SaaStr

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

The Evolution of SaaS Funding From 2016 to 2021. He focused on several specific metrics, including Round Size, Valuation, and ARR & MRR. 2021: $300K – $1M. 2021: $2.5M – $4.5M. 2021(ARR): $0 – $600K. 2021: $2M – $5M. 2021: $8M – $12M. 2021(ARR): $0 – $600K. ?

Finance 328

Finance Product Marketing Investment SaaS 328

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

The SaaS “Rule of 40” has gained popularity due to its simplicity, requiring only two common financial metrics to be added together. As our 2021 KBCM analysis showed, capital-efficient SaaS platforms stand out most in the “Rule of 40” framework. Ultimately, the “Rule of 40” is ONLY a metric.

SaaS 321

SaaS Technical Review Benchmarks Azure 321

SaaStr

AUGUST 29, 2021

It’s time to Meet Your Mentors for SaaStr Annual 2021! Northstar Metrics: How to Define The Right Metrics For Your SaaS Solution with Soumeya Benghanem, Product Management Practice Lead @ VMware. We have hundreds of investors joining us for SaaStr Annual 2021, not to mention hundreds of post-revenue startups.

Stax 299

Stax Startup Cloud Metrics 299

SaaStr

JANUARY 26, 2023

So there are a lot of rough and arm chair metrics for fundraising in SaaS in terms of valuations. Per Pitchbook and IVP, top-tier growth rounds had a 114x ARR ask at the very peak in 2021! Average asks and multiple for the very, very SaaS companies went up 700% in the Boom from late 2020-late 2021. It Was 114x in 2021.

Venture Capital 67

Venture Capital AWS SaaS Startup 67

SaaStr

MAY 8, 2024

Let’s jump right into this set of community questions focused on SaaS metrics, growth, and efficiency. What metrics should we expect in this environment? Sales is much harder than in 2021. 2021 made no sense in terms of budgeting. In 2021, many sales folks were marginally efficient. Let’s start with the meta. “I

Metrics 276

Metrics Scale Sales Hiring SaaS 276

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Assuming current trends hold, sales efficiency in 2021 should nudge up to about 0.57. Comparing the first half of 2021 to the first half of 2020, the company grew 57%, eight percentage points higher than the annual figures. Revenue, $M. Revenue Growth. -. Gross Margin. Sales Efficiency. -. Net Income Margin.

Metrics 295

Metrics Benchmarks PayPal Enterprise 295

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

Assuming the company grows at similar levels to the first half of 2021, the model suggests the company should expect a market cap in the $15-17B range. The breadth of the solution is hard to convey, unless you visit the features page ; when printed it’s more than 100 pages long. Revenue, $M. Revenue Growth. -. Gross Margin.

Metrics 316

Metrics Outsourced Development Scale Cloud 316

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2024

What are the three most under-discussed metrics on social media, with VCs, and especially with founders? In 2021, all that mattered was growth. The goal of 2024 is to grow almost as fast as we did in 2021, but without burning all the cash. This should be your North Star metric. But profitability isn’t enough.

Metrics 306

Metrics SaaS Scale Social Media 306

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2021

A significant portion of the excellent “ Founder Confidential ” CEO panel at SaaStr 2021 centered on “ crazy valuations” in SaaS today with the implication investors are irrational. The post The State of the Cloud 2021, How to Build a Cloud Unicorn with Bessemer Venture Partners (Podcast #484 and Video) appeared first on SaaStr.

Cloud 290

Cloud Mobile Innovation Metrics 290

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

Current State of Early-Stage Venture Market The early-stage venture landscape has experienced significant shifts since the peaks of 2021. We’re seeing: Deal activity decline : From the highs of 2021 (around 3.5B raised in Q4 2021), we’re seeing a return to baseline levels but still below pre-zero interest rate era volumes.

Technical Review 162

Technical Review Venture Capital Outsourced Development ChatGPT 162

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2021

With too many examples from SaaStr Annual 2021 to call out specifically, here are 2 “Cloud talks plus decks” that I can imagine the Self-Taught Founder relying upon: David Sacks On SaaS Org Charts. The favorable consumption-based pricing metrics on this Battery slide speak for themselves. Full Session YouTube.

Scale 354

Scale Cloud Forecasting Pricing 354

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2023

Learn about the most important SaaS metrics for founders in 2023 with the CEOs of the most metric-oriented company, monday.com, and the founder of SaaStr. For a quick recap on SaaS metrics: What is ARR in SaaS? So now we must be smarter about the most important SaaS metrics because they matter again.

Metrics 245

Metrics SaaS Sales Hiring Finance 245

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 13, 2022

In 2021, employment costs per capital increased to roughly $200k. In 2021, employment costs per capital increased to roughly $200k. That’s a lot of buffer to achieve Series B metrics [1]. But we’re no longer in 2021. Runway in Months. At 28 employees, a $16m Series A fueled the company for 35 months.

Headcount 325

Headcount Venture Capital Finance Startup 325

SaaStr

OCTOBER 14, 2021

— GitLab (@gitlab) October 14, 2021. GitLab China is a new independent company formed in 2021, both SaaS and self-managed, available only in China, Hong Kong and Macau. And 100 by 2020 and 200 by 2021. This is an interesting segmentation of core metrics. GTLB at @Nasdaq pic.twitter.com/Tix2iaEqAr. Then 20 by 2018.

Outsourced Development 67

Outsourced Development Software Development Innovation Cloud 67

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

What data and metrics do you need to convince SaaS investors you’re in good shape and aligned with what they care about? These metrics are more targeted to those preparing for a Series A or B round and could make the difference between an excited-to-invest-in-you investor and a pass. What gets investors excited about this metric?

Metrics 189

Metrics Sales Hiring Retention Churn 189

Tom Tunguz

MAY 23, 2021

In 2021, the post-money valuation has spiked 60% from $48.1m But it hasn’t soared like it’s older brother in 2021, preferring a more consistent path. 2021: Snowflake (late 2020), UIPath, Airbnb, Doordash, Coinbase. Each of the three quartiles have inflected in the first 5 months of this year. 2012: Facebook.

Software Review 364

Software Review Venture Capital Cloud Pricing 364

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2025

Revenue Per Customer is Growing Substantially While Palantir doesn’t explicitly provide this metric, we can calculate that their commercial revenue per customer has increased substantially. Epic Acceleration At Scale While many today are decelerating from 2021 growth rates, Palantir is … re-accelerating.

Artificial Intelligence 143

Artificial Intelligence Government AI Benchmarks 143

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2023

And realistically, most won’t have the metrics to pull off another round. Folks that raised in the Go-Go Times of 2021 in many cases have been able to stretch their cash through 2023. jasonlk) November 13, 2023 But with so, so many startups funded in 2021 … we likely will also see a record number shut down in 2024. :(.

Startup 357

Startup Venture Capital Azure AWS 357

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2024

About 20%-25% are growing like it’s 2021. And at the growth stage, top decile may not even be enough to raise another round. This is roughly what I see in my own portfolio at SaaStr Fund. Well, not quite, but at least close. And can raise VC funding, including growth capital, quickly and effortlessly.

Startup 353

Startup Metrics Data Software 353

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 3, 2021

The 100x ARR multiple might be the fundraising meme of 2021. Second, the correlation between the two metrics and revenue growth is identical at about 36%. I wonder if it’s the right metric long term. Where did this figure originate? How does it compare to the public markets' valuation of companies?

Benchmarks 362

Benchmarks Startup Metrics Enterprise 362

SaaStr

JANUARY 13, 2022

Only 33% of SaaS IPO’s in 2021 were HQ’d in the Bay Area. I excluded some of the metrics at IPO such as Magic Number, sales efficiency, etc, as they are helpful to see but often very different than what you see at earlier stages.). But still helpful to see. Wow, and down from 40% in 2020. (I

SMB 360

SMB SaaS Retention Scale 360

SaaStr

APRIL 17, 2024

So it’s been a long IPO drought since HashiCorp was the last IPO of the Boom Times in December 2021. They’re still transitioning from onprem / appliciance model to cloud, which makes some of the metrics a touch confusing. For me, Net New Customer Count has become the metric I obsess the most about at scale.

Scale 303

Scale Pricing Scaling Cloud 303

SaaStr

APRIL 1, 2023

While layoffs are all across the news today, looking back, July 2021 was the nadir for layoffs. Everyone was hiring everyone, anyone, back in mid-2021. On the hiring side, it often seemed like you just couldn’t hire anyone. This data from Carta helps illustrate it: So we cut corners. We stopped doing reference checks.

Sales Hiring 316

Sales Hiring Investment Leadership Startup 316

Neil Patel

JANUARY 27, 2021

How’s it doing in 2021? Video and voice search are leading the charge in 2021. So, what’s happening in content marketing, version 2021? Content Marketing: 2021 Current Trends. Social Media Metrics (and Their Impact on Content Marketing). Let’s talk about content marketing. Is it still the king? Let’s find out.

Content Marketing 143

Content Marketing Marketing Social Media Artificial Intelligence 143

SaaStr

AUGUST 22, 2021

Recently Bessemer Venture Partners did another great deep give on Cloud metrics at the Cloud 100. They’ll update their classic “State of the Cloud” on Sep 27-29 at SaaStr Annual 2021 in the SF Bay Area so come join us there for the latest! They’re not really acquiring ever more unicorns.

Cloud 336

Cloud Scale SaaS Acquisition 336

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2021

We’ve used various bits of the BVP Nasdaq Index and metrics since they launched a few years ago to highlight trends in SaaS and Cloud. And take a deep dive from Bessemer Venture Partners here on the Current State of the Cloud in 2021: The post Cloud and SaaS Are Up 1000%, Now Worth $2 Trillion appeared first on SaaStr.

Cloud 325

Cloud SaaS Trends Metrics 325

SaaStr

MARCH 31, 2021

— Jon Ma (@jonbma) March 27, 2021. UiPath grew from 6,009 customers last year to 7,968 at January 2021, or 33% growth. But since the effective NRR is still 145%, ARR-style metrics still work. — Jason BeKind Lemkin (@jasonlk) March 29, 2021. seed round. 2015: $1m rev. 2016: $3.5m 2017: $30m rev. ” #5.

Outsourcing Services 362

Outsourcing Services Outsourced Development Payment Features Cloud 362

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2024

It’s also worth noting that growth has fallen off significantly from 2021. Then, 5x became the new 3x in 2021. In a few years, you might see companies hanging out in the gray with efficient sales metrics that can raise and push themselves back into a higher growth box. 2021 was abnormal, and today is much more normal.

Scale 305

Scale Scaling Churn Investment 305

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

So one thing that has exploded in SaaS in the past decade is the role of Private Equity buying both public SaaS companies (to take them private, “fix” some metrics, and IPO or sell them again), and generally later-stage private SaaS companies. So what do they pay on average?

AWS 321

AWS SaaS Pricing Acquisition 321

SaaStr

MAY 4, 2023

The toughest metric is new customers. While NRR remains high, new customer growth as slowed to 13%, down from 24% a year ago and 32% in 2021. The reps that you hired as order takers in 2021, even 2022 … often aren’t selling anything at all today. Billion in ARR ! It’s not just you.

Sales Hiring 324

Sales Hiring Scale Cloud Sales 324

SaaStr

DECEMBER 12, 2023

Keybanc and Sapphire have some great overall metrics here : Overall, the media AE closes $750,000 a year, and that’s actually up from 2022 — mainly due to hiring freezes and contractions. It all sounds a bit harsh at first — compared to the Go Go days of the 2021 or so. In any event, that’s good median data.

Sales Hiring 335

Sales Hiring SMB Enterprise Metrics 335

SaaStr

MAY 17, 2023

Growth halved from 2021. In 2021, RingCentral was growing 33%. Your growth may well be half of what it was at the Peak of 2021. #4. It’s important to track all these metrics to truly understand what’s going on if growth is down for you in 2023. Today, 16%. Probably a good proxy for similar apps.

Scale 297

Scale Cloud Enterprise Trends 297

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2023

Growing Almost 50% as Approaches $2B in ARR The exact growth rate is based on an The Information report from a few weeks ago, and it seems about right looking at their published metrics. Yes, it may be worth less than its peak 2021 valuation of $40B. That’s awfully impressive. Importantly, growth has accelerated this year.

AWS 312

AWS B2C Scaling AI 312

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

The last SaaS leader to IPO was HashiCorp back in Dec 2021. But the metrics, especially for an SMB-focused SaaS business, are breathtaking. 14 Month CAC CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is one of those metrics there are about 10,000 ways to calculate. So we’re finally, almost back from the IPO Drout in SaaS.

Scale 289

Scale SMB Sales Hiring Interviewing 289

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 26, 2022

In 2021, the gap between the companies narrowed. The converse may be true for Uniswap: perhaps crypto whales (retail investors with significant balances) dominated the volume in 2020, and to a lesser extent in 2021. Coinbase counts 4x the number of users as Uniswap. Uniswap generated 12x the volume per MTU in 2020. in 2 years.

Benchmarks 310

Benchmarks Headcount Government Business Model 310