# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 4, 2019

Published: 4 October 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-october-4-2019

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: CHURN

There are a few kinds of Churn, understanding each and what they mean to the bottom line of a business CoBloom [define the differences between revenue and customer churn](https://www.cobloom.com/blog/customer-churn-vs-revenue-churn-whats-the-difference) and David Skok [reviews it’s criticality](https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/why-churn-is-critical-in-saas/)

Link: https://www.cobloom.com/blog/customer-churn-vs-revenue-churn-whats-the-difference

## 2. IPO DRAMA (mini-dive)

What was expected to be a bumper year for tech IPOs has instantly become a [year of reckoning](https://www.axios.com/ipo-stock-market-peloton-endeavor-wework-a39fdaa2-5c27-40cb-8308-d379a0cc572a.html) for current operating models. [Balance sheets and profits](https://www.axios.com/ipos-investors-stock-market-peloton-uber-lyft-f76f2d5f-3a1d-46c0-9a8f-5a93a42b1f37.html) seem matter to investors again. [The Information review IPO performance year-to-date](http://go.theinformation.com/d78711b3701c9f) for the companies and Fortune Mag takes a [look at SoftBank's role](https://fortune.com/2019/09/26/softbank-wework-benchmark-uber/) in all of this drama. Tomasz Tunguz also chimes in [with his observations on share price](https://tomtunguz.com/the-state-of-the-ipo-market/).

Link: https://www.axios.com/ipo-stock-market-peloton-endeavor-wework-a39fdaa2-5c27-40cb-8308-d379a0cc572a.html

## 3. VC NDA’s

Do you need your investors to sign and NDA? It’s not common - [here is why](https://medium.com/swlh/do-vcs-sign-ndas-how-does-that-impact-your-strategy-5e6a3e23e0e5) (and how to manage it).

Link: https://medium.com/swlh/do-vcs-sign-ndas-how-does-that-impact-your-strategy-5e6a3e23e0e5

## 4. PMF

Or Product Market Fit if you want to waste syllables was called “[the only thing that matters](https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html)” to early-stage startups by Marc Andreessen 12 years ago. Now his team get a little more nuanced suggesting to [focus on Product-User-Fit](https://a16z.com/2019/09/16/product-user-fit-comes-before-product-market-fit/) as an indicator towards achieving PMF. Similar nuance is also true post PMF with repeatable-scalable **revenue** models as a precursor to a repeatable-scalable business model (you know - the one with actual profits).

Link: https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html

## 5. MILLENNIALS

Are about to enter their prime spending years and CB Insights offers [a great overview](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/millennials-industries-thriving) of 12 Industries that they forecast to benefit the most.

Link: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/millennials-industries-thriving

## 6. RETAIL 4/5

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 Part 4 the focus in on

## 7. ONBOARDING

Doing this well is key to increasing value, lowering churn and creating advocates. From HeavyBit [here is a 4 phase plan](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/4-phases-of-building-an-enterprise-onboarding-process/) and this article covers [5 Tips to Speed up Sales Onboarding without Sacrificing Quality](https://www.business2community.com/sales-management/5-tips-to-speed-up-sales-onboarding-without-sacrificing-quality-02197033).

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/4-phases-of-building-an-enterprise-onboarding-process/

## 8. ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH

Bottom line, here is why you should care: The top quartile of publicly traded companies in McKinsey’s [Organizational Health Index (OHI)](https://www.mckinsey.com/solutions/orgsolutions/overview/organizational-health-index) delivers roughly **three times** the returns to shareholders as those in the bottom quartile. The best way to run a business is to balance short-term performance and long-term health. [Here is a deep dive from McKinsey](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/organizational-health-a-fast-track-to-performance-improvement) into the case for organizational health.

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/solutions/orgsolutions/overview/organizational-health-index

## 9. TRAFFIC

Mike Sonders researches the question: "[What are the best sources of traffic for SaaS companies?](https://www.mikesonders.com/traffic-sources-saas/)” Leveraging the [50 biggest public SaaS companies](https://www.mikesonders.com/largest-saas-companies/) by market cap in the U.S.. In a surprise to probably no-one, Organic search is consistently the biggest source of traffic. Driving up to 68% of all traffic but Email accounts for less than 5% of traffic, on average, but has an incredibly high ROI, upwards of 3,800%.

Link: https://www.mikesonders.com/traffic-sources-saas/

## 10. AUTOMATION

Will robots really steal our jobs? Great report from PWC’s UK office [offering an international analysis of the potential long term impacts of automation](https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/assets/international-impact-of-automation-feb-2018.pdf). (And they broke it down into 3 waves (over time) in this report).

Link: https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/assets/international-impact-of-automation-feb-2018.pdf

## POD OF THE WEEK

Complimenting #2 above on PMF, the 20 Minute VC podcast [interviews Brad Feld on his thoughts on Early Stage metrics](http://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/bradfeld2/) (and why Market size isn’t that helpful)

Link: http://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/bradfeld2/