115% Growth Is Now the B2B AI Median, Not the Outlier

115% median revenue growth at $100M+ ARR is now normal for top-quartile B2B AI companies, according to ICONIQ’s new Pacesetter Index — a growth rate Jason Lemkin notes used to be a once-a-decade outlier and is now the median, with growth accelerating rather than decaying as these companies scale. Top-quartile companies at that stage hit 165%. Sub-$10M ARR companies show a median 900% growth (top quartile 2,600%). Gross margins now start around 55% under $10M ARR, down from the old 75-80% software benchmark because of compute costs, but recover to 80%-plus in the $25M-$100M band. Net revenue retention peaks at 130% in that same $25M-$100M range before declining, while gross dollar retention falls to 90% at scale. Revenue per employee reaches $655K at scale, and $890K at the top quartile — nearly 3x historical SaaS norms. ICONIQ’s index tracks quarterly data from 2024 through Q2 2026 across public software companies and its own private portfolio, and Lemkin flags the caveat directly: it only captures top-quartile survivors, not failure rates or a typical AI company.

The repricing shows up in valuation multiples too. SaaStr’s earlier analysis found only seven public B2B companies now exceed 30% revenue growth — a level that was the market median in 2021 and has since become roughly the 90th percentile — with sub-10% growers getting about 1.9x revenue, 20-30% growers about 5.5x, and 30%-plus growers commanding 8x to 20x-plus. Specific comps: Figma grew 48% with 136% net dollar retention, Databricks hit $6.9B annualized revenue growing 80%-plus, and Stripe hit $6.8B in 2025 revenue, up 33%.

Both data sets describe the same repricing from different angles: the bar for what counts as “good growth” has moved sharply upward, and it’s concentrated in a small AI-native cohort. For sales and GTM leaders, that’s not abstract benchmarking — it’s the number quota-setting, comp design, and board-level growth expectations are now getting measured against.