What “100% of clients return” actually means
A return-rate stat can hide more than it shows. Here's the denominator behind ours, and why we'd only ever publish it this narrowly.
Every year we publish a line that makes people raise an eyebrow: 100% of clients return within a year. It deserves unpacking, because a return-rate claim without a denominator is marketing, not a metric.
The denominator is every client we've taken on since 2019 - 86 projects across 14 industries. “Return” is defined narrowly: a second paid engagement within twelve months of a completed one. Not a nice email, not a chat at a conference - a second project.
The number being small is exactly why we trust it. With a two-person lab at the denominator, one disgruntled client is immediately visible in the data; we can't hide behind a pool of a thousand anonymous reviews.
Why we think it holds: fixed-scope pricing means the estimate is the estimate; the 48-hour one-pager sets expectations before a rupee moves; and hand-offs that don't strand your team mean the second project starts from trust instead of repair.
If you want the stat that tells you more about how we behave: 23 days median from brief to prototype, across fintech, DTC and B2B SaaS. That one is harder to game and says more about how we work under pressure.
Like this? We write about scope, pricing and hand-offs whenever we learn something - roughly monthly. Tell us where you're stuck and we'll reply with a one-pager within 48 hours.