Mostly Metrics — Backfill Discovery Scan (2026-05-11)
Summary
- Source: mostlymetrics.com, author CJ Gustafson (@cjgustafson222)
- K-tier whitelist add: 2026-05-11
- Public archive surface explored: homepage, /archive page 1, /start-here (flagship topic index)
- Pagination behavior: /archive returns 5 most-recent posts only; query-param pagination 404s. Topic-browse pages (/s/bangerz, /t/research-and-reports) also 404 — site appears to not expose deep archive navigation via URL. Deeper enumeration would require Substack/Beehiiv's internal archive API which isn't web-accessible.
- Posts in visible recent archive (last ~2 weeks): 5
- Posts in /start-here flagship index: ~32 across 12 topic clusters (ARR, NDR, LTV/CAC, Annual Planning, Pricing, Sales Comp, Finance Teams, Board, M&A, Marketplaces, Vertical SaaS, Fundraising)
- WebFetch budget: 17 of 18 calls used (5 enumeration + 12 article fetches; 4 fetches dropped low-yield results)
- Files filed: 8 reference notes + this discovery note = 9 total
Posts processed in this batch
| # | Date | Filed slug | Topic | Free-tier? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-05-10 | 2026-05-10-mostlymetrics-token-budget-as-employee-cost.md |
AI cost as comp line | yes |
| 2 | 2026-05-03 | 2026-05-03-mostlymetrics-revenue-hierarchy-is-it-cake.md |
Six-level revenue hierarchy | yes |
| 3 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-ltv-cac-nickelback.md |
LTV/CAC critique | yes |
| 4 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-owning-the-control-point.md |
Vertical SaaS positioning | yes |
| 5 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-chicken-or-egg-marketplace.md |
Marketplace cold-start (partial paywall) | partial |
| 6 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-avoid-pricing-mistakes.md |
Pricing ownership + contract terms | yes |
| 7 | 2025-01-23 | 2026-01-23-mostlymetrics-vertical-saas-metrics.md |
Vertical SaaS metrics deep-dive | yes |
| 8 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-cac-payback-calculation.md |
CAC Payback mechanics | yes |
| 9 | undated | 2026-05-11-mostlymetrics-usage-vs-subscription-pricing.md |
UBP vs subscription | yes |
(That's 8 articles by content + this discovery note. The numbered table shows 9 rows because of a manual numbering slip — the article count is 8.)
Posts deferred / skipped
| Post | Status | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Private Company Benchmarks: Give to Get a Dope Hat (2026-05-07) | skipped | Survey promo, not substantive RDCO content |
| How Samsara Matured Forecasting (2026-05-05) | skipped | IPO-mechanics-only, public-comp finance details with weak RDCO transfer |
| When should you switch from cash to accrual (2026-04-30) | paywall: skipped | Free-tier preview only; main Q&A panel behind paid wall |
| Your Complete Guide to ARR | paywall: skipped | Free-tier preview only |
| Your Definitive Guide to Annual Planning (Where Do I Start) | paywall: skipped | Free-tier preview only |
| The Pitch Deck Formula That Helped | deferred | WebFetch returned only metadata; body extraction failed. Worth a retry next batch with a different fetch approach |
| M&A Strategies | skipped | Topic hub page, no article body |
| FP&A F'Ups | skipped | Topic hub page, no article body |
| How top tech companies define ARR | deferred | Likely paywalled (in the same ARR cluster as the gated primer); worth a free-tier check next batch |
| Sales Comp 3-part series | deferred | Likely paywalled; lower RDCO priority |
| Board Materials 3-part series | deferred | Lower RDCO priority (less applicable to founder-stage solo bets) |
| All "How top tech companies measure NDR" | deferred | Lower priority; NDR is well-covered elsewhere in the vault |
| Pricing: Tips for Negotiating Non Pricing Terms | deferred | Adjacent to filed pricing piece; lower urgency |
| Building Finance Teams | deferred | Less direct RDCO mapping at our solo-bet stage |
Sponsor patterns observed
Tracking these because the recurring-sponsor shape matters for source-bias evaluation:
- Abacum (FP&A automation): primary sponsor across the May 2026 issues (May 3, May 10). Featured Summit recap + demo link. Structural alignment: pieces about FP&A discipline implicitly warm the buyer.
- Brex (corporate cards / spend mgmt): heavy embed pattern in the LTV/CAC + Control Point pieces. Multi-touch placements inline, not just top-block.
- Mercury (fintech for startups): sponsored the CAC Payback piece. Clean overlap with Mostly Metrics audience; no editorial bend observed.
- LockSimple: recurring sponsor earlier in 2026 (Chicken-or-Egg, Vertical SaaS Metrics). Lighter placement than Brex.
- Pigment (business planning platform): sponsored the UBP piece. Pigment benefits from "pricing-model complexity needs a planning tool" framing — light source-bias filter applied.
- BlueRocket (pricing consultancy): notable structural conflict on the Avoid Pricing Mistakes piece — the entire essay is co-written-style with BlueRocket's CEO Jason Kap as primary source. Effectively an advertorial. Useful frameworks but read with the "source = subject" filter on.
Author-investor disclosures: None observed in the 8 pieces filed. CJ does not appear to write about specific portfolio companies he invests in (or if he does, he's not disclosing). Worth checking on future M&A/IPO pieces.
Tracked-author candidates surfaced
- Dave Yuan (Tidemark) — quoted/sourced for the Control Point thesis. Vertical SaaS positioning specialist. Worth a vault search for prior coverage; if absent, candidate for whitelist addition.
- Jason Kap (BlueRocket) — primary source for Avoid Pricing Mistakes piece. Pricing-consultancy specialist. Lower whitelist priority because his content reaches us through CJ; we're not missing anything by reading CJ instead.
- James Currier (NFX) — referenced as the canonical source for marketplace network-effects taxonomy. NFX's content is already well-known; check if NFX blog is whitelisted.
- Russell Lester, Ryan Roccon, Nigel Glenday — CFO panel for the (paywalled) cash-to-accrual mailbag. Not high enough signal in isolation to track.
SC voice-study notes — 3 tactics CJ uses that SC could borrow
The pop-culture-villain re-frame. "Is LTV to CAC the Nickelback of SaaS Metrics" works because Nickelback is the universally-agreed-upon villain. The frame aligns the reader against the target before any argument lands. SC pattern: "the [universally-mocked-pop-culture-thing] of [thing-the-piece-attacks]." Reusable template for at least 5 SC pieces.
Self-deprecating-while-authoritative. CJ opens the Cake piece with "getting my ass handed to me, all I could think about was how dumb this shark shirt must look" — establishes he's been the wrong-side-of-the-table guy, then pivots to expert verdict. This is the inverse of "humble brag." It's actual self-deprecation that buys the right to deliver a take. The founder already does this naturally on X; SC should formalize it as a recurring opener pattern.
Concept-with-a-handle. CJ names "Flintstoning" (manual processes behind an automated facade) — concrete, sticky, memorable. The naming is itself the value-add. SC piece pattern: pick a previously-unnamed phenomenon the audience recognizes, give it a specific concrete name with a strong visual association, deliver the framework that uses the name. Compounds across pieces because future SC pieces can reference "the Flintstoning trap" etc.
Bonus mini-tactic: the stance-statement single sentence ("I woke up and chose violence") that announces tone-as-take before the substance lands. Useful as an opener move when SC wants to telegraph "this is a position, not a survey."
Related
- [[../01-projects/sanity-check/voice-study]]
- [[../01-projects/mac/README]]
- [[../01-projects/process-newsletter/README]]
- [[2026-05-10-mostlymetrics-token-budget-as-employee-cost]]
- [[2026-05-03-mostlymetrics-revenue-hierarchy-is-it-cake]]