Samsara

Sep 13, 2023

So Samara is that vertical fleet-and-more-management-and-more SaaS company that has just roared out of the gate since its quiet IPO. Things did get harder for them about a year ago, but growth has since reaccelerated. And efficient growth at that. Fast forward to today, Samsara is at almost $1 Billion ARR growing a stunning 40% — and are now cash-flow positive. 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. New Bookings Growth Has Re-Accelerated, with Highest Growth in Six Quarters You can see below Net New ARR has come back and his a new high last quarter, and well above the somewhat tougher times of 12-15 months ago. That’s even with going profitable. Downturn? Not for Samsara. #2. 49% of Revenue From New Customers, 51% From Existing It’s great to see a public SaaS leader break this out so clearly. To me, this is the Magic Ratio. If you can leverage high NRR to get half your growth from the base, and half from net new, you have the best of all worlds in SaaS. Both an engine for the future, and engine that self-perpetuates. #3. Not Quite Profitable, But Far More Efficient Than 12-15 Months Ago Like almost every SaaS leader, Samsara has gotten a lot more efficient than they were. It’s a Sign of the Times. In 5 quarters, Samsara went from -25% free cash flow to +2%, and -13% non-GAAP operating margins to -3%. Not quite positive operating margins, but still radically more efficient than they were just 12-15 months ago. Without giving up much growth — if any. #4. Three Products Each With $100m+ ARR Another case study of going multi-product before fully maxxing out the original core. Importantly, they can sell these multiple telematics and related products in many cases to the same customers. #5. $100k+ Customers Growing Fastest, at 53% Not uncommon, but always good to learn from. Samsara still has 1000s of small customers, but for the most part, has deemphasized them. And they have 60+ $1m ACV customers now. And a few other interesting learnings: #6. Brought 1,000+ Customers Together To Their User Conference in June This always works, folks. Always interesting to see what folks do here. #8. Adding Back Sales Capacity Now. I.e., Hiring More Reps. This is a theme we’ll see accelerate the coming months and year. Salesforce also just announced its accelerating hiring again. Keeping headcount flat got everyone to be more efficient. But you can be too efficient in sales. To grow another 40%, then all things being equal, your sales team has to grow 40%. Samsara is scaling up sales faster now again.