When the Best Hire Quit
The company's strongest hire quit citing 'a new opportunity.' The real reason was a people decision the founder had deferred for ten months.
Angle
Retention
7 posts
The Vanity Cohort
A board nodded at 94% net retention. That cohort was eleven customers. On 87 customers the real number was 71%. Sample size is the tell.
The Renewal Math Nobody Runs
Net retention read 108%. Strip the top five accounts and it was 91%. The blended number hid which customers were carrying the base.
The exit interview nobody read
She wrote four pages. HR filed it. Two months later, three more people quit for the reason she'd already named. The warning was right there.
The retention number measured on the wrong cohort
The board deck said 92% net retention. True for customers who joined two years ago. The ones who joined this year were churning at 30%.
Your best people don't quit over money
She didn't leave for a raise. She left because she'd spent a year and a half working around one person, and the math finally stopped working for her.
40,000 Signups, No Change in Retention
40,000 signups in a weekend. Six weeks later retention hadn't moved. The spike taught the team the wrong lesson about what actually worked.