Gartner has its latest Cloud report out, and while one can always pick at any report, it’s at least a well-resourced and reasoned source on the size of SaaS and the Cloud.
The big learnings for SaaS founders and execs:
- Cloud overall will grow 17% next year to $266 Billion. That’s a lot of growth, and it means we’re solidly in the mainstream phase but not the mature phase.
- SaaS is the largest segment of Cloud and will hit $116 Billion next year. That means there is plenty of room for more unicorns in SaaS. SaaS growing 20% at $116b+ means adding $30 billion more in SaaS spend next year. Think about that for a second.
- Businesses will spend almost $20 Billion more on SaaS next year than this year. Wow.
So there are plenty of excuses out there if you need them. If you want them.
But the massive amount of capital flowing to SaaS and Cloud isn’t one of them. The money is there. The customers are there. The growth is there. The belief is there.
Carpe Diem. These are the best of times in SaaS.
A different way to look at it is to start with how many SaaS companies are already at $1b ARR or coming close to it. There are at least 25 SaaS companies already at or coming up to $1b in ARR. A bit more on that here:
Given the growth rate at $150B+ in ARR overall for SaaS, that leaves room for 100+ SaaS companies at $1b+ in ARR. And at least 1000+ at $100m+ in ARR.
That’s awesome.
It could even be you.
