So two recent data analyses across both private and public SaaS companies interestingly showed basically the same thing: for the best SaaS companies, on average, growth in Q1 was down about 33% or so from a year ago.
The time periods are different, but they also are sourcing the data at slightly different times.
ChartMogul’s data, which we covered in another recent post here, shows data from 1000+ SaaS startups from $1m-$30m ARR in essentially real-time, as they are doing real-time revenue analytics.
What did they see? Growth rates down about 33% from the peak 2 years ago, and maybe 20% from a year ago:
Jamin Bill of Altimeter did a different analysis looking at the top public SaaS and Cloud companies. He found new bookings in Q1’23 were down about 33% on average from Q4’22:
Yes, these are slightly different time frames, but the same basic trends. SaaS has gotten about 33% harder overall. Not impossible. Not frozen. Just about 33% harder.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone is slowing down. Interestingly, Jamin’s analysis sort of ties to my experience. About 15% of public SaaS and Cloud companies still accelerated in Q1’23, and another 15% saw only minimal slowing. That’s basically what I’ve seen in my own startup portfolio. Maybe 30% aren’t impacted by or are mostly shrugging off the current macro issues. The rest are impacting, to varying degrees.
Net net, if it’s gotten 33% harder, you are in good company. If it’s gotten more than 33% harder, challenge yourself to make sure it’s not just … you.
