Retention

Also called Retention Rate and Cohort Retention

How many of your users or customers keep coming back over time. Usually read as a cohort curve: of everyone who started in a given month, what share is still active weeks and months later.

Why it matters

Retention is the truest single test of whether people actually value what you built. A curve that flattens instead of falling to zero is the clearest evidence of product-market fit, and the foundation any real growth sits on.

For example

A product's retention curve shows 45 percent of each cohort still active after three months and flattening, the clearest sign of product-market fit.

Go deeper

The Startup Curve and Retention Reforge · article Balfour makes the case that a flattening retention curve, not a revenue number, is the honest signal of fit, with the frameworks to read your own. Open brianbalfour.com →

What is Good Retention? Lenny's Newsletter · article Benchmarks for what a healthy retention curve actually looks like by business type, so you can judge your own against real data. Open lennysnewsletter.com →

New Data Shows Losing 80% of Mobile Users is Normal Andrew Chen · article A sobering data-backed look at how brutal early retention really is, and what separates the products that hold users from those that leak them. Open andrewchen.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Money, pricing and metrics, part of the Starting Up hub.

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