Emergence Capital has its latest “Beyond Benchmarks” report out. While much of it is stuff we already know, it’s a great summary of metrics from 600+ venture-backed B2B start-ups.
Here are the top 5 SaaStr learnings:
1. AI-Native Companies Are Creating a New Performance Tier
The Key Insight: AI-native companies achieve 100% median ARR growth vs 23% for traditional SaaS—a 4x advantage. They also deliver 132% NDR vs 108% for adopters. This isn’t about adding AI features; it’s about building companies where AI continuously learns from customer usage, creating what Emergence calls the “Emergence Rate.”
Strategic Framework: AI excellence requires sustained investment—top AI-native companies allocate 56% of R&D to AI development vs just 28% for adopters. Companies treating AI as a feature rather than core competency will be out-invested and out-innovated by truly native competitors.
Bottom Line: The window for AI transformation is narrowing. Companies that delay AI integration risk permanent competitive disadvantage as AI-native competitors establish unassailable market positions.
2. Customer Success is Now Your Primary Growth Engine
By $50M ARR, expansion drives 58% of growth (67% for $100M+ companies). The 10-15 percentage point gap between GDR and NDR across all segments shows that expansion revenue is the engine of sustainable growth. Your existing customers are your best growth channel—optimize accordingly.
3. The $5-50M “Danger Zone” Requires Operational Discipline
The Key Insight: By $50M ARR, expansion drives 58% of growth (67% for $100M+ companies). The 10-15 percentage point gap between GDR and NDR across all segments reveals that expansion revenue is the engine of sustainable growth.
Strategic Framework: Your existing customers are your best growth channel. Companies excelling at expansion can maintain growth even as new logo acquisition becomes more expensive and competitive. Track new vs. expansion CAC separately to optimize your growth engines independently.
Bottom Line: In today’s market, your Customer Success team becomes more important than your sales team as you scale. Optimize accordingly.
4. 48% of B2B Companies Are Using AI to Replace Humans, Not Just Augment Them
The AI services market is evenly split: 48% of AI companies are replacing human labor while 52% augment humans. But here’s the strategic insight—regardless of whether you’re replacing or augmenting, operational efficiency is the #1 ROI factor customers cite when choosing AI products (33% of responses).
The Key Insight: Customers don’t pay for “AI tools that think”—they pay for AI that delivers measurable time savings, process acceleration, and operational improvements. Whether your AI replaces a human role entirely or makes existing humans 10x more productive doesn’t matter to buyers. What matters is quantifiable business impact.
Strategic Framework: Resist the temptation to build “AI for everything.” Focus on AI that delivers measurable operational improvements that are immediately quantifiable. These benefits create the strongest customer value proposition and the clearest path to demonstrating ROI during increasingly complex B2B buying processes.
Bottom Line: The companies winning aren’t debating augmentation vs. replacement—they’re laser-focused on delivering operational efficiency that customers can measure and defend to their CFOs.
5. Referrals Are the Most Undervalued Marketing Channel
The Key Insight: Referrals generate 14% of revenue from just 7% of marketing spend—twice the ROI of any other channel. Meanwhile, companies over-invest in events (19% budget, 15% revenue), suggesting billions in misallocated marketing spend across the industry.
Strategic Framework: Increase referral program investment while reducing event spend. This reflects the fundamental shift toward trust-based buying in complex B2B decisions. Events, social content, and influencer partnerships create authentic engagement that converts better than increasingly expensive paid media.
Bottom Line: The companies making this shift early are building sustainable marketing advantages while competitors exhaust budgets on diminishing-return paid channels.
Bonus Point: The Great Sales Team Rebalancing – From Pipeline to Post-Sales. Death of the SDR?
The Key Insight: Sales teams are undergoing strategic workforce rebalancing. 36% of companies reduced SDR/BDR roles while 34% increased Professional Services teams and 28% increased Account Executive headcount. This isn’t panic cutting—it’s strategic optimization reflecting a fundamental shift: customer expansion generates higher ROI than new acquisition.
Strategic Framework: Leading companies recognize that in today’s environment, mining gold from existing customer relationships beats chasing new logos with expensive SDR teams. They’re reallocating resources from prospecting to customer success and implementation excellence, trading top-of-funnel quantity for post-sale quality. The AE increases suggest companies are investing in deal execution and account management over lead generation.
Bottom Line: While others chase new logos with expensive outbound teams, smart companies are systematically shifting resources to where the real revenue growth happens—closing bigger deals and expanding existing customer relationships.
Much more here at the report!!
