Unit economics must work at 100 customers before you scale to 10,000

If your customer acquisition cost exceeds lifetime value at small scale, scaling just burns money faster. Calculate CAC (total marketing spend / new customers) and LTV (average revenue per customer × average customer lifespan) monthly. If LTV/CAC is below 3:1, fix the ratio before increasing ad spend. The most common startup death: scaling a broken unit economics model with venture capital.