Money, pricing & unit economics

Know if you make money on order number one, and price for value, not discounts.

What founders use for money, pricing & unit economics, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

  1. The easiest on-ramp into proper bookkeeping for a founder with zero accounting background, free under Rs 25 lakh turnover and... Zoho Books Tool Zoho Books, Online Accounting Software for India Zoho In 3 answers
  2. A cohort-and-retention analytics platform purpose-built for Shopify/Amazon DTC brands - RFM, cohort revenue and cohort... 1800dtc.com Tool Peel Overview 2026: Used By 50 Brands 1-800-D2C In 2 answers
  3. A genuinely free, editable Excel/Sheets starting scaffold with a built-in runway calculation - the fastest way to get a working... slidebean.com Template A FREE Startup Financial Model Template Slidebean In 2 answers
  4. Purpose-built for the cash flow statement specifically - the document most founders skip in favour of the P&L, and the one that... clear.co Template Free Ecommerce Cash Flow Statement Template Clear.co In 2 answers
  5. The most concrete India-specific breakdown of what a returned COD order actually costs - forward + reverse shipping, packaging,... hillteck.com Tool True Cost of RTO for Indian D2C Brands: Formula + Calculator HillTeck In 2 answers
  6. A free, ready-to-use P&L template plus explanation in one place, useful if you want to build your own tracker before (or... Intuit QuickBooks Template What Actually Is a Profit and Loss Statement + Free Template Intuit QuickBooks
  7. A single-purpose calculator that answers the one question that matters when things get tight: how many months of cash do I... startupproject.org Template Startup Runway Calculator Template Startup Project
  8. For founders who want structured, certificate-backed training rather than piecing it together from blog posts - CFI's course is... corporatefinanceinstitute.com Course Startup / e-Commerce Financial Modeling & Valuation Course Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)
  9. A broader template library including an ecommerce-specific model - handy as a second option to compare structure against once... forecastr.co Template Financial Modeling Spreadsheet Templates for Startups Forecastr
  10. A free, downloadable contribution-margin calculator you can open straight as a Google Sheet and adapt to your own SKUs and... coefficient.io Template Contribution Margin Calculator + Free Google Sheets Template Coefficient

The questions

Unit economics & contribution margin 7

Do you make money on order number one?

What is contribution margin for a D2C brand, and what do CM1, CM2 and CM3 mean? 4 → How do I calculate CAC, and what's the difference between blended CAC and new-customer CAC? 3 → What does a healthy CM1 / CM2 / CM3 actually look like for an Indian D2C brand? 4 → My revenue keeps growing but I'm still losing money. Why does that happen? 4 → How do I factor RTO, returns, COD, shipping and discounts into my true margin? 4 → All 7 questions in Unit economics & contribution margin →
Pricing & discounting strategy 6

Charge for value; stop training buyers to wait for sales.

How do I price a new D2C product when I have no direct competitor to benchmark against? 3 → Should I price the same on my own website and on Amazon, Flipkart and Zepto? 4 → How much can I discount before I train my customers to wait for the next sale? 4 → How do I raise prices without losing customers or crashing conversion? 3 → What pricing psychology actually works for D2C - charm pricing, bundling, anchoring? 3 → All 6 questions in Pricing & discounting strategy →
Financial modeling & forecasting 6

See the cash before it surprises you.

How do I build a basic financial model for my D2C brand from scratch? 4 → What's the difference between a P&L, a cash flow statement and a balance sheet - and which one actually tells me if I'll run out of money? 3 → How do I calculate my cash runway, and how do I know when I need to raise or borrow? 3 → Should I take on debt (working capital loans, invoice financing) instead of raising equity to fund inventory? 3 → What are the biggest financial modeling mistakes D2C founders make? 4 → All 6 questions in Financial modeling & forecasting →
Cohorts, LTV & repeat rate 6

The metrics that decide if you have a brand.

What is cohort analysis, and why does it matter more than a single repeat-rate number? 3 → How do I calculate customer LTV for my D2C brand - on revenue or on margin? 3 → What's a good repeat purchase rate for my category, and how do Indian brands compare to global benchmarks? 3 → What's the difference between repurchase rate and retention rate, and which should I report to investors? 2 → What is RFM analysis, and how do I use it to segment customers for retention marketing? 3 → All 6 questions in Cohorts, LTV & repeat rate →
Accounting & bookkeeping 6

Books that tell you if you're actually making money.

I'm not a finance person, what books/records do I actually need to keep from day one? 3 → What accounting software should a small D2C brand in India actually use, Zoho, Tally, Vyapar, or just Excel? 4 → How do I actually read my P&L and know if I'm making money, not just growing revenue? 3 → What is 'Profit First' and should I actually run my business that way? 3 → What unit economics numbers should I actually be tracking every week, CM1, CM2, contribution margin? 3 → All 6 questions in Accounting & bookkeeping →
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →