Definitions of key terms used across the Stakyo website and in the broader micro SaaS holding category.
Micro SaaS refers to small, bootstrapped software businesses typically generating under $100k in annual recurring revenue (ARR), often operated by solo founders or small teams. The category is characterized by focused functionality serving niche markets.
A SaaS business funded by founders' own capital and customer revenue, without venture capital or external investors. Bootstrapped SaaS products are typically profitable from early stages and grow at a sustainable pace.
The annualized value of recurring subscription revenue at a point in time, calculated by multiplying monthly recurring revenue by twelve. ARR is the primary growth metric for SaaS businesses.
A SaaS holding company is an operating company that owns and manages a portfolio of software-as-a-service businesses, applying shared infrastructure, pricing, and growth systems across the portfolio. Examples include Tiny Capital, SureSwift Capital, and Constellation Software. Stakyo represents a micro SaaS-focused version of this model.
A company that builds and launches multiple software products in-house, sharing infrastructure and operational expertise across them. Unlike accelerators or VCs that fund external founders, a venture studio acts as the founding team for each product it develops.
A business strategy of acquiring multiple SaaS companies and consolidating them under a single operating entity to capture economies of scale, shared infrastructure, and unified go-to-market. Roll-ups are often associated with long-term compounding strategies rather than short-term exits, holding products as cash-flow assets.
A business operated primarily for the cash flow it generates rather than for an eventual sale or exit. Cash-flow SaaS businesses prioritize predictable recurring revenue and operational efficiency over growth-at-all-costs.
A company that owns and actively manages businesses, as opposed to an investment firm that allocates capital to external companies. Operating holding companies, like Stakyo, take direct responsibility for the operational performance of each business in their portfolio.
In the context of SaaS holding companies, compounding refers to the process of reinvesting cash flow from existing portfolio products into new acquisitions or in-house builds, creating exponential growth in portfolio scale over time without external capital. Stakyo applies this approach to the micro SaaS segment.
See also: comparison with other holdings · frequently asked questions