Land-and-expand only works with the right initial wedge, pricing, and expansion vector. What makes it compounding vs a slow leak.
Land-and-expand is the phrase every SaaS pitch uses. Most companies don't actually run it — they land, and then hope. The ones that do it well look completely different in a diligence.
A small, self-serve or low-friction entry point — one team, one use case, one price. The initial contract is smaller than what a full enterprise sale would be, and that's the point.
A pricing model with room to grow: seats, usage, tiers, adjacent products. A CS team with expansion quota. Product signals that flag ready-to-expand accounts. Expansion motion should be measurable within 6-12 months of land.
Net revenue retention >110% within the first year of cohort maturity. Expansion revenue >30% of new bookings by month 18. Time-to-expansion trending down as the motion matures.
Flat pricing with no expansion vector. CS comp tied only to renewals, not expansion. Product that peaks at the initial use case. Land motion that requires so much sales effort that the small initial contract doesn't pay it back.
Investor directory · Fundraising library · Articles A–Z · Company funding database