Q1 earnings season for cloud businesses is now behind us. The 70 companies that I’ll discuss here (which is not an exhaustive list, but is still comprehensive) all reported quarterly earnings sometime between April 21st – June 13th. In this post, I’ll take a data-driven approach in evaluating the overall group’s performance, and highlight individual standouts along the way. As a venture capitalist, I naturally cater my analysis through the lens of a private investor. Over my 6+ years as a VC, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of entrepreneurs who are all building special companies. Through these interactions, I’ve built up mental benchmarks for metrics on which I place extra emphasis. My hope is that this analysis can provide startup entrepreneurs with a framework for how to manage their businesses around SaaS metrics (e.g., net retention and CAC payback). Let’s dive in.
Thanks Jamin. Would be interesting to see the change in FCF margin y-y as well. Many companies also went public in the last 2years and need to start moving towards neutral to positive cash flow as their proceeds get used up. Showcasing scalability will be key for these companies and a potential revaluation in SaaS sales multiples
A Look Back at Q1 '22 Public Cloud Software Earnings
Thanks Jamin. Would be interesting to see the change in FCF margin y-y as well. Many companies also went public in the last 2years and need to start moving towards neutral to positive cash flow as their proceeds get used up. Showcasing scalability will be key for these companies and a potential revaluation in SaaS sales multiples
thanks for the insightful analysis. Question: Gitlab's FCF seems relatively very poor compared to others. What does that signify about that business?