A SaaS company does not need to wait until overseas sales are a major share of revenue before investing in a particular country. Jason Lemkin’s October 5, 2026 SaaStr article proposes a practical trigger: consider focused investment when one country reaches about 5% of revenue. That is his heuristic, not a proven universal threshold; the useful question is whether targeted steps can convert demonstrated demand into durable growth.
What the 40% figure does—and does not—show
Lemkin reports that eight of the 12 public B2B companies in his comparison receive at least 40% of revenue internationally. His examples include Figma at 53%, Cloudflare and HubSpot at 49% each, MongoDB at 46%, Twilio at 36%, Snowflake at 26%, and Okta at 20%. These are figures as presented in the article, not an independently verified or consistently defined comparison; it does not provide a company-by-company calculation or a source appendix. Read Lemkin’s SaaStr article.
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The headline’s 40% is therefore a pattern Lemkin draws from his selected examples, not a forecast that every SaaS business will reach that share. “International” also combines distinct countries, customer types, and operating conditions. A company should use its own country-level evidence rather than treating the aggregate share as a target.
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Revenue share is only one signal. Lemkin’s examples contrast revenue with user share and growth: he reports that 85% of Figma’s users are outside the US while international revenue is 53%. He also reports international growth of 48% for Figma against 46% overall; HubSpot international growth of 23% against 17% domestic; and Klaviyo international growth of 33% against 22% US growth. Those figures are reported in the article, whose measurement periods and definitions are not consistently detailed for the full comparison.
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These examples suggest questions to investigate, not proof that international users are under-monetized or that growth will continue. Compare the country’s share of paying customers and revenue with usage, conversion, retention, support needs, and the cost of serving it. Growth rates and revenue shares answer different questions: a fast-growing market can still be small, while a large share can grow slowly.
Use 5% as a decision prompt, not a rule
Lemkin’s proposed threshold is that a country reaching 5% of revenue can justify focused investment. It is an author’s heuristic, not an established benchmark or evidence that hiring at that point causes growth. Its value is that it prompts a company to examine a real, identifiable market before waiting for international revenue to become broadly “material.”
Before acting, establish what the share represents: a consistent period, a meaningful customer base, and revenue actually attributable to that country. Then ask whether friction is suppressing further conversion or expansion. A 5% contribution alone does not establish that local operations will pay back, and a smaller share may still merit attention if strategic customers or a clear operational barrier are involved.
Match the investment to how the business sells
Self-serve SaaS
Lemkin’s framing is that self-serve companies may attract organic users abroad without converting that interest into paid customers. Check whether checkout supports local currency and familiar payment methods, whether pricing makes sense in the market, and whether customers can get help during their working day. These are potential conversion obstacles to test, not a quantified causal finding.
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Enterprise and sales-led SaaS
For enterprise sellers, Lemkin argues that a local presence may be needed before opportunities become revenue. A person in the relevant time zone can help with customer conversations and follow-through, but the case for hiring should rest on pipeline quality, sales-cycle needs, and the cost of coverage—not on the 5% figure alone. Local staffing is one option, not an automatic requirement for every market.
Start with targeted steps, not a broad rollout
Lemkin recommends incremental actions rather than building a large overseas office as the first move. Treat the list below as areas to investigate; it is not a required sequence, a guaranteed-return plan, or a substitute for professional advice.
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- Payments and currency: Check whether local customers can pay in a convenient currency and use payment methods they expect.
- Support coverage: Assess whether support hours overlap with the market’s business day.
- Market-specific pricing: Determine whether current pricing and tiers fit local buying patterns and customer expectations.
- Time-zone presence: Consider whether one person in the market’s time zone would address a demonstrated sales or service gap.
- Data residency: Investigate hosting and data-governance expectations when selling to regulated customers. Requirements vary by customer and jurisdiction; the article’s suggestion is not a universal legal obligation.
The article does not quantify the costs, prescribe an order, or establish payback for these steps. Evaluate each against a specific friction point, and involve appropriate legal, tax, privacy, employment, and payments specialists where needed.
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What the company examples can—and cannot—tell you
Lemkin reports that Klaviyo’s international share rose from 39.5% to 42% in a year, with US revenue of $215.8 million out of $370.6 million. He also reports Cloudflare growth of 41% in the US, 30% in EMEA, and 32% in APAC; Okta growth of 12.6% in the US and 9.1% outside it; and Snowflake non-US growth of 39% against 34% in the US. The article presents these figures without a source-by-source appendix or consistent period definitions across the comparison.
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Use the examples as prompts for better internal questions, not as benchmarks to copy. Before making a company-to-company comparison, verify the latest filings or earnings materials and align the reporting period, geographic definitions, and revenue measures. A regional category such as EMEA is not interchangeable with a single country, and growth rate is not the same as revenue share.
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A practical decision checklist
- Measure demand by country. Track revenue and customer activity with a consistent attribution method and period.
- Look for a conversion or expansion constraint. Identify whether payments, pricing, support, sales coverage, or data arrangements are limiting progress.
- Choose a bounded intervention. Tie one targeted change to the diagnosed barrier rather than defaulting to a full regional build-out.
- Define what success means. Select a relevant measure—such as conversion, expansion, retention, or qualified pipeline—and review it over a suitable period.
- Reassess market by market. Keep investing where evidence supports it; do not assume one country’s needs represent every international market.
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