Now in its fifth year, the Forbes Cloud 100 list recognizes the top private cloud enterprise software companies transforming the industry. Samsara is this year’s biggest mover - jumping 42 slots from #67 in 2019 to #25 in 2020.

Samsara was chosen based on the strength of our market leadership, culture, and growth. To soar up the rankings of this definitive list is a testament to the drive and hard work of every Samsarian this past year.

Samsara’s mission is to increase the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of the operations that power our economy. Never has there been a year where that mission has been more important. Our 15,000 customers — spanning transportation and manufacturing, to food and beverage, health and sanitation, and local government — are keeping our communities safe and our economy running. They are also massive industries, making up 40% of U.S. GDP. 

To support our customers’ critical work, we put our heads down and delivered: releasing new products, investing in R&D and innovation, expanding our platform, and delivering the world-class onboarding and support our customers deserve.

The past year in review

At Samsara we build for the long-term, maintaining a rapid pace of innovation, while staying focused on efficient growth. Here are some of the milestones we reached this year:

1. Rapid innovation: released over 100 new product features (including new AI Dash Cam features, Electric Vehicle tools, and Admin App)

2. Platform expansion: built partnerships with companies like Volvo, Navistar, and Ford to integrate their data into the Samsara platform

3. Expanded our customer base: reached 15,000 customers in April and maintained a 98%+ gross retention rate

4. Financial growth: continued to grow annual recurring revenue more than 100% year over year

Looking ahead to 2021, we will continue to invest significantly in R&D as we expand our platform, partnerships, and customer experience.

Building our company and culture

Building for the long-term means focusing as much on the culture we create, as we do the products we build. We took important steps towards that this year.

First: developing a strong team of leaders is a priority for us at Samsara. Our leaders must embody our core principles every day. To do this, we developed eleven principles that outline the expectations of our leaders in how we manage our teams day-to-day.

Second: to bring these principles to life in a meaningful way, Samsara introduced a new leadership training program, designed for all managers and above (regardless of level of past experience). This four and a half month training program teaches managers how to lead the Samsara way, using a combination of specific examples from within the company and externally.

Third: we made new commitments to increase diversity across our team and ensure that Samsara is a place where people from all backgrounds can make an impact. These commitments include: a company goal to ensure that 40% of manager phone screens for all roles include under-represented candidates, a requirement that 100% of all employees to complete Inclusion training by the end of 2020, and a commitment to reserve 40% of seats in Leadership Development classes for underrepresented groups.

A big thank you to our employees

Whether it’s training a team, fielding compliance questions in the middle of the night, or building out new features, everything Samsara has achieved is due to our people. Thank you for your drive and determination. None of this would have been possible without you.

About the Forbes Cloud 100

The Forbes 2020 Cloud 100 is the definitive ranking of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world, published by Forbes in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures. As part of the rigorous selection process, the Cloud 100 Judging Panel, made up of public cloud company CEOs, reviewed the submission data to select, score, and rank the top 100 private cloud companies from all over the world. The evaluation process involved ranking companies across four factors: market leadership (35%), estimated valuation (30%), operating metrics (20%), and people & culture (15%). The full list can be viewed at www.forbes.com/cloud100.

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