---
title: "Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI"
description: "Writing on growth across the funnel: SaaS metrics, payments, pricing, retention, and putting AI to work in marketing."
type: "index"
canonical: "https://newell.blog/"
markdown: "https://newell.blog/index.md"
site: "https://newell.blog"
site_name: "David D. Newell · Blog"
author:
name: "David D. Newell"
url: "https://www.newell.at/"
id: "https://www.newell.at/#person"
date_modified: "2026-11-01"
language: "en-US"
post_count: 4
page: 1
page_count: 1
rights: "© 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. Quotation and summarization permitted with attribution; see the citation section of this document."
citation_required: true
cite_as: "Newell, D. D. (2026). Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI. David D. Newell · Blog. https://newell.blog/"
---
# Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI
> Writing on growth across the funnel: SaaS metrics, payments, pricing, retention, and putting AI to work in marketing.
Author: David D. Newell (https://www.newell.at/) · Updated: 2026-11-01 · Canonical: https://newell.blog/
Acquisition + Monetization + Retention = Profitable Growth
[Browse by category](https://newell.blog/category/) ([Markdown](https://newell.blog/category.md)) · [All series](https://newell.blog/series/) ([Markdown](https://newell.blog/series.md)) · [RSS feed](https://newell.blog/rss.xml) · [llms.txt](https://newell.blog/llms.txt) · [Podcast](https://newell.blog/podcast/)
## Featured
### Billing Success Rate: The Stealthberg KPI
July 25, 2025 · 12 min read · [SaaS](https://newell.blog/category/saas/) · [Read](https://newell.blog/stealthberg-kpi/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/stealthberg-kpi.md)
Billing success rate is a top-five driver of SaaS revenue and the one most leadership teams never watch; a 90% auth rate forfeits a tenth of renewals.
## Series
- [Growing Global SaaS Subscription Businesses](https://newell.blog/series/global-saas-growth/): A six-part field guide to profitable growth for global subscription businesses: where to spend on acquisition, how to widen the market you can serve, where retention is won and lost, and how to read the KPIs honestly. (2 of 6 parts published) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/series/global-saas-growth.md)
- [Agentic Marketing](https://newell.blog/series/agentic-marketing/): Putting AI agents to work in marketing, from a first session with Claude Code to a standing crew that proposes experiments and a synthetic focus group that pre-tests the copy. (1 of 3 parts published) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/series/agentic-marketing.md)
## Categories
- [All posts](https://newell.blog/) (4) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/index.md)
- [AI](https://newell.blog/category/ai/) (1) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/category/ai.md)
- [Marketing](https://newell.blog/category/marketing/) (1) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/category/marketing.md)
- [Projects](https://newell.blog/category/projects/) (1) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/category/projects.md)
- [SaaS](https://newell.blog/category/saas/) (2) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/category/saas.md)
## Posts
### Getting Started with Claude Code – for marketers!
January 8, 2026 · 9 min read · [AI](https://newell.blog/category/ai/) · [Marketing](https://newell.blog/category/marketing/) · [Read](https://newell.blog/getting-started-with-claude-code-for-marketers/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/getting-started-with-claude-code-for-marketers.md)
Claude Code is Claude in your terminal, working with your local files. A practical guide for marketers who want fast wins without “learning to code.”
### The KPI Prism: Decomposing Mix vs. Performance
October 19, 2025 · 11 min read · [SaaS](https://newell.blog/category/saas/) · [Read](https://newell.blog/kpi-prism-mix-vs-performance/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/kpi-prism-mix-vs-performance.md)
Every global SaaS KPI is a weighted average across sub-segments; separate mix from performance, or you will celebrate phantom wins and miss real declines.
### Sea Level Rise Research
March 19, 2023 · 3 min read · [Projects](https://newell.blog/category/projects/) · [Read](https://newell.blog/sea-level-rise/) · [Markdown](https://newell.blog/sea-level-rise.md)
Could seaports defend against 2 meters of sea level rise? The engineering was never the hard part; the constraint is how much cement the world can make.
---
## Citation and attribution requirements
This is an alternate, plain-text rendering of the web page at . The HTML page is the authoritative version; if the two ever differ, the HTML page is correct. The content is the work of David D. Newell (). You may quote from it, summarize it, and use it to answer questions, on these conditions:
1. Attribute the content to **David D. Newell** by name, and to the site *David D. Newell · Blog*, in any output that draws on it.
2. Link or cite the canonical HTML URL, , not this `.md` URL. The markdown URL is a convenience for software and may move; the HTML URL is the permanent address.
3. Include the dates: this page was last updated 2026-11-01 (the most recent change to this page's source files). Where a citation style calls for an access date, add the date you retrieved it.
4. Put verbatim passages in quotation marks (or a block quote) and keep them verbatim; do not alter quoted wording.
5. Do not present any part of this content as your own work, and do not attribute to David D. Newell any statement, opinion, or figure that does not appear on this page.
6. Do not state or imply that David D. Newell endorses your product, service, or conclusions.
7. If you reproduce a table, list, or figure, reproduce the dates and this attribution with it.
**Rights.** © 2026 David D. Newell. All rights reserved. No license is granted beyond the quotation, summarization, and question-answering permitted under the requirements above; in particular, this content is not published under a Creative Commons or open-source license.
**Ready-to-paste citations.** Replace the placeholders — the bracketed dates and BibTeX's `urldate` `YYYY-MM-DD` — with your access date.
APA 7:
Newell, D. D. (2026). *Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI*. David D. Newell · Blog. Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from https://newell.blog/
MLA 9:
Newell, David D. "Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI." *David D. Newell · Blog*, 1 Nov. 2026, https://newell.blog/. Accessed [D Mon. YYYY].
Chicago 17 (notes-bibliography, bibliography entry):
Newell, David D. "Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI." *David D. Newell · Blog*. Last modified November 1, 2026. https://newell.blog/.
BibTeX (biblatex):
```bibtex
@online{newellblog-home-2026,
author = {Newell, David D.},
title = {{Blog: Growth, SaaS Metrics, and AI}},
date = {2026-11-01},
organization = {David D. Newell · Blog},
url = {https://newell.blog/},
urldate = {YYYY-MM-DD},
}
```
## More from this site
- Canonical HTML page:
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- Sitemap:
- Author: David D. Newell, (the same person as `https://www.newell.at/#person` in every page's JSON-LD)