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May 3, 2024 · 18m · saastr

The 3 SaaS Metrics That Matter in 2024 with SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin

Jason Lemkin · 16m spoken
0:00 / 0:00
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

SaaStr CEO and founder Jason Lemkin presents three essential SaaS metrics for 2024, urging tech leaders to prioritize net new customer acquisition, balance efficiency while prioritizing top-line growth over pure profitability, and understand heightened modern IPO benchmarks.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Jason holds 99.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Jason as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.0 Jason pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:000:00–5:28 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Metric 1: Prioritizing Net New Customer Growth This is a solo presentation by Jason Lemkin explaining why net new customer count is the most critical and under-discussed SaaS metric in 2024. As a monologue segment, interactive scores are set to zero.5:28–11:51 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 Metric 2: Balancing Growth and Efficiency Over Pure Profitability Jason Lemkin presents an in-depth breakdown comparing growth versus efficiency using examples from HubSpot, Veeva, and Dropbox. Because this is a continuous presentation without active guest dialogue, all dynamic scores remain zero.11:51–18:00 · Jason as informed peer 0/10 The Rising IPO Benchmark and Final Strategic Takeaways Lemkin discusses the rising benchmark required to take SaaS companies public, drawing on data from Klaviyo and Rubrik, with minor stray audience audio interruptions. Since there is no substantive two-way dialogue, scores are marked zero.0:00–5:28 · Guest teaching 0/10 Metric 1: Prioritizing Net New Customer Growth This is a solo presentation by Jason Lemkin explaining why net new customer count is the most critical and under-discussed SaaS metric in 2024. As a monologue segment, interactive scores are set to zero.5:28–11:51 · Guest teaching 0/10 Metric 2: Balancing Growth and Efficiency Over Pure Profitability Jason Lemkin presents an in-depth breakdown comparing growth versus efficiency using examples from HubSpot, Veeva, and Dropbox. Because this is a continuous presentation without active guest dialogue, all dynamic scores remain zero.11:51–18:00 · Guest teaching 0/10 The Rising IPO Benchmark and Final Strategic Takeaways Lemkin discusses the rising benchmark required to take SaaS companies public, drawing on data from Klaviyo and Rubrik, with minor stray audience audio interruptions. Since there is no substantive two-way dialogue, scores are marked zero.0:00–5:28 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Metric 1: Prioritizing Net New Customer Growth This is a solo presentation by Jason Lemkin explaining why net new customer count is the most critical and under-discussed SaaS metric in 2024. As a monologue segment, interactive scores are set to zero.5:28–11:51 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Metric 2: Balancing Growth and Efficiency Over Pure Profitability Jason Lemkin presents an in-depth breakdown comparing growth versus efficiency using examples from HubSpot, Veeva, and Dropbox. Because this is a continuous presentation without active guest dialogue, all dynamic scores remain zero.11:51–18:00 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Rising IPO Benchmark and Final Strategic Takeaways Lemkin discusses the rising benchmark required to take SaaS companies public, drawing on data from Klaviyo and Rubrik, with minor stray audience audio interruptions. Since there is no substantive two-way dialogue, scores are marked zero.0:00–5:28 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Metric 1: Prioritizing Net New Customer Growth This is a solo presentation by Jason Lemkin explaining why net new customer count is the most critical and under-discussed SaaS metric in 2024. As a monologue segment, interactive scores are set to zero.5:28–11:51 · Jason pushing back 0/10 Metric 2: Balancing Growth and Efficiency Over Pure Profitability Jason Lemkin presents an in-depth breakdown comparing growth versus efficiency using examples from HubSpot, Veeva, and Dropbox. Because this is a continuous presentation without active guest dialogue, all dynamic scores remain zero.11:51–18:00 · Jason pushing back 0/10 The Rising IPO Benchmark and Final Strategic Takeaways Lemkin discusses the rising benchmark required to take SaaS companies public, drawing on data from Klaviyo and Rubrik, with minor stray audience audio interruptions. Since there is no substantive two-way dialogue, scores are marked zero.

speaking balance: gold is Jason, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%0:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%3:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%3:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%6:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%6:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%9:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%9:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%12:00 · Jason 99.6% · guest 0.4%12:00 · Jason 99.6% · guest 0.4%15:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%15:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%18:00 · Jason 100% · guest 0%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 13:36 Audience mic interruption

An audience member accidentally unmutes their microphone with background noise and apologizes while Jason continues his presentation.

 Hardest push from Jason ▶ 5:35 Pushing back against the profitability-only dogma

Lemkin directly attacks prevailing social media and VC narratives, rejecting the idea that profitability alone ensures startup success without growth.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:30 Veeva versus Dropbox valuation comparison

Lemkin educates the audience on why massive cash generation with single-digit growth leaves Dropbox trading at only 2x ARR compared to Veeva.

 Jason holds their own ▶ 3:00 Calling out financial engineering over real growth

Lemkin emphasizes that squeezing existing accounts and jamming price increases masks underlying business stagnation rather than fixing it.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicJason as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementJason pushing backWhy
Metric 1: Prioritizing Net New Customer Growth 0000 This is a solo presentation by Jason Lemkin explaining why net new customer count is the most critical and under-discussed SaaS metric in 2024. As a monologue segment, interactive scores are set to zero.
Metric 2: Balancing Growth and Efficiency Over Pure Profitability 0000 Jason Lemkin presents an in-depth breakdown comparing growth versus efficiency using examples from HubSpot, Veeva, and Dropbox. Because this is a continuous presentation without active guest dialogue, all dynamic scores remain zero.
The Rising IPO Benchmark and Final Strategic Takeaways 0000 Lemkin discusses the rising benchmark required to take SaaS companies public, drawing on data from Klaviyo and Rubrik, with minor stray audience audio interruptions. Since there is no substantive two-way dialogue, scores are marked zero.

Statements from this episode (9)

Assertion Partly supported
Lemkin: Fastly generates $500M revenue but grows customers by only 1%
“Fastly is pretty, is a pretty enterprise CDN at five hundred million in revenue. It still gets more money out of its customers as they route more content through their network, but they're only growing customers one percent.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 2:11
Insight
Lemkin: Customer growth must reach at least half of revenue growth rate
“If your new customer growth is not growing half of your top line, your revenue growth, you are shrinking in relevance. You are shrinking in market share and your future is at risk.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 3:19
Assertion Supported
Lemkin: HubSpot has 205,000 customers and grows customer count 23%
“HubSpot has 205,000 customers and is still growing its new customer account, 23%.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 4:32
Insight
Lemkin: Growth is twice as important as profitability for SaaS
“Growth is twice as important as profitability. So track both, but profitability is not the goal.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 7:36
Assertion Supported
Lemkin: Veeva raised only $8 million before IPO
“Viva only raised eight million dollars in capital before its IPO.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 10:04
Assertion Partly supported
Lemkin: Dropbox trades at only 2x ARR despite generating huge cash flow
“Dropbox, 2.5 billion growing six percent. That's not a growth company anymore, is it? It's fallen to the single digit. That's 33% margins. It generates almost a billion of cash, but Wall Street doesn't care. Back out all of its cash. It's only trading at two X…”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 10:35
Assertion Supported
Lemkin: Only two SaaS companies have IPO'd since December 2021
“There've only been two SaaS IPOs since the crash of December of 20, 21. There's only been two. In fact, there's only been one point 1.5 because rubric is in process of going IPO.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 12:51
Assertion Contradicted
Lemkin: Nearly 70% of Shopify merchants use Klaviyo
“Klaviyo owns marketing. About almost 70% of everyone on Shopify uses Klaviyo.”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 13:37
Insight
Lemkin: Net new customer count after churn is the North Star metric
“Track your net new customers after churn, track this as your, to me, the North star metric, a team will fix everything. You'll figure out more products for them. You'll figure out how to drive your deal size up. You'll figure out how to do all these things. If…”
Jason Lemkin May 3, 2024 ▶ 17:23
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