The Briefing

A 32-month CAC payback period in the $1M–$10M ARR band reveals what many CFOs already suspected: the path to efficient growth has lengthened considerably, and the SaaS playbook that worked at scale doesn't translate cleanly downmarket. Dave Kellogg's latest benchmark dissection arrives at the right moment, offering operators a clear-eyed view of where their metrics actually sit relative to peers—not aspirational decks from 2021. Meanwhile, the emergence of agentic security frameworks signals a structural shift in enterprise spend allocation, one that could compress sales cycles for infrastructure plays while extending them for point solutions. Watch whether Q2 data shows payback compression or whether founders are finally internalizing that 24 months isn't coming back.