KPI Minimalism for Maximum Impact: The Five SaaS Metrics Your Board Actually Cares About

If you’re building a Seed or Series A SaaS company, your board doesn’t want a wall of numbers.

They want five crisp signals that show your growth engine, your path to profitability, and your runway to keep going.

The trick is not to collect more data points. It’s to ruthlessly pick the right few, define them once, and manage them every single week (at least every month). And in periods when you fall short of any of your key target thresholds, gather the data to understand why so you can craft a specific plan to course correct.

Here are the five KPIs your board actually cares about, why they matter for a Seed or Series A company in the $1-10M ARR range, and what “good” looks like.

1. New ARR Booked - Sales Team Impact.

New ARR bookings show the converted business by the sales team.

It’s calculated as New Logo ARR + Expansion ARR. That is, the sum of first-year recurring value for new customers signed in the period plus upsells, seat/usage increases, plan upgrades for existing customers booked in the period.

As directors join the CEO in the boardroom, the pre-board meeting small talk will often touch on the most recent quarter’s booking. The bookings news (positive or not) sets the tone for the meeting that follows. If bookings fell short of projections, it’ll be tough to move onto your next agenda item. Be prepared to systematically diagnose why booking fell short because that’s where the questions will focus until the board is satisfied there’s a specific action plan to get bookings on track.

What good looks like: Bookings - segmented by new logo and expansion bookings - that meet or exceed expectations. Foundational to growth and building enterprise value is the ability of the sales team to pack on ARR at a predictable pace. ARR growth is the single biggest driver of a SaaS firm’s enterprise value - know your growth rate goal.

2. Net New ARR - Company Growth as quantified in change in ARR.

Net New ARR shows whether you’re creating durable ARR growth each quarter.

It’s calculated as New ARR from new customers + Expansion ARR from existing customers - Churned ARR (includes contraction).

At Seed and Series A, Net New ARR is the simplest way to prove you’re building a repeatable revenue engine. If Net New ARR dips, your board will expect you to understand the cause.

For example, are you creating enough qualified opportunities to drive new bookings? Are you closing them at a healthy rate? Are you retaining customers?

What good looks like: Predictable, steadily increasing quarter-over-quarter Net New ARR. Such results almost always stem from a repeatable sales process and strong user engagement - ingredients your board can recognize as scalable.

3. Net Dollar Retention (NDR) - Product Stickiness.

NDR measures how your existing customer base grows or shrinks over time, combining Gross Dollar Retention with expansion.

It’s calculated as (Starting ARR from existing customers + Expansion ARR − Contraction ARR − Churned ARR) / Starting ARR from existing customers.

NDR is the clearest signal of product-market fit.

In other words, NDR tells the board your product delivers enough value for customers to increase their spend.

What good looks like: At Seed/Series A, between 100% - 110% is ideal. That means your current customers are spending more. This helps offset churn without relying on new logos, showing the board that growth is coming from real usage - think more seats, additional features - rather than a one-off deal or discount.

That being said, be sure to avoid the “NDR trap”, where robust expansion masks churn problems - sustainable NDR requires both churn and expansion to be at healthy levels.

4. CAC Payback Period - Sales Efficiency.

Sales efficiency can be measured in a variety of ways. When push comes to shove, we like CAC Payback Period, as it measures how many months it takes to earn back the cost of acquiring a customer.

CAC Payback Period (Months) is calculated as (Average CAC for Period / (Average New ARR for Period x GAAP Gross Margin)) x 12.

At Seed/Series A, CAC Payback Period shows the board whether your go-to-market investments are producing revenue quickly enough to justify more spend or simply burning cash.

Early-stage payback can vary significantly by channel - that’s expected. However, tracking it with sufficient segmentation lets you identify which channels are repeatedly generating revenue and which to pause or fix before scaling further.

What good looks like: At this stage, a CAC Payback Period between 15 and 18 months is ideal. This shows you can acquire customers and scale without burning too much cash.

5. Cash Burn Rate - Burn and Cash Runway.

Cash Burn Rate measures how quickly a company spends its cash reserves, typically monthly.

Cash Burn Rate can be used to calculate a firm’s “cash runway,” or how long can the company operate before running out of cash. Used together, the management team can carefully manage its Cash Burn Rate to extend its runway, if needed.

What good looks like: The ideal cash burn rate is relative to cash reserves, and the general recommendation for Seed and Series A companies is to have at least 12 to 18 months of runway after a raise.

How to present these 5 KPIs in your next board meeting

1. Open with the three-line summary that frames the conversation.

You’re giving the board the state of the business, the KPIs that prove it, and the action you’re taking next. This summary should be concrete enough that the board immediately understands what changed since the last meeting.

Example of how this sounds in practice:

“We added $42K in Net New ARR this quarter and expansion from two early customers accounted for 40% of that growth.”

This tells the board your revenue engine is working and gives them a number to anchor on.

2. Show the five KPIs on one slide with a single-line insight beneath each and an assigned owner.

You’re giving the board a quick snapshot of how the business is performing and who is accountable for each lever. The goal is to make the data immediately clear so the discussion focuses on action to be taken rather than data interpretation.

Example of how this sounds in practice:

“NDR: Remains under 100%. Unsuccessful onboarding was identified as a cause for churn. Head of Customer Success is leading the onboarding adjustments that got 6 new customers through their first 30 days, showing higher engagement with key features.”

3. Share one leading indicator that changed a decision last week.

This shows the board you’re managing the business before problems show up in the core KPIs. Choose a metric that shifted early and required a real decision - something that changed how you allocated time, people, or budget. 

Example of how this sounds in practice:

“Daily active users in our highest-value segment dipped 8% over two weeks. That’s an early sign customers may reduce seats, negatively impacting NDR, so we reassigned a Customer Support Manager to analyze the accounts at risk and intervene before they downgraded or churned.

Wrapping it up

At the Seed and Series A stages for a SaaS business, your board doesn’t need more metrics, they need the focus that comes with the right shortlist of metrics.

These five SaaS KPIs give a clear, shared view of what matters most: how efficiently you’re growing ARR, whether customers are sticking and expanding, and how long your cash can carry you forward. Together, they tell a complete story of your growth engine, customer health, and operational discipline.

When you track these metrics consistently (and, just as importantly, explain what you’re doing about them) you move board conversations out of reactive mode and into decision mode. The focus shifts from “What happened?” to “What’s the plan?”

Clear KPIs create common understanding and alignment which, in turn, build trust and constructive board engagement. And that trust provides you and your board with the confidence to make bold decisions as you scale.

About the Author: Dave Robinson is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Driven Insights, providing finance and accounting that scales with client growth and complexity by delivering consistent financial visibility and hands-on operational support to maximize enterprise value.