Estimated Customer Lifetime Value
$0
Net of acquisition cost. Gross-margin adjusted. Based on your current churn.
LTV : CAC Ratio
Health Check
0.00
: 1
Burn cash < 1:1
Marginal 1-3:1
Healthy 3:1+
Healthy
SaaS
Sets sensible defaults for the four inputs below.
$150
Monthly revenue per active customer. For transactional businesses, use average order value.
Industry: $150 /mo
80%
Revenue minus cost of delivery. SaaS is usually 70-85%. Service businesses 40-65%.
Industry: 75-85%
4.0%
% of customers that cancel each month. For transactional businesses, repurchase interval drives this.
Industry: 3-6% /mo
$400
Total sales + marketing spend divided by new customers acquired. Include people, tools, ad spend.
Industry: $300-500
8%
Year-over-year ARPU growth from existing customers (upgrades, add-ons, price increases).
Industry: 5-15%Customer Lifetime
25 mo
Avg months a customer stays active before churning.
CAC Payback
3.3 mo
Months until acquisition cost is recovered from gross margin.
Annual Contract Value
$1,800
ARPU x 12. Useful for annual prepay deal sizing.
Year-1 Margin Per Customer
$1,260
ARPU x margin x 12, net of churn during the year.
24-Month Cohort Retention Projection
Your cohort
Month 24 Active
0%
How You Stack Against Your Industry
Industry median
You
LTV
Lifetime value per customer
$3,000
LTV : CAC
Ratio (higher is better)
3.0x
Payback period
Months to recover CAC (lower is better)
5 mo
Monthly churn
% lost each month (lower is better)
4.0%
Gross margin
% revenue retained after delivery cost
80%
Sensitivity: which lever moves LTV the most?
Modeled against your current inputs
Operator Playbook
1
Cut churn before scaling spend. A 1% drop in monthly churn raises LTV more than a 10% drop in CAC.
Always work the retention lever first.
2
Target a CAC payback under 12 months. Above that, you're a cash-flow business pretending to be a
growth business. Sub-6 months is best-in-class.
3
Use gross margin, not revenue, when computing LTV. A $100 ARPU at 30% margin is worth less than
a $50 ARPU at 80% margin once you factor in fulfillment cost.
4
If LTV:CAC drops below 3:1, stop the channel, not the spend. Find which acquisition channel is dragging
the blended ratio down and pause that one specifically.
5
Expansion revenue is free LTV. A 10% annual upsell rate on existing customers compounds harder than
a 10% increase in new acquisition. Build the upsell motion before the next ad campaign.
Free Detailed Report
Get the full breakdown by email & SMS.
We'll send you a 5-page PDF with your numbers, your industry benchmarks, the three specific retention and pricing levers most likely to move your ratio, and a 30-minute strategy slot with the founder if you want one.
Your LTV report is on the way.
Check your email for your personalized report (and spam if needed). We'll use your number for follow-up from Nirvani when relevant. Sammy will personally reach out within 24 hours if you flagged the strategy-call option.
MeetingHow this calculator works
What formula is this using?
Two layers. The classic LTV formula is
LTV = ARPU x GrossMargin / MonthlyChurn, which
gives you a steady-state value. We layer expansion revenue on top by compounding ARPU at the annual
expansion rate you provide, then discounting future cash by churn. That gives you a realistic
24-month cohort curve instead of a flat geometric series. CAC payback is
CAC / (ARPU x GrossMargin) in months.Why does the LTV:CAC ratio matter more than raw LTV?
Raw LTV without context is vanity. A $10K LTV that takes $9K to acquire is a charity. The ratio tells
you whether the unit economics support reinvestment. 3:1 is the long-standing floor for venture-scale
growth. Below 1:1 you're burning cash on every customer. Between 1-3 you're stable but capital
inefficient. Above 5:1 you're probably underspending on growth.
How accurate are the industry benchmarks?
Defaults are blended from public SaaS benchmark reports (OpenView, ChartMogul, Bessemer State of the
Cloud), DTC ecommerce reports (Klaviyo, Shopify Plus), and Nirvani's own deployment data across 200+
SMB clients. They're medians, not means. Your numbers will vary by region, niche, and channel mix.
If your actuals beat the benchmarks, your actuals are the truth. The benchmarks only matter for the
slider defaults.
Should I use gross margin or contribution margin?
Gross margin is the safer default for LTV math. It captures cost-of-delivery (hosting, fulfillment,
merchant fees, support headcount) but excludes fixed overhead. If you want a stricter number, use
contribution margin (gross margin minus variable sales costs). Don't use net margin. Net pulls in
rent and salaries that won't change with the next customer, which understates LTV.
My business is transactional, not subscription. How do I model churn?
Convert repurchase interval to monthly churn. If your average customer buys once every 8 months,
monthly churn is roughly
1 / 8 = 12.5%. For one-time-only purchases (law firm intake,
real estate transaction), set churn at 50%+ and treat LTV as "average order value x margin x
referral multiplier." Real estate brokerages often see 10-15% of past clients refer one new deal,
which is the only LTV they actually have.Does expansion revenue really matter?
Yes, more than people think. A 10% net expansion rate (after accounting for downgrades) on a
customer base with 4% monthly churn flips the geometric series from decay to growth. The cohort
actually generates more revenue in year two than year one. This is how SaaS businesses with
"high churn" still print money, and it's the single most under-modeled lever in operator LTV math.
What's in the detailed PDF report?
Five pages: (1) Your numbers, with sensitivity table and 24-month cohort curve. (2) Your industry
benchmarks, side by side with your inputs. (3) The three retention levers most likely to move your
ratio (specific to your inputs). (4) A pricing-and-packaging audit checklist. (5) Implementation
roadmap, week 1 through day 90. No marketing fluff. We'll email it after you submit. Delivery time can vary.
the form.