Key Startup Metrics (YC Startup Library)
YC's canonical answer to which numbers matter and how to use them in decisions.
Open ycombinator.com →
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Which metrics should my startup track, and how can AI help me stay on top of them?
The short answer
Track the handful that would break your business if they moved the wrong way: revenue or MRR, retention and churn cohorts, CAC, and runway, anchored by one North Star metric. AI helps twice: it computes these from raw exports (a cohort table from a Stripe CSV in one prompt) and, inside tools like Amplitude, it now watches metrics continuously and flags anomalies. Founders tracking 30 metrics track none of them well.
A quick orientation. The real value is below: resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it.
18 resources worth your time
B2B Startup Metrics (Startup School)
The B2B metrics lecture: MRR, churn, and what investors will actually probe.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →
Consumer Startup Metrics (Startup School)
Growth, unit economics, and retention for consumer products, from the source.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →
Adora Cheung: How to Set KPIs and Goals
The classic on picking one KPI and refusing vanity metrics.
Watch on YouTube youtube.com →How to choose a metric and set your KPI
The short written version to revisit each planning cycle.
Open ycombinator.com →Retention Is All You Need
Fresh retention benchmarks including the AI-era 'smiling curve' phenomenon.
Open a16z.com →The P9 Guide to Cohort Analysis in SaaS
Still the best cohort-analysis explainer written for first-time SaaS founders.
Open medium.com →SaaS Cohort Analysis using AI
Shows AI building your cohort table when spreadsheets intimidate you.
Open saas.wtf →Churn Analysis using ChatGPT
A worked churn analysis with ChatGPT you can replicate on your own export.
Open saas.wtf →Cohort Retention Analysis: How to Separate Real Users From AI Tourists
Warns how AI-driven signup waves distort early retention data.
Open userpilot.com →15 Essential Startup Growth Metrics & KPIs to Track
An India-based product studio's metric list mapped to SaaS vs e-commerce.
Open f22labs.com →Cohort Analysis for Retention: A Founder's Guide
Jargon-free cohort mechanics aimed at founders, not analysts.
Open blog.mean.ceo →Analytics Stack for Different Startup Stages: Pre-Seed to Series
Argues for fewer numbers, better defined, matched to your stage.
Open blog.mean.ceo →SaaS Cohort Analysis: A Guide for Businesses
The payments provider's clean explainer, handy since your revenue data lives there.
Open stripe.com →How to Cut Churn Using Cohort Analysis (No Jargon)
Turns cohort tables into concrete churn-reduction actions.
Open baremetrics.com →Amplitude AI Agents: Smarter Product Decisions
A practitioner's guide to letting AI agents monitor your metrics for you.
Open adasight.com →Data Analytics for Startups: A Stage-by-Stage Framework
What to measure and build at each stage so you never over-invest early.
Open definite.app →The Founder's Guide to an AI-Native Data Stack in 2025
How to set up metrics infrastructure that AI tools can actually reason over.
Open tasman.ai →More in Data Analysis
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