Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation - the closest thing to the operating truth about a company. Revenue is vanity, contribution is the truth about a customer, EBITDA is the truth about the business: what remains after every variable cost, marketing dollar and overhead. The mistake founders make is stopping at contribution margin - healthy unit economics can still add up to a company that loses money once fixed costs land. At exit, buyers price off adjusted EBITDA (reported EBITDA with genuine one-offs added back), and the add-backs that survive a Quality of Earnings review are the ones that set the price.
Benchmark. Stage-banded: roughly break-even is fine at $1M, 10%+ EBITDA is non-negotiable by $10M, and 15-25%+ is the target at $50M+. Those are targets for well-run brands: most private DTC brands actually run about 6-10% at $5M-$10M, with a median around 7-8% at $10M-$50M. 30%+ annual growth with 15%+ EBITDA margins is what makes buyers lean in.