User Pilot

NOVEMBER 29, 2024

Dan, a Stanford-trained engineer with experience guiding companies like Intuit, understands how to optimize your product metrics for growth by focusing on retention and building a product users truly value. Understanding the product metrics Let’s have two products – A and B. Customers leave as fast as new ones come in.

Metrics 105

Metrics Scale Acquisition Retention 105

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2021

Moving from Churn to NRR as the Core Retention Metric. NPS is now the #1 metric at HubSpot — for all employees. We’ve talked about this so many times over the years, that the real power of NPS is that it’s the one metric every employee in every functional area can impact. NPS is A Great Core Metric. #3.

Metrics 62

Metrics SMB Scale B2C 62

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

SaaS metrics can be more confusing than one might think. My SaaS Metrics Primer: * ARR always = 12x MRR. Look, ARR and MRR aren’t really GAAP metrics. This sounds minor, but it isn’t. “Burn Rate” is another non-GAAP but critical SaaS metric, and it’s exactly how much cash goes out the door.

Metrics 317

Metrics Banking Scale Churn 317

SaaStr

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Driving revenue through acquisition, expansion, and retention. “Having highly tenured reps tends to drive the highest performance, and good managers are key to retention.” “Having highly tenured reps tends to drive the highest performance, and good managers are key to retention.” ” 3.

Sales Hiring 263

Sales Hiring Scale Underperforming Technical Team Sales 263

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

Building a commission plan for Account Managers (AMs) is a bit different than for AEs (Account Executives) because AMs are typically focused on retention, expansion, and upsells rather than net-new sales. The variable portion should be tied to measurable outcomes like net retention, upsell revenue, and customer satisfaction.

Scale 189

Scale Management Churn Finance 189

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

Net Dollar Retention. More compelling than simply the growth in count is the disparity in Net Dollar Retention of these large customers. If that’s not a suite… Founded ten years ago, the company has scaled rapidly selling their software management suite to small and large companies alike. Revenue, $M. Revenue Growth. -.

Metrics 315

Metrics Outsourced Development Scale Cloud 315

SaaStr

JANUARY 11, 2024

I mean, Canva’s metrics for example are just awesome. But with everyone discussing PLG, there just isn’t enough discussion in B2B of Product-Led Retention. But our B2C friends obsess about Product-Led Retention. But that’s not really Product-Led Retention. Or at least, they hoped so. But far from all.

Retention 321

Retention B2C B2B Churn 321

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

The event is known for its focused content on SaaS growth strategies, metrics, and best practices, making it particularly valuable for B2B SaaS companies. It’s the largest non-vendor SaaS conference in the world, typically drawing over 12,000 SaaS founders, executives, and investors.

Software 244

Software Scale Venture Capital SaaS 244

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Metrics are the key to evaluating success and setting goals, but not every SaaS business should orient itself around the same one-size-fits-all numbers. This flexible mindset creates just the right conditions for embracing evolving business models and new metrics. The Metric Monolith: The Rise and Fall. Gross Retention = 90% +.

Metrics 277

Metrics Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning Technical Review 277

SaaStr

AUGUST 18, 2024

Massimo Arrigoni, CEO of Beefree, and Enrica Lipari, the People and Culture Director of Beefree’s parent company, Growens, share 5 secrets to a high employee retention rate. You also coach them on figuring out whether the new thing is working or not and what metrics you should measure. Why do they stay?

Retention 317

Retention Scale Company Culture Leadership 317

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Let’s break down the real metrics from companies doing this right. But the data showed that behavioral triggers (like “2 hours after last app session”) consistently outperformed time zone optimization by 40-50% on engagement metrics. Quick Reality Check: 84% of customers now expect personalized experiences.

Scale 276

Scale SaaS B2B Scaling 276

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

” The company grew from $15M in ARR to more than $1B with this model, consistently achieving better than 130% net dollar retention. With this model, Twilio maintained contracted revenue at less than 50% of ARR while achieving industry-leading retention metrics. Sales teams lose leverage.

SaaS Payments 283

SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

Tom Tunguz

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Net Dollar Retention. Amplitude offers three key products: analytics for measuring user behavior, experiment for testing new user flows, and recommendation which optimizes content for different user segments. Revenue, $M. Revenue Growth. -. Gross Margin. Sales Efficiency. -. Net Income Margin. Cash Flow from Operations Margin. Customer Count.

Metrics 294

Metrics Benchmarks PayPal Enterprise 294

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2025

Time-to-value is your most critical early metric. Time-to-value plummeted Expansion revenue became almost automatic Sales cycles got more honest and efficient The 5 Things We Learned About Customer Success at $100M+ ARR Sales actually exaggerates. Shocking, I know. But a great CS team keeps promises realistic and achievable.

Sales Hiring 246

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Churn 246

SaaStr

APRIL 28, 2022

So don’t get me wrong — NRR is a Top 3 Metric for any SaaS company. And it doesn’t put retention as goal #1. Your gross revenue retention — what % of the revenue base a CSM has at the start of the year that you retain, before upgrades and growth. Low NRR is a flag, a canary in the coalmine. Don’t.

Customer Success 264

Customer Success Metrics Scale Retention 264

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

For a VP of Customer Success (VPCS), their “quota” or ownership should revolve around two key metrics: Net Revenue Retention (NRR) and Gross Retention Rate (GRR). NRR is the North Star metric for customer successit measures how much revenue youre retaining and expanding from your existing customer base.

VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) 159

VPCs (Virtual Private Cloud) Customer Success Churn Retention 159

SaaStr

JANUARY 23, 2025

Just look at the numbers: Enterprise customers bring 95%+ best-in-class retention vs. 85% in mid-market. But the rewards – higher retention, bigger deals, and ultimately a much larger TAM – make it worth the investment. That compounds dramatically over time.

Enterprise 244

Enterprise Sales Hiring Scale Outsourced Development 244

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

Monday Has Incredible Free Cash Flow Margins Monday.com has managed the impressive feat of maintaining strong growth while significantly improving profitability metrics. Monday.com is clearly exceeding this metric with 30% YoY growth + 14% operating margin = 44%. This is what 12x ARR selling to SMBs++ looks like.

Scale 184

Scale SMB Acquisition Enterprise 184

SaaStr

MARCH 9, 2025

Meeting intensity KPI challenge : Sometimes AI efficiencies can reduce a company’s core metrics (like Calendly’s “meeting intensity”), requiring leadership to make conscientious decisions about value tradeoffs. Building separate AI interfaces can create unnecessary tech debt and learning curves.

AI 201

AI Scale Education User Experience 201

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. There are a few cool ways to visualize this data.

Metrics 189

Metrics Sales Hiring Retention Churn 189

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

In this week’s Workshop Wednesday , Salesforce Ventures Investor, Jessica Bartos, shares the 5 metrics every SaaS company should care about in any market environment, especially the one we’re currently in. Growth Is Still Number One Growth is still the number one metric, but it’s not the only one. You do that by showing momentum.

Metrics 264

Metrics Marketing SaaS SMB 264

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. The takeaway?

Metrics 245

Metrics SaaS Sales Hiring Finance 245

SaaStr

APRIL 30, 2025

Rep Performance : Dive into individual and team performance metrics. Metrics like time spent in each stage and reasons for lost deals can provide clarity. Churn and Expansion : For existing customers, analyze churn rates, upsell/cross-sell performance, and NRR (Net Revenue Retention). Are you losing deals at a specific stage?

Technical Review 184

Technical Review Sales Forecasting AI 184

SaaStr

MAY 24, 2025

If you can maintain this pace and improve your metrics (like NRR and sales efficiency), you could still build a significant, valuable B2B business over time. At 35% growth, youre not on the IPO trajectory, but you can still build a profitable, sustainable business if you focus on efficiency and customer retention.

Sales Hiring 195

Sales Hiring B2B Churn Retention 195

SaaStr

MAY 21, 2025

Net Dollar Retention Hit 124% – Signs of Long Team Durable Growth Palantir’s net dollar retention rate of 124% in Q1 2025 indicates that existing customers are significantly expanding their usage year-over-year. [link] — Akshay Krishnaswamy (@hyperindexed) May 5, 2025 5 Interesting Learnings: 1.

Artificial Intelligence 152

Artificial Intelligence Government AI Benchmarks 152

Clouded Judgement

MARCH 28, 2025

Given most software companies are not profitable, or not generating meaningful FCF, it’s the only metric to compare the entire industry against. I created this subset to show companies where FCF is a relevant valuation metric. Revenue multiples are a shorthand valuation framework. Even a DCF is riddled with long term assumptions.

Cloud 299

Cloud AI Scale Scaling 299

SaaStr

JULY 7, 2023

“Retention is the new acquisition,” says Co-Founder and CEO of Insider, Hande Cilingir. Harvard Business School Research says that “increasing customer retention rates by only 5% increase a company’s profits by 25-95%.” Customer retention means building relationships with people. That’s huge! a feat Insider has achieved.

Retention 242

Retention Software Review Revenue Systems Review 242

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Implementation of Product-Led Growth The transition to product-led growth (PLG) required understanding and implementing a fundamentally different business model.

Scale 159

Scale Scaling Outsourced Development Sales 159

SaaStr

MARCH 24, 2025

Some fun facts: 10+ years of SaaStr conference attendance Partner at Point Nine Capital, a leading early-stage VC firm Geographic reach: Actively investing across Europe, US, and Australia Notable portfolio: Zendesk, Algolia, Contentful, Loom (and many more) Known for his “five ways to build a $100M business” framework The 5 Key Things (..)

Data 141

Data Acquisition AI Finance 141

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

For example, HubSpot famously split commissionshalf on deal closure and the other half when the customer hit a specific usage metric (e.g., Collaborate with Onboarding and Customer Success : Encourage collaboration between sales and customer success teams by offering team-based bonuses tied to activation and usage metrics.

Scale 147

Scale Compensation Retention Churn 147

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2025

Revenue Model Clarity is Critical The best-performing B2B software companies appear to have clear, predictable revenue streams and strong customer retention metrics, which translate to investor confidence post-IPO.

Technical Review 187

Technical Review Software Review Cybersecurity Advertising 187

SaaStr

APRIL 15, 2025

Focus on the right metrics : Be transparent about your key metrics rather than relying on vanity numbers. Run an intentional process : Be strategic about your fundraising approach rather than scattershot or overly compressed. Allow time to build relationships with potential investors.

Technical Review 162

Technical Review Venture Capital Outsourced Development ChatGPT 162

ChurnZero

MAY 23, 2025

If youve come up in your career through sales, you’re used to living in a world defined by revenue metrics. Its easy to think of CS as a retention function. 1: Net revenue retention (NRR): your valuation growth engine. 2: Gross revenue retention (GRR): can you hold what youve won? It shows your pure retention rate.

Customer Success 52

Customer Success Metrics Revenue Scale 52

SaaStr

JULY 20, 2024

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics The first thing Secureframe thinks about is metrics. If you don’t know your key company or North Star metrics, talk to your investors or other experts to figure out what they should be. So they can take action on the metrics in real time if they’re going in a direction they don’t like.

Sales Recruiting 304

Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Engineering 304

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2025

We wanted to kick it off with some of the key insights with Box CEO Aaron Levie and IBM VP AI Raj Datta: The Numbers Don’t Lie – ChatGPT Hit 500M Users in Just ~2 Years Let’s start with the cold, hard metrics that SaaS leaders seem to underestimate: AI adoption is happening at an unprecedented velocity.

AI 211

AI Technology ChatGPT Cloud 211

Clouded Judgement

JUNE 19, 2024

Through these interactions, I’ve built up mental benchmarks for metrics on which I place extra emphasis. My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., net retention and CAC payback). Subscribe now What Happened in Q1?

Cloud 318

Cloud GCP(Google Cloud Platform) Software Azure 318

SaaStr

MAY 19, 2025

Performance bonuses : Tie bonuses to clear, measurable goalsARR growth, profitability, or other key metrics. For example, you could offer a bonus structure where the CEO earns an additional $50k-$100k for hitting specific milestones, like doubling ARR or achieving a certain NRR (Net Revenue Retention) target.

Scaling 173

Scaling Compensation Retention Startup 173