# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 11, 2019

Published: 10 October 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-october-11-2019

## 1. EARLY STAGE CAPITAL (DEEP DIVE)

Last month I referenced that [deal size inflation](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/china-slips-as-the-us-takes-commanding-lead-in-supergiant-funding-rounds/) isn’t just happening at the high end of town. Tomasz Tunguz [takes an interesting view of this trend this week](https://tomtunguz.com/the-radically-different-early-stage-fundraising-market/), by breaking down early stage fundraising as a collection of products (such as a $5m Series A or a $10m Series B). This is a great read - in 2010 it was very likely that a business raised a $1M round before raising a $3-5M dollar round. Today, the first institutional round of capital is $3-5M in 54% of cases. Crunchbase backs this up, noting that the annual quantity of seed rounds of $5 million or more [quadrupled from 2014 to 2018](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/more-supergiant-seed-rounds-are-sprouting-up/) and that Seed Stage deals are on the increase while [everything else seems to be cooling a little.](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/the-q3-2019-global-venture-capital-report-seed-stage-deals-increase-while-broader-funding-environment-shows-signs-of-erosion/)

Link: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/china-slips-as-the-us-takes-commanding-lead-in-supergiant-funding-rounds/

## 2. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

I’m cheating a bit with this one and asking a simpler question around value: [What are the best value metrics for you business](https://www.cobloom.com/blog/how-to-determine-the-best-value-metric-for-your-saas-product#) (and how to figure that out).

Link: https://www.cobloom.com/blog/how-to-determine-the-best-value-metric-for-your-saas-product#

## 3. BENCHMARKS

How, as an operator, does your startup compare to peers? OpenView Partners have gone to town to answer this again this year with an [extensive Expansion SaaS Benchmarks report](https://openviewpartners.com/expansion-saas-benchmarks). The UI of this report is great so the web version is my fav, but [here is the PDF](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/366266/OpenView%202019%20SaaS%20Benchmarks%20Report.pdf), if that is your preferred thing. [Product Led Growth](https://openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth-maturity-grader) businesses lead the pack!

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

## 4. CFO and FINANCE

In an early stage tech company hiring a CFO is critical and Andreessen Horowitz discuss how [CEO’s and CFO roles need to compliment each other](https://a16z.com/2019/10/02/map-terrain-cfo-and-ceo-relationship/) (using Topo Maps as a metaphor). SaaSx also [provide a great primer on Finance terms every SaaS leader should be familiar with](https://saasx.com/2019/09/09/the-saas-finance-roundup/).

Link: https://a16z.com/2019/10/02/map-terrain-cfo-and-ceo-relationship/

## 5. CADENCE

The cadence at which a company operates is set by the Senior team, [who keeps the rhythm and beat](https://avc.com/2018/06/the-heartbeat). But don’t [conflate this with execution](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/the-rhythm-of-the-fight-why-a-startup-needs-cadence-to-succeed-bdc8938923a6). Startups and Tech companies operate at a fast cadence, often [reporting on a weekly basis](https://avc.com/2019/04/the-heartbeat-continued), some teams daily. But even in larger scale corporates, the [top economic performers follow a faster rhythm than their industry counterparts](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-drumbeat-of-digital-how-winning-teams-play). And this all requires a [fierce focus and prioritization.](https://feld.com/archives/2019/09/fierce-prioritization.html)

Link: https://avc.com/2018/06/the-heartbeat

## 6. DEVELOPER KPI’s

I love [this post from JD Trask of Raygun](https://raygun.com/blog/software-team-kpis/) discussing his perspective on what (and how) to measure the quality and efficient of work within product teams.

Link: https://raygun.com/blog/software-team-kpis/

## 7. RETAIL 5/5

The future of retail is tech-centric and Business Insider are providing a 5 part series on the future of retail (2020 edition) In this [f](https://www.dropbox.com/s/7w5oalyk714vowz/for%20store%20of%20the%20future.pptx?dl=0)inal part of the series, the focus in on

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7w5oalyk714vowz/for%20store%20of%20the%20future.pptx?dl=0

## 8. SEO

Writing amazing content is no use if it’s not discoverable and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever evolving dark art - but h[ere is a pretty good (current) guide from Founder Institute](https://fi.co/insight/how-does-seo-work).

Link: https://fi.co/insight/how-does-seo-work

## 9. BRAND

People buy with their heads and their hearts. Sure the product has to be solving a significant problem, but your words have consequence (maybe not so much in this newsletter). Building your [Brand matters](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/branding-your-early-stage-software-company-8e6cb0c2fe9b), as do the [words used in your messaging](https://sleeknote.com/blog/copywriting-examples). From Google here are [3 approaches to try with stories](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/advertising-channels/video/consumer-behavior-storytelling/)

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/branding-your-early-stage-software-company-8e6cb0c2fe9b

## 10. MARKETPLACES

They are a hell of a business model to nail and liquidity is the lifeblood of marketplaces - It is the efficiency with which a marketplace matches buyers and sellers on a platform. The Point Nine Team [dive deep into WTF liquidity really is](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/wtf-is-marketplace-liquidity-f2caca3802c0).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/wtf-is-marketplace-liquidity-f2caca3802c0

## POD OF THE WEEK

We all probably attend more meetings than we need to, in the US apparently there are 55 million of them a day. So check this great episode from Freakonomics on [how to have healthier meeting habits](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000450300047).

**BONUS**: Optimize dollar spend! From Gainsight an [on-demand webinar](https://www.gainsight.com/event/how-to-budget-for-customer-growth/) on how Customer Success teams can become a growth center (and how to budget for that)

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000450300047