Startup
Solo Founder Unit Economics
LTV, CAC, payback period, and break-even customers calibrated for bootstrapped scale.
Result
CAC is entered as $0, so each customer's $340 of lifetime gross profit counts entirely as return. Organic acquisition still costs your time and tools: price that time to get a CAC you can plan with. Reducing churn extends customer lifetime beyond 20 months.
LTV vs CAC
Compare lifetime value against acquisition cost.
What does the Solo Founder Unit Economics calculate, and which formula does it use?
Solo Founder Unit Economics works from gross profit per customer, ARPU × gross margin. Customer lifetime is 1 ÷ monthly churn rate and LTV is gross profit per customer × that lifetime. It computes the LTV:CAC ratio against the 3× health threshold, CAC payback as CAC ÷ gross profit per customer, break-even customers as fixed costs ÷ gross profit per customer, and monthly profit as MRR × gross margin minus fixed costs.
Last updated .
How to use it
- Enter your MRR, number of paying customers, and ARPU. For bootstrapped products in the $5-50/month range, even small ARPU differences compound over customer lifetime.
- Set your monthly churn rate and CAC. If you acquire customers organically (content, SEO, word of mouth), CAC is not $0: count the hours you spend on it at a loaded rate plus the tools it needs (the true CAC guide shows how). Entering $0 makes any churn level look profitable.
- Enter monthly fixed costs like hosting, tools, and subscriptions, and your gross margin: the share of revenue left after per-customer costs such as AI usage, hosting, and payment fees. The tool calculates how many customers you need to cover the fixed costs.
- Read gross profit per customer per month, LTV (gross profit over the customer lifetime), the LTV:CAC ratio, CAC payback, monthly profit after fixed costs, customer lifetime, and break-even customer count. With CAC entered as $0, LTV:CAC has no meaning (the page shows it as unbounded), which is a reason to price your own acquisition time rather than a sign of perfect economics.
- Use the insight to identify your strongest lever: reducing churn, increasing ARPU, or growing customer count. Re-run monthly to track trajectory.
Questions people usually ask
How is this different from the Unit Economics Calculator?
This tool is calibrated for bootstrapped scale — $5-50/month products, organic or near-zero CAC, and solo founder operations. It includes interpretation like 'with organic acquisition, even $5 ARPU can be profitable because your CAC is effectively $0.'
What if my CAC is $0?
Organic acquisition (SEO, content, word of mouth) means $0 CAC. This makes your LTV:CAC ratio effectively infinite and payback instant. The key metric shifts to churn rate and break-even customer count to cover fixed costs.
What LTV:CAC ratio should I aim for?
The most widely quoted rule of thumb is 3:1 or higher. For bootstrapped products with near-zero CAC, this ratio is often infinite — focus on reducing churn and growing ARPU instead.
How is customer lifetime calculated?
Customer lifetime = 1 / monthly churn rate. At 5% monthly churn, average customer lifetime is 20 months. At 2% churn, it is 50 months. Small churn improvements compound dramatically.
Is this tool free and private?
Yes. All calculations run in your browser. No data is sent anywhere. No signup required.
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Use it from code
The same calculation as a JavaScript module you can import. It runs where you import it, with no request, key or rate limit.
import { compute } from "https://aibizhub.io/engines/solo-founder-unit-economics.js";Input and output contract, TypeScript types and the guide for agents.