SaaS Profitability Means Many Things, but Growth is the Key
After the surge in valuations and investment into SaaS companies in late 2021, most of 2022 was a downhill slide for the industry. Multiple SaaS indexes saw significant declines, ranging from 33% for Nasdaq to the Emerging Cloud Index that was down 52% at the end of 2022. Today, revenue has become a leading metric in gauging overall SaaS profitability, as investors are more cautious and want to see greater resilience and long-term performance.
Why growth? It’s fairly straightforward — a stronger top line ideally translates into a stronger bottom line. And when a SaaS company begins to scale up, profitability tends to grow as well thanks to better operating leverage and control of costs. There are many core financial metrics to evaluate and ways that companies can move closer to or enhance SaaS profitability, but here, we’ll provide recommendations along with insights into how venture debt accelerates the process.
1. Stay Growth Focused
SaaS companies focused on generating new revenue should always be looking for new customers. While new customer acquisition is, as we all know, more expensive than expanding existing accounts, there are only so many opportunities for the latter (and only so much they can grow or are willing to grow). New customers that expand revenue totals translate into more bottom-line profit faster, particularly as SaaS companies strengthen cost controls and get new customers up and running sooner.
- How debt helps: One of the key advantages of venture debt is that most programs are flexible and can be customized to where the company is now and its growth goals. Interest-only loans, for example, allow companies to receive growth capital for marketing and sales efforts to win new customers while only paying the interest each month. This preserves revenue for a time and allows companies to reinvest those resources back into the business, further accelerating the growth process.
2. Manage Churn
The last thing companies need on their journey to stronger SaaS profitability is to lose customers. Every account lost means another that has to be won (which adds to costs) or others that must be upsold to offset (another investment of time and resources for gains that likely won’t match the revenue from a lost customer). How wonderful it would be to delight the customer and keep them paying rather than to lose valuable time and money into replacement? Efforts to reduce churn rates while accelerating top-line growth will go a long way to preserving revenue and increasing profitability.
- How debt helps: Debt is often used for a variety of retention initiatives, such as upselling, creating special offers, providing greater training upfront, staffing for customer success teams and processes, better marketing and sales automation, business intelligence, and more. All of these resources allow companies to better identify at-risk customers and work to keep them.
3. Invest in the Business Wisely
Every SaaS business has its own respective priorities. Early stage SaaS companies may have a need to conduct research and refine their platform whereas others may need to invest in larger marketing and sales strategies to accelerate growth. Whatever the need, understanding the priority while controlling costs in other areas helps to point the business toward the ideal outcome. For example, if ensuring a strong product-market fit is what is most important to the business, research would be a priority. If the fit is known and the business needs to more effectively compete against others in the market, marketing and sales investment makes more sense.
- How debt helps: While venture debt is most ideal for marketing and sales acceleration, the capital can be spent however founders and business leaders want. Founders that want to use the capital to accelerate revenue growth early on could consider the interest-only option, while others that want to reduce the debt as they scale could use a step-up structure to increase repayment on a consistent schedule tied to their growth.
Get the Growth Capital Needed to Achieve SaaS Profitability
Whether you want to optimize current cash flow or are looking to maximize revenue growth as you scale, the River SaaS Capital team can partner with you on an ideal venture debt funding solution. With a variety of structures available, we can recommend a program that supports your SaaS profitability goals. The greatest way we help you achieve that is tied to who we are as an organization.
At River SaaS Capital, we do not take an ownership stake in your business — ever. While we do offer equity funding, our venture debt solutions keep you fully in control. We also don’t take warrants, either as a requirement or as an incentive. We believe that you should be fully in control of your business, its direction, and how your working capital should be used. As you move forward, we’ll be here to advise and support you — providing guidance, recommendations, and connections (just as you would receive from an equity partner) to support your success.
When you’re ready, fill out the form below to get in touch with our investment team. We look forward to working with you.
