Dec 16, 2017 ▶ 13:04 875 SaaS: Bizable Passes $1m MRR in Attribution Wars
Feb 26, 2018
Insight
Carson: Standard CAC to LTV is a vanity metric without gross profit
“We think people who focus on CAC to LTV is, it can be a vanity metric period because you're not actually focusing on, on gross profit LTV. So actually how much, Profit are you driving the LTV and what is the fully loaded CAC, which means you got to include you…”
Ryan Carson Feb 26, 2018 ▶ 15:01 947 Is He The New King of Education? 80k Student Customers and $24m in Revenue Says "Yes!"
Mar 1, 2018 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Dickerson: Upfront front-end sales reduce net CAC to effectively zero
“Our all-in cost to acquire customers is about a 130 dollars at this point. But like Russell said, we don't really even look at it that way because that, that upfront media spin that last month was about a 130. So that upfront media spin that was really paid ba…”
Todd Dickerson Mar 1, 2018 ▶ 15:14 950 How Clickfunnels Grew From $14m to $60m in ARR in 18 Months
Mar 3, 2018
Disclosure
Coppinger: Teamwork's fully loaded customer acquisition cost is roughly $360
“Roughly to acquire a customer, excluding wages and stuff is about a 114 dollars, including wages and so on. We're at about, I think, 360 dollars is what we worked out.”
Peter Coppinger Mar 3, 2018 ▶ 9:29 952 How Teamwork.com Got 20,000 Customers and $18m in ARR With No Funding
Mar 6, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Karnjanaprakorn: Consumer SaaS charging $5-$20 monthly sees $10-$50 CAC
“I think for our price point, for any consumer SaaS description business, you'll see, you know, CAC rate from anywhere from 10 to 50 dollars. For a price point anywhere between let's say five and 20 dollars per month. So let's say we're within that range.”
Michael Karnjanaprakorn Mar 6, 2018 ▶ 14:36 955 How Skillshare Doubles YoY to $30m+ With Huge Content Library
Mar 16, 2018 negative
Insight
Carlson: Non-SaaS public investors often misunderstand CAC and payback periods
“Oftentimes investors don't understand when we get to the point where we're talking about our CAC and LTV ratios and things that I share with you. You know, there's strong arguments for investing, but then you've got longer payback periods than maybe an investo…”
Rick Carlson Mar 16, 2018 ▶ 11:56 965 Why This $14m ARR Company "Went Public" To Win Marketing Automation Space
May 3, 2018 negative
Insight
LTV-to-CAC ratios are almost meaningless for evaluating SaaS companies.
“Yeah, I mean, like when you look at lifetime value and that kind of CAC ratio in a SaaS company, it's almost meaningless.”
Frank Bien May 3, 2018 ▶ 13:59 1013 Guess How This Data Tool Will Break $100m In 2018
May 28, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nelissen: Prezly's fully weighted CAC is around $7,000 to $8,000
“So like I would say right now it's around seven to eight K fully weighted. Yeah. Fully weighted. So including salaries and like, but there's a really big difference in like self-service client and enterprise clients, which are our most important segments.”
Gijs Nelissen May 28, 2018 ▶ 8:33 1038 How Prezly Bootstrapped To $1.6m+ in ARR
Jun 5, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enplug's fully weighted customer acquisition cost is around $1,100
“So the CAC ends up being around 1100 dollars per customer, new customer.”
Nancy Liu Jun 5, 2018 ▶ 12:19 1046 She Controls WeWork TV Screens, Passes $4.8m ARR
Jun 10, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Balogh: MarketMuse spends about $9,000 to acquire a customer
“So we, we're spending about nine grand in acquiring a customer.”
Aki Balogh Jun 10, 2018 ▶ 12:34 1051 CEO: "We Went from $35k in MRR to $350k in 12 months"
Jun 21, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
True Signal's average customer acquisition cost is $40,000 to $50,000.
“No, if I had to average it out, I would say probably closer to kind of the 40 to 50,000 dollars is kind of what it would be.”
David Dowhan Jun 21, 2018 ▶ 12:43 1062 I raised $5m to spin the company out of corporate
Jun 28, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Elastic.io estimates agency partner acquisition cost at roughly $10,000
“My gut feeling would tell me it's like something like maybe 10 K per partner.”
Renat Zubairov Jun 28, 2018 ▶ 13:13 1069 Elastic CEO: We're A More Professional Zapier
Aug 3, 2018
Insight
Latka: Highly profitable low-CAC growth channels are honeypots that inevitably degrade
“Everyone thinks you find a growth channel where the CAC is one third of the LTV, and it's just going to exist forever. The fact of the matter is, they don't. These are all honeypots, and you can milk the honeypot for a while, but eventually competitors move an…”
Nathan Latka Aug 3, 2018 ▶ 16:31 1105 Should you develop every customer request?
Aug 27, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Oechsle: Swiftpage net new customer CAC is $140 to $160 per seat
“So a net new is costing us per unit probably in that 140 to 160 dollar range.”
John Oechsle Aug 27, 2018 ▶ 20:00 1129 He Bought $70m Of ARR w/ Other Peoples Money, Kept 60%+ Equity for Common
Oct 2, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Têtu: Coveo spends $1.20 to $1.70 per dollar of ACV
“We spend depending on our lines of business, we spend between a dollar 20 to a dollar 70 to acquire a dollar of a CV.”
Louis Têtu Oct 2, 2018 ▶ 18:39 1165 Coveo CEO: "We'll pass $100m ARR imminently" on $150m raised for AI powered search
Oct 6, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
SaaSquatch spends six to nine months of revenue on CAC
“So we're spending about six to nine months revenue to acquire a customer right now.”
Will Fraser Oct 6, 2018 ▶ 12:35 1169 From $40CPA Model to $900/mo SaaS, 100% yoy growth
Nov 7, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Talkpush spends $11,000 to acquire enterprise customers worth $62,000 lifetime
“11,000 yeah, 11,000 CAC and an LTV of around 62 right now.”
Max Armbruster Nov 7, 2018 ▶ 12:11 1201 How he sold customers before hiring first head of engineering
Nov 8, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schoenfeld: Siftrock CAC is half of ACV with six-month payback
“Yeah, so it's about half of what our ACV is. It takes us about six months to pay it back. So call, I mean, it fluctuates, you know, some quarters it's four, some it's eight, right?”
Adam Schoenfeld Nov 8, 2018 ▶ 15:57 1202 He Raised $20m+ in First Company, Now Bootstrapping in B2B Sales Tech Space, $1m in ARR
Nov 9, 2018
Insight
Levin: Recovering CAC in one month means a startup is underinvesting
“If we recover in customer position cost in one month, that means we are spending not enough.”
Eugene Levin Nov 9, 2018 ▶ 11:09 1203 SEMRush to hit $80m ARR This Year, Here's How
Nov 17, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Nicholas Dorn estimates Filestage's customer acquisition cost at 300 to 400 euros
“Last time I calculated it was around, I think, 304 hundred euros.”
Nicholas Dorn Nov 17, 2018 ▶ 7:04 1211 Finally an easy way for teams to edit videos, creative, doing $40k in MRR
Nov 24, 2018
Assertion Not checkable as stated
iZooto's customer acquisition cost ranges from $1,200 to $1,500
“We spent close to about, I think, 1012 200 to 1500 dollars on a monthly basis.”
Vivek Khandelwal Nov 24, 2018 ▶ 10:43 1218 This Browser Notification Company Just Hit 400 Customers, $600k ARR
Dec 15, 2018 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sailthru's customer acquisition cost is 1.5x its first-year contract value
“So it's probably one of the half times are our first year cost, which is pretty high.”
Neil Lustig Dec 15, 2018 ▶ 9:04 1239 SailThru raised $50m, now profitable, 20% yoy growth, whats next?
Dec 19, 2018 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mask: Infusionsoft CAC dropped below $2,000
“No, it's actually gone down to below two K.”
Clate Mask Dec 19, 2018 ▶ 11:49 1243 Infusionsoft North of $100m in ARR, Details of Mars Mission to 5m SMB Customers
Jan 26, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Contently's fully loaded CAC averages $40,000
“Right now it's about 40,000. It's sort of, Goes between 30 and 50 K.”
Joe Coleman Jan 26, 2019 ▶ 22:29 1281 Contently Pays Creators $30m Annually, Passes $20m in ARR 40% yoy growth
Feb 18, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Carruthers: Voxpopme's fully baked customer acquisition cost averages $6,000
“So from a CAC perspective where I would say typically over the last 12 months, it probably averages out to about 6000 dollars. Kind of fully baked.”
Dave Carruthers Feb 18, 2019 ▶ 13:42 1304 Raising $10m on $30m Pre Right Now for Video Feedback Platform, $5m ARR
Mar 6, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Webflow's CAC is $80 to $85 with under three-month payback
“Our current CAC is about 80, 85. So we get our money back before before the three months are over”
Vlad Magdalin Mar 6, 2019 ▶ 11:39 1320 $14m in ARR on $2.9m Raised Inventing New Visual Way to Code Service 3000 Freelancers
Mar 20, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Oil and Gas Analytics' customer acquisition cost is $5K to $50K
“Our lowest cost of bringing in a customer so far has probably been in like the five K range total. It's happened, you know, very quickly local customer. On the outside we haven't invested more than 50 yet in bringing a customer on board.”
Luther Birdzell Mar 20, 2019 ▶ 15:07 1334 This $600k+ ARR SaaS Helps Oil and Gas Companies Predict Oil Well Production
Apr 15, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Ottino: Doodle targets an $8 to $10 CAC per free trial
“I think, I mean, we need to take it, we need to take it down to about eight to 10 dollars for a free trial at the most.”
Gabriel Ottino Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 15:34 1360 How He's Shifting Doodle Meeting Tool 200m MAU's to SaaS
Apr 16, 2019
Disclosure
Adthena's fully diluted customer acquisition cost is roughly $30,000
“Fully diluted CLAC last count in dollars probably, I think it's a roughly 30 grand.”
Ian O'Rourke Apr 16, 2019 ▶ 13:15 1361 Adthena Passes $7m in ARR, 80% YoY Growth
Apr 18, 2019 neutral
Insight
Soffer: Customer success and onboarding costs do not belong in CAC
“Where we've gotten better, we've gotten a lot better at sort of the onboarding process, the customer success process. I don't, Put those folks as part of CAC. I put them as, because they do they're not just about acquisition of the revenue. They're really abou…”
Philip Soffer Apr 18, 2019 ▶ 15:59 1363 Test IO CEO: We'll Pass $10m in ARR Soon
Apr 22, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
CloudBeds Spends Precisely $807 in CAC to Onboard a New Property
“About 807 dollars.”
Adam Harris Apr 22, 2019 ▶ 11:28 1367 CloudBeds Passes $10m in ARR, Launches AirBnB Partnership
May 4, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Brumder: Brandlive spends just over $1 CAC per dollar ARR
“No, we, we're just over a dollar per a dollar in sales and marketing costs per dollar of ARR per year.”
Fritz Brumder May 4, 2019 ▶ 15:59 1379 Live Video for Consumer Brands like Pottery Barn Passes $3m in ARR
May 21, 2019
Disclosure
Percolate targets a customer acquisition cost payback period under six months
“Yeah, we look below six months on CAC.”
Randy Wootton May 21, 2019 ▶ 15:11 1396 Percolate Flirts with $40m in ARR, 600 Brands Using as Their Ultimate Content Machine
Jun 2, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lumen5 achieves roughly $200 CAC and $600 LTV on paid ads
“On, on our efforts with ads, it's about 200 dollars CAC on a 600 dollar lifetime value, but it's also really hard to calculate because we haven't been around that long, so lifetime value just goes up as the months go by.”
Michael Cheng Jun 2, 2019 ▶ 13:44 1408 Quickly Launch Video Creatives With Automatic Tool Lumen5, $100k in MRR
Jun 25, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Narowski: Karma CRM Targets $300 to $400 CAC
“So it varies, very varies a lot based on if it's organic or if it's not, but our target is about three, 400.”
JP Narowski Jun 25, 2019 ▶ 7:15 1431 CRM for Speakers Passes $30k in MRR
Jun 27, 2019
Disclosure
Kamleitner: Walls.io customer acquisition cost is approximately €100
“I had, I have a browser window open. I can now tell you that the CAC is, is around 100 euro. So that's about half our average, average per month.”
Michael Kamleitner Jun 27, 2019 ▶ 13:41 1433 Can You Run 2 $1.5m ARR Companies At Same Time?
Jun 28, 2019 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
WorkBoard's upfront onboarding fees recover most of its customer acquisition cost
“It does, and it drives that attach rate to leader number two, number three, and number four.”
Deidre Paknad Jun 28, 2019 ▶ 14:17 1434 She Saved a Pre Revenue $60m Raised Company, Then Launched Own Passing $6m in ARR for Team Alignment Tool
Jul 22, 2019 negative
Opinion
Schneider: LTV and CAC Metrics Are Confusing and Excessively Subjective
“CAC and LTV. I I've seen five different calculations and I've talked to multiple different investors on that. And we tend to find that metric is confusing and requires allocation of marketing spend and all that sort of stuff that, that is subjective.”
Steven Schneider Jul 22, 2019 ▶ 22:19 1458 Why He's Aiming for 20% FCF+Growth As $30M ARR Private Equity Owned Company
Aug 26, 2019 neutral
Disclosure
Rossi: Buzzsprout pays $40 affiliate CAC, splitting $20 to each party
“I think it's 40 dollars that we pay because we give 20 dollars to the affiliate and we give 20 dollars to the person that was referred through the affiliate. So that way they have some incentive to give to, you know, Hey, if you sign up, you'll get 20 dollars …”
Tom Rossi Aug 26, 2019 ▶ 11:11 1493 How Podast Hosting Company Buzzsprout Passed $15k in MRR, 1000 Customers, Bootstrapped
Aug 29, 2019
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Garcia: Sólides' fully weighted customer acquisition cost is close to $500
“It's close to 500 dollars.”
Alessandro Garcia Aug 29, 2019 ▶ 5:21 1496 Employee Engagement Platform in Brazil Passes $1.8M ARR, Raising $3m on $10m Pre
Sep 2, 2019
Disclosure
Bullhorn spends $1.10 to $1.50 to acquire one dollar of ARR
“We'll spend about 22, five to 25. Depends on the segment. So bigger customers, more expensive. So you'll spend up to 25, you know, a dollar 50. To acquire a dollar of recurring revenue. Smaller customers, you'll spend about a dollar 10.”
Art Pappas Sep 2, 2019 ▶ 18:08 1500 BullHorn Sold 60% Early On, Now $200m in ARR, E50+
Oct 8, 2019
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Murphy: Atlatl CAC ranges from $90K to $100K per enterprise account
“It's ranging from about the 90 to a hundred K.”
Mark Murphy Oct 8, 2019 ▶ 5:08 1536 Manufacturing Sales Platform Hits $5m ARR With New $250k ACV Plans
Nov 2, 2019
Disclosure
Matei: Mixmax Operated With Zero Paid CAC Until Late 2019
“We started spending, you know, two, three months ago at best. Up until then, it was all zero CAC.”
Olaf Matei Nov 2, 2019 ▶ 14:01 1561 How To Get 5 Team Members Paying Personally Onto One Team Account with $5m ARR MixMax
Dec 17, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Farrow: Aisle Planner's customer acquisition cost is approximately $100
“I would say on average, it's probably about a hundred bucks is, is probably a realistic number right now.”
Rob Farrow Dec 17, 2019 ▶ 11:14 1606 The Right Way To Use Venture Debt to Hit $320k in MRR
Dec 23, 2019 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Resource Guru's fully weighted customer acquisition cost is about $325
“CAC is about 325 dollars.”
Andrew Rogoff Dec 23, 2019 ▶ 10:40 1612 How He Used SEO To Scale To $150k MRR In Team Time Management Space
Feb 7, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Adrian: Latakoo has a $9,000 customer acquisition cost and 9-month payback
“So our CAC is 9000 or just under 9000 dollars today. So that's about a nine month payback period.”
Paul Adrian Feb 7, 2020 ▶ 7:26 1658 Why 142 Production Teams Pay Him $142k/mo For Quicker File Management
Feb 10, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Parsons: Palo Alto Software maintains a customer acquisition cost under $100
“It is a sub 100 dollar CAC.”
Sabrina Parsons Feb 10, 2020 ▶ 15:03 1661 How Palo Alto Software Broke $14m in ARR Serving SMB's
Feb 18, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Intermix Maintains Sub-$10,000 CAC and Two-Month Sales Cycle
“Our CAC at this point is, you know, south of 10 of 10 K. Our, you know, the nice thing about our business is that we can sell it over the phone. Typically customers will make a decision. There's a free trial and they'll make a decision in about two weeks two t…”
Paul Lappas Feb 18, 2020 ▶ 11:32 1669 Weird Way He Gets Customers, $1m in ARR for Data Pipeline Visibility
Mar 11, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Jednak: ClientPoint reports $7,000 CAC and $35,000 gross margin-adjusted LTV
“Aggregate total lifetime, you know, value, you know, lifetime you know, value, you know, calculated obviously gross margin, not top line revenue. So calculated the right way is about 35,000 dollars on average across everyone from our tiniest to our biggest. So…”
Andy Jednak Mar 11, 2020 ▶ 11:28 1691 Why This Company Rebranded with $950k Raised Helping Clients Customize Proposals
Mar 22, 2020
Insight
Boufaden: Partner CAC Must Include Acquisition and Enablement Costs
“The cost of acquisition of the customer base of that partner is really, you need to take into account the costs That you had to pay to acquire that partner. And then the costs that you put on top of that when you were helping the sales team convert the custome…”
Narjès Boufaden Mar 22, 2020 ▶ 16:39 1702 She's About to Pass $1m in ARR in AI Text Analytics Feedback
Mar 30, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Kumar: Cropin customer acquisition cost is $5,000 to $6,000
“CAC will be somewhere around, you know close to 5000 dollar 5000 dollar to 6000 dollar.”
Krishna Kumar Mar 30, 2020 ▶ 16:16 1710 Crop Optimization Software Hits $2.4m in ARR, $12m Raised
Apr 1, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Targeting multi-location franchises reduced customer acquisition costs to $300
“When we kind of dug into it, what we found is any customer that had more than three employees did more than 350,000 dollars a year, had more than one location or had to manage inventory. They didn't turn as much. So we were able to take that and drive the CAC.…”
Steve Cody Apr 1, 2020 ▶ 15:48 1712 Investors put in $10m, He Left, Bought Back Company for Pennies on Dollar, How?
May 5, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Plus This maintains a fully weighted CAC of about $170
“No, fully weighted CAC is about a 170 bucks.”
Dave Lee May 5, 2020 ▶ 7:47 1746 Infusionsoft Employee #8 Launches New Venture, Passes $175k in MRR, 2500 SMB Customers
May 12, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TeleSense Spends $5K to $10K to Acquire Large Enterprise Customers
“So I think currently if I have to compute, you know, how much I'm paying my five guys And how many sales are they bringing in so that I can compute a CAC? It's probably going to be, you know, five or 10,000 dollars per large customer, which is probably higher …”
Naeem Zafar May 12, 2020 ▶ 19:01 1753 "IoT AgTech Device Hits $1m Software Run Rate and $1.2m in Hardware Sales. Can He Get $60m Valuation? "
May 12, 2020 negative
Insight
Zafar: Hardware Startups Must Strictly Separate COGS From CAC
“And as a professor of entrepreneurship, I'll insist they should not mix the two. That will cloud the scenario because I'm a professor. I teach this topic. They must separate cogs from CAC. Otherwise, they will be confusing themselves.”
Naeem Zafar May 12, 2020 ▶ 20:39 1753 "IoT AgTech Device Hits $1m Software Run Rate and $1.2m in Hardware Sales. Can He Get $60m Valuation? "
May 29, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Refersion CAC is $20 to $25 With Minimal Marketing Spend
“Well, I think it's about 20, 25 dollars. It's not very high at all. Our marketing spend is only in like, it's only like 200 K, not even.”
Shibo Zhu May 29, 2020 ▶ 22:30 Refersion.com: Bootstrapped SaaS Doing $1.5m in Cash Flow
Jun 26, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Gerrie: ZigZag acquires customers for under 10% of annual contract value
“Less than 10%.”
Al Gerrie Jun 26, 2020 ▶ 14:28 ZigZag Hits $5m Revenue Helping Brands Like Gap Manage Returns
Jul 16, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Austin: Fresh Relevance CAC is less than first-year contract value
“I don't want to give an exact thing on that, but we're spending less than the first annual year value.”
Mike Austin Jul 16, 2020 ▶ 16:15 FreshRelevance Founders Put Up $500k To Start, Now $5m Revenue, 500 Customers
Jul 18, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
JustCall spends $150 to $200 to acquire a $150 monthly customer
“It costs us about the same, like one 5200 dollars.”
Gaurav Sharma Jul 18, 2020 ▶ 9:24 JustCall Hits $2.5m ARR, 60% Profits, Bootstrapped Helping 1600 Teams Use Cloud Phone Systems
Jul 21, 2020
Disclosure
QuestionPro pays $6K to $8K CAC for $15K enterprise accounts
“So, yeah, I mean, I think our kind of cat approximately is, and I think our analysis is somewhere in the six to 8000 dollar range, you know, in terms of getting people into the door.”
Vivek Bhaskaran Jul 21, 2020 ▶ 9:30 QuestionPro Hits $20m Revenue, $5m Cash In Bank, Selling 60% Of Company For $50m Next?
Aug 5, 2020
Insight
Latka: Early-Stage CAC is Non-Engineering Payroll Divided by New Customers
“I mean, early stage SAS, the best way to calculate CAC is to take everyone who's not an engineer. So anyone focused on marketing, product sales, take all your salaries monthly, and then divide that by number of new customers you're getting each month.”
Nathan Latka Aug 5, 2020 ▶ 13:36 SupportBee Ticket Software Hits $45k MRR, Bootstrapped, how?
Aug 18, 2020 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Graham: MonetizeMore's fully loaded marketing CAC is $150
“So because we're mostly inbound when we calculate CAC, we include all our fixed costs of the whole marketing department, and that comes to a 150 dollars.”
Kean Graham Aug 18, 2020 ▶ 17:48 MonetizeMore Bootstrapped to $5m Run Rate in AdTech Space
Aug 21, 2020 neutral
Disclosure
Document360's customer acquisition cost is roughly $1,500 to $1,800
“For a document three 60, the current CAC is around a 1500 to 1800 per per customer.”
Saravana Kumar Aug 21, 2020 ▶ 20:32 Kovai $8.5m Revenue, India Bootstrapped, 3 Core SaaS Products
Oct 3, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
QuickOrder Reports Fully Weighted CAC of $2,000
“So if you factor everything in with salary and onboarding and ad spend our CAC right now is 2000 dollars.”
Mads Vejderkop Oct 3, 2020 ▶ 11:13 QuickOrder Hits $4m In Under 18 Months Helping Restaurants Survive Pandemic
Oct 8, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Evans: ClickUp acquires paying customers for as low as $1,000
“We can get customers for as low as like a thousand bucks paying customers for as low as a thousand bucks.”
Zeb Evans Oct 8, 2020 ▶ 17:39 Clickup Close To $34m in Revenue, Competing in Project Management Space with 300,000 Paid Seats
Nov 4, 2020 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Penji acquires $499-per-month customers for just $250 via paid ads
“I would be somewhere around two something two 42 50, somewhere around there.”
Jonathan Grzbowski Nov 4, 2020 ▶ 14:25 Penji Hits $4m Revenue Helping 1000 Customers With Unlimited Design Work
Nov 29, 2020
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Miglietti: Toucan Toco's average CAC is 40,000 euros
“Today the average cost of acquisition is 40 K, 40 K euro.”
Charles Miglietti Nov 29, 2020 ▶ 10:28 ToucanToco Raising Right Now $10m on $50m+ Pre with $5m in Revenue
Dec 10, 2020
Disclosure
Adler: Flume's Customer Acquisition Cost Is 25% to 35% of Retail Price
“I can't give you our exact hack but, you know, we're sitting in the I'll just say 25 to 35 percent of our overall price.”
Eric Adler Dec 10, 2020 ▶ 19:21 FlumeWater Sells 10k Units at $200 With SaaS Upsell
Feb 21, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Harris: SpringBig Customer Acquisition Cost Is Under $3,000 All-In
“Yeah, so it's about all in. It's a little less than 3000 dollars, so we're breaking even.”
Jeffrey Harris Feb 21, 2021 ▶ 17:45 SpringBig Raised $11.5m on $100m Valuation at $20m Revenue in Niche CRM Space
Mar 5, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mackin: Curaytor's CAC Is Roughly $7,500
“You know, we tracked this really recently. So this, you know, may evolve over time, but right now our CAC is roughly about 7500 dollars.”
Jimmy Mackin Mar 5, 2021 ▶ 14:49 Real Estate Tool Loses $3.6m During COVID, Now Recovered to $10m Run Rate
Mar 12, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
TenWeb's customer acquisition cost is $100
“Our customer acquisition cost is a hundred dollars.”
Tigran Nazarian Mar 12, 2021 ▶ 8:51 25m Wordpress Plugin Downloads, Now Raising $3m for SaaS Product
Apr 19, 2021 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Referizer pays $800 to $900 CAC for $180/month customers
“About eight to 900 dollars.”
Andrei Spivak (Andrei Spivovic) Apr 19, 2021 ▶ 20:20 How He Hit $2m in Revenue Cold Calling 20,000 PER WEEK
Jun 2, 2021 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Simonis: Qualifio customer acquisition cost is around 15K with one-year payback
“Sorry, in terms of CAC yeah, we are spending around, around 15 K so we can say that, or after, after the first year, the new customer are completely yeah, profitable.”
Olivier Simonis Jun 2, 2021 ▶ 19:15 He's stepping down as CEO. Strange move with $6.6m in Revenue?
Jul 10, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
ScholarshipOwl's CAC for $15/month customers is $50
“It cost me today 50 dollars.”
David Dabachnikov Jul 10, 2021 ▶ 12:59 ScholarshipOwl Breaks $4m Revenue Helping 15k Students Get Loans
Jul 13, 2021 positive
Insight
Indirect Channel Distribution Trades Gross Margins for Lower Upfront CAC
“For indirect, what typically happens if you do it well is your CAC will go down, but you're shifting that CAC to success driven revenue share. So it's a more efficient use of a cost of capital. So your CAC goes down, your gross margins go down too, because you…”
Pete Lamson Jul 13, 2021 ▶ 6:27 PE Just Ate JazzHR, Here are their metrics 1 year ago
Jul 28, 2021 neutral
Disclosure
Parak: MaidThis's residential customer acquisition cost is around $66
“Ours is probably about, I think last time I calculated a CAC with for regular essential, I think was about 66 dollars.”
Neil Parak Jul 28, 2021 ▶ 15:20 Cleaning Marketplace Hits $1.2m ARR, Now Scaling with $35k Franchises
Oct 11, 2021 positive
Insight
Latka: Building media brands arbitrages SaaS customer acquisition costs
“I think a very smart move to arbitrage CAC in any SaaS business is to build a media brand.”
Nathan Latka Oct 11, 2021 ▶ 2:05 FreightWaves Hits $30m Revenue, Spends No Money on CAC, Media Business Winning
Dec 19, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
RentRedi Initially Spent $1,000 to Acquire a $9-Per-Month Customer
“Going back to the beginning of last year we're, you know, spending upwards of a thousand dollars a customer to add To get it, to get a nine dollar a month customer. Yep. And as that year went on, I mean, we were able to drop that customer acquisition cost to, …”
Ryan Brown Dec 19, 2021 ▶ 13:20 RentRedi Lands 5,000 Landlords as It Cracks $2m in Revenue and 3+ Product Lines
Feb 8, 2022 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Golee spends 6 to 8 euros on customer acquisition per web registration
“So, we're doing web marketing, and right now our CAC on web marketing is pretty low. It's between six and eight euros, so every six euros we spend, we get a new registration.”
Tommaso Guerra Feb 8, 2022 ▶ 16:11 Software For Soccer Leagues Raises at $7m Valuation, Hits $35k in Monthly Revenue
Feb 21, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Paré: DashThis blended customer acquisition cost is approximately $450
“I mean, like for all our clients, like the cash, the customer acquisition costs for all of our clients, like is about like 450 dollars.”
Antoine Paré Feb 21, 2022 ▶ 4:36 How this Reporting Tool Bootstrapped to $4.2m ARR, 2600 Customers
Apr 27, 2022
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kontentino's CAC increased from $350 to $1,100 after 2019
“This is our customer acquisition cost before 2019. 350 US dollars. Quite okay. But what happened is that right now we have 1100 customer acquisition cost.”
Bohumil Pokštefl Apr 27, 2022 ▶ 5:03 3 things this $2m revenue bootstrapper would do differently
Aug 24, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
WordLift's Average Customer Acquisition Cost is €180 to €200
“If we look at the cohort of the, you know, average user getting a subscription for us, we're talking about 182 hundred euro for acquisition.”
Andrea Volpini Aug 24, 2022 ▶ 4:58 Bootstrapped SEO SaaS Hits $1.8m ARR, 28% Profits!
Apr 8, 2023 neutral
Disclosure
NutriSense paid average customer acquisition cost is around $200
“Yeah, around 200. I'm around 200.”
Dan Zavorotny Apr 8, 2023 ▶ 3:13 How He Grew Nutrisense From $12m to $45m ARR Last 12 Months for Health SaaS
May 4, 2023 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Donovan: SaaS multiples had no statistical link to margins or CAC pre-2022
“What is kind of surprising is during that period, there was no statistical relationship between your multiple and your margin, your gross margin, or your CAC, your sales and marketing efficiency.”
Jeremey Donovan May 4, 2023 ▶ 9:28 How We Help ScaleUps Measure Efficient Growth
Jun 30, 2023
Insight
Van Voorhis: A 1:1 SDR-to-AE ratio increases CAC by idling expensive AEs
“SDRs are cheaper than AEs. So when you have the one-to-one ratio, you're, this is not full CAC, but it is impacting CAC. Your CAC is increasing because you have higher more expensive employees who are sitting around not doing demos.”
Kyle Van Voorhis Jun 30, 2023 ▶ 13:58 How I use sales data to increase revenue without hiring more reps
Sep 21, 2023 neutral
Disclosure
Mini Hotel's customer acquisition and onboarding cost is $300 to $400
“A client mostly costs us around three or 400 dollars to implement because we have automated tools that are helping us.”
Yuval Stockhammer Sep 21, 2023 ▶ 16:11 How this Hotel SaaS Hit $1.3m ARR and 1400 Customers
Oct 10, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Novoselsky: Social selling decreases customer acquisition cost by almost 20%
“And the fun fact, when you're on it and you're using it decreases your CAC by almost 20%.”
Irina Novoselsky Oct 10, 2024 ▶ 17:10 Hootsuite Approaching $400m in Revenue by Throwing out the SaaS Playbook with CEO Irina Novoselsky
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