Peer Review. Exploring Some of the SaaS Metrics That Matter Most at the Expansion Stage

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1 { O P E N V I E W V E N T U R E P A R T N E R S } Peer Review Exploring Some of the SaaS Metrics That Matter Most at the Expansion Stage Metrics can be a great way to gauge your SaaS company s performance against industry averages. Provided, of course, those metrics are contextually relevant to your company s specific size, stage, and growth rate. At the expansion stage, successful software as a service (SaaS) companies generally have one thing in common: an overarching strategy to target either very fast growth or profitability at a sustainable growth rate. Of course, attaining the right combination of growth and profitability isn t easy. That s because achieving growth requires a substantial investment aimed at expanding a company s customer base and product offering. That, in turn, can lead to rapid acquisition of market share and expansion into new markets. The problem, however, is that to maintain their rapid growth, most expansion-stage SaaS companies wind up investing more than they generate in revenue, rendering them unprofitable. As a result, the question becomes how much loss should a company be prepared to absorb in the name of growth? Ultimately, the key to achieving sustainable growth is having a finely tuned economic model that allows companies to minimize their costs and maximize their profits. Creating that kind of model requires a thorough understanding of basic operating and financial metrics that measure your company s profitability, efficiency, and growth rates, as well as how your company stacks up against its peers regarding these metrics. Not only are metrics like these valuable indicators of an expansion-stage company s current financial health, but they can also signal more deep-seated issues or opportunities within the company s distribution, marketing, customer services, and product management functions. It is important to note, however, that traditional metrics such as annual sales, net income, and EBITDA, among others, do not always fully capture a SaaS business s growth and profit drivers. This point is explained in Bessemer Venture Partners foundational paper Measuring High-Growth, Recurring Revenue Businesses. Together with other experts such as David Skok of Matrix Partners and Joel York of Meltwater Group, the Bessemer team analyzed and championed SaaS-centric business metrics such as monthly recurring revenue (MRR), customer cancellation rates, customer lifetime value (CLV), and customer acquisition costs payback period.

2 2 OpenView Venture Partners There have also been numerous efforts in recent years to establish benchmarks for these metrics using data from public or private software companies. Notable studies include Pacific Crest s annual SaaS metrics surveys and OPEXEngine and Softletter s operational benchmark studies. While extremely valuable, these and other reports typically cover a broad range of companies by revenue size or customer focus, making their findings less applicable to companies at the expansion stage. With that in mind, OpenView set out to publish a report that is sharply focused on the growth and profitability metrics that are most relevant to SaaS companies at the expansion stage. To that end, in August 2013 we surveyed more than 160 senior executives at SaaS companies and their consultants to address two areas of particular importance to expansion-stage SaaS companies: operating metrics and growth drivers. 1 In the process, we also evaluated commonly held assumptions about the relationship between operating metrics and the growth trajectory of SaaS companies by correlating various data points. The results of that survey are presented in the following pages 2 and illustrate, for instance, how your sales and marketing spend measures up to companies with similar growth rates or monthly recurring revenue. Furthermore, by analyzing how certain metrics interact, influence, or correlate with each other, expansion-stage leaders can infer strong leverage points for growth, i.e., areas in which more capital investment or better operations are more likely to have a major impact on their company s trajectory and eventual success. That can be extremely beneficial for senior management teams that are charged with allocating their company s resources to achieve specific growth and profitability objectives. SAAS OPERATING METRICS SaaS operating metrics, such as MRR growth, customer growth, CLV, churn, and cash flow are all key indicators of a company s financial health, its growth trajectory, and the strength of its economic model. Managers can use metrics like these to decide if they need to change behavior or shift the strategy within their organization. Customer churn, for example, is an indication of whether or not your customers are getting a compelling value from your service. The OpenView survey asked respondents to give information on a number of basic operating metrics that are typically tracked in SaaS companies. In this section, we will present several charts that show the average ranges of three operating metrics that measure the following: Revenue growth rates Workforce efficiency Normalized sales and marketing spending levels The metrics are grouped by subsets of respondents based on company revenue and measured by a range of MRR. 3 1 Survey respondents were sourced from subscribers of OpenView s weekly newsletter, as well as OpenView s proprietary database of investment prospects. 2 OpenView would like to thank Dan Demmer, Cynthia Stephens, Don Clarke, and Alex Kleiner for their contributions to this report. 3 Because the data is reported in ranges, there will be significant variances that are not represented here. To address this, you will see that we included two lines that were calculated by adding and subtracting one standard deviation from the average value to indicate the distribution of the data for each group of companies.

3 Peer Review 3 We focused on these particular metrics because they are among the more commonly sought after by executives within our portfolio for business performance and planning purposes. 4 Annual revenue growth rate is an important driver of company valuation, while average revenue per employee and average sales and marketing spend play a significant role in profitability. We also chose to present these metrics because they reveal surprising and sometimes unexpected insights. For readers interested in the full set of benchmarks, a comprehensive list of other metrics collected in the survey and their averages are provided in the Appendix. As useful as metrics like the ones included in this report can be, keep in mind that they should be viewed as guidelines rather than definitive targets. While the data provided are likely to be more relevant to your company s specific situation than generic industry data, you will still need to draw your own conclusions about what they mean to your particular market and growth stage, and how you can use them to optimize your performance. Revenue Growth Rates Annual Revenue Growth Rate by MRR Range Average of Annual Revenue Growth Rate What this graph shows: The average SaaS company s rate of increase in annual revenue on a percentage basis year-over-year. Why it s important: Growth companies typically try to achieve scale and dominate their market as quickly as possible. Annual revenue growth rate is the most common measure of how successful they are at doing so. Because of seasonality, quarterly or monthly revenue benchmarks tend to be less predictable, while annual revenue paints a fuller picture of growing revenue streams over time. This is particularly relevant for SaaS companies given their subscription revenue model, where the revenue generated from a customer is spread out over an entire year. As a result, the annual revenue growth rate is the only measurement that captures the full impact of that customer on the company s top line. 4 While this report focuses on companies at the expansion stage, the data presented also include companies beyond that stage to provide additional context and continuity.

4 Key takeaway: As you would expect, smaller companies typically grow faster than more mature organizations. What is surprising, however, is that even at larger, later-stage organizations, growth generally doesn t slow down. As companies mature, their growth trajectory does not necessarily decline to a lower, more predictable rate. In fact, some large companies still manage to scale rapidly while maintaining a breakneck rate of growth. Workforce Efficiency Average Annual Revenue per Employee by Revenue Size Average revenue per employee ($M) Average Revenue Per Employee ($M) $1.00 $0.90 $0.80 $0.70 $0.60 $0.50 $0.40 $0.30 $0.20 $0.10 $0.00 What this graph shows: Companies total annual revenue divided by the number of employees who work there. Why it s important: Technology companies don t make a lot of capital investments and their expenses beyond staff are typically minimal. In fact, salaries often are the greatest expense of many tech companies, which frequently are most constrained by their ability to hire qualified new employees. Understanding how effective your employees are at generating revenue is important because it reflects your company s overall efficiency. Key takeaway: As companies scale, additional employees are hired to help generate revenue. Companies earning between $3.5 million and $5 million of MRR appear to hit a major inflection point in terms of how efficient they are with their human resources. Additional employees hired into companies at this point will generally have a much greater impact on the company s revenue growth than those who were hired at earlier stages. This reality may be an indication that at that point, headcount growth makes the most direct contribution to creating a scalable, repeatable go-to-market strategy that is efficient at turning sales and marketing resources into new customer revenue.

5 Peer Review 5 Normalized Sales and Marketing Spending Levels Sales and Marketing Expenditure as a Percentage of Annual Revenue by MRR Range 10 Average of Sales and Marketing Expenditure as a Percentage of Annual Revenue What this graph shows: Total annual sales and marketing spend (including compensation and benefits for sales and marketing employees, cost of advertising campaigns, sales commission, etc.) as a portion of total revenue. Why it s important: Since SaaS companies products tend to be complex and require longer sales cycles, these businesses typically need to invest heavily in sales and marketing to boost awareness in their markets and drive new customer acquisition. Sales and marketing is a key driver of revenue growth and therefore needs to be supported with adequate investment. Key takeaway: Most companies growth rate never outpaces their sales and marketing spend. In fact, the proportion of revenue that surveyed companies spend on sales and marketing (on a percentage basis) is essentially the same regardless of their size. This finding is indicative of the primary challenge of SaaS marketing: it is very costly and generally gets harder and more expensive before it gets easier and cheaper. Early stage companies have to spend a considerable portion of their revenue on sales and marketing to gain traction in most markets. At later stages, when revenue is stronger and budgets are bigger, companies have to grow their sales and marketing efforts accordingly to achieve the same kinds of results. It is important to remember that while the operating metrics and data covered in this section can be helpful in assessing your company s growth and profitability, they only paint a part of the overall picture. You will find a more comprehensive compilation of data from our survey in the Appendix. Paired with the operating metrics above, those findings will allow you to take an even deeper dive into the levers your company can pull to optimize performance.

6 6 OpenView Venture Partners At OpenView, we invest exclusively in expansion-stage software companies and are constantly being asked by executives for a SaaS report like this. We believe this report will be the new go-to resource for any CEO looking to build and scale a successful expansion-stage SaaS company. Adam Marcus, Managing Director, OpenView Venture Partners GROWTH DRIVERS The expansion stage is a challenging period for companies. While there are businesses that grow spectacularly throughout the process and emerge as leaders in their space, there are also companies that struggle to maintain their early stage momentum. This reality is further complicated by SaaS companies subscription-based revenue streams, which tend to obfuscate short-term impact and amplify long-term growth trends. And, because of the high upfront cost of sales and marketing (as illustrated in the previous section), SaaS companies must constantly focus on acquiring new customers to grow. Ultimately, that is the only way to reach the point at which you have a large enough base of recurring revenue to sustain a business at scale. To achieve that scale, companies can typically grow their revenue with a few strategies, including: Investing in sales and marketing resources to increase the pace of customer acquisition Developing additional products to add new revenue streams Entering into new market segments or geographies Growing the usage of current customers as a means of increasing revenue through those customers Driving growth through mergers and acquisitions or partnerships Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet or standard playbook that a company can use to identify the growth strategy that is most suitable for its market, product, or business model. Here, our analysis of business metrics is aimed at helping companies better understand the sales, marketing, and customer support investments that may help accelerate revenue growth. In this section, we juxtapose several business metrics against each other to reveal insightful relationships or trends that are not often analyzed in similar studies: The relationship between revenue growth and sales and marketing spending levels The relationship between sales and marketing efficiency and revenue growth The relationship between sales and marketing efficiency and spending levels Annual customer growth rate and percentage of revenue loss These trends do not necessarily translate to causality between one metric and another, but they can be used by executives to plan and project their business objectives and goals around growth.

7 Peer Review 7 The Relationship Between Revenue Growth and Sales and Marketing Spending Levels Sales and Marketing Expenditure Level and MRR Growth Rate Sales and Marketing as a Percentage of Revenue (%) < >100 Annual MRR Growth Rate (%) What this graph shows: How much companies are spending on average for their sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue, grouped by annual MRR growth rate. This chart is limited to companies with annual revenue of between $1 million and $25 million. Why it s important: As companies reach the expansion stage, sales and marketing expenses become increasingly important drivers of cost and growth. It can be incredibly challenging to achieve the right balance of investment in new customer acquisition while also controlling costs. This chart is helpful because it illustrates the importance of benchmarking sales and marketing costs as a percentage of revenue to ensure that sales and marketing efforts are scaled appropriately for the size of any given company. Key takeaway: There appears to be a minimum level of sales and marketing spend (20 percent) that is required to effectively grow an expansion-stage SaaS business. However, this is not always sufficient to power growth, as borne out by the data points of the faster growing companies. The general upward trend of the chart suggests that substantial MRR growth may require even more significant increases in sales and marketing spending levels. 5 5 Alternatively, one can see the correlation between increased spending and growth as an indication that companies that have strong growth due to strong unit economics (individual customer acquisition cost and lifetime profitability) are able to capitalize on that by spending more on sales and marketing.

8 8 OpenView Venture Partners The Relationship Between Sales and Marketing Efficiency and Revenue Growth Sales and Marketing Cost to Gain One Dollar in Annual Revenue by MRR Growth Rate Sales and Marketing Spending Dollars per Dollar of Additional Revenue $3.50 $2.80 $2.10 $1.40 $0.70 $0.00 < >100 Annual MRR Growth Rate (%) What this graph shows: Taking the annual cost of sales and marketing (in millions of dollars) and dividing it by net annual revenue growth, we get a measure of the sales and marketing spend necessary to generate one dollar in annual revenue growth. This measurement demonstrates how efficient a sales and marketing investment is toward increasing a company s overall revenue, which is the ultimate indication of its size and scale. This chart is limited to companies with annual revenue of between $1 million and $25 million. Why it s important: Calculating the cost of sales and marketing per revenue is a good way to measure the efficiency of your new customer acquisition process. SaaS companies generate subscription revenue over a long period of time and once the company has reached a certain revenue threshold, it can maintain that revenue level indefinitely without having to acquire new customers. Therefore, most sales and marketing dollars are aimed at getting new customers and new revenue streams. As a result, the efficiency of sales and marketing should be measured by its impact on generating revenue growth. This is an important metric to consider because it quantifies the core soundness of the company s customer acquisition activities, and allows expansion-stage executives to project the sales and marketing investment necessary to achieve their revenue growth objectives. Key takeaway: Faster growing companies appear to be significantly more efficient at turning their sales and marketing dollars into additional revenue (spending less than one dollar to generate each additional dollar in revenue). Moreover, we can see that the range of values also narrows significantly for companies that are growing the fastest and spending most efficiently, indicating that the resulting growth is generally strongly correlated to this measure of sales and marketing efficiency.

9 Peer Review 9 The Relationship Between Sales and Marketing Efficiency and Spending Levels Sales and Marketing Cost to Gain One Dollar in ARR by Sales and Marketing Expenditure Sales and Marketing Spend to Gain One Dollar in ARR MRR Growth Rate $ $ $ $2.00 $ $ $ $0.00 < * >100 Sales and Marketing Expenditure as a Percentage of Revenue (%) *No applicable data were gathered for the and ranges. What this graph shows: Dividing total annual sales and marketing spend by the increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR), we arrive at a measure of the total cost of sales and marketing to generate one dollar in new ARR. A value of less than one dollar means that the company spends less per customer than it will receive in annual revenue from that customer. This measure is then averaged across all companies that have calculated their level of sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue. This average is represented by the light blue line whose values are represented on the y-axis to the left. The graph also shows the corresponding annual recurring revenue growth rate for the same group of companies as a reference on the y-axis to the right. Why it s important: This is a measure of sales and marketing efficiency in terms of generating additional ARR. Because subscription revenue from a customer is recognized over the period of the contract, an analysis using annual revenue growth does not fully reflect the impact of acquiring new customers later in the calendar year. The increase in ARR is a more accurate reflection of the impact that acquiring a new customer has on your revenue base, which in turns is a measurement of your company s scale and maturity level. Key takeaway: Companies that have to spend more money on sales and marketing up front to generate recurring revenue growth often never scale back on their sales and marketing investment levels. Instead, they are among the largest spenders and appear to make up for their inefficiency with this investment. This trend indicates that for certain companies, the upfront costs associated with generating new subscription revenue may appear to be high, but this may ultimately not affect a company s overall growth trajectory in a negative way, given the right level of investment.

10 10 OpenView Venture Partners Annual Customer Growth Rate and Percentage of Revenue Loss Sales and Marketing Cost to Gain $1 in ARR by Sales and Marketing Expenditure Level Annual Revenue Loss (%) Annual Customer Loss (%) Annual Customer Growth (%) 14% 10 Annual Revenue Loss 12% 1 8% 6% 4% 2% Annual Customer Number Growth Annual MRR Growth Rate (%) What this graph shows: The percentage of average annual revenue loss (revenue lost due to cancellation as a percentage of total revenue), annual customer loss rate (number of customers that cancel as a percentage of the total customer base), and annual new customer acquisition rate for companies, grouped by their annual MRR growth rate. Why it s important: Most companies enter the expansion stage with a relatively small number of customers. The best way to grow throughout that stage is to aggressively add new customers. While revenue growth can result from adding new customers, raising prices, and upselling to existing customers, expansion-stage SaaS companies that add the most new customers typically show that they have a repeatable, scalable sales and marketing model. That is the most efficient growth engine throughout this stage. Importantly, companies must also be able to preserve their existing recurring revenue base. Otherwise the more costly new customer acquisition is only sufficient to make up for those customers lost in renewal, ultimately rendering the company s business model unsustainable over the long term. Key takeaway: The fastest growing companies drive expansion by adding more customers, rather than by reducing the amount of revenue lost as a result of customer cancellations. In fact, cancellation trends, which remain high across all companies regardless of their MRR growth rate, appear to be a more fundamental feature of the core business. They are also influenced more by intrinsic factors such as product-market fit, industry characteristics, or business cycles, than by the levers discussed in this report.

11 Peer Review 11 There s no shortage of SaaS benchmark reports, but OpenView s is the first that I have encountered that specifically focuses on SaaS companies at the expansion stage. It s tailored to, and contextually relevant for, the stage of growth that our business is in, which makes it very useful, unique and an incredibly valuable resource. David Brussin, Founder & CEO, Monetate The bottom line is that it can be extremely difficult for growing expansion-stage SaaS companies to achieve the perfect balance between sales and marketing spend, revenue growth, and profitability, and there is no all-in-one approach that will work uniformly for all expansion-stage SaaS companies. As a result, it is important to take the analyses above with a grain of salt and use them only as guideposts for making more informed decisions. We would also suggest supplementing the insight from this report with other recent SaaS metrics and benchmark reports, a collection of which you can find in the Appendix. CONCLUSION Ultimately, data is the lifeblood of a SaaS business. Used properly, it can help you better evaluate the health of your company, understand challenges and opportunities, assess progress against particular goals or objectives, and make adjustments to your economic model that encourage more sustainable growth. Of course, that s assuming that the data you track is robust enough to paint a complete picture of your company s health, and is applicable to your business s unique situation. The bottom line is that context and relevance are critical to the SaaS metrics for strategic decisionmaking. The more stage and size-appropriate data you are able to acquire, the easier it will be to decide which factors may influence or impede your ability to scale. Still, it is important to remember that metrics particularly industry averages like the ones featured in this report are only one piece of the decisionmaking puzzle. It is still up to you and your management team to determine the relevancy of that data to your business s current and future goals.

12 12 OpenView Venture Partners APPENDIX List of Data Collected for this Report Measure Unit Definition/ Calculation Method Annual Revenue $ Total GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) recognized revenues in the latest fiscal year Number of Employees Number Current number of full-time employees working at the company Annual Revenue Growth Rate % Rate of increase of this year s annual revenue over last year s annual revenue Monthly MRR 6 $ Monthly recognized revenue from all subscriptions (including all customers that are on contract and billed, regardless of whether they are actually paying their invoices or are planning to cancel) at the latest quarter end Annual MRR Growth % Rate of increase of current MRR over the MRR at the same time last year, as a percentage Gross Margin (%) 7 % Revenue less cost of goods sold as a percentage of revenue Sales and Marketing Spend as a Percentage of Annual Revenue % Ratio of total annual sales and marketing expenses (including salaries, commission, marketing programs, promotions, etc.) over annual revenue Number of Contracted Customers Number Current number of customers Annual Growth in Number of Customers (%) % Increase in the number of customers this year as a percentage of the number of customers last year Percentage of Customers That Did Not Renew Annually % The number of customers that do not renew or cancel this year, as a percentage of the number of customers at the end of last year Percentage of Revenue Not Renewed Annually % MRR generated by customers that did not renew or cancel this year, as a percentage of total MRR at the end of last year Average Days Sales Outstanding Days The formula for this is: 365 * annual accounts receivable divided by annual credit sales. This is a measure of the average number of days that a company takes to collect revenue after a sale has been made. Average Days Payable Outstanding Days The formula for this is: 365 * annual accounts payable divided by cost of goods sold. This is a measure of the average number of days that a company takes to pay its suppliers. 6 If some customers are billed on a different term (quarterly or yearly), then revenues from those customers can be divided by the term length (in months) to get to the monthly amount. 7 See OpenView s Guide to Calculating Cost of Goods Sold for software companies for more guidelines.

13 Peer Review 13 Additional Charts Summarizing Data Collected for this Report Annual MMR Growth by MRR Range Average of Annual MRR Growth Gross Margin (%) by MRR Range Average of Gross Margin (%)

14 14 OpenView Venture Partners Number of Customers by MRR Range Average of Number of Customers Annual Growth in Number of Customers (%) by MRR Range Average of Annual Growth in Number of Customers (%)

15 Peer Review 15 Percentage of Customers Not Renewed Annually by MRR Range Average of Percentage of Customers Not Renewed Annually 25% 2 15% 1 5% Percentage of Revenue Not Renewed Annually by MRR Range Average of Percentage of Revenue Not Renewed Annually 25% 2 15% 1 5%

16 16 OpenView Venture Partners Average Days Sales Outstanding by MRR Range Average Days Sales Outstanding Average Days Payable Outstanding by MRR Range Average Days Payable Outstanding

17 Peer Review 17 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES To learn more about SaaS metrics, we strongly recommend checking out the following resources: SaaS Metrics 2.0 A Guide to Measuring and Improving what Matters (David Skok) SaaS Customer Lifetime Value Drives SaaS Company Value (Joel York) 2013 Pacific Crest Private SaaS Company Survey Results (Pacific Crest) 2012 Software and SaaS Benchmarking Industry Report (OPEXEngine) 2013 Softletter SaaS Report To learn more about how OpenView Venture Partners can help accelerate your success, contact us at (617) or info@openviewpartners.com. OpenView is a registered trademark and OpenView Labs TM is a trademark of OpenView Venture Partners. All rights reserved.