I wrote this last week and saw your class started a couple of days ago otherwise I would have told people to join that as well! People should check out your future benchmark classes too :)
I recommend paying attention to the *caliber* of companies included in the benchmarking study.
For example, the ICONIQ benchmarks are composed solely of best in class type companies. Some in the 2023 sample: Calendly, Drata, Atlassian, Hubspot, Monday, Snowflake, Datadog.
For *most* founders (definitionally, the universe of $1-$5m ARR companies >>> IPO scale companies), focus on the "real world" benchmarks (like ChartMogul with an n > 2,000 and lower average ARR included).
100%- you need to slice the data in a way that most resembles your company's path. Which means that some benchmark reports are not for you. I remember seeing a16z's recent benchmart report with crazy high median growth, NDR, etc....that group of companies is a bad comparison for most
This is the kind of material that would have been amazing if it existed in my early days as a venture associate. Thank you.
Hopefully somewhat helpful now and helpful to the new crop of associates :)
Great minds think alike 😉
I wrote this last week and saw your class started a couple of days ago otherwise I would have told people to join that as well! People should check out your future benchmark classes too :)
Appreciate it! I love the context you added on the COGS and G&A. Those comps are always messy even outside SaaS
I recommend paying attention to the *caliber* of companies included in the benchmarking study.
For example, the ICONIQ benchmarks are composed solely of best in class type companies. Some in the 2023 sample: Calendly, Drata, Atlassian, Hubspot, Monday, Snowflake, Datadog.
For *most* founders (definitionally, the universe of $1-$5m ARR companies >>> IPO scale companies), focus on the "real world" benchmarks (like ChartMogul with an n > 2,000 and lower average ARR included).
100%- you need to slice the data in a way that most resembles your company's path. Which means that some benchmark reports are not for you. I remember seeing a16z's recent benchmart report with crazy high median growth, NDR, etc....that group of companies is a bad comparison for most
Having said that, the ICONIQ style benchmarks still deserve consideration.
Why? If your company is not achieving top quartile / top decile type metrics, you risk not being able to secure your next round of funding.
100% - Surprisingly many people kind of get this but still do it anyways...