# January 15th, 2026

Published: 16 January 2026
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/january-15th-2026

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Fundraising Metrics. Make your fundraising way less chaotic by [getting these metrics dialed in](https://wrap-text.equals.com/p/saas-metrics-for-fundraising). Unless you are [pre-revenue](https://www.antler.co/academy/pre-seed-metrics), Investors will expect to see detailed ARR, CAC, LTV, retention rates, and engagement metrics. A strong data deck (or data room) can answer investors' questions and show a clear path to growth.

Link: https://wrap-text.equals.com/p/saas-metrics-for-fundraising

## 2. PRICING

Kicking off this new year right with [some pricing upgrade levers that may actually work for ya](https://newsletter.pricingsaas.com/p/5-pricing-ideas-to-drive-upgrades). You can kill monthly billing to reduce early churn on agentic products; Remove seat limits but tighten usage caps tied to value; Raise entry-tier pricing to "encourage" upgrades.

Link: https://newsletter.pricingsaas.com/p/5-pricing-ideas-to-drive-upgrades

## 3. CAPITAL

Oh! Is your AI stack quietly funded by junk bonds? Tom Tunguz [breaks down how hyperscalers are leaning hard on debt to finance their AI capex](https://tomtunguz.com/is-your-ai-funded-by-junk-bonds/) - the AI biz model here is seriously mad, commodity-based products that need tens of billions in data center, GPU, and power financing- and what happens if growth slows before cash flows catch up?

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/is-your-ai-funded-by-junk-bonds/

## 4. BRAND vs DEMAND

In a recent survey, 1[68 B2B CMOs say brand matters](https://www.carilu.com/p/brand-vs-demand-isnt-a-budget-fight), but the reality is that their budgets don't back that up. Actual spend sits at ~70% demand / ~25–30% brand, even though the ideal mix looks closer to 50% / 40%. 73% believe brand makes demand more efficient, yet only 28% can tie their brand to pipeline - so when cuts come, 55% protect demand and just 11% protect brand. Which brings us to the second part: [reach is a brand-based challenge](https://mnorthfield.substack.com/p/reach-is-not-a-vanity-metric). Brand expands the pool; demand converts it - nice little sales tech-ism for the week.

Link: https://www.carilu.com/p/brand-vs-demand-isnt-a-budget-fight

## 5. EDUCATION

A follow-up from all of the above (2-4) - Clouded Judgement makes a sharp point most AI startups miss: [education IS the go-to-market](https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/p/clouded-judgement-1926-the-education) (see #4 above). Buyers don’t know what to build, let alone buy (see #3 for that). The winners teach the market which problems matter, how they should be solved, and why their worldview is right. Free tiers, sandboxes, fast time-to-value aren’t growth hacks - they’re education engines (see #2). Until customers learn by doing, demand stalls or churns.

Link: https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/p/clouded-judgement-1926-the-education

## 6. LEADERSHIP

When you take a look around, most leaders perform with certainty. [This article argues that it’s a risk](https://angryweasel.substack.com/p/leadership-is-a-constant-experiment). The best leaders run leadership similar to GTM teams: small experiments, fast feedback, public learning. Shorter cycles beat perfect plans, curiosity beats confidence (and IMO teams trust you more when you stop pretending you have the answers).

Link: https://angryweasel.substack.com/p/leadership-is-a-constant-experiment

## 7. DEV

Has the cost of shipping software dropped due to AI? [This piece makes a serious case that agentic coding collapses implementation time](https://martinalderson.com/posts/has-the-cost-of-software-just-dropped-90-percent/), not thinking time. Month-long internal tools now ship in days. Coordination overhead disappears. $50k builds become $5k problems. The real moat isn’t necessarily the code anymore - it’s domain knowledge plus taste. And don't forget - all those people with knowledge have to come up the ranks somewhere.

Link: https://martinalderson.com/posts/has-the-cost-of-software-just-dropped-90-percent/

## 8. SYSTEM OF RECORDS

Another Clouded Judgement article, and this is my wheelhouse, so [this spoke to me](https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/p/clouded-judgement-121225-long-live) - sure AI is cool - but the harder automation gets, the more enterprises need a hard core (and un-cool) source of truth that agents can reliably read/write. Systems of record don’t disappear; they get embedded as the truth layers that govern agent workflows and outputs.

Link: https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/p/clouded-judgement-121225-long-live

## 9. REQUIREMENTS

This is also my wheelhouse, and I'm sure it's the same for many of you B2B-SaaS operators. Most projects/implementations don’t exactly start with clarity, but they do start with intent. [This product-focused article](https://pmresearcher.substack.com/p/planning-without-pretending) argues the real skill isn’t forcing certainty early, it’s moving forward without pretending (I call it holding hands in the fog). Progressive elaboration and rolling-wave planning let you extract the signals from complexity, commit where you can, and deliberately leave the rest provisional/in the backlog. It’s a great article to frame how you can create momentum without boxing yourself into poor decisions or plans.

Link: https://pmresearcher.substack.com/p/planning-without-pretending

## 10. CASE STUDY

Series B+ raises. Most of us should be so lucky to get to this stage, but how do you raise funds beyond Series B (roughly 15% that raise seed make it to Series B). [Scale Ventures’ Stacey Bishop gives the lowdown](https://www.saastr.com/what-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-next-level-of-funding-after-series-b-with-scale-ventures-stacey-bishop).

Link: https://www.saastr.com/what-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-next-level-of-funding-after-series-b-with-scale-ventures-stacey-bishop

## POD OF THE WEEK

Two enterprise AI operators who’ve shipped 50+ AI products (across OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Databricks) [break down what actually works when building and scaling AI](https://youtube.com/watch?v=z7T1pCxgvlA&feature=youtu.be).

Link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=z7T1pCxgvlA&feature=youtu.be