The bar moved after 2022 and it has not moved back. Growth alone stopped being enough, and the pair investors now lead with is CAC payback and net revenue retention, because together they predict whether a business compounds. Recent benchmark work across hundreds of private B2B companies puts median growth in the mid twenties percent with NRR hovering around one hundred percent, well below the one hundred and twenty percent that used to be table stakes, so know which cohort you are being compared to before you panic. Bessemer's bands are the most useful stage adjusted reference: roughly two hundred percent growth at one to ten million dollars ARR falling toward sixty percent past a hundred million, with CAC payback under twelve months good and under six best in class. For Indian companies there is a genuine structural edge here, since a comparable revenue base is built on a much smaller sales and marketing spend.
4 hand-picked resources, 1 India-specific, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it Survey data from over eight hundred private companies, with an efficient growth matrix that plots CAC payback against NRR so you can locate yourself rather than just read averages.
From Growth Unhinged by Kyle Poyar 20 min read
Open growthunhinged.com →Why we picked it Pavilion's data comes from operators rather than investors, and the headline numbers on the page (median growth, NRR compression, burn multiple) are enough to calibrate without downloading anything.
From Pavilion by Pavilion gated report, key stats on page
Open joinpavilion.com →Why we picked it Sets out exactly what a repeatable sales motion is supposed to look like by ten million dollars ARR, with the four GTM metrics investors will actually check. The right benchmark set for a company still building its ops function.
From Bessemer Venture Partners by Janelle Teng Wade, Mary D'Onofrio and Ethan Ding 35 min read
Open bvp.com →Why we picked it Lays out Upekkha's Value SaaS argument that SaaS built from India is structurally capital efficient, which changes what a healthy CAC payback or magic number looks like for an Indian company.
From Inc42 by Team Inc42 10 min read
Open inc42.com →How forecasting and gtm metrics reads from a different seat.
