“We Thought We Were Fine”

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5 Financial Metrics That Save Startups from Financial Freefall

And how to track them without losing your mind
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This guide can be used for any type of business, however we have written a few tips & tricks on how to get certain values when you use Shopify.
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“It’s fine. We’re making money. We just need to scale a little faster, and then we’ll figure out the numbers.”

That was the mantra. For months, it felt true.
We were hitting the right sales targets, traffic was increasing, and the new hires were adding value. We figured that we'd deal with the numbers later—after the next fundraising round or when we hit our target revenue.

Then came the day we opened the bank feed and saw the harsh truth: Cash. Gone. Fast.

Sound familiar?

If you’re running a startup, you know what it feels like to go from growth mode to panic mode. There’s no shortage of stories like mine. The founders who looked at their sales graph and thought, "Everything is going great!"—only to realize later that they were making poor financial decisions that were eating away at their runway.

The hard truth? If you’re not tracking the right metrics, you’re flying blind. And in the world of business, blind flight doesn’t last long.

Here’s the good news: you can turn it around. In this post, I’m sharing the five critical financial metrics every founder must track—and how to set them up to ensure your business doesn’t crash when things get rocky.

We're going to cover the metrics every founder should track to keep a grip on the numbers. We'll be going over:

1. Revenue
2. Average Order Value
3. Costs Of Goods Sold (COGS)
4. CAC/LTV ratio
5. EBITDA

How to track and fix them.

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Let's dive into it.
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1. Revenue Breakdown: Know Where the Money’s Coming From

In a founder’s early days, revenue becomes a source of pride—and a trap. Every founder remembers their first big month.

You hit your first €10K month. Then €25K. Suddenly you’re pushing €50K and it feels like things are working. The team’s excited. Investors are circling. You’re running on adrenaline.

For Daniel, it was May. He went from €11K to €52K in 27 days. Shopify was pinging sales every few minutes. The team was high on velocity. The Slack was full of “🔥” emojis.

At that point, revenue becomes something emotional. It feels like a validation of everything you’ve built. But that’s exactly where most founders go wrong—they treat revenue as a signal of success rather than a system to be understood.

Here’s what we saw when we unpacked Daniel’s numbers:

• 90% of revenue came from one Facebook ad promoting one flagship product
• 85% of customers were from one country (Germany)
• His top 3 SKUs were never bought together—no bundling, no cart expansion
• Returning customers? Just 7% of total orders

The business wasn’t growing. It was leaning—on one product, one message, one channel, one region.

When the ad fatigued (as all ads do), a competitor launched a carbon-copy version for €4 less. Daniel’s CAC tripled in a week. Revenue dropped by 68% within 20 days. But payroll stayed the same. So did inventory. He’d been flying blind.

Here’s the lesson:
Revenue is not one number. It’s an ecosystem. And ecosystems collapse when they're not diversified.

Founders often chase topline growth—but it’s the composition of that revenue that tells you whether growth is fragile or sustainable. Revenue is a stream, which should be tracked by tributaries to stay in control and prevent surprises in any way possible. Find what works and double down on that, without making yourself too dependent on one source, channel and city/region.

What to track:

• Revenue by channel: Know where the money is coming from. Is it through Facebook ads? Organic traffic? Your email list? Each channel requires a different strategy and could have wildly different lifetime values (LTV).
• Revenue by country: This will help you identify risks (what happens if a market crashes or gets saturated?) and opportunities for diversification.
• Revenue from new vs. existing customers: Are you growing by getting new customers, or are your existing ones coming back for more?

What you should be looking out for when tracking your revenue:

1. Sudden drop in new customer revenue → your acquisition strategy is stale
2. Existing customers not buying again → your product isn’t sticky, or you're not re-engaging
3. All growth tied to one specificregion or one channel → you're exposed

How to track it:

• Set up Shopify Analytics to break down your revenue by channel and customer type. For example, monitor new customer revenue vs. returning customer revenue.
• Use Findash’s built-in tracking system to pull this data into one easy-to-understand dashboard.

Fixing it:

• Survey your customers to find out why they buy and what keeps them coming back.
• Re-engage dormant customers with targeted email campaigns, make it worth their while to make use of your offer. Customise it as much as possible to make it feel personalized and make it genuine.
• Diversify your traffic and revenue sources. You shouldn’t rely on one product or one channel to make your entire revenue. Build out your customer acquisition channels.

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2. Average Order Value (AOV): More Cart, More Margin

Now, let’s talk about AOV. I learned about the magic of AOV through a founder I’ll call Sandra. Sandra runs an online shop for beauty products and accessories. She had a huge boost in traffic after launching her new collection. But when we reviewed the numbers, her AOV was shockingly low.

She was selling a lot of products, but customers were mostly buying one item at a time.

Her insight? It wasn’t the customer acquisition that needed work—it was the cart value.

When Sandra launched her brand, she didn’t want to play the discount game. She had no interest in flash sales, countdown timers, or slashing prices to chase volume. Instead, she focused on quality, community, and brand.

But by month four, one thing was clear: her CAC was stable, but her margin was tight.

She wasn’t struggling—but she was plateauing.

Then she asked one of the most valuable questions in e-commerce:

“What if I didn’t try to get more customers… what if I just made every customer worth more?”

And that’s when AOV became her lever.

Sandra went deep.

She looked at her order data and noticed that customers who bought the Calm Ritual Kit often came back 2 weeks later for the Sleep Mist. So she bundled them.
Then she added a starter set—a combo of 5 bestselling SKUs with a small discount and a handwritten note.
She raised her free shipping threshold by €10, just above her current AOV.
She added one-click add-ons at checkout: organic cloth wipes, biodegradable, organic cotton swabs, and a €6,95 'luxurious soap tray'.

She didn’t just increase her AOV.
She made the cart feel complete.

Three months later, her AOV was up 26%. And the best part? Her customer satisfaction scores rose with it.

Why? Because she wasn’t pushing more product—she was curating better buying experiences.

You don’t always need more customers—you need existing ones to spend more.

What to track:

• AOV per product: Is your AOV increasing or staying stagnant? Tracking this per product can give you deep insights into where people are spending most of their money.
• AOV per customer: Compare AOV between new and returning customers. This tells you if your repeat customers are buying more or just coming back for cheap deals.

How to track it:

• Set up Shopify’s AOV tracking under Analytics. Look at trends over week/month periods.
• Segment data between new vs. returning customers to see if loyalty programs, upsells, or bundling increase their spend.

Fixing it:

• Bundle products that make sense together. Complementary products often encourage higher order values.
• Offer discounts for larger purchases or set up A/B tests for free shipping thresholds.
• Test product recommendations during checkout to encourage customers to add more to their cart.

Pro tip: Test everything. Sandra didn’t stop with just the skincare set—she kept testing new ideas. Small tweaks can add up to big gains in AOV.

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3. Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): The Hidden Money Drainers

You know what they say: “It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep.”

In the early days of running the business, we couldn’t understand why we were consistently profitable on paper—but always ran out of cash. Every time we reviewed the monthly numbers, something didn’t add up.

So we started from the top. Revenue? Real. Orders? Solid. CAC? Actually decreasing.But when we looked deeper into unit economics, the truth stared back: his margins weren’t what he thought they were.

The reason? His COGS were fuzzy.

Here’s what we found:

• Shipping costs were rising—especially for larger SKUs headed outside the Netherlands. He had set one flat rate, assuming it averaged out. It didn’t.
• His packaging was beautifully designed… and too bulky. This meant higher weight charges and fewer boxes per pallet.
• Return costs weren’t in his COGS calculation—but returns were running at 8%. Every return cost €14, even when the item was re-sellable.
• He hadn’t updated his supplier price sheet in 9 months. Two quiet increases later, his per-unit cost was up 7%.

He was scaling blindly.

His gross margin looked fine at a glance—but underneath, it was being chipped away by a dozen small leaks.

Once we rebuilt his COGS properly—line-by-line, SKU-by-SKU—he found €4.70 of margin per order just sitting there, leaking unnoticed.

Most founders chase margin by raising prices. But often, a smarter move is protecting the margin you already have.

COGS isn’t just a cost line. It’s the backbone of every healthy pricing strategy, every campaign decision, every profitability forecast.

And when it’s clean, you can build with confidence—because you know what every product is worth, down to the cent.

What to track:

• Product costs: What does it cost to make or purchase each product you sell? Dive into the details to get to the bottom of your cost structure.
• Shipping costs: Are you paying more than necessary for shipping? Are there extra costs and penalties? Look at options like bulk shipping or using multiple providers for better rates.
• Transaction fees: These can add up fast. Pay attention to how much your platform and payment gateways charge per transaction, sometimes upgrading your subscription outweighs the transaction fees which often are less when you have a more expensive subscription.

How to track it:

• Break down each cost component (product, shipping, packaging, fees) and track them regularly to see if they fluctuate or stay stable. Do this weekly if possible, or at least monthly if you lack time. In a simple Excel sheet or Google Spreadsheet you can track all your costs per period.
• Use the Findash COGS tracker to monitor daily margins and pinpoint when anomalies arise or when costs are rising beyond your stated targets and how to fix them.

Fixing it:

• Negotiate better shipping rates with couriers or consider packaging optimization to save on weight and size.
• Regularly audit supplier invoices—mistakes happen, and catching them early means money back in your pocket.
• Spreading of producers and suppliers, if possible, for your products to not make your business depending on one source, while also enabling margin improvements by making them compete for your orders.

Pro tip: Even small savings on shipping can massively affect your bottom line when you scale.

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4. CAC & LTV: The Scale or Die Metrics

“It looks good on paper… but why does it feel like we’re constantly out of breath?”

That was the question we kept asking ourselves during our second year. Revenue was growing. Our CAC was decent. Shopify was showing us all green arrows. So why were we waking up in a cold sweat every time payroll came around?

The short answer: we weren’t looking at the right numbers.
The longer answer: we didn’t know how to look at them, let alone what to do when something was off.

Most founders don’t start companies because they love finance.
But ignoring the numbers—or relying on vanity dashboards—is how otherwise great businesses quietly run out of cash.

Think about this: You spend €50 to acquire a customer. They spend €45 on their first order—but over their current lifetime, they spend €85 across 2 orders. With an average COGS of €35 per order, your total cost to serve is €70, leaving €15 in gross profit. That means you spent €50 to make €15—putting you at an average of €35 loss per customer. What often happens is that founders only track the CAC and LTV, without taking into account the average COGS per order. Meaning that they think they have a profitable and sustainable CAC/LTV ratio, however, when you calculate the GPLTV (Gross Profit Life Time Value) it turns out to be a loss or break even.

This is a classic mistake that many founders make when they scale—thinking that a low CAC means profitability. But without calculating the Gross Profit Life Time Value (GPLTV) of that customer, you're at risk of losing money.

What to track:

• CAC: What do you spend to acquire a single customer? This includes your ad spend, tools, and team costs.
• LTV: How much does a customer spend with you over their lifetime? This should be at least 3x CAC to maintain profitability.

How to track it:

• Calculate CAC: Total marketing spend ÷ Number of new customers acquired in a set period.
• Calculate LTV: Average purchase value x Repeat purchase rate x Gross margin (subtract COGS).
• The rule of thumb is that on average, your CAC/LTV ratio should be at least around 3x. Meaning, the GPLTV should be 3 times higher than your CAC, that's when you have nailed it, and scale up even harder.
  

We have written a complete guide on how to setup your tracking and where to find your values if you don't know where and how to get them. You can find this right here.

Fixing it:

• Build referral programs to lower CAC and increase customer retention.
• Segment your audience and personalize campaigns—different customers respond to different offers.
• If CAC keeps climbing, cut ads that aren’t performing, and optimize your marketing channels based on conversion rates.

Pro tip: A healthy LTV/CAC ratio means you're building a sustainable business—not just growing, but growing profitably. Nail this ratio, and you'll have more freedom to reinvest, expand, or weather a slow month without panic.

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5. EBITDA: The Real Bottom Line

Finally, let’s talk about EBITDA—Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It’s the number you need to get serious about, especially if you're planning to sell your business in the future.

Julian was doing everything right.

His brand had a clear identity. Growth was steady. CAC was solid, AOV was climbing, and even churn was improving. Revenue hit €120K/month. His operations team was tight, customer retention was strong, and his cash position looked better than ever.

Then a buyer came along.

A European fund was interested in rolling up DTC brands in the sustainability space. Julian’s was on their radar.

They looked at the topline. They nodded.
They looked at growth. Nodded again.
Then they asked for the EBITDA trail. And the nodding stopped.

“Your gross margin is decent, but your EBITDA is 4.2%. After adjusting for your founder salary, software stack, and influencer commissions… this deal gets tough for us.”

EBITDA is not just for accountants. It’s an important metric of operational discipline. It shows how well your business performs before the complexity of financing, taxes, or write-offs.

And it’s what acquirers, investors, and even future you will use to judge the health and scalability of your business.

What to track:

• Gross Margin: How much money is left after COGS?
• OpEx (Operating Expenses): How much are you spending on fixed costs like salaries, rent, and software?
• Revenue: This is the starting point, but EBITDA is the real measure of health.

How to track it:

• Track revenue and costs weekly using Findash’s EBITDA template, which you can download for free here.
• Compare EBITDA to gross margin—if your fixed costs are higher than your gross margin, something is out of balance. You need to cut your expenses and take on more workload yourself or with your current team until it balances out profitably.

Fixing it:

• Cut unnecessary costs: Subscriptions, unused software, or overstaffing.
• Streamline operations: Look at your supply chain, your team structure, and your overhead. Are you spending more than you should?
• Make use of offers to decrease costs, if your cash allows, by paying yearly with necessary subscriptions, cut out costs of work that you could do yourself/withyour team, or automate it with a tool that costs less.

Pro tip: If you’re aiming for an exit, EBITDA is one of the first numbers potential buyers will scrutinize. It’s the clearest signal of operational health and cash-generating potential—track it, optimize it, and build your profitablility on solid ground.

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The problem with all this? Tracking it, consistently and correctly.

It’s easy to say, “Track your metrics!” But let’s be real: actually tracking them is a huge headache.

You have to pull data from Shopify, accounting software, bank accounts, ad spend trackers, spreadsheets— the data is virtually everywhere and scattered. And that’s time you could be spending growing your business, not wrestling with numbers.

That’s where Findash comes in.

We pull in data from all your sources to calculate AOV, COGS, CAC/LTV, EBITDA, and more—all in one place. Just connect your tools that you use, and we'll do the rest.

And, the best part? We alert you when things are off-track so you can act before the damage is done.

👉 Start your free trial and take control of your finances today.
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Ready to make finance your secret weapon?

You’ve got the knowledge. Now it’s time to put it into action.

With Findash, you’ll track what matters—and grow with clarity, not chaos.

👉 Download an actionable copy of this post for yourself to set up your own financial foundation, completely for free.

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