SXSW Unit Economics Workshop – Matt Sparks's Website

I created the following Unit Economics workshop information and outline specifically for my SXSW 2026 PanelPicker Submission. I also made a video describing the workshop proposal.

Title

Unit Economics Workshop: Win More, Grow Fast, Exit Big

Description

Unit Economics (UE) are literally the secret formulas that will make or break your business. In this fun, interactive workshop, you’ll learn to use UE to predict and improve a product’s likelihood of success. You’ll learn to quickly estimate break even, payout, LTV:CAC ratio, and cash flow (and why many startups get these wrong). You’ll use my spreadsheet to organize your variable, fixed, and sunk costs; perform sensitivity analyses; and create winning pricing structures. Lastly, you’ll explore how to use UE to close more deals with investors and customers and create a bigger exit.

Takeaways

Quickly estimate break even, payout, LTV:CAC ratio, and cash flow to predict and improve a product’s likelihood of success.
Use my spreadsheet to organize costs, perform sensitivity analyses, and create winning pricing structures.
Learn to use Unit Economics to close more deals with investors and customers.

Workshop Structure

Introduction: 5-10 minutes
1. Introduction
  Brief speaker and workshop introduction
2. Walk through together
  What are UE and why are they important? Why are investors shifting to focus on fundamentals, and how are UE driving that shift?
3. Group discussion
  How do UE help executives build stronger, smarter, faster, more profitable, and more valuable businesses?
4. Download
  Attendees will download a UE calculator spreadsheet to their laptop, tablet, or phone.
Example Business UE Calculations: ~20 minutes
1. Group discussion
  The three types of costs and which are best to use at different growth stages
2. Walk through together
  Each of the UE calculations, step by step, with the spreadsheet as a reference
3. Q&A
  Stop for questions after each step
4. Group discussion
  Common mistakes, how they could hurt a business, and how to avoid them
5. Group discussion
  How do UE predict and improve a product’s likelihood of success?
Attendee UE Calculations: ~20 minutes
1. Walk through together
  Each section and calculation
2. Solo exercises
  For each section and calculation, attendees will input their own business’s cost, pricing, and unit sales numbers into the spreadsheet. Attendees can use rough estimates for now, as there’s no need for attendees to bring their exact numbers to the workshop.
3. Q&A
  Stop for questions after each step
4. Hands on training
  Direct help for those who need it
5. Partner exercise
  Partner up to discuss their own UE and how they did the calculations, in order to help attendees get comfortable discussing UE with others
6. Group discussion
  Did anything surprise the attendees? How could knowing their own UE be helpful?
Pricing and Sensitivity Analyses: ~15 minutes
1. Group discussion
  How to use UE for different kinds of decisions
2. Walk through together
  How to do UE sensitivity analysis for a given product, decision, or opportunity, and also to create winning pricing structures
3. Solo exercise
  Attendees run UE sensitivity analyses on their own product pricing structures
4. Hands on training
  Direct help for those who need it
5. Partner exercise
  Partner up to discuss challenges and lessons learned from sensitivity analyses
Pitching: 5-10 minutes
1. Group discussion
  How to use Investor and Customer POV UE to successfully pitch investors and customers
2. Partner exercise
  Discuss Investor or Customer POV UE and how to use that analysis in a pitch
Summary & Q&A: 10+ minutes
1. Group discussion
  Lessons learned from today, attendees’ biggest takeaways, and how will they apply what they learned in their own businesses or jobs
2. Q&A
  Attendees can ask more questions for the time remaining in the session
Handouts and Other Goodies
1. Download
  UE calculator spreadsheet
2. Pocket-sized card
  UE formulas card
3. Flyer
  Business model archetypes and their respective UE structures, including common opportunities and challenges
4. Additional Reading List (via QR code)
  Link to Unit Economics Explained series of articles, written by me (Matt Sparks), included for attendees who desire further reading on UE or to simply wish to review how to calculate and use UE in their businesses

Who Should Attend

Founders, executives, investors, and professionals in finance, product, and sales

Speaker / Workshop Host

This is my website, so if you’re curious to learn more about me, have a look around. In the meanwhile, here’s a brief bio and my qualifications to lead a UE workshop.

Bio

Matt Sparks has a broad skill set earned over a quarter century of building businesses, launching products, and mentoring founders. He earned an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Acton School of Business. For the past decade, he’s worked as a Fractional CFO, consultant, and advisor for more than 100 startup, corporate, and investor clients. He’s also held executive roles in sales, marketing, and operations. He invented several rock climbing products and co-invented Bird Feeder 3000. He’s written four books on entrepreneurship and finance, plus magazine columns, blog posts, white papers, sci-fi short stories, and three award-winning poems. He also taught an entrepreneurship course, served as an advisor for SXSW, and spoke at SXSW several times.

Qualifications

As an MBA student, Sparks’s professors hammered advanced Unit Economics (UE) lessons into him daily. He has used this education and nuanced understanding of UE to analyze thousands of businesses, products, and opportunities. As an author, some of Sparks’s most popular and evergreen magazine columns and blog posts were specifically about UE. He’s currently writing a book about UE. Sparks is a true master of UE, a critically important but often misunderstood tool.