Enter your ARR, growth rate, net revenue retention, and gross margin to see a rough revenue-multiple range and ballpark valuation — a directional estimate, not an appraisal.
How this estimate works
Public and private SaaS valuations are usually quoted as a multiple of
ARR, and that multiple moves mostly with growth rate, then gets nudged up
or down by retention and margin. This tool starts from a growth-rate
band, then adjusts:
- Growth rate sets the base range: roughly 1.5–3x
under 20% growth, up to 8–12x above 100% growth, with bands in
between.
- Net revenue retention above 120% pushes both ends
of the range up a full turn; below 100% (net revenue shrinking even
without new sales) pulls both ends down.
- Gross margin above 80% (typical of pure software)
adds a small premium; below 60% (more services- or infra-heavy)
trims it.
The result is a ballpark range, not a number to put in a term sheet —
real deals are set by actual buyer/investor demand, market conditions at
the time, growth durability, competitive position, and negotiation, none
of which a calculator can see.
How to use it
- Use it to sanity-check a number someone else proposed, or to get a
rough sense of range before a conversation — not as a number to quote
first.
- Multiples compress in down markets and expand in hot ones across
the board, independent of any single company's metrics — re-check the
current market environment separately.
- Pair this with the MRR growth
calculator and churn
& retention calculator to get accurate growth and NRR inputs
instead of guessing them.
Common mistakes
- Treating the output as an appraisal or a number a buyer will
actually pay — it's a heuristic starting point for a conversation,
nothing more.
- Using trailing-twelve-months revenue growth when the business has
recently accelerated or decelerated sharply — a single blended growth
number can hide a much better or worse current trajectory.
- Ignoring customer concentration, churn risk, or one-time revenue
spikes baked into the current ARR figure — this tool only sees the
four numbers you enter.