# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 6, 2026

Published: 6 November 2026
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-november-6-2026

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

REVENUE MULTIPLES: Enterprise value divided by next-twelve-months revenue, and historically 10x has been the premium tier. But the juicy revenue multiples only come while you're growing 30%+ (that's doubling in about three years). Slip under that and buyers stop paying for your trajectory and start pricing your EBITDA. [CJ Gustafson's](https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/should-you-trade-off-a-revenue-or-ebitda-multiple) worst place to be: 20-30% growth with no profits.

Link: https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/should-you-trade-off-a-revenue-or-ebitda-multiple

## 2. BUYERS vs USERS

The person writing you a check is not necessarily the same person getting value out of your business. So take a read of [this insightful article from HeavyBit](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/messaging-to-the-user-vs-the-buyer-is-there-a-difference/) on differentiating messaging based on this premise and [the different profiles](https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/ideal-customer-profiles-and-buyer-personas-are-they-different).

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/messaging-to-the-user-vs-the-buyer-is-there-a-difference/

## 3. AI ECONOMICS

Check out [these four layers of AI](https://tomtunguz.com/the-four-questions-of-ai/). If you build SaaS, then you're at the top of that stack, and your question should be whether users still need your interface or if agents just call you headless (or both?). Below you on the stack: who owns the AI harness, when the model training stops paying back, and whether credit, GPU, and power can keep up. Tunguz's point is they all move together.

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/the-four-questions-of-ai/

## 4. BUY vs BUILD

Fast follow to #3 above but taking a customer view to that stack: every time the models get better, so does your customer's DIY option. If a straight prompt to some new frontier model beats your product, why keep paying your premium? [a16z's three rules](https://www.a16z.news/p/how-ai-applications-earn-their-premium) for earning it: run the workflow better than the customer can, make your context cheaper to rent from you than to rebuild, and prove the value before you price it.

Link: https://www.a16z.news/p/how-ai-applications-earn-their-premium

## 5. REVIEWS

AI gets you on the shortlist, but it ain't closing the sale. Only 5% of shoppers buy on the spot when an AI assistant recommends something. Most check details first - 33% head to the reviews and 22% compare prices (PartnerCentric) - and a third say shipping and return policies change what they buy. [Modern Retail rounds up the holiday data](https://www.modernretail.co/ai-strategies/ai-boosts-discovery-but-reviews-still-seal-the-deal-new-research-shows/).

Link: https://www.modernretail.co/ai-strategies/ai-boosts-discovery-but-reviews-still-seal-the-deal-new-research-shows/

## 6. CAPITAL

Anthropic has [filed for a US IPO](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/02/anthropic-ant-s-1-quarter-financials.html) that could value it at up to US$2 trillion, even making a lil' profit! Meanwhile, OpenAI has serious [problems securing money in its next round](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-raises-less-than-half-of-30-billion-target-in-latest-round-91aecdc5?st=a8XRE1).

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/02/anthropic-ant-s-1-quarter-financials.html

## 7. DIGITAL MINIMALISM

New phrase for our Tech Dictionaries - Vitalik Buterin (who's the Ethereum guy) reckons AI can do for digital minimalism what the internet did for owning less stuff. [His experiments](https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/10/31/digital_minimalism.html): 100 days with his phone on airplane mode, ditching X's interface (but not X) for a client with no algorithm, and swapping web apps for command-line tools (some written for him by AI).

Link: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2026/10/31/digital_minimalism.html

## 8. ADVERTISING

A meaty one from Primer on B2B paid ads - 379 advertisers across Google, LinkedIn and Meta, real spend data (not a survey) through August. The big finding: HOW you sell predicts your ad mix better than WHO you sell to. ABM companies put \~30% of budget into LinkedIn, PLG \~12%, and demand gen goes \~62% to Google. [There's a lookup table](https://www.sayprimer.com/blog/state-of-b2b-paid-advertising-2026) to find your own row by motion and buyer, which is cool.

Link: https://www.sayprimer.com/blog/state-of-b2b-paid-advertising-2026

## 9. TENURE

Fast follow from #2 above - if you sell to marketing or sales leaders, your champion might not be there at renewal time. CMOs and CROs last [1.8 years on average](https://www.saastr.com/just-how-long-does-the-average-cmo-and-cro-last-the-data-from-14000-execs/), the shortest of any exec role (Pave data, 14,000 execs), so about 1 in 3 turn over every year. SaaStr sees it with its own sponsors: around half the marketing leaders are gone by renewal time.

Link: https://www.saastr.com/just-how-long-does-the-average-cmo-and-cro-last-the-data-from-14000-execs/

## 10. CASE STUDY

BRAZE: Week three of who's buying software companies ([Bending Spoons](https://www.top10in.tech/posts/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-october-23-2026) on Oct 23, [Long Lake](https://www.top10in.tech/posts/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-october-30-2026) last week). This time it's the classic strategic buyer: Salesforce is paying $5.66B for Braze, 6.8x revenue, when the market had it at 3.7x the day before. [Lemkin pulls out 5 lessons](https://www.saastr.com/5-interesting-learnings-from-braze-at-910-million-in-revenue-a-5-66b-sale-to-salesforce-26-growth-and-operating-expenses-up-just-6/), including how Braze grew revenue 26% while opex grew just 6% (and see #1 on why strategic buyers look past your EBITDA).

Link: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-october-23-2026

## POD OF THE WEEK

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on why we're still a long way from AI fully improving itself, and why everyone, Google included, is [short on compute](https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/far-from-rsi-compute-shortages-google). Plus Google's got some TPUs in space.

Link: https://www.bigtechnology.com/p/far-from-rsi-compute-shortages-google