# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending June 4, 2021

Published: 4 June 2021
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-june-4-2021

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: CHURN

Profitwell has [a complete guide to understanding, calculating, and reducing churn](https://www.dropbox.com/s/rur9v3ilax2o9tz/ChurnEbookFinal.pdf?dl=0), which they call "the silent killer of subscription businesses”. This is much more than a download as it’s pretty much an eBook. After you have read that - head [over here to benchmark your Churn](https://paddle.com/blog/saas-churn-rate/) based on growth rates and sector sourced by [paddle.com](http://paddle.com) (SaaS is overall on average 4.79%).

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rur9v3ilax2o9tz/ChurnEbookFinal.pdf?dl=0

## 2. MARKETING AND SALES

Hubspot continues to benchmark Pandemic-times data for core business metrics like website traffic, email send and open rates, sales engagements, close rates, and more (aggregated from their global customer base of over 70,000 companies). It’s an incredibly useful tool as a benchmark to measure your business against. Explore all the [benchmark data here](https://www.hubspot.com/covid-data?_ga=2.200252582.987809079.1589328818-2082145985.1460072125&category=total&topic=deal-pipelines&subTopic=deals-created&drilldown=null) or check this week's summary [here](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/covid-19-benchmark-data-edition5).

Link: https://www.hubspot.com/covid-data?_ga=2.200252582.987809079.1589328818-2082145985.1460072125&category=total&topic=deal-pipelines&subTopic=deals-created&drilldown=null

## 3. CUSTOMERS

What exactly ***is*** the difference between Customer Success and Customer Support? [Get started here](https://blog.totango.com/2020/10/customer-success-vs-customer-support-what-are-the-differences-fc) to understand the nuances, they are both parts of the same customer journey spectrum, and [Totango](https://www.totango.com/) posits, [in this recent SaaStr Annual presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63fsg2Ha39A), that we need a fresher look at Success and Support that they coin the “Customer Operating System” (Like the presso? [Here are the Google Slides deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vTWX7PAduzydSRYf3xtrDdSb-k6-zvGaJMkv-6_ebTML3Dk68c3HWgdIHn5f924bjClTheAxX90pv4m/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&_hsmi=94995844&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--XE7fEBjetFNx0zVOD5vrOJogrdF0FrFciO3xVh71RVEzkRfeA45RZJnPzOnq_J6IxrTji9SfDBnLiqh0tYdLEfi4Jmw&slide=id.g63bb278342_0_210)).

Link: https://blog.totango.com/2020/10/customer-success-vs-customer-support-what-are-the-differences-fc

## 4. DILUTION

Did I scare you? It's one of the most feared words a founder can hear. So here we go - let's make it a benchmark. What is the average ownership percentage by SaaS Founders at the time of IPO? [Sammy Abdullah takes a review](https://blossomstreetventures.medium.com/saas-founders-owned-14-at-ipo-85556724dff1) and the median level of founders ownership is 14% while the average is 23% with VCs owning about 54% on the median. Obviously, there is a significant difference in Bootstrapped vs not in this dataset.

Link: https://blossomstreetventures.medium.com/saas-founders-owned-14-at-ipo-85556724dff1

## 5. PRICING

It's a new month - so time for a whole new pricing bit. This one is interesting as the author is pitching [a new, better (gasp!), way to decide your product pricing](https://tips.ariyh.com/p/better-way-to-decide-your-pricing) HINT: It's all about how you ask the question and this variant on how to [research and implement a value-based pricing model](https://paddle.com/resources/guide-to-value-based-pricing/).

Link: https://tips.ariyh.com/p/better-way-to-decide-your-pricing

## 6. UNSHIPPING

Here is another term for your Tech Dictionaries - when is it time to remove or deprecate features and products? We all cheered when [Microsoft announced the end of Internet Explorer](https://www.wired.com/story/internet-explorer-browser-dead/) last week, so how can you and your team make the decision of when to unship something? [Check here](https://www.reforge.com/blog/unshipping-features) - a great article covering this topic from Reforge with evaluation criteria and real-world examples from Slack and Mixpanel.

Link: https://www.wired.com/story/internet-explorer-browser-dead/

## 7. HAMBURGER MODEL

The second (but weirder) one for the Tech Dictionaries this week. It's [a modern go-to-market strategy in this PLG (Product Led Growth) SaaS era](https://caryn-marooney.medium.com/the-hamburger-gtm-the-winning-go-to-market-strategy-cb553cb105b9). The bottom bun is self-service PLG and the top bun is enterprise sales your product is the meat in the middle. Want an example? Check this week's Case Study on Vimeo - 75% bottom Bun - 25% top bun.

Link: https://caryn-marooney.medium.com/the-hamburger-gtm-the-winning-go-to-market-strategy-cb553cb105b9

## 8. SOCIAL MEDIA

When is the best time to post on social media in 2021 (where social media became more important than ever)? [This article has your answer](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/)for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin across a bunch of industries - cool stuff!

Link: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/

## 9. UNICORNS

2021 is not mucking around when it comes to these pointy-headed companies. [There have been more unicorns minted in the past 5 months (Jan - May) than all of 2020](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/growth-firms-the-most-active-investors-doubling-down-on-new-unicorns-this-year/). These aren't all SaaS companies - but most are.

Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/growth-firms-the-most-active-investors-doubling-down-on-new-unicorns-this-year/

## 10. CASE STUDY

Vimeo is now at [$330,000,000 in ARR - growing at 56% YoY](https://www.saastr.com/5-interesting-learnings-from-vimeo-at-330000000-in-arr) with just 674 employees, 40% of which are female - and this growth is 75% Self-service PLG driven and 50% occurs outside of the US.

Link: https://www.saastr.com/5-interesting-learnings-from-vimeo-at-330000000-in-arr

## POD OF THE WEEK

Continuing from #1 above - customer churn is the bane of a SaaS business - [data can help understand the causes of churn and take action to reduce it](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4FaTXmRHLSiyfrir3Wzbgl).

Link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4FaTXmRHLSiyfrir3Wzbgl