NRR is what happens to the revenue from one group of customers over a year, with no new logos counted: start with what they paid, subtract what churned, subtract downgrades, add upgrades and expansion. Above 100 percent means the customers you already have would grow your revenue even if you sold nothing new. That is why investors care. It is the single number that tells them whether your growth needs to be bought every year or whether it compounds. Enterprise SaaS is usually judged good around 110 percent, consumer SaaS much lower, so ask what benchmark you are being held to.
4 hand-picked resources, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it The formula written out term by term, with the three performance bands. The right first read if you have been nodding along in NRR conversations without being sure of the calculation.
From Stripe 9 min read
Open stripe.com →Why we picked it The benchmark study everyone quotes: good and great net revenue retention by business type, built from 20 growth experts plus real public company numbers. It stops the 'is 105 percent good' argument in one page.
From Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky 15 min read
Open lennysnewsletter.com →Why we picked it The good, better, best NRR bands (100, 110, 120 plus) that boards actually benchmark against, sitting alongside the efficiency metrics they get judged with.
From Bessemer Venture Partners by Kent Bennett, Talia Goldberg, Mike Droesch and others report
Open bvp.com →Why we picked it The cleanest definition of expansion MRR with the formula and the benchmark that matters: top companies get up to 40 percent of new ARR from existing customers.
From Chargebee 7 min read
Open chargebee.com →How expansion, upsell and churn reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Grow & market, our Starting Up track.
The same ground, over in Grow organically & retain, our D2C track.
