Saastr · 18 September 2026 · Industry Analysis

What’s Truly “Great” Now in B2B + AI Per ICONIQ? 115% Growth at $100M+, 55% Gross Margins, and $655K in Revenue Per Employee

Jason Lemkin, GP @ SaaStr

ICONIQ's Pacesetter Index reveals how AI-native B2B companies now operate at fundamentally different metrics: 115% median growth at $100M+ ARR, 55% gross margins, 90% gross retention, and $655K revenue per employee—setting a new playbook that redefines what "great" looks like in venture.

Read the full post on Saastr ↗

Topics: AI (Horizontal) · Enterprise Software · Semiconductors

Published by Saastr · their site ↗

More from Saastr

We Vibe Coded Our Own Calendly. Our AI Agent Pushed Us To Do It, and It Was Right.
Why Okta Tripled on … 11% Growth. 5 Interesting Learnings From One of the Biggest Re-Ratings in B2B This Year: 14% cRPO Growth, 30% of Bookings From New Products, and ~50x Forward Earnings
We Got a $240,000 Estimate for Agent API Access. Our Agent Suggested a $5 Postgres Instance.
The 10 Most Important Learnings From a16z’s Latest State of Markets: Horizontal B2B Trades at 2.7x Revenue, New Startups Are Growing 500%+, and 55% of Unicorns Have Under 2 Years of Runway
You’ll Know if That New VP is Going to Fail at the First Board Meeting. Here Are The Clear Tells.
“This Is a Pretty Fancy Dinner. That Probably Means I’m Overpaying.” A Dreamforce Lesson From a Top 5 Customer

SandHill indexes 800+ venture capital blogs and newsletters and sends the best of them every Sunday. Browse the sources · browse by topic · read the blog.