Continuing with yesterday’s post on Compounding Growth, let’s look at a real-world example of revenue growth: Pardot’s revenue in the first six years. This example shows that the growth rate is strong, but not constant, and is also helpful for entrepreneurs that are putting together financial plans to see what a SaaS startup did almost 10 years ago (too often, entrepreneurs put together exaggerated revenue growth forecasts in their executive summaries).
Here’s the approximate recognized revenue for Pardot in the first six years:
- 2007 – $2,000
- 2008 – $400,000
- 2009 – $1.2 million
- 2010 – $3.2 million
- 2011 – $7.4 million
- 2012 – $13 million
Today, Pardot is significantly more than 10x larger than the 2012 revenue amount only four years post acquisition.
Even for startup success stories, growth rates aren’t consistent. The key is to grow large enough and fast enough so that the business is both meaningful and sustainable.
What else? What are some more thoughts on Pardot’s revenue in the first six years?
David Cummings on Startups 
David, love when you share behind-the-scenes info. Curious: Do you recall what you did — specifically from a sales & marketing perspective — between $3.2 and $7.4?
In order words, did you achieve $7.4 using more of the same that got you to $3.2 — or did the strategy & tactics change?
Hi David, thanks for sharing this insight. Did you achieve product market fit when Pardot hit $400k in the second year?
Hi Gaurav, I know you were looking for the other David to reply 🙂 … but I noticed your company enablix.com. Is it your company? If so, drop me a line (daver@mindfireinc.com).