Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 2, 2026

SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Always a good report - this bookmarkable Guide to SaaS Metrics from equals.com covers all the greatest hits and more (ARPA, LTV:CAC, Burn Multiples, etc.).

SALARIES

Want to retain startup talent? Their pay still matters. This breakdown shows how overall compensation mix (cash vs. equity) impacts retention, with clear data points by role, stage, and geography. Bookmark this for your next comp review for sure.

MEAT PROXIES

Copy the ticket into Claude Code. Don't read the output. Paste reviewer comments back in. Repeat. Who actually did the work here? You're just being a meat proxy, and if that loop works with your brain off, the company can run the loop without you.

RAISE

A whopper guide (149 pages) that provides actionable insights for navigating the complexities of raising capital, covering investor relations, pitching essentials, market awareness, and the fundraising process.

NEGATIVE CAC

Athyna's newsletter will do $750k to $1M this year - this ain't no side project because it also drives 12 to 15% of their pipeline. They call it negative CAC: while we all fight to lower acquisition cost, they friggin' get paid to fill the funnel!

LAW

Not the litigious kind - from CB Insights is a 67-page report covering the 11 laws driving success in tech, such as Amazon's 2-pizza rule, the 80/20 principle, and more.

OPTIONS and ESOP

Stock options are a necessary thing for hiring and retaining the best talent in this hyper-competitive startup land, so how can companies build an effective and compelling option plan? Check this wonderful site that has compiled a set of benchmark data, comprising over 20,000 option grants from more than 1,650 startups across the US and Europe, sorted by Seed or Venture stage.

AI DEBT

The metrics of AI Data Centers are crazy - $4T is the debt hyperscalers and data center operators raise over five years (to build about 70GW and servicing that is gonna need $1.2T to $1.5T in AI revenue (it's $100B to $200B today). His companion post: GPU prices doubled in six months while AI got cheaper, and the metric to watch is gross profit per GPU-hour. Meanwhile, GPU rentals doubled to $8.08/hour in six months, but AI got cheaper, and the metric to watch is gross profit per GPU-hour.

CROSS-SEL

L: Who owns cross-sell at your place: sales, CS, or the AM? This article says the answer is none of them and all of them. It goes to whoever watches the data. For example, if it came from usage, whoever watches usage owns it. If it came from new budget or a new buyer, it's sales. If nobody's sure, it's the AM.

CASE STUDY

LOOPS: Top startups don't grow by accident; they figure out how run growth loops that compound effects. This playbook breaks down tactics from the likes of OpenAI and Pinterest.