How to Check Whether a Benchmark Actually Has a Source

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-check-whether-a-benchmark-actually-has-a-source. A four-step method for tracing a statistic back to its primary source, run on nine SaaS benchmarks. Four of them had no source we could reach. Check more stories related to business at: https://hackernoon.com/c/business. You can also check exclusive content about #saas, #saas-metric, #benchmarks, #fact-checking, #startup-metrics, #b2b-marketing, #benchmark-research, #research-claims, and more. This story was written by: @better03. Learn more about this writer by checking @better03's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Nine widely quoted SaaS benchmarks, traced hop by hop back toward a primary document. Four never reach one: the Rule of 40 came from an unnamed investor's remark at a board meeting, and the "80% of sales need five follow-ups" figure descends from a slide whose own citation field calls it a meme. Four more are real findings that lost their scope in transit. One holds up. The piece is the method, so you can run it yourself.