# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending May 29, 2020

Published: 29 May 2020
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-may-29-2020

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

For the UX/product people, this one is comprehensive: [20+ User Experience (UX) Metrics Every Product Manager Should Measure](https://sematext.com/blog/ux-metrics)

Link: https://sematext.com/blog/ux-metrics

## 2. GROWTH MARKETING

Want some solid pro-tips on growth marketing ideas that just plain work? [Here are a bunch](https://okdork.com/marketing-ideas-from-intercom/) collated from Intercom - a lot is centered around being user-focused and if you don’t like that one, try this: [Notion’s marketing secrets for those of us with small teams](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/notion-marketing-secrets).

Link: https://okdork.com/marketing-ideas-from-intercom/

## 3. AUSTIN

Not gonna lie - I’m a fan of this city…..and so are Tech Companies - there is a vibrant tech and VC scene down there in the Lone Star state. Crunchbase takes [a look at Austin with a VC lens](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/lower-costs-laid-back-lifestyle-continue-to-draw-tech-to-austin-texas), which experienced [record venture funding levels](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/austin-reaches-top-10-in-us-venture-markets-with-record-funding-in-2019/) in 2019 - $1.84 billion - although 2020 remains obviously a little uncertain.

Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/lower-costs-laid-back-lifestyle-continue-to-draw-tech-to-austin-texas

## 4. SALES

Strategies for a sales team come in many forms (all of which have a LOT of acronyms) - so which one is your team? Take a look [here at this quick reference guide](https://www.vanillasoft.com/resource-center/blog/sales-methodologies-tldr).

Link: https://www.vanillasoft.com/resource-center/blog/sales-methodologies-tldr

## 5. THE SERIES A

Another great experiential story. From a VC perspective, the Series A funding round is a stamp of approval. A legitimization that product-market-fit is evident and that there is a venture-backable market out there for the Business to target. From the PointNine Capital blog comes [the story of how PlayPlay managed to raise their €10M Series A](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/9-tricks-to-be-series-a-ready-f93b2a050c85) (broken down into a digestible 9 point play).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/9-tricks-to-be-series-a-ready-f93b2a050c85

## 6. PR

Getting the elusive positive article in a relevant and respected publication can be absolute gold for any startup. But it’s hardly ever a focus/priority for founders. Check this article - [Startup PR for Dummies](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-to-get-press-coverage-fe9dfb1249c8) - to digest everything a startup needs to understand on how to pursue great coverage (TL;DR it all starts with a great story).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-to-get-press-coverage-fe9dfb1249c8

## 7. B2B MARKETPLACES

Earlier this year I referenced [the Marketplace 100](https://a16z.com/2020/02/18/marketplace-100) from a16z. A ranking of the largest and fastest-growing consumer-facing marketplace startups and private companies and [what might be next](https://a16z.com/2018/11/27/services-marketplaces-service-economy-evolution-whats-next/). This has a heavy Consumer focus - so what about B2B?. [This article discusses current opportunities and challenges for B2B Marketplaces](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/a-primer-on-b2b-marketplaces-challenges-and-opportunities-694a067cec91) (such as Cargo.one, Alibaba, and Amazon Business).

Link: https://a16z.com/2020/02/18/marketplace-100

## 8. CUSTOMER SUCCESS

(Positive) Customer relationships are at the core of every SaaS and subscription company. Negative experiences lead to churn that has a direct impact on the bottom line (duh!). Getting started isn’t as obvious as that last sentence though - check this Profitwell article on [how to get started with a solid customer success strategy](https://www.profitwell.com/blog/customer-success/).

Link: https://www.profitwell.com/blog/customer-success/

## 9. EXPANSION

Up-sell and Cross-sell are [well-documented strategies](https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/#.Xs8Aop4zZTZ) for expanding revenues (especially in this newsletter). Expansion into new markets is another tactic and goParctice go into detail on [how to launch successfully in new (tangental) markets](https://gopractice.io/blog/growing-through-launching-for-new-audiences/).

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks/#.Xs8Aop4zZTZ

## 10. PRODUCT MARKET FIT

How does a company know that they have achieved product-market fit? [Andrew Chen from a16z calls this as a 5% conversion rate](https://andrewchen.co/zero-to-productmarket-fit-presentation/) from free-to-paid, or 3X CPA to LTV ratio, or just a clear path to $100k MRR. [Salesforce.io](http://Salesforce.io) has an [even more in depth deep dive that is also a 56 page Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MjS5hMHeC-SaqgndvdOmbsl__B1TwrRvdJMFVq91gtU/edit#heading=h.jwtr12sxjb1b) on how to find Product-Market Fit in the most capital-efficient and time-efficient way possible.

**BONUS**: We’re all Zoom Pro’s now - so from FYI comes a [jam packed page full of all the stats](https://usefyi.com/zoom-statistics/) you could imagine from Zoom.

Link: https://andrewchen.co/zero-to-productmarket-fit-presentation/

## POD OF THE WEEK

[How to adjust outbound sales](https://predictablerevenue.com/podcast/148-how-to-adjust-outbound-sales-to-this-challenging-professional-climate-with-jason-bay) to this challenging professional climate with Jason Bay.

Link: https://predictablerevenue.com/podcast/148-how-to-adjust-outbound-sales-to-this-challenging-professional-climate-with-jason-bay