Build a Startup Metrics Dashboard in Google Sheets
Track the metrics that matter: MRR, CAC, LTV, burn rate, and runway. Build an investor-ready dashboard that updates automatically.
Picture this: You are in an investor meeting, and someone asks "What is your monthly burn rate?" You freeze. You know you are spending money, but you have never actually calculated the exact number. Or maybe you get asked "What is your LTV to CAC ratio?" and you have to admit you have been so focused on building the product that you have not tracked customer acquisition costs. This is where most founders lose credibility—not because their business is failing, but because they cannot speak confidently about their numbers. Investors do not just want to hear your vision; they want to see that you understand the financial reality of your business. Here is the truth: You do not need fancy analytics software or a finance degree. A simple Google Sheets dashboard with 5-7 key metrics tells you everything you need to know about your startup's health. Are you growing fast enough? Are you spending too much to acquire customers? How long until you run out of money? In this guide, I will walk you through building the exact dashboard I wish I had when I started my first company. No complicated formulas, no overwhelming detail—just the metrics that actually matter, explained in plain English with real-world examples of what "good" looks like.
What You'll Need
- Basic familiarity with Google Sheets
- Access to your financial data (revenue, expenses, customer data)
- Understanding of your business model (SaaS, marketplace, etc.)
Step-by-Step Guide
Start With Your Money: Set Up the Basics
Before we calculate fancy ratios, let's get your financial reality organized.
- Here is what you need to know: How much money is coming in, how much is going out, and how long until you run out. That is it.
- Create a "Revenue" tab. Each row is one customer: When they signed up, what they pay per month, and what plan they are on.
- Create an "Expenses" tab. Track every dollar you spend: salaries, software, ads, office, everything. Mark each as either "Fixed" (same every month) or "Variable" (changes based on growth).
- Why separate fixed vs variable? Because when you grow, fixed costs stay the same but variable costs increase. This tells you whether scaling is profitable.
- Best practice: Update these sheets weekly, not monthly. By the time you realize you are overspending at month-end, it is too late.
- What to watch out for: Founders often forget to include their own salary, founder equity comp, or "small" SaaS subscriptions. Track EVERYTHING—$50/month tools add up to $10k/year.
Pro Tip
Do not overthink the setup. Start simple: Who paid you? What did you spend? You can always add complexity later. Most founders fail because they never start tracking, not because their tracking is not sophisticated enough. (Pro tip: ModelMonkey can set up these sheets for you automatically—just describe your business model and it creates the structure in seconds.)
Your North Star: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
This is the number investors care about most. Here is why it matters and how to calculate it.
- MRR is not just "revenue this month"—it is predictable, recurring subscription revenue. If someone pays you $1,200 for an annual plan, that is $100 MRR (not $1,200).
- The formula: Add up what all your active customers pay you per month. In Google Sheets: =SUM(Revenue!C:C) where column C has monthly subscription amounts.
- But here is what really matters: MRR growth rate. Are you adding more revenue than you are losing? Calculate: (This Month MRR - Last Month MRR) / Last Month MRR.
- Best practice: Track three MRR numbers separately: New MRR (from new customers), Expansion MRR (existing customers upgrading), and Churned MRR (cancellations). This tells you WHERE growth is coming from.
- Real example: You start January with $10k MRR. You add $3k from new customers, lose $1k to churn. You end with $12k MRR. That is 20% growth—but the story is "we are acquiring well but have a churn problem."
- What good looks like: Early stage SaaS should grow 10-20% month-over-month. Slower than 5%? Your acquisition is broken. Faster than 30%? You are crushing it.
Pro Tip
If you do not have subscriptions (e.g., you are a marketplace or sell one-time products), track Monthly Revenue instead. Just know it will be less predictable, and investors will discount your valuation accordingly. (Tired of calculating this manually every month? ModelMonkey can auto-calculate MRR, growth rates, and even break down New vs Churned MRR for you.)
The Brutal Truth: What Each Customer Actually Costs You (CAC)
Most founders underestimate this. Here is how to calculate it honestly.
- CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost. Simple formula: Total sales + marketing spend / Number of new customers.
- Here is the mistake everyone makes: They only count ad spend. Wrong. Include EVERYTHING: Your marketing person's salary, sales team salaries, marketing tools (HubSpot, etc.), agency fees, ad spend, conference sponsorships, ALL of it.
- Real example: You spent $5k on Google Ads and got 10 customers. CAC is $500, right? WRONG. You also paid a marketing person $6k/month, spent $500 on tools. Real CAC: ($5k ads + $6k salary + $500 tools) / 10 customers = $1,150 per customer.
- Formula in Google Sheets: =SUMIF(Expenses!Category, "Marketing", Expenses!Amount) / COUNTIF(Customers!SignUpDate, ">=01/01/2024")
- Best practice: Track CAC by channel separately. Google Ads customers might cost $200, while outbound sales customers cost $2,000. This tells you where to invest more.
- What to watch out for: CAC usually INCREASES as you scale. The easiest customers (your network, word-of-mouth) come first. Later customers are more expensive. Plan for this.
Pro Tip
If your CAC is higher than what a customer pays you in the first month, you need to either (1) raise prices, (2) reduce acquisition costs, or (3) make sure customers stick around long enough to be profitable (see LTV next). (Struggling with CAC formulas that keep breaking? ModelMonkey can pull from your expense sheet, categorize costs automatically, and calculate CAC by channel—no more manual SUMIF formulas.)
The Magic Ratio: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
How much money will a customer give you before they leave? This determines if your business model works.
- LTV = Lifetime Value. How much total revenue you earn from an average customer over their entire relationship with you.
- Simple formula: Average revenue per customer × How long they stay. If customers pay $100/month and stay for 24 months, LTV = $2,400.
- The hard part: Predicting "how long they stay." You need churn rate. Churn = % of customers who cancel each month. If 5% cancel monthly, average lifespan = 1 / 0.05 = 20 months.
- Formula: =AVERAGE(Revenue per customer) × (1 / Monthly Churn Rate). Example: $100 × (1 / 0.05) = $100 × 20 = $2,000 LTV.
- The golden rule: LTV should be 3X your CAC. If CAC is $500, you need $1,500+ LTV. This ensures profitable unit economics.
- What to watch out for: Early-stage founders often overestimate LTV because they do not have enough churn data yet. Be conservative. If you are 6 months old, you do not actually know if customers will stay 24 months.
- **Quick note:** If all these formulas (MRR, CAC, LTV, churn calculations) are making your head spin, you are not alone. Most founders spend 5-10 hours building this dashboard, then 2-3 hours every month maintaining it. ModelMonkey was built specifically to solve this: Just tell it "Calculate my LTV/CAC ratio" and it figures out the formulas, pulls the data, and updates automatically. Many founders use it to build their entire metrics dashboard in under 10 minutes. But if you want to understand the mechanics first, keep reading!
Pro Tip
If LTV / CAC is below 3, you are burning money on every customer. Fix this before scaling. Either reduce CAC (cheaper acquisition), increase prices, or reduce churn (better product/support).
The Scary Number: How Long Until You Run Out of Money (Runway)
This is the number that keeps founders up at night. Here is how to calculate and extend it.
- Burn rate = How much cash you lose each month. Formula: Total Expenses - Total Revenue. If you spend $50k and earn $20k, you burn $30k/month.
- Runway = How many months until you run out of money. Formula: Cash in bank / Monthly burn. If you have $300k and burn $30k/month, you have 10 months of runway.
- Here is the brutal reality: Raising money takes 3-6 months. If your runway hits 12 months, you need to START fundraising NOW or you will run out before you close a round.
- Best practice: Always know two numbers: (1) Current runway, (2) Runway if growth stops (assume zero new revenue). This is your survival mode runway.
- What good looks like: 18+ months runway = comfortable. 12-18 months = should be planning fundraise. Under 12 months = urgent, start fundraising or cut costs.
- What to watch out for: Founders assume revenue growth will extend runway. This is dangerous. Revenue can stop growing anytime (seasonality, market shift, competition). Always have a plan B.
Pro Tip
Track runway weekly, not monthly. If runway starts dropping faster than expected (e.g., you burn more than planned), you need to know immediately, not 30 days later when it is too late to fix. (Want automatic runway alerts? ModelMonkey can notify you when runway drops below your threshold—no more manual checks every week.)
Put It All Together: Your One-Page Dashboard
Now let's make this visual and easy to understand at a glance.
- Here is the layout: Top section has your 5 big numbers (MRR, Growth %, CAC, LTV/CAC ratio, Runway). Make them BIG—font size 24. An investor should see these in 3 seconds.
- Add context: Next to each number, show change from last month. MRR: $50k (+15%). This tells the story of momentum.
- Use colors smartly: Green for good (revenue up, runway extending), red for concerning (churn up, runway shrinking). But do not overdo it—this is not a Christmas tree.
- Best practice: Group related metrics. Revenue section (MRR, growth), Customer economics (CAC, LTV, ratio), Cash (burn, runway). This helps people understand the business narrative.
- Real talk: Your first version will be ugly. That is fine. Clarity beats beauty. You can always make it prettier later.
- What to watch out for: Do not put 20 metrics on the dashboard. Limit to 7 max. More metrics = less clarity. If everything is important, nothing is important.
Pro Tip
Add a "Dashboard Rules" section at the top: What each color means, how often you update, what "good" looks like for each metric. Future you (and your investors) will thank you.
Add Charts That Tell the Story
Numbers are facts. Charts are stories. Here is what to visualize.
- Chart 1: MRR over time (line chart). This shows your growth trajectory. Is it up and to the right? Flatlining? Declining? Add a trendline to project forward.
- Chart 2: CAC vs LTV (bar chart). Put them side by side. LTV should be 3X taller than CAC. If not, you have a problem.
- Chart 3: Runway over time. Line chart showing months of runway remaining. If this line is going down, you need to either raise money or cut costs ASAP.
- Best practice: Keep charts SIMPLE. No 3D effects, no crazy colors. Simple line and bar charts beat fancy visualizations every time.
- What good looks like: An investor should understand your business health from the charts alone, without reading any text.
- What to watch out for: Do not manipulate Y-axis scales to make growth look better than it is. Investors will notice and you will lose credibility.
Pro Tip
Screenshots beat live dashboards for investor updates. Take a screenshot, annotate with arrows and notes, and send as PDF. Way more effective than sharing a Google Sheet link. (ModelMonkey can auto-generate investor-ready charts with one prompt: "Create MRR growth chart with trendline" and it is done.)
Make It a Habit: Update Weekly, Review Monthly
A dashboard is useless if it is not up to date. Here is how to maintain it without it becoming a burden.
- Set a weekly calendar reminder: Every Monday, spend 15 minutes updating your numbers. Revenue from last week, expenses, new customers. This becomes muscle memory.
- Monthly deep dive: First Monday of every month, review trends. Are we on track? What changed? What do we need to fix?
- Best practice: Share the dashboard with your co-founder or leadership team. When someone else expects to see it, you will actually maintain it.
- Make it accessible: Share via Google Sheets (view-only link) or export as PDF. I prefer PDF for investor updates—it is a snapshot in time you can reference later.
- What to watch out for: Do not wait until an investor asks for metrics to build this. You should be tracking from day one. Investors can smell fake/rushed metrics from a mile away.
- The real power: This dashboard is not for investors. It is for you. It forces you to confront reality weekly: Are we actually growing? Can we afford to hire? Should we cut costs?
Pro Tip
Archive a copy at the end of each month (File → Make a copy → rename "Dashboard - Jan 2024"). This creates a historical record so you can compare how the business has evolved over time. (Or let ModelMonkey handle this entirely: It auto-updates your dashboard when you add new data, maintains version history, and can even generate monthly investor updates automatically.)
Wrapping Up
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most important metrics for a startup dashboard?
The essential startup metrics are: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) and growth rate, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), LTV:CAC ratio (target 3:1), Monthly Burn Rate, and Cash Runway. For SaaS startups, add Churn Rate and Net Revenue Retention. For marketplaces, add Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and take rate.
How do I calculate MRR in Google Sheets?
Sum all active monthly subscriptions: =SUM(Revenue!C:C) where C contains monthly subscription values. For annual plans, divide by 12: =AnnualRevenue/12. Calculate monthly growth: =(Current_MRR - Previous_MRR)/Previous_MRR. Track New MRR (from new customers) and Churned MRR (from cancellations) to understand growth drivers.
What is a good LTV to CAC ratio for startups?
A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is 3:1 or higher—meaning you earn $3 in lifetime value for every $1 spent acquiring customers. Below 2:1 is unsustainable (spending too much on acquisition). Above 5:1 suggests underinvestment in growth. Calculate: =LTV/CAC. Early-stage startups often have lower ratios that improve over time.
How do I calculate burn rate and runway?
Monthly Burn Rate = Total Monthly Expenses - Total Monthly Revenue. If negative, you are burning cash. Cash Runway = Current Cash Balance / Monthly Burn Rate. This tells you how many months until you run out of money. Example: $500k cash with $50k/month burn = 10 months runway. Aim for 18+ months; start fundraising if runway drops below 12 months.
Should I track different metrics for different business models?
Yes. SaaS: MRR, churn, CAC, LTV, NRR. E-commerce: GMV, AOV, repeat purchase rate, contribution margin. Marketplace: GMV, take rate, liquidity (supply/demand balance). Advertising: DAU/MAU, engagement, CPM. All businesses should track burn rate and runway. Customize your dashboard to match your revenue model and investor expectations.
