I was catching up on Brad Feld’s blog this morning and saw that he had posted about the “40% rule” for SAAS companies.
I was at the same board meeting as Brad and came away similarly impressed by the simplicity of the rule and the logic behind it.
Here’s the 40% rule and it is aimed at SAAS companies:
Your annual revenue growth rate + your operating margin should equal 40%
So, if you are growing 100% year over year, you can lose money at a rate of 60% of your revenues
If you are growing 40% year over year, you should be breaking even
If you are growing 20% year over year, you should have 20% operating margins
If you are not growing, you should have 40% operating margins
If your business is declining 10% year over year, you should have 50% operating margins
I have never seen growth and profitability so nicely tied together in a simple rule like this. I’ve always felt intuitively that it’s OK to lose money if you are growing fast, and you must make money and increasing amounts of it as your growth slows. Now there’s a formula for that instinct. And I like that very much.
Thanks Brad for posting it.
