#benchmarks
Industry benchmarks, performance metrics, and comparative data to evaluate financial and operational health
Common-size analysis restates every line of a financial statement as a percentage of revenue or total assets; trend analysis indexes the same lines across years. Together they expose cost creep, margin erosion, and balance sheet drift that raw dollars hide, and they make a $2M business meaningfully comparable to a $50M peer.
A practical guide to DuPont Analysis — how to split return on equity into net margin, asset turnover, and the equity multiplier (3-step), or further into tax and interest burdens (5-step), with worked examples, trade-offs, and the pitfalls that catch people who apply it mechanically.
A 2026 reference for SaaS founders on calculating MRR and ARR, decomposing the five-bucket recurring-revenue waterfall, interpreting NRR/GRR, and reconciling subscription metrics to GAAP revenue under ASC 606.
The Rule of 40 says a healthy SaaS company's revenue growth rate plus profit margin should clear 40%. This guide covers how to calculate it, which margin metric to use, 2026 benchmarks (median score around 12%), the Rule of X variant, and when the rule does not apply.
Prime cost combines food, beverage, and labor as a percentage of sales—target 55–60% for quick-service and 60–65% for full-service. Tracking it weekly instead of monthly catches portioning and scheduling problems within seven days, while a 4% food cost variance on $1M in sales quietly costs $40,000 a year.
A working operator's guide to calculating restaurant prime cost every seven days, the 55–65% benchmark by service segment, the five leaks weekly tracking surfaces first, and the bookkeeping setup the cadence requires.
D&O insurance for startups in 2026 typically runs $3,500–$10,000 per year for $1M–$3M of coverage; Series A term sheets routinely require $3M–$5M within 60–90 days of close. The most common claims at sub-100-person companies come from employment disputes, not securities allegations.
Track the SaaS metrics that win term sheets in 2026: LTV, CAC, NRR, churn, CAC payback, and Rule of 40. Includes benchmarks and calculation traps to avoid.
