You’ve probably been in a meeting where some analyst tosses out a metric that sounds like it belongs in an airport hangar rather than a boardroom. It’s frustrating. Most people in the venture capital and private equity world spend their time obsessing over CAC or LTV, but there is a specific, niche metric that has started gaining traction in the high-growth software-as-a-service (SaaS) world. It's called the JETS score. Honestly, if you don't know what the JETS score is, you might be missing the single most efficient way to tell if a company is actually healthy or just burning cash to stay relevant.
It isn't a vanity metric.
When we talk about business health, we usually look at growth. Growth is great. But growth without efficiency is just a slow-motion car crash. The JETS score was designed to fix the tunnel vision that comes with looking at revenue in a vacuum. It’s a holistic snapshot. It’s about balance.
Breaking Down What Is the JETS Score in Plain English
So, let's get into the weeds. What is the JETS score? At its core, the JETS score is a composite performance metric used primarily by growth-stage investors to evaluate the "quality" of a company's momentum. It stands for J-Curve, Efficiency, Traction, and Sustainability.
Think of it as a stress test.
While the "Rule of 40" is the old-school way of saying "your growth rate plus your profit margin should equal 40," the JETS score is much more modern. It accounts for the reality of the 2026 economy where capital isn't free anymore. You can't just buy growth with debt.
The first part, the J-Curve, looks at the historical investment against the current returns. Are you still in the "dip" of the J, or have you actually started the vertical climb? If you've been burning cash for five years and your revenue line is still flat, your J-Curve rating is garbage. Simple as that.
Then there’s Efficiency. This is basically your burn multiple. For every dollar you spend, how much New Recurring Revenue (NRR) are you actually bringing in? In the "grow at all costs" era of 2021, nobody cared about this. Now, it's the only thing people talk about.
Why Traction and Sustainability Change the Game
Most metrics stop at revenue. The JETS score keeps going. Traction in this context isn't just "we have customers." It refers to cohort retention. If you have a hundred customers today but fifty of them leave next month, you don't have traction. You have a leaky bucket.
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The Sustainability piece is the "secret sauce." This evaluates the market ceiling. It asks: "Is this growth repeatable without exponentially increasing the cost of acquisition?"
Some companies hit a wall. They exhaust their niche. A high JETS score requires a clear path to a billion-dollar market without the customer acquisition cost (CAC) doubling every six months.
The Math Behind the Curtain
I know, I know. You want the formula. But here is the thing about the JETS score: it's often proprietary depending on which firm you are talking to. However, the industry standard usually aggregates these four pillars on a scale of 1 to 10.
Imagine a company with a massive growth rate (Traction: 9) but a terrifying burn rate (Efficiency: 2). Their JETS score is going to be dragged down significantly because the model recognizes that the "Traction" is artificial. It’s bought, not earned.
Contrast that with a "boring" company.
Steady 20% growth.
Low churn.
Profitable.
Their JETS score might actually be higher than the unicorn everyone is talking about on LinkedIn.
Why Investors Moved Away From the Rule of 40
For a long time, the Rule of 40 was the gold standard. It was easy. If you grew at 60% and lost 20%, you were a 40. Great! But that didn't tell the whole story. It didn't account for the source of that growth.
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Was the growth coming from a one-time government contract?
Was it coming from a massive, unsustainable marketing spend?
The JETS score was born out of the need for nuance. Analysts needed a way to flag "brittle" companies. A company can have a great Rule of 40 score today and be bankrupt in eighteen months. The JETS score catches the early warning signs of decay in the sustainability and efficiency pillars before they show up in the top-line revenue numbers.
Misconceptions That Get Founders Into Trouble
A common mistake I see founders make is thinking that a high JETS score means they should stop spending money. That’s wrong. It’s not a "frugality" score.
If you have a high JETS score, it actually means you should probably be spending more. It means your engine is efficient. It means for every dollar you put in, the machine is spitting out three. If your sustainability metric is high, it means the market is wide open.
Don't sit on your hands if the data says your machine is working.
Another weird misconception is that this only applies to SaaS. While it started in the software world, I’ve seen private equity firms use modified JETS frameworks for everything from healthcare tech to high-end manufacturing. If you have recurring revenue or long-term contracts, this applies to you.
How to Self-Assess Your Business
You don't need a fancy consultant to get a ballpark idea of where you stand. Honestly, just look at your last four quarters.
- Check your Burn Multiple. If you spent $2M to add $1M in ARR, your Efficiency is a 5/10 at best.
- Look at Net Dollar Retention (NDR). If it’s under 100%, your Traction is failing. You aren't growing; you're just replacing people who left.
- Analyze the J-Curve. Are your margins improving as you scale? If your gross margin is shrinking as you get bigger, you have a "Reverse J" problem.
It’s about being honest with the data.
The Role of Market Sentiment in 2026
The market right now is skeptical. We’ve seen too many "disruptors" vanish because their unit economics were total fiction. Because of this, the JETS score has become a shorthand for "Is this a real business?"
When you're pitching, and you can fluently discuss your JETS components, you're signaling to the room that you understand the mechanics of value creation, not just the mechanics of hype.
Improving Your Score Before a Raise
If you're looking at your numbers and realizing your JETS score is probably a 3 or a 4, don't panic. Most companies aren't perfect. The first thing to fix is always Efficiency.
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Cut the dead weight.
Look at your sales cycles.
If a lead takes six months to close and only pays you $50 a month, stop chasing those leads.
Improving your Efficiency score usually has a "halo effect" on Sustainability. By narrowing your focus to your most profitable, happiest customers, your churn goes down (Traction up) and your cost to serve goes down (Efficiency up).
Everything is connected.
Practical Steps for Implementation
If you want to actually use the JETS score framework to run your department or your company, start by shifting your weekly reporting. Stop just looking at "New Leads." Start looking at "Efficiency-Adjusted Growth."
- Audit your customer cohorts. Divide them by the year they joined. If the 2023 cohort is significantly more profitable than the 2025 cohort, find out why.
- Benchmark against peers. Use resources like the KeyBanc SaaS Survey or Bessemer’s State of the Cloud to see what "good" looks like in your specific vertical.
- Invest in "Sustainability" research. Do a deep dive into your Total Addressable Market (TAM). Are you actually reaching the edges?
The JETS score is a living breathing thing. It changes. A pivot in your product can tank your score overnight, or it can send it through the roof if you find a more efficient distribution channel.
The goal isn't to have a perfect 10/10. The goal is to ensure that the trend line is moving up and to the right. If you can prove that your J-Curve is maturing, your Efficiency is tightening, your Traction is undeniable, and your Sustainability is backed by hard market data, you won't just survive the next market shift—you'll dominate it.
Focus on the underlying unit economics.
Verify your retention data.
Be ruthless about your burn.
That is how you win the JETS game.