The diligence screen every SaaS deal gets first: enter ARR, burn, retention, and sales spend — get Rule of 40, Bessemer burn-multiple bands, the magic number, NDR, and CAC payback, each graded against venture benchmarks, plus an overall capital-efficiency grade. Pairs with the QoE Analyzer for the P&L pass and Trading Comps for the multiple. Pure client-side math.
Benchmark bands are directional composites of published venture datasets (Bessemer efficiency score, OpenView / SaaS Capital growth benchmarks, ICONIQ enterprise cohorts) — calibrate to your own stage and segment data before an IC reads this.
ARR growth = ARR now / ARR 12m ago − 1. Graded on stage-agnostic bands: ≥100% A, 60–100% B, 30–60% C, <30% D.
Rule of 40 = ARR growth % + FCF margin %, where FCF margin = (FCF − burn) / ARR. ≥40 is the classic bar; ≥60 is elite (A), 40–60 B, 20–40 C, <20 D.
Burn multiple (Bessemer) = net burn / net new ARR, trailing 12 months. Bands: <1× Amazing (A), 1–1.5× Great (B), 1.5–2× Good (C), >2× Suspect/Bad (D). FCF-positive companies skip this test (auto-A).
Magic number = (net new ARR in quarter × 4) / S&M spend in the prior quarter. ≥1 efficient go-to-market (A), 0.75–1 B, 0.5–0.75 C, <0.5 D — below 0.5 the standard advice is to fix GTM before adding sales capacity.
Net dollar retention — ≥120% elite (A), 110–120% strong (B), 100–110% acceptable (C), <100% the bucket leaks (D).
CAC payback = S&M (12m) / (net new ARR (12m) × gross margin), in months (×12). ≤12m A, 12–18m B, 18–24m C, >24m D.
Overall grade — average of the six metric grades (A=4…D=1), weighted 2× on Rule of 40 and burn multiple, the two composite capital-efficiency reads.
What's intentionally omitted — logo retention vs NDR split, cohort curves, expansion vs new mix, contraction detail, and multi-year endurance decay. This is the 5-minute screen, not the model.
Educational diligence tool — not investment advice. Benchmark bands are directional and stage/segment-sensitive; confirm against your own dataset before decisions ride on them. All math runs in your browser; no inputs are sent to a server.