{"id":1961,"date":"2019-01-29T19:08:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T13:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2019-06-01T19:09:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T13:39:53","slug":"the-40-rule-of-saas-and-why-you-should-get-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/the-40-rule-of-saas-and-why-you-should-get-there\/","title":{"rendered":"The 40% Rule of SaaS and why you should get there."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">In 2015 Brad Feld mooted the idea of the Rule of 40% for SaaS companies. The rule states that \u201cyour growth rate + your profit should add up to 40%. So, if you are growing at 20%, you should be generating a profit of 20%. If you are growing at 40%, you should be generating a 0% profit. If you are growing at 50%, you can lose 10%. If you are doing better than the 40% rule, that\u2019s awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"604\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.pitch.link\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/01184558\/0-2-1024x763.png?resize=810%2C604&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Median GP Ratio by Year for SaaS Publics\" class=\"wp-image-1935\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.pitch.link\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/01184558\/0-2.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.pitch.link\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/01184558\/0-2.png 300w, https:\/\/cdn.pitch.link\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/01184558\/0-2.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.pitch.link\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/01184558\/0-2.png 1474w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So is there data to back this assertion up? Enter Tom Tunguz. A few days after the above post, he calculated what he called the \u201cGP\u201d metric for all publicly traded SaaS companies over their lifetimes. It showed that the metric stands the test of time with GP being as high as 100% in the early years and stabilizing at around 30% in the mature 12-15 years. The median of 40% is in the 5-7 years range.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means if you want to get a feel of how your SaaS business is doing, you should look at the GP ratio at a 100% + level in the first couple of years (with low base figures this is actually a reasonable ambition) and then stabilise around 40% in years 4 to 6. This should certainly set you apart and make you attractive to investors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read Brad Feld\u2019s post on 40% rule here :\u00a0 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/feld.com\/archives\/2015\/02\/rule-40-healthy-saas-company.html\">https:\/\/feld.com\/archives\/2015\/02\/rule-40-healthy-saas-company.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tomasz Tunguz follow up piece, here : <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/tomtunguz.com\/rule-of-40\/\">https:\/\/tomtunguz.com\/rule-of-40\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015 Brad Feld mooted the idea of the Rule of 40% for SaaS companies. The rule states that \u201cyour growth rate + your profit should add up to 40%. So, if you are growing at 20%, you should be generating a profit of 20%. If you are growing at 40%, you should be generating [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<\/p><div class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/the-40-rule-of-saas-and-why-you-should-get-there\/\" class=\"btn btn-small btn--dark btn-hover-shadow\"><span class=\"text\">Continue Reading<\/span><i class=\"seoicon-right-arrow\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-saas","category-what-i-learnt-today"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Subhanjan Sarkar","author_link":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/author\/subhanjan\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paX7jg-vD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitch.link\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}