Thread by @jasonlk

RingCentral is one of the great quiet successful stories in SaaS, growing from an SMB-focused phone solution to a $35B+ enterprise leader

What are 5 things we can learn from RingCentral, looking back at when it crossed $1B in ARR?

#1. RingCentral was still growing 34% at $1B in ARR ... and that's despite very strong competition, from Five9 to Talkdesk to up-and-comers like Dialpad and more.

No one has 50%+ market share here, yet RingCentral could still grow 34% at $1B in ARR

#2. RingCentral got the "channel" to work. This doesn't work for everyone in the early days, but if you can get someone else to sell your product for you ... it can really work. See also Hubspot + Atlassian.

Channel sales grew 80% at $1B ARR, driving 18% of revenue

#3. RingCentral was slow to go global, unlike most in SaaS. Less than 10% of its revenue was international at $1B in ARR.

There are reasons telcom is harder to scale global, but still, it shows you pick your battles.

#4. RingCentral started off very, very SMB. At $1B ARR, they had just closed their first 8-figure TCV deal.

So sometimes you go upmarket fast. Sometimes you get there in a few years, like Slack. Sometimes you wait more than a decade.

#5: At $1B in ARR, 40% of its new bookings came from >existing< customers.

Let that sink in. Let how important upsell, retention, and high NRR is really sink in.

Without that 40% boost, RingCentral would be a shadow of what it is.

A deeper dive here:

saastr.com/5-interesting-…