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Toast: Sticky SaaS - [Business Breakdowns, EP.247]

business-breakdowns-podcast economics-business-work May 29, 2026 source →
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105
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economics-business-work
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6 min
Record
Toast: Sticky SaaS - [Business Breakdowns, EP.247]

Claims from this story

Every atomic assertion extracted from the underlying record, ranked by evidence strength.

Toast is the category killer for F&B point of sale and software.

direct_quotestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions.

direct_quotestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

direct_quotestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Hosts, podcast guests, their employers, or affiliates may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast.

direct_quotestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast is a 15% position for Counter Global.

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Toast does about $2 billion of recurring gross profit.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast has about 35% EBITDA margins.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast is still growing very quickly, with 25%+ gross profit growth.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast is currently trading at 18 times next year's GAAP PE.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast is a durable 20%+ revenue compounder and 30%+ EPS compounder.

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Two-thirds of Toast's gross profit comes from payments.

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One-third of Toast's gross profit comes from software.

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Toast's gross profit is "reoccurring" in nature because customers cannot run their business without it.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Colossus aims to bring business lessons and secrets to investors and operators.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

The current market transformation with AI rhymes with the 2015 period when AWS made open-source software widely available.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

In 2015, public companies' software multiples collapsed to 3-4 times revenue.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Today, Toast is a very profitable business with 35% EBITDA margins and five unlocked TAMs.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast expanded into enterprise, grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations, and hotels (F&B and retail).

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast has built an international team and product, live in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Canada.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast has been a 97th percentile grower in public markets for the last three years.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast is a modern multi-tenant SaaS solution, allowing rapid deployment of updates and new AI models.

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Toast has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of roughly 50.

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95% of Toast respondents indicate they would recommend Toast.

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On average, customers use seven Toast modules.

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Toast has about a 20% share of the U.S. restaurant market.

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Toast serves more than 160,000 locations.

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Toast is winning roughly half of all new restaurant openings in the U.S.

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Toast's growth is product-led and leads to rapid market share expansion.

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Network effects in the restaurant industry are strong, with top players often reaching 40-50% share.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

For a $100 dinner order, about 3% is interchange, $2.50 goes to banks/networks, and 49 basis points (50 cents) goes to Toast as net take rate.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast's 49 basis points net take rate has been moving up over time.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast's net take rate is reasonably under-monetized compared to competitors (75-125 bps).

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast has about $200 billion of volume on its platform, making it one of the biggest merchants in the US.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Square monetizes at about a 1% gross profit net take rate across its business.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast charges customers $300-$500 a month for its software suite.

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The average Toast customer pays about $10,000 a year to Toast.

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The average Toast customer has $1.3 million of revenue.

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Hardware is a loss leader for Toast.

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Every Toast customer must have Toast hardware.

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Competitors who tried to use iPads for POS failed because iPads don't work well in restaurants.

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Toast's hardware is powerful and preferred by customers.

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Toast's management says they can maintain 20%+ growth for many years ahead.

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Toast's margins have gone from -16% in 2022 to roughly 35% today.

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Toast's margins are projected to reach 40%+ and continue growing.

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R&D expense in dollar terms has barely grown in the last two years while the business doubled in size.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

AI is widening the gap for Toast versus its competitors.

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Toast IQ is a conversational AI offering combined with a system of action.

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50% of Toast customers actively use Toast AI (Toast IQ) on a weekly basis.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast Grow is an automated marketing engine for restaurants.

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Toast Grow costs about $500 a month as a SaaS module.

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Toast Grow has shown an 8% uplift in total revenue for customers.

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Toast Grow offers about a 20X ROI for customers.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

A typical restaurant might have 10% margins.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

A typical Toast customer has something more like 15% margins.

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About half of the market is still on legacy platforms like NCR Aloha and Oracle Micros.

paraphrasemeasuredeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026

Toast was the first successful scaled cloud-based disruptor in the restaurant POS market.

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Square has about 5-10% of the restaurant market.

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Clover has about a 15% share of the restaurant market.

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Clover is losing share due to lack of innovation.

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DoorDash has been piloting POS solutions with its customers.

paraphrasestatedeconomics-business-workMay 29, 2026