5 Interesting Learnings from OneStream at $480,000,000 in ARR

So we’ve finally had another great SaaS IPO — OneStream.   Just the third SaaS IPO since December 2021,  OneStream is SaaS for CFOs and financial operations, a large but somewhat under-discussed category.  SAP and Oracle are very strong here.

Founded back in 2010 (SaaS takes time!) with first customers launched in 2012, the metrics today are very strong:

• $480,000,000 in ARR
• Growing 34% (strong)
• 98% GRR (!) and 118% NRR
• 11% Free Cash Flow Margins, 20% the past 2 quarters

That’s the full package.

5 Interesting Learnings:

#1.  Went from $100m ARR to $450m ARR in Just 3 Years (!)

Many slow down as they approach $100m ARR and especially $200m ARR.  Not OneStream.  It built up speed then, and went from $100m ARR in 2020 to $200m in 2021 and $300m in 2022 and $450m in 2023!  Goodness.  Still, growth has now slowed to a top tier but more human rate of 34%

#2.  Professional Services is 8% of Revenues

This seems pretty standard now in the enterprise.  There’s no perfect answer here, but most enterprise leaders seem to try to keep lower-margin pro services under 10% of revenue — and have third parties do the rest.

#3.  GRR of Stunning 98%

No one leaves.  NRR is strong at 118%, but it’s the 98% GRR that makes the jaw drop.  ServiceNow has similar GRR.  Once you pick OneStream to manage your financial platform — you don’t leave.

#4.  72% of Growth From New Customers, 28% From Existing

We can try to infer this from NRR numbers, but it’s super helpful to see a leader break this out.   To grow 34%, OneStream is also adding +21% new customers a year.

#5.  1,388 Customers, So Average Deal Size of $325,000

A true enterprise playbook here.  Again, OneStream is adding +21% new customers a year.  SaaS leaders at scale need to add +20% new customers a year in general to stay in growth mode.

And a few other interesting learnings:

#6.   31% of Revenue From Outside U.S.

Pretty impressive to me at least considering how different accounting and legal frameworks are in different countries and jurisdictions.

#7.  Broke Into Positive Free Cash Flow In 2024

OneStream was almost break-even in 2023, and then as it geared up to IPO, switched to 11% or so free-cash flow margins this year and 20%+ for past 2 quarters.  OneStream switched to a much more efficient mode the year before filing to IPO.  Did it trade off some growth?  Possibly.

Meritech has a good summary here of their path to cash-flow positive

#8.  Perhaps Most Impressively — It Was Bootstrapped For 8 Years, Up To ~$100m ARR and a $1B Valuation!

At scale, they eventually raised buy-out capital from KKR.  But until that stage, it was 100% bootstrapped — with no external capital at all.  Boom!

Overall it doesn’t get much better than this.  And it closed +34% in its IPO!