The Burn Multiple Is the Metric That Won
Why a single ratio has displaced growth as the dominant late-stage financing signal.
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Elena RossiContributor, The Signal
Burn multiple — net burn divided by net new ARR — has emerged as the single most predictive late-stage financing metric of the last three years. It captures, in one number, whether the company is buying growth or earning it. The thresholds are not subtle: under 1x is excellent, 1–2x is good, 2–3x is suspect, above 3x is a fundraising problem.