Versus?The Selector Platform Selector ingests high-volume, high-velocity operational data across networks, infrastructure, and applications, transforming it with AI into real-time insights, root cause clarity, and intelligent automation.
L↳ Your competitors can copy your features in weeks. Can you out-learn them?
L↳ Customer needs evolve in days. Your analysis takes months.
↳ Perfect insights delivered late = worthless.
Good insights delivered now = gold.
This is the conversation that our target CMOs are having. This is the DemandBright promise...
"What marketers must do
Move faster—much faster. Accelerate AI-driven planning, experimentation, and execution. Speed is now a core advantage. AI must be embedded across the function and every role, not siloed in an innovation team."
Just some POV that our CMO prospects are listening to
Search …
SaaS Is Still Slowing Down, Unfortunately: What Q1 2025 Numbers Reveal About the Cloud Software Market by Jason Lemkin | Blog Posts
So Jamin Ball of Altimeter has a great summary of the cumulative revenue growth of all public SaaS companies … and it’s not the story we wanted to hear at the moment:
Bottom Line Up Front: The aggregate cloud software market just delivered its worst quarterly performance in years, with net new ARR additions plummeting nearly 30% year-over-year in Q1 2025. Is it a blip?
The Numbers Don’t Lie: A Market Overall in Retreat … Other Than AI The latest data from Jamin Ball’s Clouded Judgement analysis paints a sobering picture of the SaaS landscape. Aggregate quarterly net new ARR added across the cloud software universe dropped to just $1.65 billion in Q1 2025, down from $2.33 billion in Q1 2024. That’s a 29% year-over-year decline.
But here’s what makes this particularly concerning: this isn’t just about one bad quarter. The trend has been building for over a year, with growth rates oscillating wildly between spikes and drops. The market experienced a brief resurgence in Q2 2024 with 50% YoY growth, only to crash back down to negative territory by Q1 2025.
The Volatility Era: Welcome to the New Normal What’s perhaps most striking about the current environment is the extreme volatility in growth patterns. Looking at the YoY growth chart, we see dramatic swings:
Q2 2024: +50% growth (the peak) Q3 2024: -29% decline Q4 2024: +15% recovery Q1 2025: -29% crash This isn’t the truly steady, predictable growth SaaS companies have historically enjoyed. Instead, we’re seeing a market characterized by good and bad quarters for SaaS as a whole that make planning and forecasting difficult.
What’s Driving the Decline? Several macro factors are converging to create this perfect storm:
Enterprise Budget Scrutiny: CFOs are demanding higher ROI thresholds for software investments and continuing to push for vendor consolidation. The days of “nice to have” SaaS tools getting approved are over. Every dollar spent on software now requires bulletproof justification or allocation to an AI budget. Market Saturation: Many categories that drove explosive growth in previous years are reaching maturity. The low-hanging fruit of digital transformation has been picked, and companies are being more selective about additional software investments. Economic Uncertainty: Despite some positive economic indicators, many businesses are still operating in preservation mode rather than growth mode. This means maintaining existing software stack rather than expanding it. AI Disruption Anxiety: Companies are hesitating to invest in traditional B2B solutions while waiting to see how AI will reshape their operations. Why buy a traditional CRM when AI-native alternatives might emerge? And incremental budget is mostly going to AI. And at a more practical and “micro” level:
NRR Down, Upsells Harder. SaaS leaders are growing, but with NRRs lower, it’s just that much harder to hit growth plans. Even market leaders like HubSpot have seen NRR fall from 110% to 110%. Okta’s NRR is down to 106%, from 111% a year ago and 115% 2 years ago. All Incremental Budget Going to AI. It’s a reality. Slower New Customer Growth. Many B2B and SaaS leaders continue to rely on price increases and upsells for more and more of their growth. This just has its limits. Especially if NRR is falling, not adding enough new customers eventually leads naturally to slowing growth.
The Implications for B2B Leaders This data should fundamentally change how SaaS and B2B companies approach today’s landscape:
Sales Cycles Are Getting Longer: If aggregate ARR additions are down 30%, upsells at least are taking longer to close. Revenue teams need to adjust forecasting models and pipeline management accordingly. Customer Success Is Make-or-Break: With new customer acquisition becoming more challenging, retention and expansion within existing accounts becomes critical. The companies that thrive will be those that can grow their existing customer relationships. AI Budgets Are Where the Growth Is: Are You Really Tapping Into Them? Product-Market Fit Requirements Have Escalated: Customers are no longer willing to adopt “good enough” solutions in new vendors. The bar for product quality, integration capabilities, and demonstrable ROI has never been higher. Pricing Strategy Must Evolve: Volume-based growth is no longer viable for many companies. SaaS leaders need to focus on value-based pricing and finding ways to increase average contract values rather than just customer counts.
The Path Forward: Adaptation Strategies Despite the challenging environment, opportunities exist for companies willing to adapt:
Focus on Mission-Critical Use Cases: Position your product as essential rather than optional. Companies will still invest in software that directly impacts revenue or reduces critical operational risks. Embrace Consolidation Trends: Many companies are looking to reduce their software vendor count. B2B companies that can expand their platform capabilities or integrate with fewer tools will have advantages. Invest in AI First and AI Integration: Rather than competing with AI, smart SaaS companies are incorporating AI capabilities into their existing platforms to defend against disruption. Double Down on Customer Experience: In a market where every renewal is at risk, exceptional customer experience becomes a competitive moat.
The real insight wasn't about adoption speed. It was about where power is concentrated.
Three critical layers are emerging:
→ Compute (owning the infrastructure that powers AI)
→ Context (controlling where users make decisions)
→ Control (embedding AI into critical workflows)
THE KEY INSIGHT: To succeed as a business you need to effectively compete in at least one of these layers.
Beijing 66.2% Silicon Valley 62.4% Toronto-Waterloo 50.3% Paris 43.2%
The Jobs Are There: The Talent Isn't
The truth is, I'm not seeing a talent shortage. I'm seeing a readiness gap. There are plenty of marketing roles out there, but they don't look like the job people trained for 5 years ago. They look like five jobs in one.
And the people who will win are the systems thinkers, tool hackers and realists.
If you want to be in the new age of marketing, this is your time.
The marketers who can learn these new skills will have more leverage, more career upside, and more autonomy than ever.
The era of "staying in your lane" is over. The best lanes now are on-ramps to a new kind of full-stack operator. Good luck!
