Growth Rate (YoY)
Year-over-year percentage growth in ARR (or recognized revenue, if explicitly anchored) — comparing the current period to the equivalent period 12 months prior. The single most-watched investor metric and the largest single driver of SaaS valuation multiples. Common pitfall: comparing to the prior quarter (QoQ) and reporting it as "growth rate" — boards and investors mean YoY unless explicitly noted otherwise. Anchored to KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 §YoY ARR Growth for cross-company benchmarking. — Sales KPI anchored to KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual).
Rogue ID: sales.growth_rate_yoy
Type: Percentage (%)
Domain: Sales
Definition
Year-over-year percentage growth in ARR (or recognized revenue, if explicitly anchored) — comparing the current period to the equivalent period 12 months prior. The single most-watched investor metric and the largest single driver of SaaS valuation multiples. Common pitfall: comparing to the prior quarter (QoQ) and reporting it as "growth rate" — boards and investors mean YoY unless explicitly noted otherwise. Anchored to KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 §YoY ARR Growth for cross-company benchmarking.
Formula
YoY Growth Rate = ((ARR at period close − ARR 12 months prior) / ARR 12 months prior) × 100. State the underlying metric explicitly (ARR vs Recognized Revenue) — they diverge meaningfully for sub-scale businesses. For quarters, use end-of-quarter ARR vs end-of-same-quarter-prior-year.Why it matters
Direct input to public-comparable valuation multiples (EV / NTM ARR multiples are sliced by growth band). Boards use it to triangulate stage-appropriate pace and to flag deceleration early.
How to interpret
Per KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 §YoY ARR Growth, median private-SaaS growth bands by ARR scale: $5–10M ARR median ~55–70%, $10–25M ARR ~40–55%, $25–50M ARR ~35–45%, $50M+ ARR ~25–35%. Growth decelerating > 30 percentage points YoY at any ARR scale is the most actionable board warning signal — usually requires either pipeline-coverage diagnosis or product-investment reallocation.
Related KPIs
sales.arrsales.new_businesssales.expansionsales.churn_arroperations.rule_of_40sales.gross_margin
Source
KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual) · section: YoY ARR Growth — published 2024-09-01.
Why does this cite KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual)? Read the ontology methodology for the published vs editorial tier system, attribution rules, and dispute process.
Industry benchmark
A reference distribution sourced from KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual) (2024):
| Percentile | Value |
|---|---|
| 25th | 12% |
| Median | 19% |
| 75th | 27% |
Higher is better.
Stage relevance
| Company stage | Priority |
|---|---|
| Series A | Core |
| Series B | Core |
| Series C+ | Core |
| Public | Core |
Suggested for stages: Series A, Series B, Series C+, Public.
Default owning functions
- Finance
- Sales
Machine-readable
- This KPI as JSON:
/api/ontology/sales/growth_rate_yoy.json - All Sales KPIs:
/api/ontology/sales.json - Full catalog:
/api/ontology/index.json
Gross Margin
Recognized revenue minus cost of goods sold (COGS), divided by recognized revenue, expressed as a percentage. The single best read on whether the business model can ever generate operating leverage — a low gross margin caps every downstream efficiency metric (CAC payback, LTV/CAC, Rule of 40). For SaaS, COGS includes hosting, third-party software, customer support, and customer-success cost-of-service. Common pitfall: omitting customer success from COGS inflates the margin and breaks comparability with peer benchmarks. Anchored to KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 §Gross Margin. — Sales KPI anchored to KBCM/Sapphire SaaS Survey 2024 (15th Annual).
New CAC Ratio
S&M expense attributable to new-customer acquisition divided by the new-customer CARR generated in the period. Per SMSB, the cleanest read on the new-logo acquisition engine's efficiency — strips out the expansion motion which has materially different unit economics. Common pitfall: failing to split AE comp time correctly between new and expansion activities — when the same AE owns both motions, an allocation rule (often the % of OTE tied to new-vs-expansion quota) is required and must be applied consistently quarter-over-quarter. — Sales KPI anchored to SaaS Metrics Standards Board.