Project your future revenue growth

Match to stage: pre-revenue/seed startup 100%+; Series A 50-100%; mature SMB 15-30%; large mature 5-12%. Always validate against your industry's top quartile + your own trailing 3-yr trend.

CAGR = compounded smoothed rate over multiple years. YoY = single-year growth. CAGR is more meaningful for multi-year projections; YoY for short-term.

Use blended/declining CAGR. E.g., assume 100% Year 1, 75% Y2, 50% Y3, 30% Y4, 20% Y5 — reflects realistic decay as you scale. Constant high CAGR is unrealistic past 3-4 years.

Use 3-5 year CAGR, not single-year. Smooths over one-time events. Also examine: was the growth from acquisitions or organic? Organic-only growth is the right baseline for projection.

Yes. Build three scenarios: bear (low CAGR), base (likely CAGR), bull (aggressive but possible CAGR). Investors and boards want to see all three plus sensitivity analysis.

Treat fixed costs as fixed; variable costs as a % of revenue. As revenue grows, gross margin should stabilise. Operating margin typically improves with scale (3-7 points expansion over 5 years).

Doubling time ≈ 72 ÷ growth rate. At 15% CAGR, revenue doubles in ~5 years. Quick mental check for projections.

Yes if you're showing real (not nominal) growth. Inflation-adjusted growth = nominal CAGR − inflation rate. India: assume 6-7% inflation for real-growth calc.