In this episode of Mostly Growth, the number one podcast in product monetization, Kyle and CJ go dumpster diving through SEC filings to find out what happened to the once-common 130% net dollar retention rate. They break down Workday, SaaS retention metrics, disappearing disclosures, and why the market’s best expansion stories may be getting harder to find.

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SPONSORS:

Lightfield is an AI-first CRM built for modern sales teams that want to manage deals without manual data entry or dashboards. By joining sales calls, reading emails, and maintaining full account context, Lightfield helps teams prioritize deals, automate follow-ups, and stay prepared for every interaction. It’s like having a sales coach, RevOps analyst, and EA in one. Start a 14-day free trial at https://www.lightfield.app and use code MOSTLYGROWTH to get 3 months free.

beehiiv is a modern newsletter platform built for creators who want to grow, monetize, and own their audience without piecing together a stack. Its all-in-one platform brings together newsletters, websites, analytics, automations, and monetization tools, and now supports podcasts, webinars, and MCP workflows. Kyle even used beehiiv’s MCP in Claude to audit his site, prioritize SEO fixes, and analyze subscriber trends. Try it free at https://www.beehiiv.com/kyle and use code KYLE30 for 30% off your first three months.

Tabs is an AI-native revenue platform that unifies billing, collections, and revenue recognition for companies running usage-based or complex contracts. By bringing together ERP, CRM, and real product usage data into a single system of record, Tabs eliminates manual reconciliations and speeds up close and cash collection. Companies like Cortex, Statsig, and Cursor trust Tabs to scale revenue efficiently. Learn more at https://www.tabs.com/run

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LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

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Escaping the AI Thirst Trap: Building Products That Actually Last | Des Traynor

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TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Intro: where did the 130% NDRs go?

1:10 Workday: the canary in the coal mine

2:18 SEC asks Workday for their NDR

3:04 Workday says: we'd rather not

4:02 It's not just Workday

4:49 The NDR peak: a guessing game

5:50 NDR was never calculated consistently

9:29 Sponsors — Lightfield | beehiiv | Tabs

12:29 Flavor 1: just stop reporting it

12:59 Flavor 2: vague language instead of numbers

14:24 Flavor 3: report once a year

15:29 157% to 117% in 12 months

16:07 How many are in the 130 club today?

17:23 Where the threshold actually matters

18:03 Median: 124% peak to 110% today

19:14 Why it dropped

20:46 The case for transparency

22:29 AI credits not showing up as NDR

26:00 10 NDR points = 1x valuation multiple

28:28 The trough of pain: who fell furthest

29:53 Companies that never reported at all

30:37 Shoutout to the ones still disclosing

30:51 Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #SaaS #Investing #ProductMonetization #StartupMetrics