Analysis · The live model

The five-year income statement, recomputed as you read it.

Every number below is derived from one typed model. Flip the scenario and the whole statement re-derives, because only the primitive inputs are stored and every line, every margin, every chart is computed off them. Nothing here is hand-entered downstream of the assumption.

Scenario driver

The scenarios diverge on one measured input, the terminal cross-tenant cache-hit rate. Currently viewing the Base case.

Move the model
Y5 revenue
$59.4M
Base case, year five
Y5 ARR
$79.2M
run-rate exiting year five
Y5 gross margin
86%
climbs as reuse warms
Y5 EBITDA margin
47%
operating leverage at scale
Y5 net income
$21.1M
after D&A and tax
Y5 EBITDA
$27.9M
earnings before D&A, tax
Terminal cache-hit rate
40%
the one number the model turns on
Present enterprise value
$132.5M
IPEV method, this scenario

In the Base case the model crosses EBITDA breakeven in Year 4, on a blended gross margin of 82.4% across the horizon. Five-year totals: revenue $94.0M, EBITDA $31.3M, net income $21.1M.

Revenue build

The range is wide on purpose.

The active scenario is drawn solid; the other two sit behind it. The spread is the honest expression of a single measurable variable that has not yet printed at scale.

The full statement

Five-year income statement · Base case

Line itemYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 55-yr total
Revenue$280K$1.9M$7.9M$24.5M$59.4M$94.0M
Builder royalty($30K)($200K)($900K)($3.0M)($6.0M)($10.1M)
Net revenue after participation$250K$1.7M$7.0M$21.5M$53.4M$83.8M
Cost of revenue (compute, after cache)($154K)($798K)($2.4M)($4.9M)($8.3M)($16.5M)
Gross profit$126K$1.1M$5.5M$19.6M$51.1M$77.4M
Gross margin45%58.0%70%80%86%82.4%
Payroll($900K)($1.8M)($3.2M)($5.2M)($9.0M)($20.1M)
Marketing($250K)($500K)($1.2M)($2.2M)($3.5M)($7.7M)
Referral CAC($46K)($102K)($430K)($1.3M)($2.6M)($4.5M)
R&D, G&A and infrastructure($100K)($200K)($400K)($1.0M)($2.1M)($3.8M)
EBITDA($1.2M)($1.7M)($600K)$6.9M$27.9M$31.3M
EBITDA margin-428.6%-89.5%-7.6%28%47%33.3%
Depreciation & amortization($300K)($500K)($700K)($900K)($1.2M)($3.6M)
Tax$0$0$0($960K)($5.6M)($6.6M)
Net income($1.5M)($2.2M)($1.3M)$5.0M$21.1M$21.1M
Net margin-535.7%-115.8%-16.5%20.4%35.5%22.5%

Costs shown in accounting parentheses. Every figure derives from the Base branch of the typed model; indicative and refresh-required against the live 12-tab sheet. Net revenue after participation is a memo line; gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue.

Revenue mix · Base case

Where the revenue comes from, and where it is heading.

By plan tier and by revenue stream, resolved to the active scenario. The community tier carries no revenue by design; it is the cache-priming flywheel. The shift over the horizon is from access and per-run spread toward the durable, non-deflating layer.

By plan tier

SeriesYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 55-yr total
Community (free)$0
Pro$160K$1.0M$3.8M$11.0M$25.4M$41.4M
Team$80K$600K$2.7M$8.5M$22.0M$33.9M
Enterprise$40K$300K$1.4M$5.0M$12.0M$18.7M

By revenue stream

SeriesYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 55-yr total
Metered compute margin$120K$800K$3.2M$9.8M$23.4M$37.3M
Subscriptions$100K$700K$2.9M$8.5M$20.5M$32.7M
Marketplace take$20K$200K$900K$3.2M$8.5M$12.8M
Enterprise licensing$40K$200K$900K$3.0M$7.0M$11.1M
Why the margin climbs

Gross margin rises without a price change.

In most usage-metered software, gross margin is roughly flat, because cost of revenue scales with usage. Here it climbs, because a rising share of served work is a cache hit, and a cache hit costs a small fraction of a fresh recompute. The compute line falls from the low-forties percent of revenue toward the low single digits, and that fall is the entire margin story.

Y1 gross margin
45%
Y5 gross margin
86%

Gross / EBITDA / net margin, Base

Operating cost stack, Base

The operating build

Costs scale with the business, not ahead of it.

Four lines carry the operating build: payroll, marketing, the referral CAC, and the R&D/G&A/infrastructure line. The referral is modeled to grow with revenue rather than ahead of it, because a self-liquidating cost cannot outrun the revenue it is a fraction of. R&D stays the largest line throughout, consistent with building an open standard and an execution harness rather than a marketing-led application.

  • Payroll$20.1M
  • Marketing$7.7M
  • Referral CAC$4.5M
  • R&D, G&A, infra$3.8M
The participation economy, costed

The parties who create value share in it, without eroding margin.

Two earning mechanisms appear as explicit cost lines. The builder royalty is a pass-through against the run's outcome price; the referral payout is self-liquidating CAC funded from margin. Both are shown here at the Base case, alongside the Light Brands net after participation. New earners are funded from the company's own margin, never by clawing back what an existing earner has already received.

LineYear 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 55-yr total
Builder royalty pool$30K$200K$900K$3.0M$6.0M$10.1M
Referral payouts$46K$102K$430K$1.3M$2.6M$4.5M
Light Brands net after participation$204K$1.6M$6.6M$20.2M$50.8M$79.3M

Shape and totals only; internal split points are not shown. Indicative and refresh-required.

Path to breakeven

The cash trough is shallow, and breakeven is early.

EBITDA bars run red while the company invests ahead of revenue, then turn emerald once operating leverage arrives. The margin line on the right axis is the same story in percent. The business is not asking to be funded through a long march to profitability; it is asking to be funded to prove a measurable network effect that, once proven, produces the margins shown.

Cumulative net income

Modest early losses, then compounding.

The area below tracks cumulative net income across the horizon for the Base case. The early losses are near-identical across scenarios, because the early spend is committed regardless of how the curve prints; the divergence appears from Year 3 as the cache either compounds or does not.

Y1 cum.
($1.5M)
Y2 cum.
($3.7M)
Y3 cum.
($5.0M)
Y4 cum.
$0
Y5 cum.
$21.1M

Cumulative net income, Base

The driver, made explicit

One number moves everything above.

The terminal cross-tenant cache-hit rate sets gross margin, sets revenue durability, and sets the valuation band. The Base case assumes it ramps as follows across the five years. It is measured, not asserted: the shipped observatory instruments it on live production traffic.

Year 1
4%
Year 2
12%
Year 3
22%
Year 4
32%
Year 5
40%
Year 5, side by side
Year 5 metricConservativeBaseAggressive
Revenue$24.1M$59.4M$177.6M
ARR (exit run-rate)$32.1M$79.2M$236.8M
Gross margin83%86%88%
EBITDA margin27%47%52%
Terminal cache-hit rate30%40%55%
Net income$4.2M$21.1M$70.5M

The active scenario is highlighted. The downside is a profitable, growing software company; the upside is a category network. That gap is the value of the one number, quantified.