When we launched the SaaStr AI Valuation Calculator at https://saastr.ai/valuation-calculator back in August, I thought maybe we’d see a few hundres founders use it in the first few months. Maybe a few thousand if we got really lucky and it went viral.
We crossed 200,000 valuations in the first two weeks.
300,000 in 30 days.
400,000 in about 45 days.
And now? We just crossed 600,000 startup valuations. Founders who said “I need to know what my company is actually worth before I walk into that VC meeting.”
That’s not just a milestone. That’s a movement.
Why This Matters (And What It Says About The Market)
Here’s what 600,000 data points tell me: The old way of valuing startups was completely broken.
Think about it. Before this, founders had three terrible options:
- Option 1: Use some public comps that assumed every B2B company trades roughly the same (spoiler: they don’t anymore).
- Option 2: Trust a VC’s first offer without any context on whether they’re giving you a fair deal
- Option 3: Listen to data points from other founders whose start-ups are not the same as yours
None of those options work well. And the fact that 60,000+ founders have used our calculator 600,000+ times in less than 90 days proves it.
The Data Behind The Calculator: Why It Actually Works
Let me pull back the curtain on what makes this thing tick, because we’ve invested serious time and money into making it the most accurate valuation tool available for early-stage B2B SaaS and AI companies.
The calculator pulls from:
- 5,000+ recent VC funding rounds across Seed, Series A, B, and C
- Carta’s latest private market data (the freshest data available)
- Bessemer’s latest Cloud Index and growth benchmarks
- Iconiq and Emergence Capital’s latest market multiples
- 1,800+ rounds that SaaStr.ai itself has processed through our pitch deck analyzer and funding database
This isn’t theory. This is real money changing hands in real deals happening right now in 2025.
One Important Caveat: It’s From Actual VC Deals That Closed
Our valuation calculator is based on 5,000+ deals that closed. That’s real data, and that’s what makes it valuable. But most start-ups never raise VC funding, and most aren’t in the top quartile by definition. So in that sense, our Valuation Calculator may well overvalue your start-up. It also is SF Bay Area biased, since most B2B VC deals and dollars now are in the SF Bay.
What The Data Is Telling Us
After analyzing 600,000 valuation calculations, here are the patterns that are absolutely screaming at us:
1. The AI Premium Is Real — But Not What You Think. It’s Almost All About Outlier Growth, Period
Everyone talks about the “AI premium” like it’s some magical 2x multiplier you get just by mentioning ChatGPT in your pitch deck.
That’s bullshit.
What the data actually shows:
- AI-Native companies (where AI is the core product, not a feature) are trading at 90th-95th percentile valuations
- Revenue multiples for true AI-first products are hitting 11.2x-14.0x ARR
- Traditional SaaS companies are trading at 6x-9x ARR depending on growth rate
But here’s the kicker: A traditional SaaS company growing 80%+ will often get a higher valuation than a slow-growing AI company at 30%.
Growth rate still trumps everything. Always has. Always will.
If you’re growing at 150%+ year-over-year with solid unit economics, VCs will pay up whether you’re “AI-powered” or not. If you’re growing at 20% year-over-year, slapping “AI” on your landing page won’t save you.
2. Series A Crunch Is Real (But Survivable)
Of the 600,000 valuations we’ve run, roughly 40% are for companies trying to figure out if they’re ready for Series A.
The hard truth from the data: Most aren’t.
The median Series A company in our dataset has:
- $2.5M-$4M ARR at raise
- 100%+ YoY growth rate
- Net Revenue Retention of 110%+
- 12-18 months of runway before they need to raise again
If you’re sitting at $1M ARR growing 60% year-over-year, you’re probably not ready for Series A. That’s not an insult — that’s just math. You need to keep grinding, hit $2M+ ARR, and accelerate that growth rate to 80%+ before Series A VCs will take you seriously.
3. Profitability Still Doesn’t Matter — For High-Growth Companies and Most VCs
One thing that surprised me in the data: Rule of 40 barely moves the needle if you’re growing fast enough.
Companies growing 100%+ year-over-year can be burning significant cash and still command top-quartile valuations. VCs will overlook almost anything if the growth rate is there.
But once you dip below 50% growth? Profitability starts mattering a lot.
If you’re growing 30% year-over-year and losing money, you’re in trouble. If you’re growing 30% and profitable (or close to it), you can still raise at decent multiples — just not top-tier ones.
The takeaway: Grow fast or get profitable. Pick one. You can’t be slow AND unprofitable.
How Smart Founders Are Using The Calculator
After watching 600,000 valuations get calculated, I’ve noticed some patterns in how the best founders use this tool:
Pattern 1: The Pre-Meeting Benchmark
Smart founders run their numbers 2-3 weeks before any VC meetings. They know their range. They know what percentile they’re in. They know what multiples they should be targeting.
Then when a VC says “We’re thinking 5x revenue,” they know immediately if that’s a fair offer or if the VC is trying to buy them on the cheap.
Pattern 2: The Growth Strategy Test
I’ve seen founders run 10-20 different scenarios:
- “What if we hit 80% growth instead of 60%?”
- “What if we get NRR to 120%?”
- “What if we add $500K more ARR before we raise?”
They’re using the calculator as a strategic planning tool, not just a one-time valuation check. They’re reverse-engineering the growth they need to hit their target valuation.
That’s smart as hell.
Pattern 3: The Negotiation Anchor
This is my favorite use case. Founders are bringing printouts of their valuation calculation into VC meetings.
When a VC lowballs them, they pull out the data: “According to SaaStr’s analysis of 5,000+ recent rounds, companies with our growth rate and ARR are trading at 9.5x-12x revenue. You’re offering us 6x. Help me understand the gap.”
That changes the conversation entirely. You’re not negotiating on feelings anymore. You’re negotiating on data.
What We’ve Added Since Launch
Hitting 600,000 valuations is awesome, but it’s just the beginning for SaaStr.ai.
Here’s what we’re added since:
1. Funding Probability Score
Now we can tell you: “Based on your metrics, you have a 67% probability of successfully raising at this valuation.” This combines our valuation engine with our analysis of which companies actually close rounds vs. which ones fail.
2. VC Matchmaking
We’re expanding from our initial 10 top-tier VCs to 50+ funds, with much smarter matching based on your stage, sector, and metrics. If you’re at $3M ARR growing 120% YoY in sales tech, we’ll tell you exactly which VCs are most likely to fund you — and intro you directly.
Learn more here
3. Detailed VC Pitch Deck Feedback (Almost 2,000 Decks Uploaded!)
Upload your deck — before you meet. We’ll grade it, tell you where and how to improve it, and show you exactly how VCCs will see you.
Try it here
4. Scenario Modeling & Benchmarking
We’re adding a full scenario modeling suite where you can play with different growth rates, burn multiples, and timing to see how each variable impacts your valuation and fundability.
The Bottom Line
Six hundred thousand valuations later, here’s what I know for certain:
Information asymmetry in venture capital is bullshit.
For decades, VCs had all the data and founders had none. VCs knew what companies were getting funded at what valuations. Founders were flying blind.
That’s changing. Fast.
When 600,000 founders in 90 days decide they’re not walking into funding conversations without knowing their worth, that tells me the market is fundamentally shifting.
Founders are getting smarter. They’re demanding transparency. They’re using data to negotiate better deals.
And that’s exactly what we built SaaStr.ai to do.
Try It Yourself
Don’t be the founder who finds out they left $5M-$10M on the table because they didn’t know what they were worth.
Don’t be the founder who asked for too little because they trusted the first VC’s offer.
Try the calculator here: https://saastr.ai/valuation-calculator
It takes 2 minutes. It’s completely free. And it might save you millions.
After you’ve run your valuation, check out our AI Pitch Deck Analyzer. It’s scored 1,800+ decks and will tell you exactly what’s working (and what’s not) in your pitch before you send it to VCs.
Because knowing your valuation is step one.
Getting VCs to actually believe it? That’s where a killer pitch deck comes in.
Now get back to work and go hit those numbers.
— Jason
P.S. If you want to see how we’re deploying 20+ AI agents to scale SaaStr from $10M to $50M+ revenue, come to SaaStr AI London on Dec 1-2. We’ll show you exactly how we built real AI SDRs, real AI BDRs, and real AI content engines that actually work. Not theory. Real code. Real results. Get tickets here.