Boosting ARR In B2B SaaS: A Founder's Journey To Sustainable Growth

Forbes

12-05-2025

Terry Chen, CIO / COO / VP, Global Relations at Modulate.
getty
I still remember the evening I stared at our startup's dashboard, heart sinking as our growth plateaued. As a software as a service (SaaS) founder, I had poured every ounce of energy into acquiring new customers, yet our annual recurring revenue (ARR) was stubbornly flat. It felt like trying to fill a leaky bucket—new deals came in, but revenue leaked out through downgrades and churn. One night, after losing a hard-won client due to avoidable issues, I realized growth isn't just about getting more customers; it is about delivering more value to the ones you already have.
Thus began my journey to rethink everything: pricing, customer success, upsells, retention and how we acquired users. What follows are the hard-won strategies that transformed our ARR trajectory. These are not silver bullets or flashy hacks but proven tactics any SaaS founder or revenue leader can execute to steadily and sustainably boost ARR.
Pricing is one of the most powerful—and underutilized—levers in SaaS. A 1% improvement in price can improve operating profit by up to 11%. And yet, many startups set their pricing by gut instinct instead of strategy.
Adopt value-based pricing: We moved from cost-plus to value-based pricing, aligning prices with customer outcomes, not just features. This helped us avoid underpricing while better reflecting the return on investment (ROI) we delivered.
Optimize packaging and tiers: We restructured our plans to match customer segments. Tiered pricing created natural upgrade paths and allowed us to better serve both startups and enterprises.
Experiment and iterate: We ran controlled A/B tests and periodic price reviews. Even minor tweaks—bundling, discount ladders, trial durations—had a significant impact on conversion and average contract value.
Takeaway: Treat pricing like a product: Test, evolve and ensure it reflects the value you're delivering.
Retention is the bedrock of ARR growth. A 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%. For us, the shift came when we built out customer success (CS) not as a support function but as a strategic pillar.
Build a proactive CS team: Instead of waiting for issues, our CS managers anticipated needs, trained customers and aligned on their success metrics. This shifted the conversation from troubleshooting to value delivery.
Strengthen onboarding: We invested in user onboarding and guided setup, one of the biggest indicators of long-term retention. Users who saw success early rarely churned.
Drive continuous value: With usage-based health scores and feature engagement tracking, we could detect when accounts were slipping and intervene. This not only reduced churn but surfaced upsell opportunities.
Takeaway: Don't just solve problems. Enable success. Happy customers don't just stay—they grow.
Once retention stabilized, expansion revenue became the next growth frontier. In my experience in tech and corporate strategy, I've noted that many top SaaS firms earn the majority of new ARR from existing customers. We aimed to follow that path.
Identify upgrade candidates: By analyzing product usage, we found customers approaching tier limits and proactively proposed higher plans, often with tailored offers.
Introduce add-ons: We built modular features (analytics, integrations, compliance tools) that could be added à la carte. This provided upsell paths without forcing users to jump tiers.
Make it easy to upgrade: In-app upgrade flows, trials of premium features and CS-led quarterly business reviews (QBRs) created a frictionless path to increased spend.
Takeaway: Upsells work best when tied to real value. If your customer is growing, your relationship should too.
No SaaS grows on retention alone. We needed to feed the top of the funnel—but with limited budget, we focused on scalable, repeatable acquisition tactics.
Product-Led Growth: We leaned into a freemium model that let users self-educate. Our best leads often came from free users who converted after real engagement.
Referral Programs: Inspired by viral loops like Dropbox's, we rewarded customers for inviting others. Referral-origin customers were often the stickiest.
Content-Driven Inbound: We built a content engine—guides, benchmarks, case studies—designed to rank and attract our ideal customer profile (ICP). Over time, it became our top source of qualified leads.
Takeaway: Acquisition doesn't have to be expensive—if your product, content and customers do the talking for you.
ARR doesn't grow linearly—it accelerates when the right systems reinforce each other.
• Strategic pricing makes every deal worth more.
• Customer success protects that revenue and deepens relationships.
• Expansion strategies grow the lifetime value (LTV) of your existing base.
• Scalable acquisition fills the funnel with high-quality leads.
The turning point for us wasn't any single tactic. It was realizing that ARR is the output of an engine, and that engine needs to be optimized at every stage. Once we did, revenue climbed faster, churn fell, and the business felt infinitely more resilient.
If you're a B2B SaaS founder wondering where to focus next, start with value—price for it, deliver it, protect it, and let your best customers carry the story forward.
Here's to building something worth staying for—and paying for.
The information provided here is not investment, tax or financial advice. You should consult with a licensed professional for advice concerning your specific situation.
Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify?