Canonical formula calculator
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
The percent gain or loss on what you put in — the foundational test for whether a decision created value or destroyed it.
The gain ABOVE your original investment. If you invested $1,000 and now have $1,200, enter $200, NOT $1,200. Can be negative if you lost money.
The amount of capital you originally put in.
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Add context for case suggestions
Optional — helps us match this calculation against relevant case studies (coming soon).
What this tells you
Return on Investment measures the percent gain or loss on capital you put to work. A 30% ROI on a marketing campaign means you got back $1.30 for every dollar spent — after the spend, profit was 30%. ROI is the most universal way to compare investment options across very different categories: a $10K ad campaign at 40% ROI is comparable to a $50K equipment purchase at 35% ROI.
When to use it
Calculate ROI for any discrete investment — a marketing campaign, a piece of equipment, a hire, a software purchase. Compare across investments to find your highest-leverage capital allocations. The trap to avoid: comparing ROI without considering risk, time horizon, or scalability — a 100% ROI on a $1K test is not the same as a 100% ROI on a $100K commitment.
What it doesn’t tell you
ROI is a single-point measurement. It does not account for the time it took to realize the return, the risk involved, or the lost opportunity of capital tied up. A 50% ROI over 5 years is much weaker than a 50% ROI over 6 months. For investments with long horizons, consider annualized ROI or IRR instead.
Coming soon
Cases, plays, and benchmarks for this metric will appear here as the Moonshot knowledge libraries grow. For now: log in to track your number over time and Moonshot will surface trend warnings when the substrate fills in.