TECH BASICS
ARR
The yardstick SaaS companies use to measure how big they are.
The simple version
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) is the predictable subscription revenue a company expects to receive over a year. It's the main number SaaS companies use to describe growth and size — more important to them than a single big sale.
For example
A company with 1,000 customers each paying $1,200 a year has $1.2 million in ARR — even if some of those customers just signed up yesterday and haven't paid a cent yet this year.
Go deeper
You'll also see MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue, basically ARR ÷ 12) and "net new ARR" (growth from new customers minus revenue lost from cancellations). Startups are often valued largely based on how fast their ARR is growing, not just how big it already is.
Why it matters
If you're evaluating a company as a place to work, its ARR (and how fast it's growing) is one of the fastest ways to judge how stable or high-growth it is.