SaaS Metrics, Venture Growth Benchmarks & Cohort Retention Economics
SaaS Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) & Bessemer Score Formula
Calculate Enterprise SaaS Gross Revenue Retention (GRR <= 100%), Net Dollar Retention (NDR), Bessemer Venture Partners Capital Efficiency Score (Net New ARR / Net Burn), and Ending Total ARR ($M).
Never let upsells mask logo churn—track capped GRR alongside NDR and Bessemer Efficiency!
High Net Dollar Retention (NDR = (Beginning_ARR - Gross_Churn_&_Contraction + Expansion_ARR) / Beginning_ARR) can reach 115%+ on seat expansions in top enterprise accounts while hiding severe logo churn in the rest of the base! That is why SaaS boards track Gross Revenue Retention GRR = (Beginning_ARR - Gross_Churn_&_Contraction) / Beginning_ARR—strictly excluding expansion so GRR has a mathematical ceiling of 1.0000 (100.0%)! Pairing GRR and NDR with Bessemer’s Efficiency Score = Net_New_ARR / Annual_Net_Cash_Burn (where Net_New_ARR = New_Logo_ARR + Expansion_ARR - Gross_Churn_&_Contraction; >1.5x "Best") reveals whether growth is durable or bought with unsustainable burn!
Verify on a Series B Enterprise SaaS Cohort—Beginning_ARR = $20.00M (B2), Gross_Churn_Plus_Contraction = $1.60M (B3 -> GRR = (20 - 1.6) / 20 = 0.9200 or 92.00% in E2), Expansion_Upsell_ARR = $4.60M (B4 -> NDR = (20 - 1.6 + 4.6) / 20 = 1.1500 or 115.00% in E3), New_Logo_ARR = $5.00M (B5 -> Net New ARR = 5.0 + 4.6 - 1.6 = $8.00M), and Annual_Net_Cash_Burn = $5.00M (B6): Bessemer Efficiency Score reaches 8.00 / 5.00 = 1.6000x (E4), growing Ending Total ARR to $28.00M (E5)!
| SaaS Retention & Efficiency Metric ($20M Start, $1.6M Churn, $4.6M Exp, $5M New, $5M Burn) | Formula | Verified Output |
|---|---|---|
| Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) | (Start_ARR - Churn_Contraction) / Start_ARR | 0.9200 (0.8000 @ $4M Churn) |
| Net Dollar Retention (NDR) | (Start_ARR - Churn + Expansion) / Start_ARR | 1.1500 (1.0300 @ $4M Churn) |
| Bessemer Efficiency Score (x) | (New_Logo + Expansion - Churn) / Net_Burn | 1.6000x (1.1200x @ $4M Churn) |
| Ending Total ARR ($M) | Start_ARR + New_Logo + Expansion - Churn | $28.00M ($25.60M @ $4M Churn) |
SaaS GRR & Bessemer Capital Efficiency Formula
Validate Beginning_ARR > 0, 0 <= Churn_Contraction <= Beginning_ARR, Expansion >= 0, New_Logo >= 0, and Net_Burn > 0! When collaborating on quarterly board packs in Arte Sheets, let FP&A analysts propose cohort adjustments as cell suggestions so the VP of Finance can verify GRR <= 1.00 before accepting.
=LET(st_a, B2, ch_a, B3, ex_a, B4, nw_a, B5, bn_m, B6, IF(OR(st_a <= 0, ch_a < 0, ch_a > st_a, ex_a < 0, nw_a < 0, bn_m <= 0), "Invalid SaaS Retention Input", LET(nn_a, nw_a + ex_a - ch_a, ROUND(nn_a / bn_m, 4))))Leaky-Bucket Downmarket Churn Check (Set Gross Churn & Contraction = $4.00M)
Increase Gross_Churn_Plus_Contraction B3 from $1.60M to $4.00M: even though NDR E3 still looks above 100% (1.0300), GRR E2 exposes an 80.00% leaky bucket (0.8000) and Bessemer Efficiency E4 drops from 1.6000x to 1.1200x!
=IF(ISTEXT(E4), E4, ROUND((B2 - B3) / B2, 4))Try the example
Use the original values or change them to test your understanding.