“LTV for us is a little too wishy-washy and too macro to make decisions on... we manage the day-to-day business on payback period which is a far cleaner very tangible metric that we can talk to the entire team about.”

Manage Day-to-Day Growth on Payback Period, Not LTV — It Is More Actionable

LTV requires years of cohort data to measure and changes as the product evolves, making it nearly useless for in-the-moment decisions. Ladder uses payback period — how much revenue is recouped at day 30, day 90, month 6, year 1 — as the operational metric. It is real-time, legible to the whole team, and directly connects spend decisions to cash flow dynamics.