Pirate Metrics

Also called AARRR

Pirate metrics: a framework by Dave McClure that breaks growth into five stages, acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue, so you can measure and improve each.

Why it matters

AARRR gives a simple, complete map of the customer lifecycle, so a team can see which stage is weakest. Focusing on the one leaking stage usually beats spreading effort thinly across all five.

For example

A team maps its funnel as acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue, and finds activation is the weakest stage to fix first.

Related terms

Marketing Funnel Activation Rate Retention

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Growing and marketing, part of the Starting Up hub.

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