Do You Have Lightning In a Bottle? How to Benchmark Your Social App

A16z's benchmarks for early-stage consumer social apps are presented as a way to judge whether a product is likely to scale beyond early adopters, with metrics measured over time rather than at a single point. Growth benchmarks for monthly user growth are 20% (OK), 35% (good) and 50% (great), with paid sources ideally providing no more than 10-20% of users. Engagement is judged by DAU/MAU, rated 25%, 40% and 50%+, and by the share of users active five or more days a week (L5+), rated 30%, 40% and 50%+. Retention benchmarks are d1, d7 and d30 rates of 50%/35%/20% (OK), 60%/40%/25% (good) and 70%/50%/30% (great).