What is product-led growth (PLG) and how does monday.com use it?

Product-led growth definition: product-led growth (PLG) is a business strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, expansion, and retention — rather than primarily relying on sales and marketing; in PLG models, the product is so useful and easy to adopt that users discover it, try it (often with a free tier), get value from it, and invite colleagues — creating organic viral growth without heavy sales involvement. Monday.com's PLG model: monday.com allows individuals and small teams to start using the platform with a free plan (limited features, limited seats); once a team experiences value, they upgrade to a paid plan; monday.com spreads organically within organizations as one team that uses it demonstrates value and other teams adopt it; this viral, bottom-up adoption is similar to how Slack and Dropbox spread through organizations. PLG financial advantages: PLG companies often have lower Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) than traditional enterprise software companies that rely on expensive outfield sales teams; revenue grows through user-led expansion rather than requiring sales reps to close every upsell; net revenue retention (measuring how much existing customers spend year-over-year) is the primary metric for PLG health — monday.com's 110%+ NRR reflects successful expansion within existing accounts. PLG vs. enterprise sales: pure PLG works well in SMB and mid-market where decision-makers can adopt tools without extensive security review, procurement processes, or IT approval; enterprise accounts ($100K+ ARR) typically require dedicated sales engagement, security reviews, negotiated contracts, and implementation support; monday.com has added an enterprise sales motion (adding a traditional sales force) on top of its PLG foundation to move upmarket into larger enterprise accounts.

What is net revenue retention (NRR) and why is it so important for SaaS companies?

NRR definition: Net Revenue Retention (also called Net Dollar Retention, NDR) measures how much revenue a SaaS company retains and grows from its existing customer cohort over a defined period (typically 12 months), expressed as a percentage: NRR = (Beginning ARR from cohort + expansions - contractions - churn) / Beginning ARR × 100%; an NRR above 100% means the company is growing revenue from existing customers even before adding new customers. Why NRR is important: NRR reveals the quality of a SaaS company's customer relationships and product value; a company with 110% NRR grows 10% from existing customers per year — meaning new customer acquisition is pure incremental growth on top of organic expansion; a company with 90% NRR must add new customers just to offset churn from existing ones. monday.com's 110%+ NRR example: if monday.com started 2023 with $100M ARR from a cohort of customers, by end of 2023 that same cohort generated $110M ARR (10% more); this means existing customers added seats, upgraded to higher plans, or adopted new products (monday CRM, monday Dev); new customer additions on top of this 10% organic growth generate additional incremental growth. Benchmark comparison: SaaS companies with 110%+ NRR are considered excellent (Snowflake, Datadog, and top-tier SaaS companies have 120%+ NRR); 100-110% is solid for SMB-oriented products; below 100% indicates customer churn is exceeding expansion; monday.com's 110%+ NRR positions it as a high-quality SaaS business with strong underlying customer value.

What is FedRAMP and why does it matter for enterprise software sold to the U.S. government?

FedRAMP definition: FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is a U.S. government-wide program that provides standardized security assessments and authorizations for cloud products and services; the program was established in 2011 to ensure cloud services used by federal agencies meet specific security requirements (based on NIST standards); cloud vendors who want to sell software to U.S. federal agencies must obtain FedRAMP authorization at either Moderate (for most federal systems) or High (for systems handling particularly sensitive data) impact levels. Why FedRAMP creates competitive barriers: FedRAMP authorization requires passing a rigorous, expensive security assessment (typically $500K-2M+ in assessment costs and 12-18+ months to complete); the assessment requires reviewing the cloud service's complete security architecture, access controls, change management procedures, incident response capabilities, and continuous monitoring practices; once authorized, vendors must maintain compliance through ongoing monthly reporting, annual assessments, and continuous monitoring; many enterprise software companies have not pursued FedRAMP because of the cost and time investment. For Smartsheet: Smartsheet's FedRAMP Moderate authorization enables it to sell to U.S. federal agencies (Army, Navy, NASA, DHS, HHS, etc.); these government customers represent a significant, sticky revenue stream; government contracts are typically long-term (3-5 years) with strong renewal rates; Smartsheet's government business provides revenue visibility that pure commercial SaaS companies lack; monday.com has not had equivalent FedRAMP authorization, limiting its direct federal government selling ability relative to Smartsheet.

brimindinvest.com / compare / smar-vs-mndyLIVE

SMAR

Smartsheet Inc. · Technology - Enterprise Work Management Software

N/A

N/A this month

VERSUS

⟷

COMPARE

MNDY

monday.com Ltd. · Technology - Work Management Platform (SMB and Enterprise)

$71.53

-8.30% this month

Scoreboard verdict

Across AI score, momentum, valuation, upside, operating margin

SMAR

0

MNDY

0

MIXED SETUP

Comparison scoreboard

MIXED SETUP

AI Score

SMAR N/A

MNDY 23.1

1Y Return

SMAR N/A

MNDY -75.11%

Fwd P/E

SMAR N/A

MNDY 13.26

Target Up.

SMAR N/A

MNDY +51.16%

Op. Margin

SMAR N/A

MNDY N/A

Metrics last refreshed: 6/22/2026

Quick take

SMAR vs MNDY Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside

SMAR (Smartsheet) and MNDY (monday.com) were both cloud work management platform companies — Smartsheet was acquired by Blackstone in 2024, having built a strong enterprise and government position using spreadsheet-familiar interface with FedRAMP authorization, while monday.com remains public with higher growth from its visually designed Work OS platform, product-led growth, and platform expansion (CRM, Dev, Service) beyond core project management.

SMAR vs MNDY is enterprise/government work management with compliance-driven differentiation (Smartsheet's FedRAMP government authorization, spreadsheet-familiar UI adoption, and enterprise platform depth — now private after Blackstone acquisition) versus high-growth Work OS platform with product-led SMB/mid-market expansion (monday.com's viral PLG model, 110%+ net revenue retention, and multi-product expansion into CRM/Dev/Service — navigating crowded work management competition from Microsoft and scaling to enterprise).

Live analysis · updated 6/22/2026

SMAR and MNDY are closely matched — they split the tracked metrics evenly.

Normalized 1Y performance

SMAR

MNDY

Not enough data to chart yet.

Recent returns

SMAR

MNDY

Analyst price targets & sentiment

SMAR

Price target data unavailable

N/A

MNDY · 24 analysts

STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL

Buy (1.7/5.0)

Price target range

analyst low$75.00
analyst high$165.00
analyst mean$108.13
current price$71.53

+51.2% upside to analyst mean

Who should consider this stock?

SMAR considerations (now private):

→Smartsheet is no longer publicly traded after Blackstone's 2024 acquisition; public market investors cannot directly invest in Smartsheet shares
→Smartsheet's government/enterprise work management with FedRAMP authorization represents a durable business now under private equity ownership focused on margin improvement and potential future exit
→Investors seeking work management software exposure must look to monday.com (MNDY), Asana, or Microsoft as the primary publicly traded alternatives

MNDY may suit investors who:

→Want exposure to a high-growth work management platform with 110%+ net revenue retention, strong product-led growth in SMB and mid-market, and expanding platform ambition beyond project management into CRM, DevOps, and service management
→Believe monday.com's Work OS concept creates a platform framework that can expand across multiple software categories (replacing dedicated CRM, DevOps, and ITSM tools with monday-native products) and drive multi-year ARR growth
→Value monday.com's viral adoption model and highly visual product as sustainable competitive advantages in a crowded work management market where differentiation from legacy project management tools is essential

Performance & AI score

Metric	SMAR	MNDY
AI score	N/A	23.1
AI rank	N/A	#3723
Latest close	N/A	$71.53
1M return	N/A	-8.30%
6M return	N/A	-50.56%
1Y return	N/A	-75.11%

$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)

How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?

Period	SMAR	MNDY
1Y ago	N/A	$2.49K (-75.1%) started 2025-06-18
5Y ago	N/A	$3.08K (-69.2%) started 2021-06-18
10Y ago	N/A	$4K (-60.0%) started 2021-06-10

Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.

Valuation & upside potential

Metric	SMAR	MNDY
Market cap	N/A	$3.69B
Trailing P/E	N/A	31.24
Forward P/E	N/A	13.26
Price/Sales	8.25	2.83
EV/Revenue	N/A	1.84
Analyst target	N/A	$108.13
Target upside	N/A	+51.16%

Growth, profitability & risk

Metric	SMAR	MNDY
Revenue growth	N/A	24.50%
Earnings growth	N/A	9.60%
EPS growth	N/A	+9.60%
FCF margin	N/A	+19.10%
Operating margin	N/A	N/A
Profit margin	N/A	9.17%
ROIC proxy	N/A	12.83%
Return on equity	N/A	12.83%
Dividend yield	N/A	0.00%
Beta	0.05	1.23
Debt/equity	N/A	23.41
Current ratio	N/A	1.72
Quick ratio	N/A	1.59

Drawdown & downside risk

Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.

1Y risk snapshot

SMAR max drawdownN/A

MNDY max drawdown81.30%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

MNDY max wkly drop31.19%

5Y risk snapshot

SMAR max drawdownN/A

MNDY max drawdown86.78%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

MNDY max wkly drop45.56%

10Y risk snapshot

SMAR max drawdownN/A

MNDY max drawdown86.78%

SMAR max wkly dropN/A

MNDY max wkly drop45.56%

Performance metrics by period

Period	Metric	SMAR	MNDY
1Y	Growth	N/A	-75.11%
	CAGR	N/A	-75.14%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	-1.86
	Max drawdown	N/A	81.30%
	Max daily drop	N/A	29.80%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	31.19%
5Y	Growth	N/A	-69.24%
	CAGR	N/A	-21.01%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	-0.03
	Max drawdown	N/A	86.78%
	Max daily drop	N/A	29.80%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	45.56%
10Y	Growth	N/A	-60.01%
	CAGR	N/A	-16.68%
	Sharpe ratio	N/A	0.04
	Max drawdown	N/A	86.78%
	Max daily drop	N/A	29.80%
	Max wkly drop	N/A	45.56%

Business comparison

Category	SMAR	MNDY
Company	Smartsheet Inc.	monday.com Ltd.
Sector	Technology - Enterprise Work Management Software	Technology - Work Management Platform (SMB and Enterprise)
Industry	N/A	N/A
Core business	Smartsheet is a cloud-based work management platform that combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with project management, automation, and collaboration capabilities. Smartsheet's platform provides project and work management, content collaboration (integrating documents and assets into workflows), automated workflows (no-code automation triggers and actions), resource management, and enterprise-level governance (security, compliance, and administration). Smartsheet is particularly strong in government (U.S. Federal government certification, FedRAMP authorization), financial services, healthcare, and other regulated industries where compliance and security requirements are stringent. Smartsheet was acquired by private equity (Blackstone) in 2024, taking it private — but it remains a relevant competitor in the work management software space.	monday.com is a cloud-based work management platform (Work OS) designed to enable teams to run projects, workflows, and processes on a single platform. monday.com's highly visual, flexible interface (columns, views, automations) is designed to be intuitive for non-technical users and adaptable to virtually any workflow — from marketing campaign tracking to software sprint management to construction project scheduling. monday.com's platform includes: monday Work Management (core project and work management), monday CRM (customer relationship management built on the platform), monday Dev (software development workflows), and monday Service (IT service management). Founded in Israel in 2012 (originally dapulse), monday.com went public on Nasdaq in 2021 and has achieved rapid growth particularly among SMB and mid-market customers.
Investor focus	Investors had tracked Smartsheet's Annual Recurring Revenue growth, net revenue retention (reflecting customer expansion), large enterprise ($100K+ ARR) customer additions, and the competitive dynamics with monday.com and Microsoft Project/Planner.	Investors track monday.com's ARR growth (targeting $1+ billion), net revenue retention (expansion within existing customers), large enterprise customer growth, and path to sustained profitability as the company scales toward Rule of 40+ performance.

SMAR strengths

→Enterprise-grade compliance and security certifications provide differentiation in government and regulated industries — FedRAMP authorization (required for U.S. government cloud software) is a significant competitive barrier; Smartsheet's government customer base is a durable advantage that monday.com (without equivalent certifications) cannot easily address
→Spreadsheet-familiar interface reduces adoption barriers in enterprises where work is already done in Excel — Smartsheet's grid interface (resembling Excel) enables enterprise adoption without retraining employees accustomed to spreadsheet-based project tracking
→Platform extensibility through APIs and integrations creates enterprise stickiness — Smartsheet's integration with Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Jira, and other enterprise systems makes it a coordination hub in multi-system enterprise environments

MNDY strengths

→Highly viral product-led growth model drives efficient customer acquisition — monday.com spreads within organizations through team-level adoption (a marketing team adopts monday.com; other departments see it and adopt too); this product-led growth (PLG) reduces customer acquisition cost vs. traditional enterprise sales models
→Platform extensibility enables monday.com to expand into adjacent software markets (CRM, DevOps) — monday's 'Work OS' concept positions the platform as a general-purpose work infrastructure; monday CRM, monday Dev, and monday Service expand the platform beyond core project management; each new product increases ARR per customer and switching costs
→Strong net revenue retention (consistently 110%+) reflects organic expansion within customer accounts — monday.com's best-in-class NRR means existing customers spend more each year; seat expansions, tier upgrades, and cross-product adoption drive organic revenue growth within the existing customer base

Risks to watch — SMAR

→Competition from Microsoft (Project, Planner, Loop) in enterprise work management — Microsoft's work management tools benefit from bundling in Microsoft 365; enterprise IT departments already paying for Microsoft 365 may prefer Microsoft Planner/Project over additional vendor spending on Smartsheet
→Monday.com's faster growth and better user experience erodes Smartsheet's market share — monday.com's more modern UI and marketing-savvy growth strategy is winning newer enterprise customers; Smartsheet's more traditional spreadsheet-inspired UI may appeal less to modern knowledge workers
→Going private (2024 acquisition by Blackstone) removes public market transparency — Smartsheet's acquisition by Blackstone means less public information about competitive dynamics and financial performance

Risks to watch — MNDY

→Competition from Asana, Smartsheet, Microsoft Planner, Notion, Jira (Atlassian), and Salesforce in the crowded work management market — the work management software market is extremely crowded with many well-funded competitors; differentiation is challenging when Microsoft bundles work management tools in Microsoft 365
→Path to enterprise from SMB/mid-market requires different sales motion and product features — monday.com's strength in SMB and mid-market may not translate directly to winning enterprise Fortune 500 accounts where Smartsheet's compliance certifications and deep enterprise governance matter
→Israeli geopolitical risk and development center concentration — monday.com is headquartered in Tel Aviv and has significant development operations in Israel; geopolitical instability in the region represents an operational risk for the company

Frequently asked questions

Traditional project management software: tools like Microsoft Project, Basecamp, or older Primavera software are primarily designed for project managers to plan projects with Gantt charts (timeline-based scheduling), resource allocation (assigning people to tasks), and milestone tracking; these tools are often complex, require dedicated project manager users, and are optimized for formal project methodologies (Waterfall, PMI frameworks). Work management platform: work management platforms (Smartsheet, monday.com, Asana, ClickUp, Notion) take a broader approach — they serve not just professional project managers but all knowledge workers across an organization (marketing teams tracking campaigns, HR teams managing onboarding processes, operations teams tracking procedures, IT teams managing tickets, executives tracking OKRs); work management platforms emphasize: ease of use for non-project-managers; flexible views (grid/list, Kanban board, calendar, Gantt chart, dashboard) that adapt to different workflows; automation (triggers and actions that automate repetitive tasks without coding); collaboration (real-time comments, @mentions, file sharing); and integration with other tools. Why work management has become important: knowledge work has become increasingly complex and distributed (remote teams, cross-functional projects, global operations); email and spreadsheets are inadequate for coordinating complex multi-person workflows; work management platforms provide structured visibility into who is working on what, where things stand, and what's blocking progress; this visibility is valuable both to team members and to managers.

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