| Metric | Benchmark | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-revenue: pre-sell conversion | 2%+ from cold traffic is often encouraging for lower-AOV offers | Test with a landing page and about $500 of Meta ads at your proposed price. Real pre-orders and paid sales beat surveys and compliments. |
| Pre-revenue: first production run | 60%+ of the first 100-500 units, with low returns and repeat intent | Sell-through of 30-60% with mixed feedback needs a clear improvement path. Under 30%, with high returns and no repeat intent, is a red flag. |
| Pre-revenue: product-market fit signals | 40%+ "very disappointed" on the Sean Ellis test (100+ relevant customers) | Back it with behaviour: for consumables, a 90-day repeat rate north of roughly 30% can be a strong sign, and NPS above about 50 helps. Three or four signals lining up is fit. |
| Pre-revenue: first-order economics | Contribution margin positive at small scale | The margin must cover blended acquisition cost and leave you profitable on, or shortly after, the first order. Not the third. |
| $0-$1M: the five numbers | Revenue, conversion rate, CAC, gross margin and cash balance | Everything else is noise at this stage. Platform analytics, basic tracking and CAPI are enough of a stack. |
| $0-$1M: margin targets | Gross margin 65-75%; contribution margin 47-63% before marketing | EBITDA anywhere from -5% to 8% is fine around $1M, as long as the unit economics are sound. |
| $1M-$10M: what to add | LTV:CAC, repeat rate, AOV trends, channel efficiency and inventory turnover | Move to a cross-channel dashboard with post-purchase surveys and LTV tracking. Healthy MER runs 1.5-2.5x at $1M-$5M and 2.5-3.5x at $5M-$10M. |
| From ~$3M: cohorts and incrementality | From about $3M in revenue | LTV cohort analysis should be running by $3M, and incrementality testing often starts around then too. Branded search's median incremental ROAS is about 0.70x, whatever the platform reports. |
| $10M-$50M: what to add | Cohort analysis, blended CAC trend and EBITDA margin | Add attribution modelling, a dedicated data person and BI tools. Profitability is non-negotiable by now: target 10%+ EBITDA, and 3x+ MER once past about $10M. |
| $50M+: what to add | Market share, brand awareness, LTV by category and ROIC | Run a data warehouse, advanced BI and a data team. Target 15-20%+ EBITDA margins, which feed the valuation multiple directly. |
| Revenue per employee | $2M-$3M+ for a lean, well-run brand | The industry average is $300K-$800K, and Quad Lock ran at about $2M a head across the whole journey. Below $500K a head, ask whether you're overstaffed or under-automated. |
How to use these benchmarks
These ranges are directional, not guarantees. They are drawn from The DTC Playbook and Rob Ward's operating experience taking Quad Lock from $0 to a $500M exit, cross-checked against widely cited DTC data. The point is not the exact number - it is whether you sit above or below it, and what to do about the gap. Judge yourself against your own category and trend as well.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Benchmarks are refreshed as the playbook is updated.
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Term Product-Market Fit
Term Conversion Rate
Term Customer Acquisition Cost
Term Contribution Margin
Term Marketing Efficiency Ratio
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