How SaaS Businesses Grow From Zero to $30M ARR and Beyond
Executive Summary
Welcome to this first edition of the ChartMogul SaaS Growth Report. Growth is key to building any successful SaaS business.
In this report, we do a deep dive analysis of how SaaS businesses grow from zero to $30M ARR and beyond. We also share the latest growth trends, insights, and benchmarks based on data from over 2,200 SaaS businesses.
Five insights stood out in our research:
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SaaS growth rates have stabilized in the last 3 quarters. While the data doesn’t show any gain, it’s clear that growth is not deteriorating. There are pockets of optimism. Growth for best-in-class SaaS startups is accelerating and new business activity is picking up.
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Best-in-class SaaS businesses grow over 100% each year. The top decile of SaaS businesses with ARR in the range of $1-3M grow at 192% annually. Those in the $3-8M ARR segment, grow at 121%. And those, in the $8-15M ARR segment grow at 110%.
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Top-tier SaaS startups reach $1M ARR within 9 months. The median startup takes approximately 2 years and 9 months. On average, SaaS startups reach $10M ARR in slightly over 5 years. Even after 10 years in business, only 13% of SaaS startups are able to hit the $10M ARR mark.
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The majority of SaaS startups grow from $1M to $10M ARR by growing their subscriber base. Only a small subset (
