Can Sprout Social Survive the SaaSpocalypse with Pernas Research's Deiya Pernas $SPT

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  April 30, 2026 at 10:52  |  50:22  |  Yet Another Value Podcast
Speakers
Deiya Pernas — Co-founder, Pernas Research

Summary

Andrew Walker interviews Deiya Pernas of Pernas Research about Sprout Social and the broader SaaS selloff. Deiya argues the SaaS apocalypse is overblown, especially for smaller application software names, and that Sprout's API relationships, compliance requirements, integrations, and cross-platform role make it more durable than the market believes. He also flags stock-based compensation and the expiration of super-voting rights as catalysts for governance change or a sale. The conversation closes with a broader look at SaaS valuation, AI/agentic risks, M&A, and board compensation issues.

  • Sprout Social is discussed as a beaten-down SaaS name after a roughly 90% drawdown.
  • Deiya argues the market is mispricing Sprout's durability and AI adaptability.
  • API complexity, compliance, integrations, and switching costs support the bull case.
  • Stock-based compensation and dilution are major concerns.
  • Expiration of super-voting rights is seen as a governance catalyst.
  • The broader SaaS selloff may be overblown, but agentic AI risk is acknowledged.
  • Deiya prefers real-world SaaS like Procore and sees M&A potential in small SaaS.
  • The host criticizes board pay and the lack of insider buying in beaten-down SaaS.
Ideas
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 3:59
SaaS selloff misprices Sprout Social's durable advantages.
Deiya's core view is that Sprout Social is being mispriced by the indiscriminate SaaS selloff. The market treats smaller application SaaS as easily replaceable, but Sprout's enterprise social media management platform is becoming a must-have, not nice-to-have. Its privileged API relationships, long-standing compliance and business-verification work, integrations, switching costs, and cross-platform intermediary role make it harder to displace than the market assumes. The company is adapting to AI with Trails and planned agentic announcements, and at roughly 0.6-0.7x EV/sales, not much needs to go right for the stock to double in 12 months.
SPT HIGH
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 5:38
SaaS apocalypse fears are overblown.
Deiya argues the SaaS apocalypse is overblown and becoming indiscriminate, especially for smaller application SaaS. The first leg down on AI/code-generation and agentic fears was partly justified because many SaaS names had been priced as perfect growing annuities. But the market is now applying a simplistic size factor and assuming smaller SaaS tools have no advantages. SaaS incumbents have adapted to prior platform shifts, their economics may not be cannibalized by AI, and there are pockets of value where improving fundamentals can eventually disprove negative perception.
Application SaaS HIGH
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 12:14
Figma's 20x revenue valuation made no sense.
Deiya points to Figma as an example of the prior SaaS valuation excess: it traded around 20x revenue at the start of the year, which he says made no sense. The subsequent de-rating is rational; a good product does not justify that multiple.
FIGMA MED
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 37:43
Larger SaaS may acquire smaller SaaS targets.
Deiya expects larger SaaS companies to acquire smaller SaaS players as they try to add multiple value vectors and become harder to displace. He cites Semrush, which he owned and which was acquired by Adobe after the market overlooked its LLM-search opportunity, as evidence that narrative-mispricing among smaller SaaS can attract strategic buyers. The theme favors small-cap SaaS acquisition targets.
Small-cap SaaS M&A targets MED
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 39:17
Real-world SaaS has durable, defensible advantages.
Deiya prefers SaaS companies integrated with physical-world, old-economy workflows because they are more essential and defensible than pure digital tools. These platforms embed into real-world operations and compliance, making them harder to replace even in an agentic AI world, and they should retain durable touchpoints with customers.
SaaS with real-world components MED
Deiya Pernas Co-founder, Pernas Research 39:26
Procore's real-world construction niche is defensible.
Procore is Deiya's example of a real-world SaaS platform: it connects architects, developers, legal, compliance, and construction workflows for large real estate projects, has become essential, and has entrenched itself with larger projects. That makes it defensible, but he notes it is not trading cheaply, so the setup is more watchlist than a clear value buy.
PCOR MED
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This Yet Another Value Podcast video, published April 30, 2026, features Deiya Pernas discussing SPT, Application SaaS, FIGMA, Small-cap SaaS M&A targets, SaaS with real-world components, PCOR. 6 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Deiya Pernas  · Tickers: SPT, Application SaaS, FIGMA, Small-cap SaaS M&A targets, SaaS with real-world components, PCOR