Growth metrics

Growth metrics answer a simple question: how effectively are you turning money and effort into new users and customers? The goal isn’t maximum growth at any cost — it’s sustainable, efficient growth where unit economics hold up as you scale.

User acquisition rate

Raw acquisition rate is table stakes. The real insight comes from breaking it down by quality: how many of those new users actually activate and retain?

Track three tiers:

• New signups — everyone who creates an account
• Activated users — those who complete key onboarding steps
• Paying customers — those who convert to paid plans

If you’re acquiring 1,000 signups per month but only 100 activate, your problem isn’t acquisition — it’s activation.

Acquisition by channel

Break down every acquisition metric by source. Blended numbers hide which channels actually work.

Organic vs paid growth

The healthiest startups build an organic growth engine early. Organic growth (SEO, word-of-mouth, product-led) compounds over time and doesn’t require proportional spend increases. Paid growth gives you immediate control but gets less efficient as markets mature.

If you’re past product-market fit and still 80%+ paid, you have a dependency problem. Start investing in content, SEO, referral programs, and product-led virality.

A strong organic/paid mix is also a signal of product-market fit. Products that people genuinely love generate organic growth naturally — customers tell others, write about you, and link to your product without being asked.

Viral coefficient

The viral coefficient tells you how many new users each existing user brings organically. A K of 1.0 means every user brings one new user — self-sustaining growth without spending on acquisition.

Most B2B products won’t hit K > 1.0, and that’s fine. Even a K of 0.5 means that for every two customers you acquire through paid channels, you get a third one free. Over time, that dramatically improves CAC.

Types of viral growth

Inherent virality — the product requires multiple users (collaboration tools, team communication). This is the strongest form because it’s built into the product’s value.

Word-of-mouth — users recommend you because the product solves a painful problem well. You can’t manufacture this; you earn it by building something great.

Incentivized — referral programs, credits, discounts for successful invitations. This works but requires careful design to avoid attracting low-quality users.

Time to value

The faster new users experience your product’s core benefit, the higher your activation rate and the better your growth funnel performs. Every friction point between signup and value delivery is a leak in your acquisition funnel.

Ways to reduce time to value:

• Sample data or templates — let users explore without setup
• Guided onboarding — don’t dump users on a blank screen
• Progressive disclosure — show only what’s needed upfront
• Quick wins first — surface the simplest valuable action early

Market penetration

Penetration rate helps you decide whether to go deeper in your current market or expand into adjacent ones. Low penetration in a large market means plenty of runway; high penetration means you need new segments, geographies, or products to sustain growth.

Track penetration across dimensions: geographic markets, industry verticals, company size tiers. The pattern will reveal your strongest positions and biggest whitespace opportunities.