This Speedinvest Pirates guide organizes startup metrics around the AARRR funnel (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral) and maps specific benchmarks to five verticals across pre-seed through Series A. It sets concrete targets: a 3x LTV to CAC ratio as standard with 5x for hypergrowth companies, an 80% retention and 20% churn benchmark at Series A, a virality coefficient above 0.25, and roughly €100k MRR by Series A. For deep tech, it recommends tracking proof of concepts (ideally three paid ones by seed) and a €100k ACV benchmark. It stresses distinguishing bookings from annual recurring revenue, since a three year prepaid contract inflates the booked figure relative to the annualized revenue actually earned, and separating scalable product revenue from one-off consulting revenue.

Founders preparing for a seed or Series A raise get investor-sourced benchmark ranges, rather than generic industry averages pulled from a random blog post somewhere online, since these figures come straight from qualitative interviews with Speedinvest's own investment managers across specific verticals. The recurring theme investors raise, that founders often miscalculate CAC by excluding founder time or confuse bookings with ARR, gives founders specific errors to fix well before any term sheet conversation rather than discovering them mid diligence itself later. The vertical-specific breakdowns are also useful because a single blanket benchmark, such as a generic LTV to CAC ratio, means little without knowing whether a marketplace, a fintech lender, or a deep tech company selling enterprise pilots is being evaluated.