considering that this genre of companies being public companies is maybe 3 years old…
There were 7 SaaS IPOs from 2003 to 2005, including the poster child salesforce.com (CRM). There were 55 SaaS IPOs from 2007 to 2015.
none of them have reached the point you are talking about…
Have you looked at FireEye (FEYE) or MobileIron (MOBL)? It’s possible you’re right, but another possibility is you’re experiencing survivorship bias.
What has changed in the last three years is the amount of money chasing these unicorns. From millions of dollars invested to billions of dollars. This has enabled these startups to grow faster than their predecessors and IPO with larger market caps. Even with the recent declines, sales multiples are at record highs. Think recency bias and price anchoring.
Not to say that will change. Just to be aware.
Ears