Alyona Mysko

Ben Chestnut, CEO & Co-founder of Mailchimp (acquired by Intuit in 2021), described my talk at MicroConf as "cheating" a few weeks ago here in Atlanta.
 
 Why?
 
 Because I took the PLG framework and pointed out three key areas of improvement for founders:
 
 • Get your activation rates up as much as you possibly can; data shows there’s a huge gap here for growth (especially for bootstrapped founders)
 
 • Increase your net revenue cohort retentions as high as humanly possible after 12 months (ideally in the 100-120%+ range, but “comfortable” growth is usually 80%+)
 
 • Stop guessing when it comes to pricing and monetization because it can easily become the greatest growth lever you have
 
 Ben specifically reacted to the revenue cohort retention reports I had in my presentation, and how most subscription metrics platforms like Stripe, Profitwell, Baremetrics, ChartMogul, etc. have these reports out-of-the-box and ready to use.
 
 And yet, few founders and growth leaders know how to actually leverage them for growth.
 
 He described it as "cheating" because he had to pull these charts and crunch the numbers by hand before there were ever solutions that could help him do it automatically.
 
 Net revenue cohort retention (NRR), however, is critical to PLG businesses struggling with growth because it paints the picture of long-term retention (12+ months) rather than just short-term monthly revenue churn.
 
 Most businesses likely have relatively healthy monthly churn (<5%) but when you pull up the net revenue cohort retention report?? 
 
 *opera scream* 😬
 
 In my presentation, I explained that growth is really only "comfortable" after you reach 80% retention after 12 months. 
 
 Anything below is pushing a boulder up a mountain.
 
 Best-in-class SaaS gets 100%+ after 12 months.
 
 Reports like these get even better, however, when you segment the data based on specific customer segments. 
 
 One of the attendees came up to me after my talk and said he pulled up his NRR report while I was talking and it completely punched him in the face. That's how powerful and illuminating that report is for people.
 
 Check the comments below for a deeper-dive on how to use these reports in your own growth work (and how you, too, can cheat like Ben suggested in the video clip below 😉).
 
 Source: microconf.com