---
id: gh-unit-economics
name: "unit-economics"
url: https://skills.yangsir.net/skill/gh-unit-economics
author: anthropics
domain: finance
tags: ["unit-economics", "saas-metrics", "financial-analysis", "private-equity", "cohort-analysis"]
install_count: 1300
rating: 4.30 (120 reviews)
github: https://github.com/anthropics/financial-services/tree/main/plugins/vertical-plugins/private-equity/skills/unit-economics
---

# unit-economics

> 该 Skill 面向私募股权与投资尽调场景，对软件/SaaS、订阅制及经常性收入业务做单元经济分析：搭建 ARR 桥与年度队列矩阵，计算 CAC、LTV、LTV:CAC、净留存、回收期与毛利瀑布，并对照 Rule of 40 等基准输出收入质量评分与红旗清单。适用于评估收入质量、构建队列分析与判断客户经济性。

**Stats**: 1,300 installs · 4.3/5 (120 reviews)

## Before / After 对比

### ARR 桥与队列矩阵搭建耗时

**Before**:

在没有这个技能之前，分析师要从多个系统的导出数据里手工拼接 ARR 桥和年度队列矩阵，公式反复核对，一份收入质量底稿往往要占用大半天甚至跨天完成。

**After**:

此技能按固定工作流直接产出 ARR 桥、队列矩阵与单元经济仪表盘，并同步给出基准对照，同样的分析在半小时内即可成稿，分析师可以把时间留给结论与追问。

| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARR 桥与队列矩阵搭建耗时 | 480分钟 | 30分钟 | -94% |

### 收入质量红旗遗漏率

**Before**:

手工分析时容易只看净留存而忽略总留存，或漏掉收入集中度、队列稳定性等维度，导致尽调报告中关键风险点被遗漏、后期才被发现。

**After**:

该 Skill 强制同时展示总留存与净留存，覆盖集中度、队列稳定性、增长可持续性与毛利结构，并输出结构化评分表，让红旗在报告阶段就被显性列出。

| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 收入质量红旗遗漏率 | 35% | 6% | -83% |

## Readme

# Unit Economics Analysis

## Workflow

### Step 1: Identify Business Model

Determine the revenue model to tailor the analysis:
- **SaaS / Subscription**: ARR, net retention, cohorts
- **Recurring services**: Contract value, renewal rates, upsell
- **Transaction / usage-based**: Revenue per transaction, volume trends, take rate
- **Hybrid**: Break down by revenue stream

### Step 2: Core Metrics

#### ARR / Revenue Quality
- **ARR bridge**: Beginning ARR → New → Expansion → Contraction → Churn → Ending ARR
- **ARR by cohort**: Vintage analysis — how does each annual cohort retain and grow?
- **Revenue concentration**: Top 10/20/50 customers as % of total
- **Revenue by type**: Recurring vs. non-recurring vs. professional services
- **Contract structure**: ACV distribution, multi-year %, auto-renewal %

#### Customer Economics
- **CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)**: Total S&M spend / new customers acquired
- **LTV (Lifetime Value)**: (ARPU × Gross Margin) / Churn Rate
- **LTV:CAC ratio**: Target >3x for healthy businesses
- **CAC payback period**: Months to recover acquisition cost
- **Blended vs. segmented**: Break down by customer segment (enterprise vs. SMB vs. mid-market)

#### Retention & Expansion
- **Gross retention**: % of beginning ARR retained (excludes expansion)
- **Net retention (NDR)**: % of beginning ARR retained including expansion
- **Logo churn**: % of customers lost
- **Dollar churn**: % of revenue lost (often different from logo churn)
- **Expansion rate**: Upsell + cross-sell as % of beginning ARR

#### Cohort Analysis
Build a cohort matrix showing:

| Cohort | Year 0 | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 |
|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| 2020 | $1.0M | $1.1M | $1.2M | $1.1M | |
| 2021 | $1.5M | $1.7M | $1.8M | | |
| 2022 | $2.0M | $2.3M | | | |
| 2023 | $3.0M | | | | |

Show both absolute $ and indexed (Year 0 = 100%) views.

#### Margin Waterfall
- Revenue → Gross Profit → Contribution Margin → EBITDA
- Fully loaded unit economics: what does it cost to acquire, serve, and retain a customer?
- Gross margin by revenue stream (subscription vs. services vs. other)

### Step 3: Benchmarking

Compare unit economics to relevant benchmarks:
- **SaaS Rule of 40**: Growth rate + EBITDA margin > 40%
- **SaaS Magic Number**: Net new ARR / prior period S&M spend > 0.75x
- **NDR benchmarks**: Best-in-class >120%, good >110%, concerning <100%
- **LTV:CAC**: Best-in-class >5x, good >3x, concerning <2x
- **Gross retention**: Best-in-class >95%, good >90%, concerning <85%
- **CAC payback**: Best-in-class <12mo, good <18mo, concerning >24mo

### Step 4: Revenue Quality Score

Synthesize into a revenue quality assessment:

| Factor | Score (1-5) | Notes |
|--------|-------------|-------|
| Recurring % | | |
| Net retention | | |
| Customer concentration | | |
| Cohort stability | | |
| Growth durability | | |
| Margin profile | | |
| **Overall** | | |

### Step 5: Output

- Excel workbook with ARR bridge, cohort matrix, unit economics dashboard
- Summary slide with key metrics and benchmarks
- Red flags and areas for further diligence

## Important Notes

- Always ask for raw customer-level data if available — aggregate metrics can hide problems
- NDR above 100% can mask high gross churn if expansion is strong enough — always show both
- Cohort analysis is the single most important view for revenue quality — push for this data
- Differentiate between contracted ARR and actual recognized revenue
- For usage-based models, focus on consumption trends and expansion patterns rather than traditional ARR metrics
- Professional services revenue should be evaluated separately — it's not recurring and margins are typically lower


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*Source: https://skills.yangsir.net/skill/gh-unit-economics*
*Markdown mirror: https://skills.yangsir.net/api/skill/gh-unit-economics/markdown*