CAC
Also: Customer Acquisition Cost
The fully-loaded cost of acquiring one customer — sales and marketing spend divided by new customers won.
Cheap to ignore early, expensive to ignore at scale; rising CAC is often the first sign a channel is tapping out.
Hear it from people who've done it
Get the real-world version of "CAC" drawn from hundreds of conversations with founders and investors.
Ask the Network →Episodes on Sales & GTM
First Cheque with Cheryl Mack & Maxine Minter · 19 July 2026
What Makes a Founder Worth Backing at Pre-Seed? With Ilana Elbaz | GTM at Deel
Pick My Brain with Alan Jones · 14 July 2026
How Do You Sell Software to an Industry That Won't Change? Mitchell Baker on Claimstack
Building Tech Teams with James MacDonald · 13 July 2026
Nathan Hill: Managing a Team of Agents Now — What's That Worth?
LTV
The total gross profit you expect from a customer across their whole relationship with you.
LTV:CAC ratio
Lifetime value divided by acquisition cost — a quick read on whether your growth engine is profitable.
Payback period
How many months of a customer's gross profit it takes to earn back what you spent acquiring them.
← Back to the full glossary
Want a show like this for your fund or company?
We're W2D1 Media — the team behind the Day One Network and Blackbird's Wild Hearts. We turn podcasts into trust, authority and pipeline.