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OKR template

Company and founder OKR examples

This is a free company and founder OKR template with 2 objectives, 6 key results, and 8 starter initiatives you can copy. The two goals a founder-led company runs on: win the segment you chose, and make the business predictable enough to plan a year around. It is written for Seed, Series A and Growth companies.

  • 2 objectives
  • 6 key results
  • Seed
  • Series A
  • Growth

What does a company and founder OKR look like?

Copy these as they are and edit the numbers to your own baselines. The objective is the outcome you want to be true by the end of the quarter; the key results are how you will know it happened; the initiatives are the bets you are making to get there.

Objective 1 New business

Become the obvious choice in our beachhead segment

The annual goal is to own one segment end to end. This quarter is the first slice: prove that net-new customers in that segment pick us on their own, and that the pipeline behind them is real.

KR 1.1 Headline

Net-new ARR from new logos $40k → $100k

How it is measured: New-logo ARR closed this quarter

Baseline: $40k · Target: $100k

Initiatives

  • Interview 10 deals we lost last quarter and write down why each one chose someone else
  • Rewrite the pricing page in the segment's own words
KR 1.2

Weighted pipeline for next quarter $150k → $400k

How it is measured: Weighted value of open opportunities with a close date next quarter

Baseline: $150k · Target: $400k

Initiatives

  • Book 15 discovery calls with companies that match the written segment definition
  • Close or set a date on every deal older than 60 days
KR 1.3

Still paying at day 90: 62% → 75% of the accounts that started this quarter

How it is measured: Share of the quarter's new accounts still paying 90 days in

Baseline: 62% · Target: 75%

Initiatives

  • Call every account that left before day 90 and record the moment it went wrong
Objective 2 Operational

Make the business predictable enough to plan a year around

Efficiency is what turns one good quarter into an annual plan we can commit to. Margin, cost to serve, and a forecast we believe are the three dials we can actually steer.

KR 2.1 Headline

Gross margin 58% → 68%

How it is measured: Revenue minus cost of delivery, as a share of revenue

Baseline: 58% · Target: 68%

Initiatives

  • Price the three heaviest support workflows and put a number on each
KR 2.2

Cost to serve one customer per month $46 → $30

How it is measured: Infra plus support cost divided by paying customers

Baseline: $46 · Target: $30

Initiatives

  • Move the top three infra line items onto committed-use pricing
KR 2.3

Weeks where revenue landed within 10% of forecast 3 of 12 → 9 of 12

How it is measured: Weeks the forecast held, out of the quarter's 12

Baseline: 3 of 12 · Target: 9 of 12

Initiatives

  • Run a 20-minute Friday forecast review and log the miss with a reason

Why are these key results written this way?

Every example above passes the same quality rubric Hespia grades real OKRs against. Four rules do most of the work, and they are worth keeping when you edit the numbers:

  1. The objective has no number in it

    An objective is a qualitative state of the world you want to be true. The number belongs one level down, on the key result. An objective with a metric in the title is really a key result that lost its parent.

  2. Every key result shows a baseline, not just a target

    "Net-new ARR from new logos $40k → $100k" is readable at a glance because the movement is visible. A target with no starting number cannot be paced weekly, so nobody can tell in week 4 whether it is slipping.

  3. Every ratio names a denominator the team cannot shrink

    "Of the accounts that started the quarter" is a fixed denominator. "Of active accounts" is not — the definition of active can move, and the percentage improves without anything real changing.

  4. Enabling work sits in initiatives, not in key results

    "Launch the new onboarding" is work; "activation in week one from 31% to 45%" is the result the work is meant to produce. Shipping the project is not the same as the outcome arriving, so the two live at different levels.

A template remembers. It doesn't chase.

Copied into a doc, these 6 key results depend on someone reopening the doc every week. Hespia seeds this exact board in one click, then reads pace on every key result weekly, flags what is slipping in week 4 instead of week 13, and writes the digest nobody wants to write. $100/month flat, whole team included.

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Company and founder OKR questions

What are good company and founder OKRs?

Good company and founder OKRs pair a qualitative objective with key results that each carry a number. In this template the objectives are "Become the obvious choice in our beachhead segment" and "Make the business predictable enough to plan a year around", and every key result underneath states the metric, where it starts, and where it needs to land — for example "Net-new ARR from new logos $40k → $100k". If a key result has no starting number, it is a task rather than a key result.

How many key results should a company and founder team have?

Three to five key results per objective, and no more than two or three objectives per team in a quarter. This template uses 2 objectives and 6 key results in total, which is a realistic quarter for one team. More than that and the weekly check-in stops fitting in fifteen minutes, which is how the ritual dies.

Are these company and founder OKR examples free to use?

Yes. Every objective, key result, and initiative on this page is free to copy into any doc, spreadsheet, or goal tool, with no signup and no email. Hespia, the AI mentor that tracks weekly pace on each of these key results and chases the owners, is $100/month flat for the whole team.

Why does every key result here name its denominator?

Because a ratio without a stated denominator can be improved by shrinking the bottom number instead of growing the top one. A team that reports "percentage of active accounts" can quietly redefine "active" and post a win it did not earn. Every percentage in this template names a denominator the team cannot move, such as the accounts that started the quarter.

More OKR templates

Pre-seed startup OKR examples

No fit yet, so the only honest goals are learning speed and the first real signals that somebody needs this.

Seed-stage startup OKR examples

Fit in one segment. This quarter is about proving the first customers stay, and that the motion still works when someone other than the founder runs it.

Series A startup OKR examples

The motion works once. This quarter is about making it work twice — a second seller, a second channel, and a forecast that holds.

Growth-stage company OKR examples

Growth is assumed now. The quarter is judged on expansion, payback, and margin — the numbers that decide what the growth is worth.

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