Frequently asked questions
Questions about the platform and the services
BoardFluent is a free SaaS board operating platform with an operator-delivered GTM services arc on top. Both compute from the same versioned metric registry, so a number never disagrees between a board update, a benchmark, and an engagement. For plan amounts, see pricing.
The platform
BoardFluent, the platform
What BoardFluent is, what is free, how board books and cohort benchmarks work, and how it compares at the category level.
- What is BoardFluent?
- BoardFluent is a SaaS board operating platform. Founders use it to compute defensible SaaS metrics, turn them into a board-ready pack, benchmark them against cohort bands, and resolve the board's questions before the meeting. Investors and operating partners use the same platform across a portfolio. Every metric is computed from one versioned formula registry, so the number is the same everywhere it appears.
- What is free and what is premium?
- The full calculator suite is free on every plan, all 32 SaaS calculators including the GTM and RevOps metrics, with versioned formulas and worked examples. The free tier also includes unlimited board packs with watermarked PDF export and magic-link delivery, the Live Benchmarking dashboard with cohort filters, cohort benchmark bands when sample thresholds are met, pre-board Q&A, and up to three team seats. Premium adds the AI board narrative grounded in your snapshot numbers, a secure data room, company branding, and REST API access. See the pricing page for the amounts.
- Are the calculators really free?
- Yes. Every calculator is free on every plan. There is no paid calculator tier and no metered usage on the calculators. The free tier is real, including free board book seats, not a trial. Premium is a separate set of capabilities layered on top, not a paywall around the metrics.
- What can a board book do?
- A board book turns your live metrics into a board-ready pack: live metric tiles, a structured Decisions Requested section, period-over-period deltas, an appendix, and peer benchmark bands where samples allow. On Premium, an AI narrative drafts the commentary from your real snapshot numbers. You deliver it by hashed magic link, and PDF exports are watermarked and traceable per recipient. Pre-board Q&A threads let you resolve each question against the actual number before anyone walks in.
- How do the benchmarking cohorts work?
- The Live Benchmarking dashboard plots each of your metrics against its cohort band (p25, p50, p75), with filters by stage, ARR band, ACV, and GTM motion. Bands publish only once a cut meets its sample threshold; below that, you see directional reference values compiled from published SaaS sources, labeled as such. Founders see their own company against the cohort; investors and operating partners get a portfolio overview, a comparison grid, and per-portco scorecards.
- Is my data included in benchmarks automatically?
- No. Benchmark participation is explicit opt-in. Your numbers are included in a cohort only if you choose to contribute them, and cohorts are anonymized and threshold-gated so no individual company is ever shown. If you do nothing, your data is not in any benchmark.
- Can investors and operating partners use BoardFluent across a portfolio?
- Yes. There is a firm-side path for investors and PE operating partners: deploy across portcos under your firm's brand, benchmark every portco against both the anonymized industry cohort and a private within-firm cohort, and run a portfolio-wide board readiness and Q&A dashboard with firm roles (owner, admin, operating partner, viewer). It is the same platform and the same metric definitions the founders use, so the two sides never disagree on a number.
- How does BoardFluent compare to Visible.vc, Baremetrics, Standard Metrics, or a spreadsheet?
- At the category level: Visible.vc is a fundraising and investor-update CRM, Baremetrics is a billing-data dashboard, Standard Metrics is investor-side portfolio monitoring, and a spreadsheet is free but hard to reproduce. Each does its own job well. None of them sells the board-reporting layer (defensible metrics, cohort benchmarks, and pre-board Q&A) free, and none pairs the platform with an operator-delivered diagnostic on the same definitions. The detailed, dated comparisons live on the compare pages.
- How is my data protected?
- Every application table enforces row-level data isolation in the database, data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and credentials and magic-link tokens are stored only as hashes. Payments are handled by Stripe and card details never touch our servers. For the GTM Diagnostic, direct identifiers are removed before AI analysis: We remove direct identifiers from your data in our systems before our AI analyzes and scores your company. The security page lists the full set of controls and subprocessors.
The services
Bionic GTM, the services
The operator-delivered diagnostic and the four-stage arc: what it delivers, who it is for, and how outcomes are verified.
- What is Bionic GTM?
- Bionic GTM is the operator-delivered services arc that sits on top of the BoardFluent platform. It runs in four stages, Diagnose, Quantify, Operate, and Prove, each anchored to the same metric definitions the platform publishes. An operating experience pairs with the engine so one operator can deliver the depth of a full analyst team, grounded in the client's real metrics.
- What does the GTM Diagnostic deliver?
- A scored, evidence-based read across 9 go-to-market dimensions, each rated with the evidence behind it, plus a sequenced 90-day plan ordered by impact and dependency. It runs outside-in from public data or full with internal access and interviews. It is advisory: the engine drafts the readout and an operator reviews it before delivery. It starts with a call.
- What are the four stages of the arc?
- Diagnose is the scored GTM Diagnostic, the entry point. Quantify translates the gaps into EBITDA and multiple impact. Operate runs the coverage, forecast integrity, and ICP re-scoring work. Prove measures whether the work moved the number. Each stage builds on the one before it, and the paid stages are operator-delivered engagements sold in conversation and gated on a qualifying call.
- Who is Bionic GTM for?
- SaaS CEOs anchoring a transformation, boards wanting an independent second opinion, and PE deal teams and operating partners running go-to-market diligence or a value-creation plan across portfolio companies. Fractional CROs and GTM advisors can also deliver the diagnostic and the services under their own brand.
- How do engagements use my BoardFluent account?
- An engagement is wired to the client's own BoardFluent account. The diagnostic scores against the same metric definitions the platform computes, and the work product lives in a client portal alongside the radar, tasks, chat, and operator findings. Because the engagement and the platform share one metric spine, the diagnosis and the board pack cite the same numbers.
- What does the client keep?
- The client keeps the artifacts: the scored readout and its evidence, the sequenced plan, and every downstream deliverable, all in their own BoardFluent account. The account and its data remain the client's, and account and data deletion is self-serve.
- How are outcomes verified?
- The Prove stage re-scores against the same rubric captured at diagnosis, with the same evidence standard, and returns a written proof artifact suitable for a board packet or a deal process. Engaged clients can keep continuous outcome monitoring running, so the same rubric is re-scored over time against a calibration registry rather than a one-time before-and-after.
- Is the diagnostic autonomous, or is there a person involved?
- There is always a person involved. The engine drafts the scored readout and the plan; an operator reviews and stands behind them before anything is delivered. It is operator-delivered advisory, not an autonomous report.
- What does an engagement cost?
- The diagnostic starts with a call, and the paid stages are priced in conversation based on scope. Pricing is set on a qualifying call rather than published, so the right place to start is to request a diagnostic.
The thread
One metric spine
Why the platform and the services anchor to the same versioned metric definitions, and what that means in practice.
- What is the metric spine?
- The metric spine is the single versioned formula registry that every part of BoardFluent computes from. The calculators, the board books, the benchmarks, the GTM Diagnostic, and the services all read the same definitions. There is no second set of formulas for reporting versus benchmarking versus diagnosis.
- Why do the platform and the services anchor to the same metrics?
- So the numbers never disagree. When a metric is defined once and reused everywhere, a figure in a board update, a benchmark band, and a diagnostic engagement all resolve to the same value. Tools that bolt a benchmark or a consulting engagement onto a separate data model end up reconciling three different answers for the same metric.
- What does the shared metric spine mean in practice?
- Practically, it means the number you show your board is the number the benchmark used and the number the diagnostic scored. A change to a formula version is pinned and never silently applied to a saved scenario or board book, so a metric is reproducible across time as well as across surfaces. That is the difference between a stack of tools and one metric layer.
Still have a question?
Reach the team through contact, read the methodology for how the formulas and AI grounding work, or review the security controls.