Software LBOs?

would be great if anybody can connect or send over software lbos (as a template or example or case study) to learn about how bookings, arr, etc... might flow, relate, drive off one another. im reading a lot about software related kpis but it would be great to see how it looks like in a model. im not looking for a full blown saas model, but more like something simplified in the context of an lbo that might have simple drivers and preferably metrics like bookings and arr.

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Not going to share any of my models, but software models generally follow a repeatable pattern.

I'd start with making a quarterly or annual live ARR waterfall (Beginning ARR + New + Upsell - Downsell - Churn = Ending ARR), which informs recurring revenue (for simplicity you can assume period rec. rev. = avg(BoP, EoP ARR).

From your ARR waterfall you can calculated some of those software KPIs that I'm sure you're thinking about: ARR growth, gross retention, net retention, total bookings (new + upsell), etc.

You can then have some attach rate of non-recurring revenue (think implementation revenue, which would tie to your new bookings ARR). Total revenue = recurring + non-recurring, and from there it will look like a pretty standard P&L.

Happy to answer any other questions you might have.

 

this is definitely helpful, thanks a lot. have a few follow ups if you dont mind.

  1. what do you typically use to drive forecast for new,upsell,downsell,churn ARR? on an individual basis.
  2. I would just push back that bookings is not necessarily new + upsell too. (bookings is not an annualized figure i believe)
  3. i think non recurring revenue as % of new ARR does make sense. have you ever needed to project recurring services? would that being a % of ending ARR be fair (just the assumption that there are some recurring services attached to overall ARR I guess)
  4. what do you do with NWC assumptions going forward? in case studies that I've done, I just typically do a zero change assumption but not sure if there's a more nuanced way you do it. it's lbo tests so it's definitely a heavily simplified assumption, but would you say that's fair? or should there be more granularity and a trajectory in certain line items (i would assume DR is a "key" nwc item)
 
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Analyst 1 in IB - Gen

this is definitely helpful, thanks a lot. have a few follow ups if you dont mind.

  1. what do you typically use to drive forecast for new,upsell,downsell,churn ARR? on an individual basis.
  2. I would just push back that bookings is not necessarily new + upsell too. (bookings is not an annualized figure i believe)
  3. i think non recurring revenue as % of new ARR does make sense. have you ever needed to project recurring services? would that being a % of ending ARR be fair (just the assumption that there are some recurring services attached to overall ARR I guess)
  4. what do you do with NWC assumptions going forward? in case studies that I've done, I just typically do a zero change assumption but not sure if there's a more nuanced way you do it. it's lbo tests so it's definitely a heavily simplified assumption, but would you say that's fair? or should there be more granularity and a trajectory in certain line items (i would assume DR is a "key" nwc item)
  1. Totally depends on the business. One of my portcos is high velocity sales with very little variability between customers (on a $$ basis), so it probably makes sense to have a logo build informing the ARR waterfall. Another one has very lumpy, high-$$$ bookings, so that one might make more sense to build based on weighted pipeline. In summary, I'd encourage you to think about how the business actually works, and then turn that into assumptions.
  2. We (and I would think most software investors) absolutely look at bookings on an annualized (i.e. ARR) basis. I'm not totally sure your question here, so feel free to clarify what you mean.
  3. yes -- there are all sorts of different flavors of non-recurring revenue. Implementation revenue is just one type. Recurring services could absolutely be attached to the total ARR base, but again just depends on how the business actually works.
  4. I think zero change for most LBOs is probably fine. Someone else can jump in if they have a strong opinion, but NWC  tends to increase for software business as they grow due to subscription prepayments. If the LBO test specifically mentions that the business has customers prepaying for a multi-year subscription (not common), you could think about increasing NWC with growth, but that's probably overkill.
 

yep I guess there are bookings that are "current" like crpo. but i meant more like bookings formulaically is revenue plus change in rpo and maybe im misunderstanding but that doesnt seem like necessarily equal to new + upsell arr. but all information here is helpful thanks again. 

e: i realize we may be referring to bookings in a different sense.

 

you're mixing up ACV and TCV 

salesperson makes $100 TCV booking / 5 year contract = $20 ACV booking 

after Y1, revenue from contract = 20, RPO = 80; 20 + 80 = 100 TCV, which is what you're alluding to above  

when you refer to bookings as part of an ARR waterfall,  it's obviously inherently annualized; when you model ARR you only care about the ACV of a booking

when you sell something (i.e., a booking), it's either to an existing or a new customer - it's binary, either new or upsell (though there are multiple "types" of upsell)

 

This post will be a good time capsule of how people thought prior to the dot com bubble two Quran hai tu crash. ARR is this generation’s version of “clicks” from the first dot com bubble. 

The blue owl ceo recently took a look at the largest drawdowns in public saas - which he said was 30 percent. He says their average debt is 30 percent of the capital stack for the leveraged buyouts they finance so if their values go down similarly, they will still be at less than 50 percent loan to value. So no way should their portfolio be materially hurt. Trouble is, the “value” of these companies he is referring to is greater fool hot potato value and no way none of these companies could ever afford to themselves ultimately pay back the debt in full.

 

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