# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending June 10, 2022

Published: 9 June 2022
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-june-10-2022

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Beyond Customer Satisfaction Surveys or Net Promoter Scores is this idea of a [Customer Engagement Score](https://www.salesforce.com/resources/articles/what-is-customer-engagement-score/). This is a valuable tool for managing a company's customer base, making segment decisions easy, therefore enabling different priorities and engagement strategies - and measuring the impact of those strategies over time. [So get started reading this article](https://userpilot.com/blog/customer-engagement-score/).

Link: https://www.salesforce.com/resources/articles/what-is-customer-engagement-score/

## 2. VALUE-BASED PRICING

It's a tough nut to crack as it makes the most of the maximum cost customers would be willing to pay for a product or service - this means there is no magic guesswork or thumb-suck number. These prices need to be arrived at Empirically. [Paddle.com](http://Paddle.com) have a [pretty good guide on what this means](https://paddle.com/blog/how-to-calculate-implement-value-based-pricing) (with examples), and [Profitwell has a comprehensive guide on making it happen](https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/value-based-pricing) (and how to go about calculating/measuring it).

Link: http://Paddle.com

## 3. PRODUCT BENCHMARKS

For those starting or deep into product-led growth, this report is for you. It's year 3 of the Openview product Benchmark Reports - [downloadable here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2d7gwyb68v877u/2022%20OpenView%20Product%20Benchmarks%20Report.pdf?dl=0). Products continue to perform well as acquisition, conversion, and expansion tools, so this is an excellent report to gauge what's good vs. what is great for product conversion. In a hurry to benchmark yourself? [Use this interactive calculator](https://openviewpartners.com/2022-product-benchmarks-calculator) to see how your user journey compares to businesses of a similar size and scale. FUN FACT: 61% of companies in [the Cloud 100](https://www.bvp.com/cloud100)—including Calendly, Amplitude, and GitLab—leverage a PLG model.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h2d7gwyb68v877u/2022%20OpenView%20Product%20Benchmarks%20Report.pdf?dl=0

## 4. CUSTOMER JOURNEY

What the heck is a Customer Journey anyway, and [why do you need to create one](https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/customer-journey/)? OK - so now you know you need one; mapping[out a Customer Success Journey via a visual map](https://www.custify.com/how-to-create-a-customer-success-journey-map) is a great way to tell what areas a Customer Success Team need to be involved in (and what their responsibilities will be) [via a variety of engagement models](https://www.gainsight.com/blog/map-customer-journey-engagement-models/). And a "complete guide" with some great, modern templates [can be found here.](https://uxcam.com/blog/user-journey-map/)

Link: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/customer-journey/

## 5. VALUATION MULTIPLES

By now, we all should be aware that Companies looking to raise in 2022 should be prepared for a compression in valuation and possibly a down round. [This article has looked at valuation multiples](https://saasoptics.com/blog/saas-valuation-multiples-decoded) based on the [SaaS Capital Index](https://www.saas-capital.com/the-saas-capital-index/) and the [Bessemer Emerging Cloud Index](https://cloudindex.bvp.com/) for insight. [This chart, in particular, is interesting](https://saasoptics.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2022-04-22-at-10.17.06-AM-1024x673.png) - as it shows that most of the crazy valuation increases in 2020-2022 are attributable to companies added to the index since 2019. Growth is still the most crucial valuation driver.

Link: https://saasoptics.com/blog/saas-valuation-multiples-decoded

## 6. FUNDING

Backing up #5 - [According to Crunchbase News](https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-venture-capital-funding-data-monthly-recap-may-2022/), global venture funding continued downward for May '22. $39 billion in total, which is down 14% from April. Good news! It's mainly on the big-deal end of town. The seed stage is fairing pretty well - no real change from April ($3.1 Billion).

Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-venture-capital-funding-data-monthly-recap-may-2022/

## 7. CLOUD

[Battery Ventures](https://www.battery.com/) historically published an annual Cloud Report, and while attempting the 2022 version, the market was changing so fast that they had to keep re-writing it. So they have switched to a Quarterly edition, which [you can view here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/3kdtrds9ukil6gn/Battery%27s%20Cloud%20Quarterly%20-%20Q1%202022.pdf?dl=0). It's a dense 40-page document, but, as we know, valuations have plummeted, and the big takeaway is that investors are shifting their focus quite dramatically from growth to profitability.

Link: https://www.battery.com/

## 8. SUPER PUMPED

OK - So I super binged [SuperPumped](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNn8YJYAyEo) (aka Uber: The Travis-Bro Years) last week and really enjoyed the show. Bill Gurley is one of the main protagonists and a real-life Silicon Valley VC - so sure enough, he is getting some press at present. Fair enough - he is a legendary venture capital investor known for betting big on companies outside of Uber, such as Dropbox, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Zillow. [This is a deep dive into his 25 years of experience](https://macro-ops.com/the-bill-gurley-chronicles-an-above-the-crowd-mba-on-vcs-marketplaces-and-early-stage-investing/) via every blog post he's ever written.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNn8YJYAyEo

## 9. COGS

Not every listing I write has to be exciting; important is just as important. SaaS P&Ls are structured in specific ways, and defining what goes into the cost of goods sold (COGS) section is....important. So [take a good read of what the SaaSCFO recommends to include](https://www.thesaascfo.com/what-should-be-included-in-saas-cogs). Bit of an eye-opener for me - where do you record your Support, Professional Services and Customer Success expenses?

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/what-should-be-included-in-saas-cogs

## 10. CASE STUDY

Slack! I've written before on the fascinating [week in the life of Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield via a Tweet storm](https://twitter.com/stewart/status/1243000487365861376) - but this week (and complimenting #3 above) is the Slack growth formula of [getting from 0 to 10 million users](https://foundationinc.co/lab/slack-viral-growth-formula/). PLG, of course - but it was called "going viral" or "growth hacking" back in the early days. These days Slack is at [about 12 million users](https://www.businessofapps.com/data/slack-statistics/) and was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 Billion at the end of 2020.

Link: https://twitter.com/stewart/status/1243000487365861376

## POD OF THE WEEK

From SaaStr, a VCs perspective on [where the venture markets really are today](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GulTkc20W4Zzaf4b0kHgW?go=1&sp_cid=036cb3e3396f04824b4adc5970847ec4&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1) (recorded late last month).

Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5GulTkc20W4Zzaf4b0kHgW?go=1&sp_cid=036cb3e3396f04824b4adc5970847ec4&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1