Retention has been interpreted differently for boards and investors over the past year. In this episode of SaaS Conversations, Katherine Zhang sits down with Ellie Wu, founder of CSuiteCX, to explore how and why retention has shifted from a tactical customer success issue to a board-level credibility signal shaped by leadership judgment, timing, and capital risk at moments of scrutiny.

This is not a discussion about churn reduction tactics or metric optimization. Instead, the conversation focuses on the patterns leaders and investors are seeing as we head into 2026, including how customer friction builds quietly, why confidence in the growth story often erodes before revenue declines, and what boards are really assessingwhen they scrutinize retention.

Ellie shares insights drawn from patterns she sees repeatedly across hundreds of venture-backed and private equity-backed SaaS companies, explaining why dashboards can stay green while risk accumulates, why CFO involvement is often an early warning signal, and what strong leadership judgment looks like under pressure.

For leaders who want to go deeper, Ellie has published an executive brief titled Retention as Capital Credibility that captures many of the patterns discussed in this episode and explains why confidence can erode before performance does. You can find it here: https://www.csuitecx.com/retention-capital-credibility

At this year’s SaaS Palooza event, Jennifer Smith (Partner, Bain & Company) and Katherine Zhang (CEO, OPEXEngine), explored what sets top-performing SaaS companies apart in today’s tech private equity market. From emerging deal trends to how investors define an “A” software asset, their discussion offered actionable insights for SaaS operators and investors alike.

We’re excited to make this live session available as a special podcast episode! Drawing on OPEXEngine’s proprietary benchmarking data and Bain’s deep expertise in tech investing, Jennifer and Katherine dive into the evolving dynamics of deal flow, valuation trends, and the balance of growth and profitability that define leading SaaS businesses.

Whether you’re preparing for a sale, raising capital, or benchmarking performance, this episode delivers clear takeaways on building sustainable value and driving operational excellence.

The full episode transcript and video recording are available on our website. You can also download the presentation slides here.

In this episode of SaaS Conversations, Tori Danforth, Senior Director of FP&A at Relativity, shares how her team approaches annual planning at scale. From integrating long-range strategic goals to setting departmental targets and navigating trade-offs, Tori offers a detailed look into how benchmarking with external data strengthens both the planning process and cross-functional alignment.

We cover:

• How to connect long-range strategy to annual financial planning

• The role of finance business partners in driving bottom-up alignment

• Using benchmark data to inform investment decisions and trade-offs

• Key metrics and frameworks for plan validation

• Evolving planning processes while maintaining flexibility and trust

• Practical approaches to embedding external data into internal workflows

For finance and operations leaders navigating today’s environment, this conversation offers actionable insights on how to use benchmarking to build better plans and ultimately achieve better outcomes.