Grain Financial Model
Enterprise/Security Startup Financials (Free Excel Download)
AI-powered video meeting intelligence platform that records, transcribes, clips, and organises meeting content into searchable team libraries.
professionals from Deloitte
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About this model
Grain is an AI-powered meeting-intelligence platform that records, transcribes, clips, and organises meeting content into searchable team libraries. It helps teams preserve the important parts of calls and turn conversations into material that colleagues can revisit and share.
The company follows a product-led SaaS motion, using a freemium experience to create individual adoption before paid-team upgrades. Meeting sharing and collaborative libraries provide a natural route for usage to spread beyond the initial user and into a larger account.
The model is built from free users, activation, paid conversion, seats, and account expansion. It also reflects video-processing and storage costs as usage scales, then links retention, gross margin, product-led acquisition, sales assistance, headcount, and cash burn to the ARR plan.
A turnkey financial model
Live formulas, no hardcoded values
Outputs are driven by live formulas, so the workbook updates from its assumptions instead of relying on hardcoded results.
All assumptions in one tab
Inputs are clearly marked in the Assumptions tab and separated from calculations, making it clear what to change and what to leave intact.
Statements always balancing
For integrated-statement models, the balance sheet, cash flow, and supporting schedules tie through properly.
Distinct schedules for clarity
Debt, working capital, taxes, and cash flow can get messy quickly. We group calculations in clear schedules, not across disconnected tabs.
No hidden macros or external links
There are no unexplained external workbook links or macros to undermine auditability or portability.
Changes flow through the model
Update a key driver and see the impact carry through the forecast, financing, and return outputs. We never use hardcoded numbers in formulas.
About Grain
grain.com
How to build a detailed financial model for Grain
A complete walkthrough of the business, drivers, and assumptions behind the downloadable Grain model - distilled from its pitch deck and publicly available information.
Product & value proposition
- Records, transcribes, and clips Zoom meetings into shareable video highlights.
- Enables sharing into existing workflows (Slack, Notion, Twitter, Google Slides etc.).
- Builds per-team video libraries - searchable, organised customer/company/market knowledge.
- Core pain points solved: transcripts are unreadable, recordings are too long, video libraries are unsearchable.
Market
- Global annual meeting minutes growing from ~5T mins in 2014 to a projected ~8T+ mins by 2026.
- Video meeting minutes near-zero in 2019, COVID-driven spike to ~5T in 2020; video share forecasted to dominate 2021–2026.
- No TAM/SAM/SOM dollar figures stated in deck.
Revenue model
- Freemium SaaS: free individual users convert to paid team workspaces (seats/licenses).
- Pricing tiers not disclosed in deck; deck references "five-figure mid-market contracts" as the expansion ceiling.
- 100% self-serve, $0 paid acquisition - pure PLG motion at deck date.
- Revenue unit: licensed seats within team workspaces.
Traction & metrics
All absolute user/ARR numbers are redacted in the deck. The following growth rates and ratios are unredacted:
- MoM growth rate: 20–30% month over month for both active usage and revenue.
- Usage growth: DAU/WAU/MAU grew 4.2x over the 6 months prior to Jul-2021.
- Revenue growth: MRR up 5.2x since Jan-2021 (measured to ~Jun-2021, ~6 months).
- Paid users, paid teams, free users, ARR, and largest annual contract: all redacted.
- Largest contracts described as "multiple five-figure" - i.e. $10k–$99k ACV each.
- Case-study company: 110 total users, 55 licensed users, 13% org penetration, viral spread across 7 departments over 7 months.
- Customer logos: redacted.
Unit economics
- Net Dollar Retention (NDR): 133% for team workspaces with 2+ licenses; 114% overall NDR for all accounts.
- Logo & revenue churn: ~2% (for team workspaces with 2+ licenses).
- Cohort revenue retention: all cohorts Nov-2020 through Jun-2021 are net-expanding within 1–2 months; Dec-2020 cohort reaches 146% by M+5.
- CAC: effectively $0 - $0 paid acquisition, no marketing or sales team at deck date.
- Workspace growth mix: 45% content discovery, 35% workspace invite, 20% content invite.
Competition / moat
- No explicit competitor matrix in deck.
- Moat framing: PLG viral loop (shared clips drive signups) + network effect within companies (becomes the centralised video knowledge system for the whole org).
- Stickiness: the more teams use it, the more embedded it becomes - cohort data supports rapid NRR expansion.
Team & funding ask / use of funds
- CEO: previously co-founder of MissionU (acquired by WeWork) and Degreed ($1.4B valuation).
- CPO: first hire at Branch Metrics ($2.2B valuation) and founding team at Mutual (+$2M ARR).
- Contact slide present but details redacted.
Recommended financial model
Archetype + why: PLG SaaS - freemium-to-paid ARR model with seat expansion. Grain has a classic bottom-up PLG funnel (free users → paid seats → team expansion → multi-team org penetration). Revenue is subscription/seat-based with strong NDR, so an ARR waterfall (new ARR, expansion ARR, churned ARR) is the right structure. No inventory, no usage-based billing, no marketplace take-rate.
Forecast horizon & granularity: 3 years monthly (Month 1–36), then annual summary for years 4–5. Monthly granularity needed to model PLG funnel cohorts and MRR build.
Key drivers & assumptions:
| Driver | Value / Tag |
|---|---|
| Free user signups (monthly) | start at implied base from 4.2x/6-month usage growth; use a seed count consistent with redacted data |
| Free-to-paid workspace conversion rate | ~5–10% of free workspaces convert; typical PLG benchmark |
| Avg seats per paid workspace at entry | ~3–5 seats; consistent with "55 licensed / 110 total" case study |
| Seat expansion rate (month-over-month per workspace) | implied by 133% NDR; ~10–15% annual seat expansion per workspace |
| ACV per seat | $10–$20/seat/month; consistent with "five-figure" mid-market contracts at ~50+ seats |
| MoM new workspace growth | 20–30% MoM revenue growth implies similar new-logo cadence at early stage |
| Logo churn | ~2% monthly for 2+ license workspaces |
| NDR (net dollar retention) | 133% for 2+ license workspaces; 114% blended |
| Gross margin | ~70–75%; typical for early-stage SaaS with cloud/transcription API costs |
| S&M spend | minimal in near-term ($0 paid acquisition confirmed); ramp post-funding |
| R&D spend | ~40–50% of revenue at seed/Series A stage |
| G&A spend | ~15–20% of revenue |
| Headcount growth | 10–20 employees today; scale with funding round |
Scenarios (Base / Bull / Bear - which variables flex):
- Bull: MoM new workspace growth holds at 25–30%; NDR expands to 140%; ACV creep upmarket to $15–25/seat.
- Base: MoM new workspace growth declines to 10–15% as PLG matures; NDR holds at 130%; ACV at $12/seat.
- Bear: Growth decelerates sharply post-COVID tailwind unwind (10–15% → 5%); NDR compresses to 110% blended; higher churn from free-tier over-reliance.
Required sheets / outputs:
- Assumptions - all drivers in one input sheet
- PLG Funnel - monthly: free signups → free workspaces → paid conversion → new MRR
- ARR Waterfall - new ARR, expansion ARR, churn ARR, net new ARR, ending ARR
- P&L (Income Statement) - revenue, gross profit, OpEx by line, EBITDA, net income
- Cash Flow - operating, investing, financing; runway given raise amount
- Cohort Model - monthly cohorts, revenue retention heatmap (mirrors slide 9 format)
- KPI Dashboard - MRR/ARR, MoM growth, NDR, DAU/WAU/MAU, paid workspaces, avg seats/workspace
- Scenario toggle - Base / Bull / Bear selector driving assumption sheet
Frequently asked
Is the Grain financial model free?+
Yes. The Grain model is a free Excel (.xlsx) download with live formulas. Sign up with your email and the workbook is yours to keep, review, and edit.
What's included in the model?+
A 5-year monthly forecast with P&L, cash flow and runway, valuation (exit multiple plus a DCF cross-check), MOIC/IRR returns, and unit economics, with live formulas throughout.
How was this model built?+
It was built from Grain's pitch deck and publicly available information, then structured to investment-banking standards as a fully editable Excel model.
Can I change the assumptions?+
Yes. You can change assumptions and the live formulas will recalculate in the downloadable Excel model.
Have more financial modelling questions? Contact us
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