Enterprise SaaS companies continue to navigate a complex economic environment

It’s been hard time for enterprise SaaS companies. These organizations reaped profits and growth during the pandemic when offices closed and employees moved in droves to work from home. But as the economy turned last year and more workers returned to the office, their numbers plummeted.

At the same time, SaaS companies face several other major issues that have combined to knock them off their perches.

Over the past year, TechCrunch has worked to better understand the current software sales climate. It is the most common starter product and SaaS is the most common business model. So we pay close attention to top SaaS companies in public markets, looking for trends, data, and other insights that we can apply to private markets.

A changing economy, shifting investor expectations, and other bumps have made the picture of today’s software market difficult to clarify. However, new data sharpens our perspective.

This week we analyzed revenue reports from Zoom, Salesforce, Box, Snowflake, and Okta. The results were mixed, with some doing better than others. How do SaaS companies fight short-term economic turmoil and make it to the other side (whenever possible)? And what do the numbers for a quarter really mean in the scheme of things? Let’s dig into the data.

Economic headwinds are blowing strong