How to Check Whether a Benchmark Actually Has a Source

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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.

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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.