We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. It starts with eChai Startup Demo Day on 26 September, all in person. 14 cities confirmed, 1114 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
Money, pricing & unit economics

Unit economics & contribution margin

Do you make money on order number one?

Level All Beginner Intermediate
Market All India Global
Who's asking Everyone Just-Launched Founder Scaling Brand Bootstrapped Side-Hustler Product Person

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What does a healthy CM1 / CM2 / CM3 actually look like for an Indian D2C brand? Rules of thumb for Indian D2C: aim for CM1 (gross) of 60%+ so there's room to absorb the ecosystem tax, CM2 comfortably positive after shipping, RT... Intermediate 4 resources → My revenue keeps growing but I'm still losing money. Why does that happen? Growth hides a broken unit economics model: if your CM3 per order is negative, every additional order digs the hole deeper, and topline just makes ... Intermediate 4 resources → How do I factor RTO, returns, COD, shipping and discounts into my true margin? These are the silent margin killers that live inside CM2, and in India they're brutal: COD orders can cost 50-100% more to serve, RTO on COD often ... Intermediate 4 resources →

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