saas company business plan template

How To Create A SaaS Business Plan In 11 Steps: Full Guide

• November 17, 2023

Software as a service (SaaS) is the fastest-growing market segment of the past 5 years: the overall spend per company on SaaS products was up +50% in 2021 compared to 2018!

Yet, SaaS do require significant upfront investment before they can turn out a profit. Whether you are raising capital or applying for a grant, you will need a solid business plan for your SaaS startup.

Whilst every business is unique, we strongly recommend to follow a clear structure vetted by dozens of high-profile VC firms globally. Having a powerful and clear business plan will maximise your chances of raising capital from potential investors.

In this article we walk you through the 14 sections you must have in your SaaS business plan.

No te: If you are looking for a pitch deck instead, read our guide here . Although business plans and pitch decks are similar, they are also very different in their format. If you aren’t sure what is best for you, we recommend to read our article on the key differences between business plans and pitch decks .

SaaS Business Plan: The Template

If you are creating a business plan for your SaaS startup, we recommend you follow the following structure:

• Executive Summary
• The Problem
• The Solution
• Market Opportunity
• Competitive Landscape
• Business Model
• Intellectual Property
• Marketing Strategy
• Financial Plan

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is the introduction of your SaaS business plan. This is a section you should spend a lot of time on as it’s the first impression investors will have when looking at your business plan.

The executive summary should fit in 2 pages maximum . Make it to the point, concise, and make sure to answer the following questions:

• What is the problem you want to solve?
• What is your solution?
• Who are the co-founders behind the project?
• Do you have early traction?
• What are you asking for (capital from investors, government grant application, etc.)?

Tech startup financial model templates

Download an expert-built 5-year Excel financial model for your business plan

2. The Problem

This is the “why” of your business. Explain in this section what is the problem you are trying to solve.

The greatest businesses are solving big problems, yet they aren’t necessarily obvious . For instance, if your SaaS startup aims to solve the pain points of HR administrative tasks (human errors, low digitalisation, time-consuming, etc.) make it clear here. Not everyone is knowledgeable about companies’ support functions processes, let alone HR.

Ideally you would list the 2/3 friction points you aim to fix. For instance, digitalisation usually fixes multiple problems at once: it is fast, seamless and accessible (vs. slow, prone to errors and non-readily available / accessible solutions).

3. The Solution

Your startup builds and commercialises a product and/or a service which solves the problem explained earlier.

This section should not explain in detail your product nor how it works. Instead, it should focus on the benefits for your customers .

Ideally, you should compare the pain points explained on section 2 (the Problem) to the benefits your solution brings to your customers. That way,  it is crystal clear to investors your solution really adds value to potential customers .

4. Market Opportunity

Here, you need to clearly identify 2 very important metrics:

• Market size :  how big is your market?
• Market growth:  how fast does your market grow?

If you are operating in a niche market, chances are that you will face some challenges: the information might not be publicly available. In any case, you should be able to make a high-level estimation of your market.  Read our article on market sizing and how to estimate TAM, SAM and SOM for your startup .

When looking for these metrics, you have multiple sources of information: public reports, specialised press, etc. Even public companies publish press releases and annual reports including some of their proprietary market estimates so be sure to look there too.

5. Competitive Landscape

How fragmented is your market.

Are there 3 big players sharing 90% market share or thousands of small players? Here, refer to public market reports and your own understanding of the competitive landscape.

A few questions you could ask yourself, among others:

• Who are your competitors?
• Are they local, regional, national or global?
• Do they have mobile and/or desktop applications?

Where do you position yourself vs. competition?

Is your solution a game changer other competitors don’t have (yet)? Do you have competitors with similar products/services?

Ideally, you would create a small table with, for each type of competitors (e.g. global diversified companies, small pure players, etc.) the main characteristics they share or not. For instance, do they all a global presence? Do they have a on-premise or a SaaS solution? Do they offer both a desktop and mobile app, or just desktop? What is their relative price positioning (expensive vs. accessible)?

6. Business Model

This section is very important. Now that we have clearly identified the problem you are solving and the benefits of your solution, let’s have a closer look at your product.

This is where you clearly explain 2 key things:

How does your product work?

Explain what your product is and how it works. For instance, is it a desktop and/or a mobile SaaS application? Who is it for exactly (is this a FP&A application only for CFOs or a Slack-like collaboration tool for any type of user)?

Pricing model

SaaS businesses have different types of pricing models: per-user, per-usage, flat-tiered, etc. For a full list of the different pricing models, refer to this great article here .

7. Intellectual Property

This section is optional: only include it if you already have a MVP. If so, you have a strong argument for product-driven investors which will give a lot of credit to your tech.

Be careful not to go into too many specifics though: investors aren’t always engineer by training. Do not put things like the programming language you have chosen (e.g. React, Python) or the database provider (PostgreSQL, MongoDB).

Instead, include things such as:

• whether you have a white-labelled solution or a proprietary back-end / database
• how many full time front/back-end engineers you have
• how much you invested already in your tech

8. Marketing Strategy

This section explains how you acquire customers .

Are you selling a SaaS solution to B2B customers? Or is this a B2C product? This will determine whether you have an inbound or outbound acquisition strategy, or both:

• Inbound acquisition : fully digital acquisition. It can be either paid (paid ads e.g. Google Ads) or organic (content, SEO). Essentially, you convert customers from leads who land on your landing page. This strategy is most common for B2C SaaS businesses
• Outbound acquisition : you acquire customers thanks to your sales team who contact potential customers via phone, emailing or in-person sales efforts. This strategy is very common for B2B SaaS businesses

Once you have clearly explained your acquisition strategy and what tools you are using (e.g. Google Ads for paid search, Instagram and/or newsletter for content), ideally you can show, among others:

• Your average Customer Acquisition Cost (only if you have early traction)
• The number of sales people you have today
• How many customers your sales people close per month in average
• Your monthly paid ads budget
• The number of followers you have on social media
• Your newsletter count

The roadmap tells investors where you are going and how is product going to evolve in the future. You can either keep it high-level (e.g. your long-term strategy) or more detailed (e.g. the pipeline of the near-future product features).

Investors do not just invest in your product as it is today. For example, you might only have developed a MVP with limited features for  early-adopters  while your product could be tweaked and serve a much larger customer base in the future.

Note: if you choose to include your product pipeline, keep it very simple. Your SaaS business plan isn’t your product manager’s presentation to engineers.  Instead of features, focus on the additional benefits and customer segments you might target  as such. For instance, if you plan to launch a messaging feature, focus on the fact it will open new growth opportunities (e.g. network effects).

In this section you should focus on the people behind the company. Unlike in the executive summary, the team section of your SaaS business plan should not be limited to the cofounding or management team.

Instead, you should explain the current organisational structure of your company, the different teams, who they report to and their relative size.

For the people, keep it short. Keep biography to a minimum and only to key people (cofounders and management team). As rule of thumb, 5 lines per team member are enough, 10 a maximum.

When it comes to biographies, only include what is relevant: name, position, years of experience and/or previous companies is more than enough.

What about advisors?

Do you have angel investors with significant experience who advise you on strategy? Do you have a PhD who acts as advisor to your SaaS startup (on regulation and market access matters for instance)?

Any advisor should also be included here, with the same level of detail as for the management team.

Demonstrating in your SaaS business plan that not only team members but also experts are advising and/or sitting on your board is a strong selling point.

Note: add a clickable link to the respective Linkedin profiles so investors can refer to a more exhaustive resume for your team members (if relevant)

11. Financial Plan

Along with your product and the team, this section is highly important. Unfortunately, many startups overlook the importance of financial projections in their SaaS business plan.

Think about your audience: investors (venture capital firms or angel investors) are financially literate individuals . As such, they invest in your business to generate returns. Logically, they care a lot about your financials and more especially, the expected financial performance of your business .

Do not expect investors to make up their own plan for your startup if you haven’t. As CEO, founder or entrepreneur alike, you should have a clear idea of where you are going .

As rule of thumb, the more advanced your startup is, the more granularity you should include here. Pre-seed startups might keep it short (1 slide) yet we recommend seed and Series A+ startups to include 2 slides instead.

Common SaaS metrics you should include in your financial plan slide are:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
• ARPU and ARPPU
• LTV and CAC

For a complete list of the 8 most important metrics for SaaS businesses, refer to our article here .

SaaS Financial Model

Download an expert-built 5-year Excel financial model for your pitch deck

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Privacy Overview

SaaS Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

SaaS Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your SaaS business plan.

We have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their SaaS companies.

Saas Business Plan Example

Below is a saas business plan template to help you create each section of your own business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

All In One is a startup B2B SaaS company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is founded by Melissa Johnson, a business strategist with more than fifteen years of experience helping other businesses develop their operations and processes to optimize customer management, sales and marketing, and project flow. Melissa has garnered a positive reputation of helping companies become more profitable by using SaaS technologies to improve their efficiency. Now, Melissa is ready to venture out with her own SaaS platform. As the name implies, All In One will be a one-stop-shop SaaS platform to help enterprises of all sizes to streamline their saas business operations.

Melissa has enlisted the services of a software developer, Paul Smith, to be the Chief Technology Officer of the company and manage the technical aspects of the SaaS platform. Melissa plans on recruiting a small team of highly qualified professionals to help manage the day to day tasks of running a SaaS company including sales and marketing, customer support, financial reporting, and technology maintenance and optimization.

All In One will provide a comprehensive array of SaaS services beneficial to any business owner who wants to improve their efficiency. All In One will allow each client to ensure that every aspect of their enterprise is being managed seamlessly. All In One will be the ultimate choice for B2B SaaS services while being the most user-friendly platform around.

Product Offering

The following are the solutions that All In One will provide:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Project Management (PM)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Sales Funnel Management
• Financial Management
• Human Resources Management (HRM)
• Communication Solutions
• Automated Marketing Solutions

Customer Focus

All In One will target all small-to-medium (SMEs) and corporate businesses in the United States. They will target businesses in every industry and sector. They will also target companies that already use other SaaS platforms as well as companies brand new to SaaS solutions. No matter the client, All In One will deliver the best interface, customer support, and net profit.

Management Team

All In One will be owned and operated by Melissa Johnson. She has recruited an experienced software developer, Paul Smith, to be her Chief Technology Officer and help manage the SaaS technology.

Melissa Johnson is a graduate of the University of California with a Bachelor’s degree in Strategic Management. She has been helping other businesses develop their operations and processes to optimize customer management, sales and marketing, and project flow for over fifteen years. Melissa has garnered a positive reputation of helping companies become more profitable by using SaaS technologies to improve their efficiency. Melissa’s strategic skills and diligence have allowed her to develop a network of loyal clients.

Paul Smith has been a software developer for over a decade. He has a Software Development degree from New York University and has created a dozen successful software applications for B2B purposes. Melissa relies on Paul’s technical expertise and ability to transform her vision into an easy-to-use platform.

Success Factors

All In One will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Helpful, knowledgeable, and efficient sales and customer support team that will be available 24/7 to answer customer questions, help troubleshoot any issues that arise, and record feedback to improve the platform.
• Full suite of solutions to manage all aspects of business operations in one user-friendly, streamlined platform.
• All In One is an intuitive smart SaaS platform that learns the more it’s utilized, so each user can have a personalized experience that works best for them.

Financial Highlights

All In One is seeking $250,000 in debt financing to launch its SaaS business. The funding will be dedicated towards UX design and other software development. Funding will also be dedicated towards office equipment, supplies, and materials. Additional funding will go towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent of an office space, and outbound marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• UX design and software development: $100,000
• Office equipment, supplies, and materials: $10,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $120,000
• Marketing and Customer Acquisition Costs: $10,000
• Working capital: $10,000

The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for All In One.

Company Overview

Who is all in one.

All In One is a newly established B2B SaaS company dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes achieve optimal efficiency in their operations through technology. All In One is based in Los Angeles, California, but will be available to companies across the United States. All In One will be the most reliable, user-friendly, and efficient choice for business owners of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations in any industry. All In One will provide a comprehensive menu of SaaS solutions for any business owner to utilize. Their full-service approach includes a comprehensive set of sales and marketing, project management, human resources management, and customer relationship management solutions all in one easy-to-use platform.

All In One History

All In One is owned and operated by Melissa Johnson, a business strategist with more than fifteen years of experience helping other businesses develop their operations and processes to optimize customer management, sales and marketing, and project flow. Melissa has garnered a positive reputation of helping companies become more profitable by using SaaS technologies to improve their efficiency. Melissa’s strategic skills and diligence have allowed her to develop a loyal client base.

Since incorporation, All In One has achieved the following milestones:

• Registered All In One, LLC to transact business in the state of California.
• Has a contract in place to lease a small office space.
• Reached out to numerous contacts to include former clients and business owners to begin getting beta users for the new platform.
• Began recruiting a small team of sales and marketing associates, customer support associates, an accountant/bookkeeper, and a technology officer.

All In One Services

Industry analysis.

The global SaaS industry is valued at an estimated $152B (USD). The market is expected to grow to $208B by the year 2023. According to Statista, there are over 15,000 SaaS companies in the U.S. The largest industry players include Adobe, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

SaaS is a major component of cloud computing. Businesses rely on SaaS for everything from video conferencing to sales and marketing automation and customer relationship management. As more companies grow to depend on these services, demand for SaaS offerings will continue to increase. Industry trends include an increased use of artificial intelligence, big data, and integrated cloud services.

The market is highly fragmented with many companies offering similar services. Industry operators can achieve a competitive advantage by developing recognizable and memorable branding and marketing campaigns, providing exceptional customer support, and offering value-add services in addition to the SaaS platform itself.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market, customer segmentation.

All In One will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Small-to-medium enterprise (SME) business owners in any industry/sector.
• Corporate/enterprise businesses in any industry/sector.
• Business owners who are looking for a better SaaS platform than what they are currently using.
• Business owners who have never used Saas, but would like to get started to improve their operational performance.

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

All In One will face competition from other saas businesses with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Get Customers: Sales and Marketing SaaS

Get Customers provides a SaaS platform catering to businesses of any size. The company’s main offering is for automated sales and marketing solutions, but they have recently branched out to offer more comprehensive services including human resource, customer relationship, and financial management tools. Based in Seattle, Washington, Get Customers offers its solutions to businesses and organizations across the United States.

Get Customers’ promise is to deliver a reliable SaaS solution, effective communication, honesty and integrity, and 24/7 availability of the customer support team. Get Customers’ team of experienced SaaS developers and business professionals assures the platform will allow the business operations of its clients to be run smoothly, freeing the business owners from day-to-day operational hassles.

Competitive SaaS Solutions

Competitive SaaS Solutions is a Los Angeles-based B2B SaaS company that provides outstanding business solutions for small business owners. Competitive SaaS Solutions takes the headache out of dealing with multiple SaaS platforms that are not always compatible. They provide comprehensive SaaS services in one place. SaaS solutions included in the platform are CRM, HR, PM, ERP, automated marketing, financial reporting, and video conferencing. The owners of Competitive SaaS Solutions are seasoned business owners and technology professionals so they understand how SaaS is best built, implemented, and managed.

Better Built SaaS

Better Built SaaS is a trusted B2B SaaS company that provides superior service to businesses of all sizes. They are able to provide a one-stop shop for business owners who are interested in optimizing their operational processes through automation. Better Built SaaS is able to serve new businesses and startups from the beginning and established corporations looking to improve their profit margins. They are also able to ease the stress of managers who are overwhelmed by the day to day hassles and complexities that come with running a business.

Their pricing structure is simple and straightforward. Better Built SaaS offers three pricing tiers for their services – the Basic Plan, the Premium Plan, and the Comprehensive Plan. Business owners can choose the plan that best suits their needs and change their plan at any time.

Competitive Advantage

All In One will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

• Helpful, knowledgeable, and efficient customer support team that will be available 24/7 to answer customer questions and troubleshoot any issues that arise.
• An intuitive platform that works for any business size in any industry.
• Comprehensive solutions that can be customized to best fit each client’s needs.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

All In One will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for All In One is as follows:

Word of Mouth/Referrals

Melissa Johnson has built up an extensive list of contacts over the years by providing exceptional service and expertise to her clients. Many former clients have communicated to Melissa that they are interested in signing up for the new SaaS and are happy to help spread the word of All In One to their network. Additionally, All In One will use a customer referral program and provide existing clients with discounts for referring new clients.

Website/SEO Marketing

All In One will recruit an in-house marketing director to design and maintain its website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all their services that All In One is able to provide. The website will also list customer support contact information, pricing plans, and demo videos.

The marketing director will also manage All In One’s website presence with SEO marketing tactics so that any time someone types in the Google or Bing search engine “B2B SaaS company” or “SaaS business solutions”, All In One will be listed at the top of the search results.

Social Media Marketing

All In One will use social media platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to promote the brand and attract customers. The company’s in-house marketing director will oversee the social media implementation.

Content Marketing

The company will use content marketing on its website and social media to help drive traffic and convert customers. Content will be high quality, informative, and keyword optimized.

The pricing of All In One will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing their services.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for All In One.

Operation Functions:

• Melissa Johnson will be the Owner and CEO of the company. She will oversee all customer support staff and manage client relations. Melissa has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
• Paul Smith – Chief Technology Officer who will provide all technical support for the platform.
• Bill Brown – Accountant/Bookkeeper who will provide all client accounting, tax payments, and monthly financial reporting.
• Kelly Jones – Marketing Manager who will work on all sales and marketing initiatives for All In One, including customer acquisition.

Milestones:

All In One will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

8/1/2022 – Finalize contract to lease the office space.

8/15/2022 – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts.

9/1/2022 – Complete software development of the platform.

9/15/2022 – Begin networking and outbound marketing efforts.

9/22/2022 – Begin moving into the office.

10/1/2022 – All In One opens for business and launches the beta platform.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for All In One are the SaaS subscription fees that will be charged to the clients for use of the SaaS platform and services. All In One will have a tiered subscription model with a basic, standard, and premium subscription options. In addition, the company will have customized service options for an additional fee.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required to maintain a SaaS platform and staff the office. The expenses will be the payroll cost, rent, utilities, office supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

All In One is seeking $250,000 in debt financing to launch its SaaS business. The funding will be dedicated towards UX design and other software development. Funding will also be dedicated towards office equipment, supplies, and materials. Additional funding will go towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff, rent of an office space, and marketing costs. The breakout of the funding is below:

• Marketing and customer acquisition costs: $10,000

Key Assumptions

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

• Average number of monthly subscriptions: 15
• Average fees per month: $50,000
• Office lease per year: $100,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, saas business plan faqs, what is a saas business plan.

A SaaS business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your SaaS business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your SaaS business plan using our SaaS Business Plan Template here .

What is the Main Type of Saas Business?

There are a number of different kinds of SaaS, some examples include: Horizontal SaaS and Vertical SaaS.

How Do You Get Funding for Your SaaS Business Plan?

SaaS are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.  This is true for a business plan for any Saas company, including a B2B Saas business plan.

A well crafted Saas business plan is essential for securing funding from any type of potential investor.

What are the Steps To Start a SaaS Business?

Starting a SaaS business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Write A Saas Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed Saas business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. The business plan should include market research on the Saas industry and potential target market size, information on the services or products you will offer, marketing strategies, pricing details and a solid financial forecast.  

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your Saas business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your Saas business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your SaaS Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your Saas business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws. 

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your SaaS business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms. 

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where your saas business will be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations. 

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events. 

7. Acquire Necessary SaaS Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your SaaS business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation. 

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your SaaS business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.