Clouded Judgement

JUNE 17, 2025

Through these interactions, I’ve built up mental benchmarks for metrics on which I place extra emphasis. I’ve looked at thousands of private companies, and over time have come up with benchmarks for best-in-class, good, and subpar net revenue retention. net retention and CAC payback).

Cloud 277

Cloud Software Benchmarks Retention 277

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2025

Benchmark Your GRR : Investors will compare your GRR to industry standards: Enterprise SaaS: 90-95% Mid-market SaaS: 85-90% SMB SaaS: 80-85% Anything below these benchmarks signals potential retention issues ‌3‌. Segment by Customer Type : Break down GRR by customer segments (e.g., SMB, mid-market, enterprise).

Retention 179

Retention SMB Benchmarks Churn 179

SaaStr

JULY 19, 2025

Key Insights and Trends Growth Rate Distribution Highest Growth : Samsara (108%), Monday.com (106%) – IoT/collaboration platforms Strong Growth : Klaviyo (63%) – E-commerce marketing Solid Growth : HubSpot (39%), Procore (38%) – Enterprise software Moderate Growth : ServiceTitan (24%) – Vertical SaaS Market Context by IPO Timing (..)

Payments 271

Payments Payment Solutions Construction Point of Sale 271

SaaStr

JULY 9, 2025

A good benchmark is for each CSM to manage $1M to $2M in ARR, depending on your growth stage and resources. Customer success spend data from SaaS Capital here: 2025 Spending Benchmarks for Private B2B SaaS Companies

Customer Success 188

Customer Success Management Benchmarks SMB 188

SaaStr

JUNE 22, 2025

Learning #2: Size Matters More Than You Think – Your Growth Benchmarks Are Completely Wrong This might be the most important insight in the entire report: A 25% growth rate means completely different things depending on your ARR. The takeaway: Stop chasing the unsustainable growth rates of 2021-2022. They’ll be the cautionary tales.

B2B 208

B2B Data Scale Startup 208

SaaStr

JUNE 18, 2025

Headcount-to-Revenue Efficiency Gains: $480,000 Per Employee The Numbers : 5,754 employees generating $688M quarterly revenue = $480k revenue per employee per quarter The Learning : $475K+ annual revenue per employee is the benchmark for efficient SaaS operations.

Scale 227

Scale Headcount Outsourced Development Operational efficiency. 227

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

Quotas should now be tied to historical performance and benchmarks. A great SaaStr deep dive on this and more with Toast’s CRO here: Key Tips Across All Stages: Benchmark Early : When you don’t have enough internal data, look at similar companies at your stage. And Their Quota. What quotas did they set when they were at $5M ARR?

Scale 169

Scale B2B Benchmarks Sales 169

SaaStr

JUNE 13, 2025

What “Working” Means in the Era of AI Apps: The New Enterprise Benchmarks That Matter One of the most common refrains in the generative AI era is that “startups are growing faster than ever” — often with fewer resources. ARR by month 12 — more than double the old “best in class” benchmark of $1M.

Enterprise 169

Enterprise AI Startup Benchmarks 169

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Rep retention and ramp time metrics Manager participation in call reviews and coaching Team performance benchmarks across ACV, product mix, and sales cycles Forecast accuracy “I’ll take a manager who consistently gets more reps above 100% over one crushing their number with just two top performers,” Michelle noted.

Sales Hiring 260

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales 260

SaaStr

JULY 1, 2025

Benchmark Analysis: Salesforce: ~85% F2000 penetration (20+ years) Microsoft 365: ~95% F2000 penetration (decades) Figma: 78% F2000 penetration (8 years at scale) Adoption Velocity : Figma achieved in 8 years what takes most enterprise SaaS 15-20 years. Each new product should make the previous products stickier, not compete for budget.

B2B 169

B2B Benchmarks Retention Enterprise 169

SaaStr

JUNE 16, 2025

Enterprise AI Procurement Now Mirrors Traditional Software Buying The Hard Data : External benchmarks like LM Arena have become the new “Magic Quadrant” for initial model filtering, while security and cost have gained ground on accuracy as key purchasing criteria. Lead with demonstrably superior outcomes, not feature parity.

Enterprise 204

Enterprise AI Benchmarks Innovation 204

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2025

” – Founders love this one because it provides real-world benchmarks for growth and burn rates, which are often misunderstood. Its a critical hire, and this guide helps avoid costly mistakes. “Growth and Burn Rates at $1M ARR for 20+ Fast-Growing SaaS Companies.”

Sales Hiring 258

Sales Hiring AI Scale Compensation 258

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2025

Are you building a comp plan for a new hire, or trying to benchmark against others? If you’re structuring a plan, make sure it’s achievable but challenging, and don’t cap the upside. A great VP of Sales will pay for themselves many times over if they’re properly motivated. Let me know, and I can help refine this further.

Sales Hiring 197

Sales Hiring Compensation Sales Benchmarks 197

OpenView Labs

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Discover essential SaaS growth insights in the 7th edition of our SaaS Benchmarks Report. Learn about ARR, product-led growth, retention strategies, and more for 2023.

Benchmarks 52

Benchmarks SaaS Retention Strategy 52

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

Revenue Quality Score What It Is : Percentage of revenue that’s recurring, predictable, and expanding The Benchmark : 85%+ should be recurring with 110%+ net retention Why It Matters : Public investors pay premiums for predictability. at $47-55 range, priced at $40 Current Performance : +250.4%

B2B 184

B2B Marketing Scale Benchmarks 184

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Here’s a deeper dive into SaaStr Annual and why it’s considered the top SaaS event: Core Elements: Takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area (usually Silicon Valley) Features over 300 speakers across multiple tracks Focuses exclusively on SaaS metrics, growth strategies, and operational excellence Typically runs for 3 days with pre and (..)

Software 241

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 241

SaaStr

JULY 12, 2025

Took Too Long to Recognize They Were Behind Benchmarks Vanta’s founders were so focused on building that they lost sight of external benchmarks. In a space where customers are already overwhelmed, every additional choice point creates friction. Sometimes the best customer experience is fewer options, not more.

Sales Hiring 179

Sales Hiring Software Review compliance Sales Recruiting 179

SaaStr

JUNE 14, 2025

For example, if you’re assuming a 20% conversion rate, share data from your early sales efforts or industry benchmarks to justify it. Be upfront about these assumptions and explain why they’re reasonable. Transparency builds trust and shows you’ve thought through the details.

Scale 227

Scale Sales Hiring Benchmarks Churn 227

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2025

For context, the Rule of 40 is a benchmark for SaaS companies that adds revenue growth rate and profit margin, with 40% considered healthy. With 39% revenue growth and 44% adjusted operating margin, Palantir is doubling the benchmark threshold. They’ve found both epic growth and epic profitability.

Artificial Intelligence 152

Artificial Intelligence Government AI Benchmarks 152

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

Critical metrics include: Net new ARR growth Net dollar retention Gross logo retention CAC payback period Average contract value (ACV) Burn multiple (ideally 1-2x for healthy growth) Insights on the “Triple, Triple, Double, Double” Standard The classic SaaS growth benchmark of “triple, triple, double, double” (3x growth for (..)

Technical Review 157

Technical Review Venture Capital Outsourced Development AI 157

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

Benchmark Data and Performance Metrics SaaStr sessions typically feature transparent sharing of key metrics and benchmarks that are otherwise difficult to access. Sessions often cover specific benchmarks for customer acquisition costs, churn rates, expansion revenue, sales efficiency, and other SaaS-specific metrics.

Sales Recruiting 183

Sales Recruiting Scale CTO Hire Sales Hiring 183

SaaStr

APRIL 6, 2025

Rather than vague guidance, each AE receives specific time allocation targets and regular calendar reviews to ensure alignment with these benchmarks. What’s revolutionary is how they operationalize this insight. “We asked our cross-functional partners to describe our team in three words,” Cuibo explains.

Scale 195

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Outsourced Development 195

SaaStr

MARCH 12, 2025

Best Practices for Pipeline Management : Allocate target opportunity counts to each pipeline source Make the CMO the quarterback of the pipeline Have the CMO forecast pipeline coverage at least a quarter in advance Look for benchmark conversion rates: MQL to S1: 5-10% S1 to S2: 60-80% Stage 2 to close: 10-25% Use funnel models to build comprehensive (..)

Sales Hiring 195

Sales Hiring Marketing Technical Review Underperforming Technical Team 195

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 14, 2024

With the latter, you’ll be able to set specific goals to help surface the numbers that are most important for you, measure the performance of your paid vs. organic social media posts, and get benchmarks based on specific industries. 

Social Media 115

Social Media Management Pricing AI 115

Buffer Resources

AUGUST 7, 2024

  Since influencer marketing is fairly new to our team, our desired outcome was to see what was possible with this kind of marketing and set a benchmark to build off. We also made sure we looked at our community for potential people to work with.  The main lesson here is that there’s an influencer for every budget.

Social Media 113

Social Media Compensation Technical Review Branding 113

SaaStr

JANUARY 10, 2025

The panel shared their approaches: GitHub invested in “COFFEE” (Compiler Offline Evaluation) to benchmark progress Figma built custom visual evaluation systems that match their product’s needs Ramp focuses on velocity and rapid iteration, believing that being right 52% of the time leads to winning # 3.

AI Search 312

AI Search AI Strategy Scale 312

Buffer Resources

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Here’s a list of the seven best competitor analysis tools to help you get detailed data on your rivals, analyze trends they use, and get a wholesome picture of competitor performance — benchmarked against yours. RivalIQ has the best use case for social media agencies that need to provide benchmarking reports to their clients.

Social Media 120

Social Media AI Search Benchmarks Software Review 120

BetterCloud

JANUARY 3, 2025

Software contract benchmarking : Ever wonder at renewal if youre paying the best price? Keeping benchmarking data in your back pocket allows you to negotiate effectively. Investing in an insights-driven vendor management platform not only enhancing your management capabilities, but supercharges them.

Management 52

Management SaaS compliance Benchmarks 52

Kellblog

MARCH 1, 2025

You might argue that’s a good overall marketing efficiency metric and try to benchmark it. But those benchmarks will be hard to find. There are more benchmark data sets. You can’t benchmark a metric without good data sets to compare against.

Sales Hiring 74

Sales Hiring Benchmarks Metrics Startup 74

SaaStr

JULY 11, 2025

Want to benchmark your own GTM efficiency against these AI-native leaders? For early-stage founders especially, the opportunity is clear: Build AI-native from day one, and you can achieve sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time. The companies figuring this out now are going to be very difficult to catch.

Scale 179

Scale AI Headcount Sales Hiring 179