Post attending the SaaStr event in Singapore last week, it ponders on me to spend more time identifying some of the trends of SaaS companies. A good source to look at are companies that are listed.

Take a look at my initial analysis on profitability of the current top 50 public listed SaaS companies.

One thing very prominent is the large number of unprofitable companies but interestingly, many of those that are profitable are traditional tech companies that have pivoted into the SaaS space. My initial thoughts have to do with the rigour of cost management for traditional tech companies while newer companies for the last few years since the Lehman brothers crashed have gotten plenty of free cash and the focus of many is on growth at all cost given the cost of funding is close to 0.

As we step further into the year of 2023, with increasing inflation and interest rates. We as SaaS startup needs to determine how are we going to strike a balance. Forgoing growth is not an option, netiher is going crazy on growth at the expense of profit. If you will like to get your hands on the data that i have gathered, feel free to reach out to me at melvin@thinkval.com