Return on Investment (ROI) is gain or loss divided by cost of investment, expressed as a percentage. A $10,000 marketing campaign generating $30,000 in revenue (or $15,000 in profit, depending on definition) yields 200% or 50% ROI. Universal metric for evaluating investments, marketing campaigns, capex projects, and acquisitions. Watch the time dimension — 50% ROI in 1 year is excellent; 50% over 10 years is mediocre (about 4% annualized). Modern variants: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) for marketing, IRR for time-sensitive analysis, NPV for projects with multi-year cash flows. ROI is widely abused — always clarify what's in numerator and denominator.
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ARR
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the annualized value of subscription contracts — the standard metric for SaaS businesses.…
Break-Even Point
Break-even point is the level of sales where total revenue equals total costs — zero profit, zero loss.…
Budget vs Actual
Budget vs Actual (BvA) variance analysis compares budgeted financial performance to actual results, identifying gaps and their drivers.…
Burn Multiple
Burn Multiple is a venture capital metric: Net Cash Burn / Net New ARR — measuring how efficiently…
Burn Rate
Burn rate is the rate at which a startup spends cash beyond what it generates from operations, expressed…
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired in a period.…
ROI
August 22, 2026 · Aditya Gupta
Corporate Finance
Related terms
ARR
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is the annualized value of subscription contracts — the standard metric for SaaS businesses.…
Break-Even Point
Break-even point is the level of sales where total revenue equals total costs — zero profit, zero loss.…
Budget vs Actual
Budget vs Actual (BvA) variance analysis compares budgeted financial performance to actual results, identifying gaps and their drivers.…
Burn Multiple
Burn Multiple is a venture capital metric: Net Cash Burn / Net New ARR — measuring how efficiently…
Burn Rate
Burn rate is the rate at which a startup spends cash beyond what it generates from operations, expressed…
CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired in a period.…
