undefined | Better HN

0 pointsraiyu7y ago0 comments

Have to be careful comparing mature companies which show consistent and predicatable growth with those that are still early in that cycle.

While the revenue growth the last couple of years for Asana is obviously on an uptick you have to be careful that the growth is really a precentage not an absolute value. If they are growing 50% that's awesome, but if instead they are growing $25MM, from $25MM to $50MM, to $75MM, to $100MM that is a completely different story.

You need another dot on that plot to see which one it is.

Overall the valuations for SaaS companies are definitely well ahead of revenue but early on in a company's history that's ok as there is a lot of future growth potential.

However, listing that graph without a Y-axis label for revenue implies that it is well below $100MM in revenue and most likely that last plot is around the $50-60MM line.

So definitely an aggressive valuation for the time being.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

ummonk7y ago

Smartsheet had 74,116 customers in its IPO filing. Asana recently announced that it had hit 50,000 paying customers, and revenue growth had reached 90% year over year.

The maturity difference isn't as large as you'd imagine.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse