Template · Excel and Google Sheets, multi tab

Startup Financial Model (SaaS) Excel Template

The Startup Project Free Intermediate

Reading about CAC and LTV only gets you so far, at some point you have to put your own guesses in a cell and watch what breaks. This model is genuinely free with no email wall, works in Excel or Google Sheets, and has a dedicated unit economics section with CAC by channel, LTV, payback, and contribution margin. Fair warning: it is a full financial model, so ignore the parts you do not need yet and live in the unit economics tab.

  • It ships free with no email required and opens in both Excel and Google Sheets, so there is nothing between you and pressure testing your numbers.
  • The unit economics tab already wires up CAC, LTV, payback period, contribution margin, and the LTV to CAC ratio, so you change assumptions instead of building formulas.
  • It is a comprehensive VC style model, which is more than a pre customer founder needs, so start in the unit economics section and leave the rest until you have real data.
Open on startupproject.org ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I figure out my unit economics before I have real customers?

Read with it

  1. This is the piece almost every other CAC and LTV explainer quietly borrows from, and it is still the clearest place to actually... For Entrepreneurs Essay · about 20 minute read Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition David Skok
  2. Video · about 22 minutes Consumer Startup Metrics | Startup School Tom Blomfield
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