SaaS Metrics School

Ben Murray
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Ben Murray brings you actionable SaaS metrics lessons that he has learned through years of being in the SaaS CFO trenches. Whether you are new to SaaS or a SaaS veteran, learn the latest SaaS and AI metrics, finance, and accounting tactics that drive financial transparency and improved decision-making. Ben’s SaaS metrics blog consistently rates a 70+ NPS, and his templates have been downloaded over 100,000 times. There is always something to learn about SaaS and AI metrics.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Salesforce Invented a New KPI on an Earnings Call — Here's Why You Should Too

    Salesforce just invented a new metric on their latest earnings call — not because they needed one, but because Wall Street didn't have the vocabulary to value what they built. In episode #367, Ben Murray breaks down Salesforce's Q4 FY2026 earnings call — not the financials, but the narrative architecture: a new unit of measurement for AI value (the AWU), a framing strategy designed to neutralize the biggest fear enterprise buyers have about AI, and three customer testimonials brought live onto the call. This is the communication playbook every SaaS operator can steal when explaining AI to boards, investors, and customers — at a time when the old metrics (tokens, MAUs, queries) no longer tell the value story. Why Salesforce introduced the Agentic Work Unit (AWU) — and what 2.4 billion AWUs against 19 trillion tokens reveals about the limits of token-based AI metrics The AWU-to-token ratio as a customer health signal — and why this is the metric your AI-enabled SaaS dashboard is missing The "humans and agents working together" framing that lets you sell AI capabilities without triggering the "we're going to lay people off" deal-killer How Wyndham's 8,300-hotel deployment, SharkNinja's 250,000 holiday-season engagements, and Lemkin's SaaStr transformation prove ROI when slides can't How to expand your SaaS metrics dashboard from 5 pillars to 6 — and the AI-era KPIs (AWUs, AI-attributed ARR, input-to-output ratios, customer outcome metrics) that belong in the new pillar Tune in before your next board meeting or AI sales pitch — and steal the vocabulary that's about to define the category. Resources Mentioned Salesforce Q4 FY2026 earnings call transcript Ben's 5-pillar SaaS metrics dashboard — and the upcoming 6-pillar AI-era expansion: https://www.thesaascfo.com/downloads/five-pillar-metrics-framework/

    7 min

  2. 4 DAYS AGO

    Should You Price on Outcomes? What HubSpot's $0.50 Bet Means for Your SaaS Revenue Model

    HubSpot's 50-cent bet may have just forced every SaaS founder to ask whether their current revenue model is still defensible. In episode #365, Ben Murray breaks down HubSpot's April 2nd announcement — slashing its Breeze customer agent from $1 to 50¢ per resolved conversation, plus a shift on its prospecting agent to $1 per qualified lead — and what this risk transfer means for SaaS revenue, forecasting, and the metrics CFOs need to start tracking. With Salesforce Agent Force hitting $800M in Q4 run rate and over 60% of bookings coming from existing-customer expansion, the question is no longer whether AI is reshaping SaaS pricing, but how fast and how unevenly. Ben pulls in his SEC filings research and a sharp counterpoint from Salesforce's own earnings call to show why the "SaaS is dead" narrative is overplayed. The two HubSpot pricing changes that signal a true risk transfer — and the 65% resolution rate (90% for top performers) that makes the bet credible Why "75% of AI agent vendors have no systematic approach to pricing" should put your pricing committee on notice this quarter The forecasting and metrics shift CFOs need to make as outcome-based pricing erodes predictable usage-based revenue — and the new KPIs that replace the old ones How Salesforce Agent Force's $800M Q4 run rate and 60%+ expansion bookings prove the AI revenue thesis — while Robin Washington's earnings call comment complicates the seat-erosion story The pricing reality check Ben pulled from analyzing 100+ SEC filings — and what it means for whether your ICP actually fits outcome-based pricing Listen before your next pricing committee meeting — and bring your CFO. The forecasting implications alone are worth the six minutes. Resources Mentioned Article from: https://thesaaslibrary.com/per-seat-pricing-dead-saas-2026/ SaaStr post by Jason Lemkin: https://www.saastr.com/salesforce-now-has-3-pricing-models-for-agentforce-and-maybe-right-now-thats-the-way-to-do-it/ Salesforce Q4 earnings call Ben's blog post: https://www.thesaascfo.com/your-ai-feature-is-quietly-destroying-your-gross-margin/

    6 min

  3. 21 APR

    AI Inference Costs Are Crushing SaaS Gross Margins — Here's What to Do About It

    Is your AI SaaS company skating on thin ice because of exploding compute costs you're not tracking? In episode #365, Ben Murray tackles one of the most pressing financial challenges facing AI-first SaaS companies: the structural margin compression caused by LLM inference costs. Traditional SaaS was built on near-zero marginal cost per customer — that era is over. If you're building on top of AI, every prompt, query, and agentic workflow is a hard COGS line that scales with revenue, and if you're not managing it, it will quietly destroy your unit economics. Why AI-first SaaS companies are running 50–60% gross margins (vs. 70–80% for legacy SaaS) — and what Bessemer data shows about AI supernovas with margins as low as 25%. How inference and compute costs differ fundamentally from traditional SaaS COGS — and why they won't scale down the way hosting costs did Why token costs vary wildly (from $1–2 per million to $30–180+ for frontier models) and how that variability makes feature-level economics a CFO priority 5 tactical ways to reduce LLM spend: model routing, prompt caching, context compaction, semantic caching, and batch processing How to set up your GL accounts and COGS tracking to allocate inference costs by feature — so you actually understand the economics of what you've built Tune in before your next board meeting — because if you're not tracking AI inference costs at the feature level, you're flying blind on your most important unit economics. Resources Mentioned The SaaS CFO: https://www.thesaascfo.com/ Ray Rike — AI to ROI Newsletter: https://ai2roi.substack.com/ Tomas Tunguz: https://tomtunguz.com/ Fungies.io — 5 Ways to Save on LLM Costs: https://fungies.io

    6 min

  4. 9 APR

    How to Track Digital Labor in Your SaaS P&L

    In episode #364, Ben Murray breaks down how SaaS finance teams should structure their chart of accounts to properly track inference costs, productivity AI, and agentic AI spend. As organizations shift from W-2 headcount to token costs and agentic software, your current expense coding may be out-of-date. If you can't see where the AI spend is going, you can't tie it to ROI — and you definitely can't make the case for going fully agentic. Why COGS is the right home for product inference costs (Claude, OpenAI, Gemini) — and why lumping them in with hosting is a mistake The three distinct AI spend buckets every SaaS CFO needs to track: direct COGS delivery costs, general productivity tools, and explicit labor substitution (agentic AI) Why agentic AI spend deserves its own GL account — and how that ties directly into your ROSE metric Where the tracking gets fuzzy: productivity tools vs. true labor displacement, and how to think about cause-and-effect as a CFO How AI spend reshapes the ROSE metric as orgs push toward $5M–$10M ARR per FTE targetsTune in to get the chart of accounts framework SaaS CFOs need before AI spend becomes too big to ignore — and too messy to measure. Resources Mentioned ROSE Metric: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-rose-metric/

    5 min

  5. 2 APR

    Where Tech Funding Is Flowing in 1Q26: AI Infrastructure, Vertical SaaS, and Enterprise Wins

    Is your SaaS company competing for funding in a market that's already decided AI wins? The Q1 2026 data is in — and the numbers are decisive. If you're a SaaS founder thinking about your next raise — or a CFO modeling out valuation scenarios — understanding where investors are actually writing checks matters more than ever. In epsiode #363, Ben Murray covers: Which software categories dominated Q1 funding — AI infrastructure and vertical SaaS led at $4.6B and $4.5B respectively, and knowing why could sharpen your positioning Why enterprise pricing is the investor favorite — 59% of all capital flowed into enterprise-model companies, signaling exactly what target customer story VCs want to hear How Seed vs. Series A funding differs by category — Series A flipped toward vertical software and GRC, while Seed stayed heavy on AI infrastructure and DevOps What AI native vs. AI embedded actually means for classification — and why the distinction is shaping how investors evaluate your product Where to get the full Q1 2026 funding report — with searchable data across 552 rounds and $20B+ in tracked investment Listen now to get the Q1 2026 funding breakdown — then download the full PDF report to see exactly where smart money is going before your next raise. Resources Mentioned Q1 2026 Funding Report PDF — available via Ben's newsletter:  https://mailchi.mp/thesaascfo.com/investors-sent-a-message-in-1q26-ai-or-bust

    7 min

  6. 31 MAR

    Why Feeding Raw Data to AI Is Killing Your FP&A Accuracy

    Are you feeding raw financial data straight into AI and wondering why the results are inconsistent — or worse, just wrong? AI is only as good as the data architecture underneath it. For SaaS CFOs and operators running monthly FP&A cycles, that means the order of operations matters enormously. Skip the deterministic compute layer, and your AI narrates garbage. Get the structure right, and suddenly AI can do what no human ever could — synthesize five years of retention schedules and SaaS metrics in seconds. In episode #362, I'll cover: Why separating the 'thinking layer' (math) from the 'talking layer' (AI analysis) is the foundational principle for reliable SaaS financial AI — and what breaks when you skip it The pre-compute-everything rule: why you should never ask AI to calculate cohort retention, ARR, or MRR — and what you should ask it to do instead Why context beats prompts: how structured data inputs dramatically outperform one-off prompt experiments in repeatable FP&A workflows How constraints on what AI can and can't touch produce better output than better prompting — and why your context window size is quietly sabotaging your analysis The right mental model for AI in SaaS finance: a super-smart narrator that reads 1,000 computed data points — not an engine that replaces your metrics framework If you're building or buying any AI layer on top of your SaaS financials, listen to this before you ship anything — these five lessons will save you weeks of bad output. Resources Mentioned SoftwareMetrics.ai — Ben's five-pillar SaaS metrics platform

    6 min

  7. 22 MAR

    The SaaSpocalypse Is Overblown: 4 Reasons Your SaaS Company Isn't Dead Yet

    Everyone's saying AI will kill SaaS — but is the SaaSpocalypse actually real, or just the latest wave of disruption that enterprise software has survived before? If you're a SaaS founder or operator watching vibe-coded apps spin up overnight, the fear is real. But the narrative is missing something critical: enterprise software isn't just code, and the moats that protect your ARR aren't going away anytime soon. Understanding what actually protects your revenue — and what doesn't — is the difference between panic and a clear-headed strategy. Here's what will you'll learn in episode #361 with Ben Murray. Why enterprise software is far more than code — compliance infrastructure, security, governance, SLAs, and integrations take years to harden, and a weekend project won't replace that How your proprietary data moat is actually becoming more powerful in the AI era, not less — and why AI agents without that data context are starting from zero Why switching costs remain one of the strongest SaaS defensibility factors — and why even AI-native alternatives face massive operational barriers to displacement The real operational commitment behind SaaS that vibe-coded tools can't replicate: customer support, product development, distribution, and long-term value delivery Why internal vibe-coded tools face their own adoption ceiling — from data security concerns to IT compliance — so enterprise spend isn't fleeing as fast as the hype suggests Tune in for the full bull case on SaaS survival — and get the frameworks from Ben's SaaSpocalypse blog post linked in the show notes. Resources Mentioned Ben's SaaSpocalypse Blog Post + Defensibility Frameworks: https://www.thesaascfo.com/the-saaspocalypse-ai-agents-vibe-coding-and-the-changing-economics-of-saas/

    6 min

  8. 21 MAR

    3 Ways AI Could Kill Traditional SaaS

    Is the “SaaSpocalypse” real—or just another wave of disruption you need to navigate? If you’re building or scaling a SaaS company, the rapid rise of AI agents, lower barriers to entry, and shifting pricing models could directly impact your growth, revenue predictability, and competitive edge. Understanding these changes isn’t optional—it’s critical to staying relevant and defensible in an AI-driven market. Here's what you'll take away in episode #360 with Ben Murray. Understand how AI agents are reshaping the traditional SaaS interface and customer interaction Learn why barriers to entry are dropping fast—and what that means for competition Discover how evolving pricing models could impact your revenue and forecasting strategy Tune in to uncover whether SaaS is truly at risk—and what you should do right now to stay ahead. Resources: AI defensibility framework: https://www.thesaascfo.com/the-saaspocalypse-ai-agents-vibe-coding-and-the-changing-economics-of-saas/

    4 min
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About

Ben Murray brings you actionable SaaS metrics lessons that he has learned through years of being in the SaaS CFO trenches. Whether you are new to SaaS or a SaaS veteran, learn the latest SaaS and AI metrics, finance, and accounting tactics that drive financial transparency and improved decision-making. Ben’s SaaS metrics blog consistently rates a 70+ NPS, and his templates have been downloaded over 100,000 times. There is always something to learn about SaaS and AI metrics.

Information

  • Creator
    Ben Murray
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    367
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    SaaS Metrics School
  • Provider

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