# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending February 17, 2023

Published: 16 February 2023
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-february-17-2023

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

[Net Dollar Retention](https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention) is an essential metric in the new world of Product Led Growth. It's used to help answer the following: *Does my Startup need to increase customer acquisition/marketing spend*? Crunchbase has already done the work to calculate what [good NDR benchmarks should look like](https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/net-dollar-retention), but this month, Tomasz Tunguz [looks at what it takes to achieve 200% NDR!](https://tomtunguz.com/two-hundred-percent-ndr/)

Link: https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention

## 2. POC

I switched to proof of concept (POC) based paid trials as part of our enterprise sales process last year, and I like it! It's working well as part of our customer journey and is the fastest [time-to-value](https://baremetrics.com/academy/time-to-value-ttv) metric we can deliver for various enterprise stakeholders. Want to get your POC up and running fast? The team at Work-Bench has a [step-by-step framework AND a template of a POC Agreement for you here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/nkh8hjycokq7l5c/CB-Insights_AI-Trends-2022.pdf?dl=0).

Link: https://baremetrics.com/academy/time-to-value-ttv

## 3. CAP TABLE

How do you best manage dilution from a cap table perspective? Here is [what is considered "Normal,"](https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/how-much-dilution-is-normal) and read this article from Heavybit that [discusses Cap Table management in relation to growth](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/founder-101-almost-everything-you-need-to-know-about-cap-table-management) and [how to manage that Option Pool](https://venturehacks.com/option-pool-shuffle#market).

Link: https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/how-much-dilution-is-normal

## 4. INCENTIVES

Need to move beyond Founder-led sales in your Startup? [Close.com](http://Close.com) has a rundown [of five different kinds of Sales Incentive programs](https://blog.close.com/sales-incentives/), one of which I'm sure would be fit for purpose for you (along with incentives to keep a sales team motivated. [This post from Jason Lemkin also outlines](https://www.saastr.com/a-framework-and-some-ideas-for-your-first-sales-comp-plan) how to construct a framework for your first SaaS sales compensation plans.

Link: http://Close.com

## 5. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

It's a weird open secret that many B2B SaaS businesses generate significant Revenue from implementation and deployment projects, [often captured as Revenue from Professional Services](https://medium.com/@brooke.land/professional-services-and-customer-success-in-saas-startups-7ea002826b4d). This week Dave Kellogg has a post - called the [Professional Services Paradox](https://kellblog.com/2023/02/06/a-tale-of-two-companies-the-professional-services-paradox/), where there are times when only a Startup can deliver the services needed to execute a transformation strategy. BTW - on average, Service Revenue as a percentage of Total Revenue [caps out at 11%](https://www.dropbox.com/s/j0ztl9751c732v2/PS%20as%20percent%20of%20ARR.png?dl=0) with Enterprise focused businesses. However, even at the lower end of town, it's still 5% of revenues with SMB-focused companies. Fun fact: [more professional services, less churn](https://www.dropbox.com/s/wpwh57z8pjynt9g/Services%20vs%20Churn%20-%20SKOK.png?dl=0).

Link: https://medium.com/@brooke.land/professional-services-and-customer-success-in-saas-startups-7ea002826b4d

## 6. SALES

ZoomInfo has unleashed [an excellent playbook for all your business development teams](https://www.dropbox.com/s/iytsz4pr1lv3197/16-go-to-market-plays-book.pdf?dl=0), which I've already shared with my team. The PDF contains 16 of the best go-to-market plays from B2B sales and marketing pros across different sales funnel stages.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iytsz4pr1lv3197/16-go-to-market-plays-book.pdf?dl=0

## 7. DESIGN

One of my many startup hats forces me to spend more time in Canva than I should (even though I'm pretty much canceling my Adobe Subscription as Canva can manage about 95% of my needs) - so this article a) Is visually lovely to look at and b) is in my Bookmarks of guides to reference: [Visual design rules you can safely follow every time](https://anthonyhobday.com/sideprojects/saferules/).

Link: https://anthonyhobday.com/sideprojects/saferules/

## 8. GENERATIVE AI

I bet most of you are already dabblers or active users (\<cough> ChatGPT \<cough>, so this should already be in your tech dictionaries, and by all accounts, [Generative AI will be the next Consumer Platform](https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/everyday-ai-consumer/). The use cases are everywhere - at least for me - and in particular, my new evolving relationship with Search and Google, a targeted integration into the business (KB articles and User Manuals), and my [proximity to code.](https://launchdarkly.com/blog/openai-chatgpt-and-lowering-the-bar-for-code/)

Link: https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/everyday-ai-consumer/

## 9. CAPITAL

The article above on Generative AI then leads into more essential questions as this is a new [functional application layer](https://www.madrona.com/foundation-models/), so [where will the value come from](https://aspiringforintelligence.substack.com/p/parsing-the-app-laye)?

Link: https://www.madrona.com/foundation-models/

## 10. CASE STUDY

Founder-led sales is a well-documented part of the startup journey, often with inexperienced or more technical founders. Here is a list of [10 Founder-Led Sales lessons learned](https://medium.com/racecapital/10-lessons-learned-from-founder-led-sales-for-startups-3b558fd06782) from a recent Race Capital roundtable.

Link: https://medium.com/racecapital/10-lessons-learned-from-founder-led-sales-for-startups-3b558fd06782

## POD OF THE WEEK

SaaStr is now running workshops every Wednesday - a great concept that hopefully lasts. Jessica Bartos of Salesforce Ventures was on the last one and noted that [only 150 private SaaS companies have hit $100m+ ARR](https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1623381316204101633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1623381316204101633%7Ctwgr%5Ee306d237225af77f2ae88e6da3c7a97cadbb8537%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saastr.com%2Fsalesforce-only-150-private-saas-companies-have-hit-100000000-in-arr%2F).

Link: https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1623381316204101633?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1623381316204101633%7Ctwgr%5Ee306d237225af77f2ae88e6da3c7a97cadbb8537%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.saastr.com%2Fsalesforce-only-150-private-saas-companies-have-hit-100000000-in-arr%2F