It doesn't apply with to every startup, but it does to most.

Getting early adopters is usually a very "manual" process, even more so in B2B startups.

My business' sales will be entirely online once (if) it gets into cruise speed. Then, the CAC will lower and the LTV will rise.

But until then, I have to spend a lot of) time cold calling, getting intros and doing the first B2B sales myself.

If I don't do this, I won't have any customers from where to compute a CAC or a LTV.

I always thought the idea was that the LTV is in getting a lot of users and you do that by making as good an impression as possible on your first users. Even if you are spend several times what your initial users bring in supporting them, if that creates enough traction to get a lot of users down the line you come out ahead.

I think the main point about doing things that don't scale is so you can really understand what's going on in your market. No point in scaling a system that doesn't work.