How to Position a Bad Metric to Investors

Imagine you’re trying to raise, but investors get hung up on one metric—usually growth rate, NRR, or top-line revenue. 

It’s below what they expect for your stage and you don't have time to fix it before you close the fundraise.

Every time it comes up, you feel the momentum dip, and everything else you say gets interpreted through that number.

Are you doomed?

Not necessarily.

Metrics matter… but so does your ability to explain why it looks like this and why it’s going to change.

I won’t cover how to fix your worst metrics here, but I will share some ways to frame them in the best possible light. 

1. Focus on where you are growing. 

Averages often hide growth areas. Break down the metric into segments—by product, customer type, channel, cohort, or geography—and focus on where it’s strongest. 

“We're raising to double down on the incredible growth in this segment.” 

Of course, there needs to be substance. A 100% growth rate means very little if it’s going from one customer to two.

You can even take it a step further by giving the product for that segment a distinct label. For example, if creators are your fastest-growing segment, name what they buy your “Creator Plan.”

Action: Highlight the metrics of your strongest segment. 

2. Focus on your rate of improvement. 

A weak metric is less scary when it’s clearly getting better in a repeatable way. If your cohorts show steady improvement, make the trend obvious and tie it to specific changes you made.

“NRR moved from 70% to 92% after we make the following changes to onboarding and pricing.” 

Then, provide a concrete plan to further improve the metric.

Action: Overlay 2–3 concrete interventions directly onto a 6-month trend line. 

3. Focus on the future, not the past. 

If you can tell a tight, logical story about a bright future, today’s metrics matter less. Your job is to make growth seem inevitable.

Three story shapes that work:

•  "The tides are rising": macro tailwinds are making this category bigger or more urgent.
•  "A movement has already started": a beachhead niche is winning and pulling the rest of the company forward.
•  "We're on the cusp of a breakthrough": a near-term inflection point is about to change the game (a new technology, GTM channel, or regulation will accelerate growth).

Action: Link your business to macro trends, an inflection point, and a movement that’s happening with or without you. 

4. Focus on the strength linked to your weakness. 

Weakness often comes paired with a strength. Sometimes (although not always), this is true with metrics too. When you’re able to connect a weakness with a strength, it can make it look like a smart trade-off.

For example:

•  Long sales cycles can be the price of high retention and large ACVs
•  Low initial revenue can hide expansion potential
•  Early product investment can divert resources from growth

Of course, this only works if the link is real and intuitive.

Action: Position the weakness as a trade-off to execute on a strength. 

5. Use the metric as a filter. 

Sometimes the most powerful move is to surface the weak metric early and let it disqualify the wrong investors.

One of my clients used their weakest metric (top-line revenue) to raise their Series B. Their intro email outlined their most impressive achievements, but ended with this disclaimer:

“We know our total revenue is low for a Series B, so if you’d like to opt out at this stage, no problem.” 

Many investors opted out... but the right ones continued. The weak metric became a filter that saved the founder's time and focused their energy on open-minded investors.

This is a confident move, so it works best when you have other impressive achievements, and enough pipeline to withstand the opt-outs.

Action: Be upfront about your weakest metric and allow people to opt out if they already know it's a dealbreaker. 

While these techniques won't guarantee you'll raise, they might at least keep you in the game.

And if you aren’t able to raise venture capital, you can still grow through customer-funded growth (here’s how).

But if you do raise your round, you need to fix that metric. Stories are great but only when they become reality.

Related Reading

• How to Grow Without Venture Capital
• How to Communicate Your Long-Term Strategy
• How Founders Lose Sight of What They Want

Originally published on December 03, 2025.