A look at the state of the public markets and how they may impact private SaaS companies

We’ve all heard it at this point. The market has changed, the tides have turned. Sloppy growth is out. Profits and efficient growth are in. In the land of SaaS, the average multiple across all SaaS companies has been cut by half since the all-time high in 2014.

But what’s going on behind the scenes? It’s now been well over a decade since SaaS business models first became widespread, and the line in the chart above reflects an index of SaaS companies all with varying degrees of growth, profitability, and other dynamics.