Bessemer’s 5 c’s of SaaS (or cloud) financing pinpoint the important metrics that every SaaS company must track if they wish to be successful. They reveal financial health, customer retention and acquisition, cash burn-rates, customer lifetime values, churn rates and more. Lenders and investors will usually refer to these metrics when making a funding decision.   The five c’s: CMRR, ARR, & ARRR – Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue, Annual Recurring Revenue, and Annual Run Rate Revenue – reveals long-term financial viability. Cash Flow – start with Gross Burn Rate and Net Burn Rate, then hopefully turn to Free Cash Flow (surplus) over time – shows how fast the business is spending in contrast to what it is earning or raising. CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost Payback Period – how long it takes to recoup the money spent on securing a customer. CLTV – Customer Lifetime Value – what each customer is worth during their membership and how that translates to the costs of retaining the customer. Churn & Renewal Rates – Logo Churn, CMRR Churn, and CMRR Renewed – the speed with which customers join and quit their membership and how fast leavers can be replaced with new members.