Unit Economics

Unit Economics

When to Apply

• Evaluating channel profitability
• Before scaling any acquisition channel
• When NDR or gross margin changes
• Quarterly unit economics review
• When the founder proposes increasing spend on a channel

Core Framework

CLV vs CAC Per Channel

Track unit economics per channel, not in aggregate:

Channel Health Dashboard:
  LinkedIn Outreach:
    CAC: $45 | CLV: $2,400 | Ratio: 53x | Verdict: EXCELLENT
    NDR: 125% | Trend: stable

  Paid Ads (Google):
    CAC: $180 | CLV: $800 | Ratio: 4.4x | Verdict: ACCEPTABLE
    NDR: 95% | Trend: slight shrinkage

  Cold Email:
    CAC: $320 | CLV: $600 | Ratio: 1.9x | Verdict: DANGER
    NDR: 80% | Trend: leaking
    -> "Cold email has marginal unit economics.
       Propose: pause, reallocate budget to LinkedIn."

Ratio benchmarks:

• 125% | Excellent | Cohorts growing fast. Strong expansion. Scale acquisition. |

| 100-125% | Healthy | Cohorts stable or growing. Normal operation. | | 90-100% | Warning | Slight shrinkage. Investigate churn and downgrade causes. | | 60% for SaaS Status: ACCEPTABLE (65%)

Warn if gross margin drops below viable thresholds:
- SaaS target: >70% (>60% minimum)
- Marketplace target: >50%
- If AI API costs push margin below threshold: "API costs are real COGS. Consider caching, model optimization, or pricing adjustment."

### Premature Scaling Guard

**Block recommendations to scale any channel with CAC > CLV.**

Founder: "Let's double our Google Ads budget"

Agent check: Google Ads CAC: $180 | CLV: $800 | Ratio: 4.4x -> PASS: ratio > 3x, scaling is justified

vs.

Cold Email CAC: $320 | CLV: $600 | Ratio: 1.9x -> BLOCK: "Fix unit economics before scaling. Scaling negative or marginal margins makes the problem worse."

Premature scaling = accelerating losses. The agent must refuse to recommend it.

### Channel Health Dashboard Format

Standard format for periodic unit economics reporting:

CHANNEL HEALTH (Monthly Review) ================================= Channel CAC CLV Ratio NDR Verdict LinkedIn $45 $2.4K 53x 125% SCALE Content/SEO $25 $1.8K 72x 118% SCALE Paid Ads $180 $800 4.4x 95% MONITOR Cold Email $320 $600 1.9x 80% PAUSE Referral $15 $2.1K 140x 130% SCALE

AGGREGATE Blended CAC: $85 | Blended CLV: $1.4K | Ratio: 16x Warning: aggregate masks unhealthy channels. Per-channel analysis is authoritative.

## Decision Rules

1. **Per-channel, not aggregate** — blended metrics mask problems
2. **CAC 60% for SaaS, >50% for marketplace
6. **Channel health reviewed monthly** — economics shift over time

## Anti-Patterns to Detect

| Anti-Pattern | Signal | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Scaling negative margins | CAC > CLV + proposal to increase spend | "Fix unit economics before scaling. Scaling losses makes them bigger." |
| Blended metric blindness | "Our overall CAC is fine" | "Per-channel analysis shows Cold Email at 1.9x. Aggregate masks this." |
| Ignoring API costs | Gross margin calculated without API costs | "AI API costs are real COGS. Include in margin calculation." |
| NDR ignorance | No NDR tracking | "Without NDR, you don't know if cohorts are growing or shrinking." |
| Treadmill business | NDR < 100% with heavy acquisition spend | "Cohorts are shrinking. You're acquiring to replace, not grow." |
| Premature channel expansion | Adding new channels before existing ones profitable | "Optimize current channels before adding new ones." |

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [masterleopold](https://github.com/masterleopold)
- **Source:** [masterleopold/anty-framework](https://github.com/masterleopold/anty-framework)
- **License:** MIT
- **Homepage:** https://4n7y.com

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.