churn
The umbrella metric.
involuntary churn
Involuntary churn is cancellation caused by a payment failure that wasn't recovered. The customer still wants to be a customer; they just couldn't pay. Across $5K-$500K ARR SaaS, involuntary churn typically runs 30-50% of total churn — the share that's recoverable with operational discipline.
In context.
Porchops's wedge is reducing involuntary churn. Lou drafts the recovery email; Stripe retries the card; Card Account Updater handles automatic card replacements. The trifecta typically recovers 35-55% of failed payments before they become involuntary churn.
Recovering 50% of involuntary churn at $50K MRR with 30% involuntary share = ~$750/month MRR retained. $9,000/year. Real money for a solo founder.
Concrete instances.
$50K MRR, 4% monthly churn = $2,000 MRR lost. 30% involuntary share = $600 of that. Recover 50% = $300/month retained.
Customer's card expired; Stripe retried 4 times; no email layer; subscription auto-cancelled. Lou would have caught this at retry 2 with an expired-card walkthrough; recovery rate ~70%.
Customer's card was lost-and-stolen; Card Account Updater auto-updated to new card; subscription continued without customer intervention. No email needed.
Common questions.
How do I reduce involuntary churn?
Stripe Smart Retries (free), Card Account Updater (free), and an email layer like Lou (porchops Free or Growth). The trifecta recovers 35-55% of failed payments before they become involuntary churn.
How do I track involuntary churn separately?
Tag cancellations by reason at the cancel point. Stripe events have enough metadata to distinguish payment-failure cancellations from customer-initiated cancellations. Porchops tags this automatically in the audit log.