# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending March 13, 2020

Published: 12 March 2020
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-march-13-2020

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Light reading this week (jk, jk, lol) from Andrew Chen of a16z: [An 80-page slide deck of the red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics](https://andrewchen.co/investor-metrics-deck/). The article is the better read due to Andrew’s notes - but if you just want the PDF, I got ya, [just click here](http://1g1uem2nc4jy1gzhn943ro0gz50-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/a16z_growth_deck.pdf).

Link: https://andrewchen.co/investor-metrics-deck/

## 2. CONTENT MARKETING

Which this newsletter is packed with, has become a vital piece of tech companies growth strategies and it's bigger than just content now – [it's evolved into full sales enablement](https://www.pointvisible.com/blog/how-content-marketing-boosts-sales-enablement).

Link: https://www.pointvisible.com/blog/how-content-marketing-boosts-sales-enablement

## 3. E-COMMERCE

[E-commerce sales surpassed 10% of total retail sales](https://www.businessinsider.com/ecommerce-topped-10-percent-of-us-retail-in-2019-2020-2/?r=AU&IR=T) in last Q 2019 for the first time ever ($187 billion of almost $1.5 trillion in sales)

Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/ecommerce-topped-10-percent-of-us-retail-in-2019-2020-2/?r=AU&IR=T

## 4. SALES

...of the outbound kind require some serious planning and strategy. Saleshacker are pros in this realm and [list 4 elements needed to execute in this article](https://www.saleshacker.com/getting-started-with-outbound-sales/).

Link: https://www.saleshacker.com/getting-started-with-outbound-sales/

## 5. PODCASTS

Have we reached peak podcast yet? According to [this report from Business Insider](https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxymkaj02hix3ck/bii_podcastindustry_2020.pdf?dl=0), probably not, and podcasting will be a $1 billion industry by 2021. With US listenership having doubled since 2015 and the biggest players being Apple, YouTube, and Spotify. Interesting recycled side-fact: The listening market is a much bigger market for Apple though - their AirPods division alone (so not including Beats or any other audio product) is estimated to [make more money than Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat, and Shopify](https://www.kevinrooke.com/post/apple-airpods-iphone-accessory-or-the-next-big-thing) [COMBINED](https://www.kevinrooke.com/post/apple-airpods-iphone-accessory-or-the-next-big-thing) (thats $12 billion of revenue, 125%+ YoY revenue growth, and gross margins of 30-50% if you don't want to click).

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxymkaj02hix3ck/bii_podcastindustry_2020.pdf?dl=0

## 6. JOBS AND AI

Tricked you - this is not about robots coming for your job. It’s kind of the opposite. According to a [recent report from Zip Recruiter](https://static.ziprecruiter.com/pdf/whitepapers/ZipRecruiter_Future_Of_Work_Report_2019a.pdf), AI jobs accounted for four out of every 1,000 job postings last year. This is waaaaaay up from 2016, when it was one in 1,000. The downside is (and this is a US-centric report) that they are all concentrated in only four U.S. states, the obvious ones: California, Washington, New York, and Massachusetts. Fun Bonus: From CB Insights their [list of the top 100 AI companies](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/artificial-intelligence-top-startups).

Link: https://static.ziprecruiter.com/pdf/whitepapers/ZipRecruiter_Future_Of_Work_Report_2019a.pdf

## 7. FAIL

Failure is a skill. Prove me wrong, and it’s also a culture of safety and permission to be wrong. As many organizations look to best practices from the tech industry, [one hard lesson is that innovation needs a lot of failure before success, something they often do not configure culturally](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/fasttimes/have-you-made-it-safe-to-fail) (cold hard fact: NZ Tall-Poppy syndrome does not help)

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/fasttimes/have-you-made-it-safe-to-fail

## 8. PLG

Another week another Product Lead Growth reference 🙂 Reading this article, I had to take a bit of side-dive into [First Principles Thinking](https://fs.blog/2018/04/first-principles) - [here is how Elon does it for example](https://medium.com/the-mission/elon-musks-3-step-first-principles-thinking-how-to-think-and-solve-difficult-problems-like-a-ba1e73a9f6c0). It made my brain hurt. Now that you are an expert on this principle, [here is First Principle Thinking approach to being a successful Product Lead Growth business](https://productled.com/first-principles-of-a-successful-product-led-growth-strategy).

Link: https://fs.blog/2018/04/first-principles

## 9. MARKETING

From SaaStock [here is a great guide to SaaS Marketing](https://www.saastock.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SaaS-Marketing-eBook.pdf). It’s simple but comprehensive if you are an early/growth stage SaaS founder just getting started with marketing efforts.

Link: https://www.saastock.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SaaS-Marketing-eBook.pdf

## 10. SaaStr

Sadly SaaStr 2020 had to be canceled due to Covid-19 concerns. It’s a wonderful conference full of all kinds of amazing SaaS Content and speakers. So as a shout out to the conference that should-have-been this week here are is a [Massive repository](https://www.slideshare.net/saastr/presentations) of all the slides presented at [SaaStr Annual](https://www.saastrannual.com/) last year.

Link: https://www.slideshare.net/saastr/presentations

## POD OF THE WEEK

As an extension of # 8 above**, its** First Principle Thinking. [Great intro podcast from Scale or Die](https://scale-or-die.simplecast.com/episodes/founder-fridays-first-principles). (Skip the first 2 minutes). The iPhone vs Blackberry analogy was the tipping point example for my brain .

**BONUS:** Is your business looking to hire US Staff some time soon? [Check this webinar from Vistra on employer HR obligations](https://ie.vistra.com/Webinar.2020.03.19.EmployerHRObligations_RegistrationPage.html). All of the head scratching stuff; From benefits and insurance to NO legally mandated Sick Leave or Vacation Days. 1pm Eastern 7am NZDT.

Link: https://scale-or-die.simplecast.com/episodes/founder-fridays-first-principles