OpenView's survey put a number on the retention slide of 2023

The record

OpenView Partners has run an annual survey of private software companies since 2017, rebranded in its fifth edition as the SaaS Financial and Operating Benchmarks Survey; that November 2021 edition drew almost 600 participants and reported, among other figures, a median CAC payback ranging from 15 to 28 months and net dollar retention from 108% to 126% depending on funding stage. Two years later, the 2023 SaaS Benchmarks Report, published in October 2023, reported that net revenue retention among the survey's top-quartile 'expansion stage' respondents had fallen from 119% to 107% year over year, and that 78% of respondent companies had changed pricing or packaging that year.

What the documents establish

Both documents are self-reported surveys of companies that chose to respond to OpenView's outreach, not audited filings and not a census of private SaaS. The 2021 report states its own sample size, almost 600 global participants, and organizes 'best in class' medians by funding stage from angel and seed through Series D and public comparables. The 2023 report does not restate that sample size on the page retrieved, but it explicitly compares its own current-year figures against the prior year's, which is what supports the retention-decline claim; that is an OpenView-to-OpenView comparison, not a comparison against any other provider's benchmark. Reading the two editions side by side also shows a terminology shift: the 2021 report labels the metric 'Net Dollar Retention' while the 2023 report calls the same concept 'net revenue retention,' a reminder that even one provider's own vocabulary can drift between editions of the same survey.

The operating read

The editorial point worth carrying into a board deck is that a self-selected survey captures the respondents who chose to answer that year, not a fixed panel followed over time, so a reported decline reflects both real market softening and possible turnover in who replied. OpenView's own 2023 language ties the retention drop to pricing decisions made too quickly: the report says 52% of companies that changed pricing did so after less than a month of internal analysis. A founder benchmarking against either edition should therefore treat the figures as directional evidence about a self-selected population of SaaS operators who talk to OpenView, not as a market-wide retention curve.

What to check before you decide

Before citing either OpenView edition in a board or investor conversation, check the following.

• Which edition's year is being cited, and is a 2021 figure being compared to a 2023 figure without saying so?
• Does your company's funding stage and ARR band match the segment OpenView reports the figure for?
• Is 'net dollar retention' and 'net revenue retention' being treated as the same calculation across editions, or does the underlying formula differ?

OpenView's survey is a useful peer signal precisely because it names its own method and sample each year; the discipline it rewards is citing the specific edition and stage segment, not a rounded number detached from either.