# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 16, 2022

Published: 15 September 2022
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-september-16-2022

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

[Cohort Analysis](https://www.thesaascfo.com/cohort-analysis-explained-for-your-saas-business/) (free Cohort Analysis template!). GoPractice has a Product-focused article on [how to forecast key product metrics through cohort analysis](https://gopractice.io/blog/forecasting-key-metrics-through-cohort-analysis/). The Startup [looks at this metric from a VC Due Diligence perspective](https://medium.com/swlh/diligence-at-social-capital-part-3-cohorts-and-revenue-ltv-ab65a07464e1).

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/cohort-analysis-explained-for-your-saas-business/

## 2. FIRST PRINCIPLE THINKING

Want to be more like Elon (but without the SEC/Twitter dramas and kids)? Take a read here on the concept of [First Principles Thinking](https://fs.blog/2018/04/first-principles). Not gonna lie, I've re-read it for the 10th time this week, and it is a great way to make my brain hurt. Want more? Fine. [Here is a complete guide/website](https://fpt.guide/). Now that you are an expert on this principle, [here is how First Principle Thinking can be applied IRL - in this example, towards a Product Lead Growth business](https://productled.com/first-principles-of-a-successful-product-led-growth-strategy).

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

## 3. NETWORKING

[SaaStr Annual](https://www.saastrannual2022.com) is happening this week (more on that in next week's newsletter) - so this one is for all of you attending. Scaling a tech company requires a *bunch* of know who. But networking (especially at places like SaaStr) is hard regardless of personality type. [Here are some great tips](https://firstround.com/review/how-to-make-connections-that-count-advice-from-a-silicon-valley-veteran-and-introvert) from a veteran introvert. Be Curious!

Link: https://www.saastrannual2022.com

## 4. NDR

[Net Dollar Retention](https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention) is an essential metric in the new world of Product Led Growth. It's used to help answer the following: *Does my Startup need to increase customer acquisition/marketing spend*? Crunchbase has already done the work to calculate what [good NDR benchmarks should look like](https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/net-dollar-retention), but this month, Tomasz Tunguz [looks at what it takes to achieve 200% NDR!](https://tomtunguz.com/two-hundred-percent-ndr/)

Link: https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention

## 5. DUE DILIGENCE

Of the VC kind has gotten harder and longer. So read [this article from Allison Weil Lechner at Hyde Park Venture Partners](https://www.hydeparkvp.com/articles/vc-explained-diligence-process?) for great insight on what VCs expect when deciding on an investment. FE International has a [similar report but written from an acquisitions lens](https://feinternational.com/blog/saas-due-diligence-how-to-evaluate-a-saas-business-model).

Link: https://www.hydeparkvp.com/articles/vc-explained-diligence-process?

## 6. SECURITY

According to an [upcoming report](https://www.axonius.com/why-saas-security-is-a-priority) by Axonius, 66% of IT leaders are concerned their organization is [more vulnerable to security risks due to the rise in SaaS application usage](https://www.ciodive.com/news/software-saas-apps-security/630977/). So the big question to you, as a SaaS operator, is; what are you going to do, as part of your sales cycle, to address this concern? They are not wrong - because [Phishing attacks abusing SaaS platforms have seen a massive 1,100% growth from June '21 to June '22](https://www-bleepingcomputer-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/phishing-attacks-abusing-saas-platforms-see-a-massive-1-100-percent-growth/amp/).

Link: https://www.axonius.com/why-saas-security-is-a-priority

## 7. CONTENT

Viewing content as a product was valuable insight for me. As was being told that the strategy of "producing 10 blog posts" is wrong. Take a read of this Two part blog ([part 1](https://mkt1.substack.com/p/high-impact-content) and [part 2](https://mkt1.substack.com/p/content-roadmap)) to change your mindset on what good content should be.

Link: https://mkt1.substack.com/p/high-impact-content

## 8. CAPITAL

[Hurun](https://www.hurun.net/) released their [H1 Global Venture Capitalists report](https://www.hurun.net/en-US/Info/Detail?num=FSTQO6FY1G4E) for 2022 earlier this month, along with their [Unicorn Index](https://www.hurun.net/en-US/Info/Detail?num=HD7Q8RVHK6WE). Very dry-looking reports, so here are the fun facts: 1,312 unicorns were reported globally (valuing $4.1T) and are up 24% since the latter half of '21. 13% of the startups of $500B or more are headquartered in San Francisco, and 71% of the VCs are founded in the U.S. (followed by 21% in China).

Link: https://www.hurun.net/

## 9. PPG

Grab your tech dictionaries, everyone! I have a new acronym for you: [PPG or People Powered Growth](https://productled.com/people-powered-growth/). This is a derivative of Product-led growth consisting of a cross-functional team with customer- and non-customer-facing members. It's a People + Product partnership that develops and tests solutions searching for ways to scale human interactions/intervention with a product. Some examples of PPG companies are Drift, Dropbox, and Loom.

Link: https://productled.com/people-powered-growth/

## 10. CASE STUDY

What does Product Market Fit look like? *Asking* the PMF question IMO is always the more noble focus (as opposed to being focused on *answering* the question). But sometimes - you just gotta know, and here is a case study on [how Superhuman did it](https://firstround.com/review/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/).

Link: https://firstround.com/review/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/

## POD OF THE WEEK

Complimenting #7 above - insight from [running a Content Program (or is that Product?) as a one-person team](https://thelonggame.simplecast.com/episodes/nikhil-venkatesa-convictional-DjayHO3J).

Link: https://thelonggame.simplecast.com/episodes/nikhil-venkatesa-convictional-DjayHO3J