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SuccessFactors, a cloud-based maker of human-resources software

Excuse my entirely naive level of questioning, but to someone who's pretty ignorant of the 'enterprise' world, are they essentially an enterprise-level equivalent of a 37signals or similar?

They say they have 15 million subscribed users, while 37signals merely says "millions", so perhaps 37signals is worth $450m+? Or is there something about companies like SuccessFactors (perhaps big contracts, lock in clauses, or higher rates) that could lead to such large valuations?



They produce software for employees of other companies, where they can track their performance/bonus plans etc. So this number is probably the number of seats solds to companies (I think Siemens was one of their customers).


That's 15M _paying_ users right there.

37Signals says "millions" of users, active, inactive, paying, and free. Numbers probably way lower than that (10% of paying users?)


No, that's 15M people who work for companies who are paying users. SF claims to have 3,500 customers.


Correct me if I'm wrong. Enterprise SaaS usually charge by the seat (with a few asking for discounts). So at the end of the day whether it is 3.5k customers or 15M users. They all pay.

That is my point.


the're being bought at 20x this year revenue and 15x of the next year one. It is a bit on the higher end of the range, yet nowhere close to the "hot air" based billion valuations everybody knows about.




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