File: 'atlas-revenue-q4-2025-q1-2026.csv'\nRows: 18 · Columns: month, segment, mrr, customer_count, churn_rate\n\nFull data:\n2025-10, SMB, $310,000, 1,240, 4.2%\n2025-10, Mid-Market, $250,000, 187, 2.2%\n2025-10, Enterprise, $485,000, 42, 1.4%\n2025-11, SMB, $312,500, 1,250, 4.4%\n2025-11, Mid-Market, $264,500, 193, 2.1%\n2025-11, Enterprise, $518,200, 44, 1.2%\n2025-12, SMB, $311,000, 1,245, 4.7%\n2025-12, Mid-Market, $278,800, 200, 2.0%\n2025-12, Enterprise, $555,400, 46, 1.1%\n2026-01, SMB, $304,500, 1,225, 5.2%\n2026-01, Mid-Market, $293,400, 207, 1.9%\n2026-01, Enterprise, $593,800, 48, 1.0%\n2026-02, SMB, $293,200, 1,195, 6.1%\n2026-02, Mid-Market, $308,500, 213, 2.0%\n2026-02, Enterprise, $625,400, 50, 0.9%\n2026-03, SMB, $279,800, 1,160, 7.0%\n2026-03, Mid-Market, $325,200, 220, 1.8%\n2026-03, Enterprise, $665,000, 52, 0.8%\n\nAuto-detected: SMB MRR peaked in November and has declined every month since, while Mid-Market and Enterprise grew steadily. Total MRR is up across the period despite SMB decline. SMB churn rate climbed from 4.2% to 7.0%; Mid-Market and Enterprise churn stayed low and stable.

Results for "SaaS SMB segment growth benchmark Q1 2026":

1. Bessemer State of the Cloud 2026 — SMB-focused B2B SaaS grew net new MRR by an average of 4-6% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2026, down from 8-10% in 2024. Top performers maintain 12%+ QoQ. (Source: Bessemer Venture Partners 2026 State of the Cloud report, February 2026)

2. ChartMogul SaaS Benchmarks Q1 2026 — Median SMB segment net new MRR contracted 1.2% QoQ across 1,800 surveyed SaaS companies under $20M ARR. SMB is the segment under most pressure in the current cycle. (Source: ChartMogul Q1 2026 SaaS Benchmarks, April 2026)

3. OpenView Partners 2025 SaaS Benchmarks — Best-in-class SMB SaaS adds 8-15% net new MRR per quarter consistently. Bottom quartile is flat to declining. Mid-Market segment performs more steadily, with median QoQ growth of 7-9% across the cycle. (Source: OpenView Partners annual SaaS benchmarks, December 2025)

4. SaaS Capital Q1 2026 Pulse — "SMB is the canary in the coal mine for SaaS in 2026. 62% of surveyed B2B SaaS report SMB net new MRR decline in Q1 2026 versus Q4 2025, but median decline is single-digit percent. Companies seeing 30%+ contractions are typically facing product-specific issues, not market-wide ones." (Source: SaaS Capital Q1 2026 quarterly pulse, April 2026)

Summary  
This chapter covers extracting numeric trends from a spreadsheet, fetching external benchmark data via web search, and comparing them in code to print a verdict.  

General domain of usage  
SaaS business performance analysis

SMB Net New MRR went from +$23k in October to −$25k in March. Bad — but how bad?

Without a benchmark, you can't tell if you're the worst in the market, the median, or just feeling the same headwind as everyone else. The number on its own can't make that call.

This lab combines two tools — the spreadsheet for the internal trend, and the web for the external benchmark.

## A Number Plus a Benchmark Equals a Verdict

| Internal Trend | External Benchmark | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| SMB Net New MRR: +$23k → −$25k over 6 months | Median SMB SaaS QoQ Net New MRR: −1.2% | We're collapsing, not just slowing |
| Mid-Market: $39k → $65k Net New MRR | Best-in-class SMB SaaS adds 8-15% QoQ | We're top quartile in Mid-Market |
| Enterprise expansion: $25k → $52k | (no clean external comparison) | Internal-only signal |

Without the middle column, the left column is just a number trending in some direction.

>## Task
>
>The same Atlas spreadsheet from Lab 3.2 is loaded. Plus Claude can now search the web for SaaS benchmarks.
>
>Send Claude:
>
>><b>Pull our SMB Net New MRR trend from the spreadsheet, then find the SaaS market benchmark for Q1 2026. Are we doing worse than the market or just riding the same wave?
>
>Done when you have an internal trend, a cited external benchmark, and a one-line verdict on the gap.

A hands-on course for non-technical managers and operators who need to turn raw business data into decisions, not summaries. You'll learn how to frame analytical questions sharply, read spreadsheets and internal docs through AI, combine internal numbers with market context, and build your own analyst agent that produces decision-ready briefs end-to-end.

Introduction to business analytics through the lens of AI — why raw data doesn't make decisions, the three layers of analytical questions, and where an AI assistant actually fits in the workflow.



Train the framing reflex. Turn vague business questions into sharp ones, pick the metric that actually matters, and lock down time windows, segments, and comparisons before touching any data.



Hands-on labs with the three sources every operator hits: sales spreadsheets, strategy docs in Notion, and market context from the web. Single-tool labs first, then a combined investigation.



Move from running labs to building your own. Write the persona, wire up the tools, and create an agent that delivers weekly KPI briefs and pre-meeting decision packs — finishing with a capstone Quarterly Business Review.

