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OKR template

Seed-stage startup OKR examples

This is a free seed-stage startup OKR template with 2 objectives, 6 key results, and 8 starter initiatives you can copy. 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. It is written for Seed-stage companies.

  • 2 objectives
  • 6 key results
  • Seed

What does a seed-stage startup 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

Prove the sales motion works without the founder

A founder can close anything once; that is not a business. The annual goal is a repeatable motion a second person can run; this quarter the pipeline and the new customers have to come from someone other than the founder.

KR 1.1 Headline

Net-new ARR closed by someone other than the founder $0 → $60k

How it is measured: New-logo ARR closed by a non-founder seller

Baseline: $0 · Target: $60k

Initiatives

  • Write the pitch, the objections, and the qualifying questions down as one document
  • Have the founder sit silent on five calls and hand over the sixth
KR 1.2

Share of won deals closed with no founder on the call 11% → 60% of the deals won this quarter

How it is measured: Deals won without a founder on the call, over deals won this quarter

Baseline: 11% · Target: 60%

Initiatives

  • Record every won call and keep the three that teach the motion
KR 1.3

Days from first meeting to closed-won 74 → 40

How it is measured: Median days from a first meeting to a signed contract

Baseline: 74 days · Target: 40 days

Initiatives

  • Set a next step with a date on every call before it ends
Objective 2 Expansion

Keep the customers we just won

Seed-stage churn is the fastest way to spend a year running in place. The annual goal is net revenue retention above one hundred percent from existing customers; this quarter we simply keep the ones we won.

KR 2.1 Headline

Logo churn 14% → 4% of the accounts on the books at the quarter's start

How it is measured: Accounts that cancelled, over accounts on the books at the quarter's start

Baseline: 14% · Target: 4%

Initiatives

  • Call every cancelling account within a day and write down the real reason
  • Give every account a named human in week one
KR 2.2

Accounts using us in a normal work week 41% → 75% of the accounts on the books at the quarter's start

How it is measured: Accounts with activity in at least three weeks of the quarter, over accounts at the start

Baseline: 41% · Target: 75%

Initiatives

  • Write down what a normal week of use looks like and check it weekly
KR 2.3

Net revenue retention 88% → 105%

How it is measured: Revenue from the starting cohort this quarter, over their revenue last quarter

Baseline: 88% · Target: 105%

Initiatives

  • Ask every renewing account what would make them buy more

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 closed by someone other than the founder $0 → $60k" 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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Seed-stage startup OKR questions

What are good seed-stage startup OKRs?

Good seed-stage startup OKRs pair a qualitative objective with key results that each carry a number. In this template the objectives are "Prove the sales motion works without the founder" and "Keep the customers we just won", and every key result underneath states the metric, where it starts, and where it needs to land — for example "Net-new ARR closed by someone other than the founder $0 → $60k". If a key result has no starting number, it is a task rather than a key result.

How many key results should a seed-stage startup 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 seed-stage startup 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

Company and founder OKR examples

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.

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.

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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