We track sales and marketing spend trends of all SaaS companies that have gone public since October 2017, starting with MongoDB. The dataset encompasses 75 SaaS companies, of which 57 still trade. S&M spend trends and observations are below. Note the data has been updated through the latest SaaS IPO (Netskope).
Unprofitable companies have much faster growth. Profitable companies grew only 13% in 2025 whereas unprofitable ones grew 22% on median. That’s a huge difference and it shows that profitability has a real cost in SaaS.
S&M spend. The median SaaS company in the data set spent $327mm on S&M in 2025, up from $253mm in 2024. S&M spend at profitable companies jumped materially in 2025 after actually declining over time ($223mm in 2022 versus $157mm in 2024). S&M spend at unprofitable companies stayed roughly steady: $327mm in 2025 versus $321mm in 2024.
Revenue Growth spiked at profitable companies. While unprofitable companies grew at 22% on median in 2025 versus just 13% for profitable companies in 2025, profitable companies did see a spike in growth in 2025 (13%) versus 2024 (9%).
Percent of revenue varies. For profitable SaaS, the percent of revenue spent on S&M in 2025 was 31% on median, up from 22% in 2024. For unprofitable and faster growing SaaS companies, S&M as a percent of revenue was 44% in 2025, down slightly from 49% in 2024.
The difference between profitable and unprofitable SaaS companies is material. While cash efficient growth is critical, cutting good S&M spend has growth repercussions. The above data can be found at blossomstreetventures.com.
Thank you for your readership. See more blogs and SaaS data at blossomstreetventures.com. Other resources we’ve built for founders include: SoftwareMultiples.com; softwareMRRcalculator.com; FounderInvited.com, and TwoFoundersTalk.com. Founders are always welcome to reach out to sammy@blossomstreetventures.com as well.
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