Here are the @buffer top level numbers for February 2018: 
I have many updates and reflections to share on these numbers, hopefully they are interesting for people! Keep reading this thread 👇
First off, we are very excited about our growth rate and see more room for it to get a little higher still. But this month's numbers are significant because we've kept monthly growth % up from its natural decline, and increase our YoY growth rate (was 30% recently).
Churn rate is something we are keen to get more under control. We saw significant additional churn during February due to Buffer not having Instagram direct scheduling as early as competitors. It's now launched + customers are coming back to Buffer for our solid implementation.
Another note on churn rate: as we increase our value and our prices accordingly (with generous grandfathering) we expect to see the churn rate naturally decline. We see this in our higher value plans already.
Average revenue per customer broke past $18. It's still super low compared to the general SaaS market, but we are excited at @buffer to serve the small business market. We see many opportunities to provide additional value to customers and grow that number.
Buffer Reply, our social listening / customer service / community management product has reached $450k ARR and is now a significant portion of revenue. We've successfully diversified offerings and revenue, and we now have an opportunity to offer this to more existing customers.
Buffer Analyze, our brand new social analytics product, got its first paying customers in February! It's a huge milestone and one we've hit earlier than expected. All customers are existing Buffer customers, so it's all expansion revenue and contributing to higher ARPU.
We are close to a 30% EBITDA margin now, which means we are profitable and in a very sustainable and healthy position. We're consistently bringing in $300k+ most months in net profit (some months fluctuate with specific expenses happening).
With the healthy position we are in, and social media market changes (Instagram scheduling, Twitter automation changes) we are seeing an opportunity now to reinvest more of our profits into growth. We plan to grow the team beyond our start of year budget.
Whilst we are in no ways a "growth at all costs" company, we want to act on opportunities when we see them, and right now there are many. We are also planning this team growth to help the existing team feel more support and bandwidth, and less stress when we have time crunches.
My expectations / goals for the year ahead:
- Churn rate decreases
- Revenue growth continues solidly
- Further expansion revenue from new products + pricing / packaging
- ARPU and LTV increase accordingly
- Team will grow to 80+ people
- Keep revenue / team member steady
- Churn rate decreases
- Revenue growth continues solidly
- Further expansion revenue from new products + pricing / packaging
- ARPU and LTV increase accordingly
- Team will grow to 80+ people
- Keep revenue / team member steady
Thanks for reading! Hope this is interesting and gives an insight into how we approach things at @buffer, at least from this top level numbers viewpoint. Happy to answer any questions.
