What is GOOD and GREAT retention?

Retention is widely considered as the most important metric out there. Yet, it lies in that shady area not many people understand.

Startups, by definition, are pre-destined to grow fast. Nothing in this industry stays idle for a longer period time.

This is why the metrics, stats and other points of relevance that were accurate 2 years ago — are either useless or even misleading in most cases.

This being said, some of the collected datapoints might be a bit outdated, therefore only use them as your reference point, not as your Bible.

Today at Glance:

Forwarded this email? Join 800+ founders and sign up!

Retention across most types of businesses

It’s very difficult to generalise when it comes to retention. This is why I’ve broken it into industries:

• Consumer social: ~25% is GOOD, ~45% is GREAT

• Consumer transactional: ~30% is GOOD, ~50% is GREAT

• Consumer SaaS: ~40% is GOOD, ~70% is GREAT

• SMB/mid-market SaaS: ~60% is GOOD, ~80% is GREAT

• Enterprise SaaS: ~70% is GOOD, ~90% is GREAT

Let’s define user retention as the percentage of users who signed up and are still active six months later.

Consumer Social ~ 25% is good; 45% is great

Facebook ~60% retention
Instagram ~55% retention
Youtube ~55% retention
WhatsApp ~50% retention
Linkedin ~45% retention
TikTok ~40% retention
Reddit ~40% retention
Snapchat ~33% retention
Pinterest ~30% retention

Consumer Transactional ~ 30% is good; 50% is great

TurboTax: ~55% retention
Airbnb: ~45% retention
Booking: ~48% retention
Expedia: ~42% retention
Uber: ~40% retention
Etsy: ~38% retention
Instacart: ~36% retention
Lyft: ~35% retention
DoorDash: ~32% retention

Consumer SaaS ~ 40% is good; 70% is great

Adobe Creative Cloud ~80% retention
Amazon Prime ~78% retention
Netflix ~75% retention
Disney+ ~72% retention
Spotify ~70% retention
Hulu ~68% retention
Dropbox ~65% retention
Peloton ~60% retention
Duolingo ~55% retention

SMB/mid-market SaaS ~ 60% is good; 80% is great

Microsoft 365 ~85% retention
Atlassian (Jira, Confluence) ~82% retention
GitHub ~80% retention
HubSpot ~76% retention
Slack ~74% retention
Zoom ~72% retention
Dropbox ~70% retention
Mailchimp ~68% retention

Enterprise SaaS ~ 70% is good; 90% is great

Salesforce ~95% retention
ServiceNow: ~94% retention
Workday ~93% retention
Oracle Cloud ~92% retention
SAP ~91% retention
Zendesk ~87% retention

Retention matters, maybe even more than you think. This is the go-to metric when you want to understand how your business really is doing.

It’s important to note that the retention above are the best out of the best companies in the world.

It’s more than likely your company’s retention won’t be anywhere near those numbers.

But Salesforce wasn’t at 95% either when just starting out.

You get better with more time spent on the subject. Same as everything.

Idiot Index

In the complex world of business and innovation, sometimes the simplest tools can be the most powerful.

At its core, the Idiot Index is brutally simple: it's the ratio of a finished product's cost to the cost of its raw materials.

The higher the ratio, the more "idiotic" the process. It's not about insulting intelligence; it's about illuminating inefficiency.

Imagine a component that costs $1,000 to produce, but its raw materials are worth only $100. That's an Idiot Index of 10 — that's a glaring red flag, screaming for optimisation.

But why does this matter?

Because in the marathon of business success, every ounce of efficiency counts. The Idiot Index isn't just a number; it's a spotlight on opportunity.

It's about identifying where your processes are bloated, where your costs are inflated, and where your potential for improvement lies.

In the end, the Idiot Index is more than a metric. It's a mindset. It's about never settling, always pushing, and constantly asking, "Can we do better?" Because in the race to success, it's not just about working hard — it's about working smart.

How to do Marketing 101

Free coffee + 1% of the rent paid for a hanged poster? Sign me up.

This shows that thinking out of box provides the best marketing.

If you enjoyed this subscribe for 2x a week free newsletter in your mailbox!

✈️ How I Can Help

📩 Want a free premium subscription?

Get a free 2-week trial to Founders’ Fuel:

• Weekly deep dives (unavailable for free users)

• Access to my private founder community

if you refer only one friend via your personal referral link: https://foundersfuel.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER