Vote in the 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Survey

Our friends at High Alpha are famous for many things: being the OGs of the venture studio model in the Midwest, almost solely responsible for Indiana’s reputation as a Martech haven… and for spearheading the future of OpenView’s legacy SaaS Benchmarks Report.

Now in its 9th year, the report is essential annual reading for founders and investors, as a means to compare their own figures and those of portfolio companies with the overall market.

Voting is now open in the 2025 edition, and will close on August 22nd. Keep in mind that all participants (that means you, go ahead and click below) will have early access to the data when it is released in November.

‍

Click here to have your say in the 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Survey

‍

In recent years, the report has become a means to see how efficient startups are becoming, by generating more revenue with ever-less resources.

Here we’ll take a look at what the recent editions tell us, and some insight into what we should expect in 2025.

What did we learn about SaaS metrics from the 2024 report?

As Kyle Poyar points out in his excellent examination of last year's figures, “The median <$1M ARR SaaS startup now has 7 full-time employees — small enough to be fed by two extra-large pizzas. This is down from an average of 12 in 2023 and 13 in 2022.”

The impact of readily available (and easier to use and implement) AI tools is clear in these numbers. ChatGPT hit the market in November, 2022, coinciding with a push towards efficiency for startups of all sizes, as a result of meager market and fundraising environments during that period. 

A simple way to measure efficiency for startups is through ARR per FTE, and measuring it is fairly straightforward: divide your company’s ARR by the number of full time employees. Since 2022, ARR per FTE has risen steadily for companies under $5 million in ARR. For those over $5 million in ARR, it’s more of a mixed bag as you can see in the data.

‍

What to look out for in this year’s data?

High Alpha coined the term ‘Generation AI’ for the sub-set of businesses who were “born in the age of generative AI” - rapidly adopting AI to scale faster and leaner than any generation before them. It’s no coincidence that for these smaller, newer companies (who are more likely to be founded after November 2022) that they’re more efficient than in the past. Efficiency and AI tools are not something they’re adopting, they’ve been using them since the beginning.

This headline figure for the 2025 survey, will therefore be one to watch out for. We’d bet most of our savings (gotta save something to allow for inflation these days) that employee count won’t rise this year, and that ARR per FTE continues to increase in the earliest stages. Those in higher ARR bands? That may be the most fascinating metric. Will it remain a mixed bag or will the trend begin to impact more mature businesses?

‍

‍

Generation AI will also make for interesting reading in other areas. 

Beyond AI-native startups growing faster than horizontal SaaS businesses, growth rates are on the way back up for those under $1 million in ARR — a cohort who are most likely founded in the years after November 2022. 

‍

Other headline figures from the report worth noting (and to look out for in the 2025 figures) will be:

Founder wellness:  two out of every three founders reported moderate to extreme stress, however 92% were optimistic about the future of their company.‍

Sales and Marketing:  76% reported that go-to-market was a key concern, while 81% kept or increased BDR investments. With many reporting the end of some sales functions due to AI, the results will again be fascinating.

Outsourcing: Fractional roles have been surging in early-stage companies. 45% of <$1M ARR startups relied on fractional leaders in 2024, especially in finance and marketing. As Generation-AI companies mature and larger organizations finally work out how to leverage these tools into their workflows, this figure will be one to watch out for. 

AI Monetization:  For SaaS companies monetizing AI in their products, 68% still feature a subscription component in their pricing strategies. While usage based and outcome based pricing is on the rise, we have yet to see those pricing models become the norm.

Fundraising:  the report indicated market stabilization, with 45% of companies who responded having raised capital, up from 37% the year before. Considering the fluctuation we see in our data sources, results this year will be fascinating: Q1 of 2024 was the largest since the heights of 2021 and 2022, while Q2 was more akin to (the more frugal) years of 2023 and 2024.

Remote, Hybrid or in-person: In-office teams have been growing faster. Median YoY growth for office-first teams was 50% in the 2024 data, versus 39% for remote-first. Will this hold as the pandemic is finally well behind us?

Add your insights to the 2025 Survey

While the landscape for SaaS businesses continues to shift, with efficiency and AI integration at the forefront, the 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Report promises to offer crucial insights into these trends. To ensure the report provides the most comprehensive and valuable data for the entire SaaS community (and us, we like data), we’re encouraging our readers to provide their insights.

Don't miss this opportunity to contribute to and gain from the industry's leading benchmark analysis… have your say before voting closes on August 22nd!