Total MRR tells you how big the portfolio is. It doesn't tell you which app is quietly dying.
If you run multiple apps, you've lived this: portfolio MRR looks flat, so you assume everything is fine. Then you dig into app three and find it's been losing subscribers for four months while app one masked the decline with a pricing change.
An app health score solves this. It's a single grade — A through F — that summarises whether an individual product is healthy, stable, or deteriorating, independent of what the portfolio total says.
Why totals lie
Portfolio-level metrics are useful for acquisition conversations and investor updates. They're terrible for operational decisions because they aggregate away problems.
An app declining 10% MoM can hide inside a growing portfolio for quarters. By the time it shows up in the total, you've lost months of runway to fix it — or you've been pitching a buyer a portfolio that's propped up by one strong product carrying two weak ones.
Per-app health scoring gives you an early warning system. Check the portfolio total for size; check health scores for direction.
The five components
Portco's health score combines five weighted signals into a 0–100 score, then maps it to a letter grade. Here's what each component measures:
MRR trend (30% weight)
Is revenue going up, flat, or down over the recent period? This is the headline signal — the direction of your most important metric. A strong MRR trend with weak scores elsewhere still might grade well; a declining trend pulls the score down fast.
Churn (30% weight)
What percentage of subscribers are you losing each month? Churn is weighted equally with MRR trend because an app can show flat MRR while churning hard — often propped up by new signups that mask the leak. High churn is the single strongest predictor of future MRR decline.
Growth consistency (20% weight)
Is growth steady or volatile? An app that swings between +15% and -10% MoM is harder to underwrite than one growing a consistent 5%. Acquirers discount volatile revenue; your health score reflects that same intuition.
Refund rate (10% weight)
What share of transactions are being refunded? Elevated refunds can signal product-market fit issues, misleading marketing, or billing problems. It's a smaller weight than churn, but a refund spike is often the first visible symptom of a deeper problem.
Data freshness (10% weight)
When did metrics last sync? An app with perfect numbers that haven't updated in two weeks is less trustworthy than one synced yesterday. Data freshness ensures you're grading on current reality, not stale exports.
How to interpret A–F grades
The score maps to grades as follows:
| Grade | Score | What it means | |-------|-------|---------------| | A | 90+ | Strong across the board — growing MRR, low churn, consistent growth, clean refunds, fresh data | | B | 80–89 | Healthy with minor weaknesses — maybe growth is flat or churn is slightly elevated | | C | 70–79 | Watch list — one or more components need attention before they drag the app down | | D | 60–69 | Declining — likely falling MRR or rising churn; investigate immediately | | F | Below 60 | Critical — this app is actively deteriorating and may be masking problems at portfolio level |
These aren't arbitrary labels. They encode the same risk signals acquirers use when pricing a deal. An A-grade app supports a higher multiple; a D-grade app in your portfolio is a diligence liability.
What to do with the score
Health scores aren't a vanity metric. Use them operationally:
- Weekly portfolio review — sort apps by grade, focus attention on C and below
- Before pricing or positioning changes — establish a baseline grade, measure impact after 60 days
- Acquisition prep — buyers will probe your weakest app; know which one it is and have a narrative
- Build vs kill decisions — a sustained F-grade on a small app might mean sunset, not more marketing spend
The breakdown view shows which component is dragging the score, so you know whether to fix churn, investigate refunds, or reconnect a stale platform sync.
Health scores in diligence
When you export an M&A tearsheet, health grades appear per app and at portfolio level (MRR-weighted). Buyers see at a glance which products are assets and which are liabilities — so you should too, before they do.
Founders who manage portfolios without per-app health signals are flying blind. The total MRR number feels reassuring right up until diligence exposes the weak link.
See health scores for your portfolio: portco.io