These 3 Numbers Make or Break Your Fundraise

I watched a founder get laughed out of a VC meeting last month.

Not literally laughed at, but you could feel it.

45 slides of hockey-stick projections.

Zero mention of customer retention.

The VC didn't even make it halfway through.

Unfortunately, most founders obsess over vanity metrics—total users, revenue growth, social media followers—thinking that's what opens wallets.

Here's the truth: VCs see through that in about 30 seconds.

They're hunting for specific signals that most pitch decks completely ignore.

Why Most Founders Bomb Their Funding Pitch

You're showing them what you WANT them to see, not what they NEED to see.

Here's why you're probably missing the mark:

• You think bigger numbers automatically mean better investment
• You're confusing growth with actual business health
• Your metrics tell a story about the past, not the future
• You've never asked a VC what keeps them up at night (hint: it's your churn rate)
• You're pitching like it's 2015 when "growth at all costs" was still a thing

The game changed. You didn't get the memo.

But look, this isn't impossible to fix.

You just need to reframe how you're presenting your business and honestly, you probably need to start focusing on different KPIs altogether.

I'm going to walk you through the three metric categories that actually get VCs excited.

These are the ones that separate "thanks but no thanks" emails from term sheets.

Step 1: Prove Your Customers Actually Stick Around (Retention Over Acquisition)

Everyone loves talking about how many customers they're acquiring. It's sexy. It feels like winning.

But you know what's not sexy?

When VCs pull up your cohort analysis and see a leaky bucket.

You're pouring customers in the top while they're flooding out the bottom.

The metrics that matter:

• LTV/CAC ratio – If you're spending $500 to acquire a customer who only generates $400 in lifetime value, congratulations—you've built an incredibly efficient money-burning machine
• Cohort retention – Show how each customer group behaves over time, not just overall numbers. Especially if there’s been a shift in that behavior recently, talk about WHY
• Net Revenue Retention above 120% – This tells investors your product isn't just sticky, it's growing within your existing customer base

The ultimate flex: "We have never lost a customer we wanted to keep"

Your acquisition numbers mean nothing if customers bounce after three months.

Fix your retention story first, then worry about growth.

Step 2: Show You're Not Lighting Money on Fire (Capital Efficiency)

Where most founders completely whiff: they're proud of how much they've raised.

VCs don't care that you raised $5M. They care what you accomplished with it.

What to track and showcase:

• Burn multiple – How many dollars are you burning to generate each dollar of new ARR? Above 2x is dangerous. Below 1x? Now we're talking
• Runway with context – Not just "months until broke" but a signal about your planning and discipline
• Non-dilutive capital raised – Grants, revenue-based financing, strategic partnerships that brought cash without giving up equity
• Capital efficiency story – The best pitch I ever saw: "We've generated $2M ARR on $600K of total capital invested, of which $250K was a non-dilutive grant."

Being resourceful matters more than being well-funded.

Show VCs you understand 1) dilution is expensive, 2) you know how to operate lean, and 3) where and how to find “free money.”

That's a company VCs want to pile into.

Step 3: Demonstrate Real Engagement, Not Vanity Numbers (Engagement Depth)

You've got 100,000 users. Cool story.

How many of them actually showed up this month?

Metrics that reveal real product-market fit:

• DAU/MAU ratio – If you've got 100K users but only 5K are active monthly, you don't have a user base—you have a graveyard with a few zombies wandering around
• Core feature utilization – Which features drive retention and keep users coming back?
• Feature adoption rates – Are users actually using what you built? Or did you spend six months on something that 2% of users touched once? Show us how you’re making good decisions on what to double-down on
• Usage patterns over time – Show patterns that indicate deepening engagement, not just one-time logins

Quality over quantity.

A smaller, highly-engaged user base that's all-in on your core features is infinitely more valuable than massive user numbers with surface-level engagement.

Show VCs that people aren't just signing up—they're coming back, going deeper, and getting more value over time.

The Real Takeaway

VCs don't invest in your current numbers—they invest in the trajectory those numbers reveal as it relates to your market.

Your pitch must tell a story about a company that retains customers obsessively, operates with discipline, and has users who are genuinely hooked on what you've built.

Stop hiding behind vanity metrics.

Start tracking what actually predicts success.

Because the VCs reading your deck?

They already know the difference.