- Brand Chemistry
- Posts
- š§Ŗ The Pirate Metrics
š§Ŗ The Pirate Metrics
The 6-step framework I've used to fix growth in every business I've ever worked with.
Isaac Peiris
May 06, 2025
Read time: 6 mins | Read online
Iām so excited for todays article!
This is one Iāve been wanting to write for a long time, because itās about a framework that genuinely changed my approach to business growth from the moment I learned it.
Iāve used this exact framework in every business Iāve ever worked with, and itās consistently driven amazing results.
Hope you enjoy!
ā Isaac
Quick Hits
OpenAI adds shopping features to ChatGPT [TechCrunch]
Ranked: what people really use AI for [Visual Capitalist]
NYT research uncovers reasons why people share content [LinkedIn]
How livestreaming shatters the fourth wall [Adweek]
Time spent with media reaches 'saturation' [MediaPost]
The Pirate Metrics
One regular day in 2019, I sat in a meeting room and watched a mentor sketch a simple funnel on a whiteboard. I was the first employee at a B2B SaaS startup, and we were in an accelerator program where mentors helped us overcome specific challenges. Weād been acquiring new customers, but struggling with other metrics once they were onboard. Thatās when I was introduced to the framework that genuinely changed how I think about growth from that day onward. |  Aaarrr š¦ |
The Pirate Metrics. (Say the acronym out loud and you'll get it š“āā ļø)
When I moved into the media industry managing a paid content subscription, I realised the exact same framework from B2B SaaS growth also applied to audience engagement. I even used the pirate metrics framework to structure my presentation task as part of the job application.
Sneak peak at the slide deck that got me my first job in the media industry!
When I then applied to a Head of Growth role at a media startup, I remember sketching this framework on a piece of paper in one of my interviews, and then presenting it to the whole company once I got the job.
Simplified pirate metrics framework from the presentation I gave in an all-hands at the media startup.
What makes this framework so powerful isn't just the memorable name, it's how it reveals exactly where your growth engine is failing. Most businesses will obsess over acquisition, but completely overlook the fact that their real problem lies in activation or retention.
Let me show you how this framework has transformed businesses I've worked with, helping identify their unique bottlenecks and unlock sustainable growth.
Awareness: Beyond Being Known
Most marketing efforts focus on awareness, but there's a critical distinction between recognition and reputation. Being known isn't enough if what people know about you doesn't align with your value.
I spoke to Leigh Barnes, Chief Customer Officer at Intrepid, about their shift to brand marketing. He told me how they got internal buy-in by sharing their brand reputation data with senior stakeholders. It turned out āpromotionā and ādiscountā were what consumers associated with their brand. That meant if they only scaled awareness theyād still have difficulty with revenue because customers were coming to them for discount offers. Theyāre now overhauling their marketing efforts to shift their reputation towards their focus on positive impact, communities and connection. |  Part of Intrepidās brand marketing shift. Nothing here says ādiscountā, it just screams āqualityā! |
The bottleneck wasn't how many people knew them, it was what people thought of them when they heard the name.
Growth insight: Building awareness without monitoring reputation creates recognition without results.
Acquisition: What most people call āgrowthā
When most people talk about "growth," they're really talking about acquisition, bringing new users into your ecosystem. It's the most visible part of the funnel and typically where marketing teams spend the bulk of their time and resources.
For software this is often creating a free account. For a content businesses it might be a newsletter signup.
One client I worked with had quarterly targets that were all acquisition-focused. They celebrated when these numbers went up and panicked when they plateaued. The entire growth strategy essentially boiled down to "get more people in the door".
What they weren't highlighting was their abysmal conversion metrics further down the funnel. They were spending heavily to acquire users who never really became engaged. They had mistaken acquisition for growth, when it's actually just the beginning of the customer journey.
Growth insight: If you're acquiring users who never activate, you're filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
Activation: The Moment of Truth
Activation is when someone actually experiences the core value of what you offer, the moment that justifies their decision to engage with you.
In software this is often called "time to value" or TTV, the time between a user signing up and experiencing their first core benefit. In content, I call it ātime to resonanceā or TTR. The shorter this period, the more likely users will stick around.
That's the reason behind those in-product walkthroughs, templates, and checklists you see in every software platform. They're designed to guide you towards meaningful outcomes as quickly as possible. |
The psychology here is universal, humans seek immediate confirmation that they've made the right choice. The quicker you deliver that confirmation, the stronger the foundation for an ongoing relationship.
Growth insight: Slow activation means wasted acquisition, you're hustling to bring people in the front door only to watch them walk straight back out.
Retention: The Relationship Builder
Retention is about keeping your existing audience engaged over time, and it might be the most undervalued but highest-impact area of growth.
The math is simple but very powerful. Research has shown a 5% improvement in retention can increase profits by up to 95%. If youāre throwing everything at user acquisition and those numbers are looking great, but then users are instantly dropping off, itās impossible for you to establish a sustainable business. Thatās why products introduce features like streaks. Itās incentive to keep you coming back. In content businesses this can be as simple as having consistent schedules and maintaining the value of your content. In both cases, the ideal goal is building habits and routines around engaging with your product or content. |  Streaks are a common way apps have gamified user retention. This image is not a screenshot, my Duolingo streak is dead in the waterā¦ |
At the media startup we had a daily news email. We optimised the design and format to be as short and skimmable as possible, and sent it out at exactly 7am every weekday. Because of all that, our audience would read on the bus to work or uni every morning.
Growth insight: Poor retention turns your business growth into a constantly draining bucket. No matter how much you pour in the top, you can never fill it up.
Revenue: The Value Exchange
Revenue is about capturing financial value, whether thatās through direct models like subscriptions or indirect models like advertising.
What's fascinating is how the psychology of value exchange remains consistent across businesses. People will pay (with money or attention) when the perceived value dramatically exceeds the cost.
For product or eComm businesses this might be more direct revenue, selling products or subscriptions to audiences. For content businesses (and any others smart enough to be running a content playbook) there are more layers. Advertising is ultimately not what people engage with you for, so youāre disrupting their experience with something they donāt want. That means you have to be very cautious and strategic about how you introduce ads or paywalls.
At the podcast network, I managed the launch and scale of their paid content subscription. The toughest part was finding that right balance. Paywalls would interrupt the user experience and frustrate them, hopefully just enough to get them to pay, but not enough that they stop coming back. In the end, it came back to value exchange. If what was being promised behind the paywall was uniquely valuable enough, people would happily pay for it.
This is one of the most important parts to get right, because without driving revenue youāre not building a sustainable growth engine, youāre running a cost centre.
Growth insight: If you can't capture enough value from your existing audience, you can't afford to acquire new users at scale. But you have to monetise in a way that makes sense for your audience.
Referral: The Ultimate Validation
This final step is what turns a linear funnel into a powerful flywheel, where your existing audience helps bring in new people.
A New York Times study revealed two major reasons why people share:
To establish their identity (68% share to give people a sense of who they are)
To connect with others (94% consider how content will be useful to recipients)
The Morning Brew newsletter built their empire largely through referrals, creating a tiered reward system where readers earned exclusive content and merchandise for bringing friends aboard. What made it work wasn't just the rewards, it was how sharing Morning Brew became a way to signal intelligence and insider knowledge. |  Obviously I want the stickers, let alone the trip! |
When Iāve introduced this framework to teams struggling with growth, it completely changes their approach. Instead of just focusing on acquisition metrics, they start looking at each stage as part of an interconnected system. We identify bottlenecks and address the specific problems to create a much more efficient growth engine.
Thatās the power of the Pirate Metrics framework. It helps you pinpoint exactly where your growth is getting stuck.
So take a step back and look at your own customer journey:
Where are users dropping off most dramatically?
Which metrics show the biggest gap between your performance and best practices?
Where would a small improvement create a significant impact on your overall growth?
The answers will reveal your bottlenecks, the places where focused effort will bring you the highest returns.
When you fix these bottlenecks the funnel becomes a flywheel, with each stage feeding the next. Happier customers stay longer, engage more, and refer others. New people arrive pre-sold by trusted friends. Your cost of acquisition drops while lifetime value increases.
That's the secret to sustainable growth, excellence at each stage of the journey, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that drive your business forward.
So, which metric is your bottleneck at the moment?
If you enjoyed this post or know someone who may find it useful, please share it with them and encourage them to subscribe: brandchemistry.co/p/pirate-metrics
 | Did this get you thinking about growth in your business? You can use this link to book a call with me where we can identify your bottlenecks and come up with a plan to overcome them. Until next week, |
When youāre ready, hereās 3 ways I can help you:
1. Free Content
On top of this weekly newsletter I also post daily on Linkedin with the latest trends, insights and strategies for building brand connections.
2. Modern Media Masterclass
A free resource walking you through how to use owned media channels to scale your brand and business.
3. Pistachio
Weāre a growth partner to brands like BuzzFeed and Clay, helping them launch, scale and monetise channels that drive real business results.