# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending April 19, 2019

Published: 19 April 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-april-19-2019

## 1. SUBSCRIPTION CHURN

As big brands (like Disney and [Apple](https://medium.com/@bethanymarz/by-the-numbers-a-snapshot-of-women-in-vc-f8fc4b00514f)) move into services, and in particular the [heavily saturated Streaming services industry](https://www.parksassociates.com/blog/article/pr-11092017), a big [challenge](https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/technology/digital-media-trends-consumption-habits-survey/summary.html) will be “[Sub Fatigue](https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-apple-streaming-service-subscription-fatigue-20190325-story.html)” - which equates to one of the most [fatal of recurring revenue metrics: Churn](http://thein.fo/e6e0566b005dece4).

Link: https://medium.com/@bethanymarz/by-the-numbers-a-snapshot-of-women-in-vc-f8fc4b00514f

## 2. NETWORKING

The [Dunbar Number](https://medium.com/@social_archi/dunbars-number-1a8d75b94576) is another new phrase for your startup vocabulary: Despite the proliferation of social media and the digital world, the human brain still cannot maintain more than about 150 to maybe 180 meaningful relationships. [Network quality over quantity is the lesson](https://www.saleshacker.com/dunbars-number-network) for our unscalable minds.

Link: https://medium.com/@social_archi/dunbars-number-1a8d75b94576

## 3. UNICORNS

As the 2019 [tech IPO advance begins](https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-startups-going-public-2019-rumored-ipos-2019-2) it’s becoming evident that Unicorns tech companies [still aren’t profitable and investors still have a large tolerance](https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/26/unicorns-arent-profitable-wall-street-doesnt-care) for [outsized exits](https://avc.com/2019/04/the-ipo-bonanza) (one of NZ’s best Unicorns, PushPay, differed from that mold however and [announced profitability in the last quarter](https://irssl.q4europe.com/IR/Files/ClientAdmin/DownloadCenter/14210082/2019-02-06-21-08-34/Pushpays%20revenue%20up%2035.2%20gross%20margin%20percentage%20improvement%20EBITDAF%20and%20cash%20flow%20positive.pdf)).

Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-startups-going-public-2019-rumored-ipos-2019-2

## 4. AIRBNB

From a revenues perspective, [Airbnb is now bigger than Hilton](https://www.recode.net/2019/3/25/18276296/airbnb-hotels-hilton-marriott-us-spending) (and owns about 20% of the US market). They are continuing to widen focus in readiness for their IPO later this year and [acquired HotelTonight](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2019/03/07/airbnb-to-buy-hoteltonight-as-it-pushes-deeper-into-hotel-booking-business/#4e084eef7817) last month, and earlier this month [invested about $150m in Indian Startup OYO](https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/01/airbnb-oyo-investment).

Link: https://www.recode.net/2019/3/25/18276296/airbnb-hotels-hilton-marriott-us-spending

## 5. VALUATIONS

Last month I referenced [some sobering thoughts on the current state of the VC marketplace](https://medium.com/angularventures/stop-counting-unicorns-3a303dbfce4b). But for startups at the earlier stage, how do valuations get assessed? Especially when there is very little traction or data to go on. [Jason Calacanis discusses this in more detail on his blog](https://calacanis.com/2019/03/30/the-valuation-vs-traction-matrix) (and with a handy, but poorly drawn, matrix).

Link: https://medium.com/angularventures/stop-counting-unicorns-3a303dbfce4b

## 6. VENTURE CAPITAL

[Clearbanc](https://clearbanc.com/) has plans to disrupt venture capital. The company is looking to [give 2,000 new businesses up to $1B by the end of 2019](https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/03/clearbanc-plans-to-disrupt-venture-capital-with-the-20-min-term-sheet). With their "[20 Min Term Sheet](https://www.20mintermsheet.com/)", Clearbanc offers between $10K and $10M to fund a new company within 48 hours(!!!!) and will continue to invest as long as two key metrics are met: spend and unit economics.

Link: https://clearbanc.com/

## 7. CONNECTIVITY IN THE HOME

From Business Insider this is a [Teleco and Technology Forecast Book for 2019](https://nztradeandenterprise-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/jon_davies_nzte_govt_nz/EUPq8qOi3llBhjtNu92hQXwB9_P015T44HucJORTNVZsDw?e=xg4kvZ). Everything you wanted to know about Smart Speakers, Smart TV’s, Streaming, 5G and AR/VR shipments.

Link: https://nztradeandenterprise-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/jon_davies_nzte_govt_nz/EUPq8qOi3llBhjtNu92hQXwB9_P015T44HucJORTNVZsDw?e=xg4kvZ

## 8. SaaS CAPITAL

Do SaaS Startups Still Require Less Capital than 10 Years Ago? [Tomasz Tunguz takes a look](https://tomtunguz.com/capital-efficiency-five-years-later/). TL;DR: Nope, efficiencies are on the decline….a lot. Reasons are more available capital, more competition, and increased wages.

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/capital-efficiency-five-years-later/

## 9. SPACE TECH

I love living in a timeline where this is actually a thing - Venture Capital investment in space tech is reaching new heights (hah!). Crunchbase [take a look at the current state of the sector](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/space-tech-rockets-higher) and, of course, NZ’s own [RocketLab](https://www.rocketlabusa.com/) is in there! In further RocketLab news, they are also headed into the upsell business and [getting into Satellite manufacturing](https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/8/18299685/rocket-lab-photon-satellite-prograom-electron-rocket-kick-stage)

Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/space-tech-rockets-higher

## 10. SALES BENCHMARKS

Saving the best for last from Salesforce on industry [benchmarks for sales pipeline management](https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/11/b2b-sales-benchmark-research-finds-some-pipeline-surprises-infographic-gp.html). Share this with any b2b customer!!! Sales Qualified Lead to Customer for Events are 1%. For word of mouth its 15x that at 14.7%.

Link: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/11/b2b-sales-benchmark-research-finds-some-pipeline-surprises-infographic-gp.html

## POD OF THE WEEK

The catalyst sale podcast ask the question ["Is Sales an Agile Process?"](http://catalystsale.libsyn.com/137-is-sales-an-agile-process-repost)

**BONUS**: [Google Marketing Conference](https://adsonair.withgoogle.com/events/marketinglive)- This is a two-day online and LiveStream event - learn new best practices of leveraging the Google platforms

Link: http://catalystsale.libsyn.com/137-is-sales-an-agile-process-repost