# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 27, 2019

Published: 26 September 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-september-27-2019

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Viral Coefficient

This metric can tell you [how many new users a current user is referring to your business](https://www.cobloom.com/blog/how-to-work-out-your-saas-viral-coefficient-and-why-you-should). A fantastic way to track low-cost acquisition channels (if this method is [your thing](https://blog.appvirality.com/what-is-viral-coefficient-and-why-you-need-it-to-make-your-app-go-viral/)). But the coefficient has to be [a number greater than 1](http://nichevertising.com/the-science-of-going-viral-broken-down-into-one-simple-formula/).

Link: https://www.cobloom.com/blog/how-to-work-out-your-saas-viral-coefficient-and-why-you-should

## 2. SEED VC

[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. It’s also happening over at the seed stage. At seed stage this a pretty substantial cheque - we're talking about $5 million and more to qualify as a “supergiant seed round.” Crunchbase [dive deep on this trend over the years](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/more-supergiant-seed-rounds-are-sprouting-up/) - the annual quantity of seed rounds of $5 million or more quadrupled from 2014 to 2018.

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

## 3. TECH FOR GOOD

A few years ago, Microsoft tasked me with [discovering ways their tech is being leveraged for good](https://www.jonnydavies.com/work.html) around the world, and it sparked a keen interest in me ever since. McKinsey have a great blog called [FiveFifty](https://www.mckinsey.com/quarterly/the-five-fifty), that lets a reader dive as deep as five or fifty minutes into a topic via by it’s UX design (which is fascinating by itself). [This one is on Tech for the Greater Good](https://www.mckinsey.com/Featured-Insights/Future-of-Work/Five-Fifty-Tech-for-the-greater-good) asking the question "Can advanced technologies such as AI improve the well-being of humans?"

Link: https://www.jonnydavies.com/work.html

## 4. HR AT SCALE

When does a high-growth tech company need to hire a Head of HR? It’s generally about 50 people and [here is the reasoning why](https://medium.com/screencloud-journey/startups-at-50-people-and-beyond-how-to-make-hr-and-not-enemies-bc08fbe2dd36). As an add on, people really do [like to do this remote](https://usefyi.com/remote-work-report).

Link: https://medium.com/screencloud-journey/startups-at-50-people-and-beyond-how-to-make-hr-and-not-enemies-bc08fbe2dd36

## 5. DELIGHT AUDIT

. Yes, in the Age of the Customer, this should be a thing, so stop rolling your eyes! This is an in-depth post from CopyHackers on [how to make this kind of Audit happen](https://copyhackers.com/2019/08/user-centric-delight-audit-saas).

Link: https://copyhackers.com/2019/08/user-centric-delight-audit-saas

## 6. VALUATIONS

Skyrocketing valuations have been a consistent theme in VC in the [last few years](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/21-charts-showing-current-trends-in-us-venture-capital), but valuation growth has (finally) cooled across the board in the first half of 2019. [Check this report from PitchBook](https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_1H_2019_VC_Valuations_Report.pdf) which covers Angel through Late-stage VC.

Link: https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/21-charts-showing-current-trends-in-us-venture-capital

## 7. PRODUCT LED GROWTH

If you haven’t noticed yet, I keep harping on about this. Want to know how well you are doing at [PLG](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/what-is-product-led-growth/#.XVbfTpNKhLA)? OpenView have launched a [Product Led Growth Maturity Grader](https://openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth-maturity-grader) - this tool is designed to give feedback on how far along your organization is on the PLG maturity spectrum.

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/what-is-product-led-growth/#.XVbfTpNKhLA

## 8. CLOUD

Public cloud revenue is [forecast to reach $500 billion by 2023](https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2019/sep/16/public-cloud-revenue-will-reach-500-billion-in-2023/) and SaaS will remain the largest category of cloud computing, capturing more than half of all public cloud spending and a lot of that SaaS spend will be driven by the [API/Micro-Services sub-category of SaaS](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/06/apis-are-the-next-big-saas-wave/). It was also Oracle World in SF last week, so it would be remiss of me if I didn’t mention Oracles [global cloud expansion](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/news/oracle-announces-20-new-cloud-regions/).

Link: https://www.cloudcomputing-news.net/news/2019/sep/16/public-cloud-revenue-will-reach-500-billion-in-2023/

## 9. RETAIL 3/5

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 3](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hn2dmfzx9qwf9xo/future%20of%20retail%20online%20checkout.pptx?dl=0), the focus in on online checkout spotlight the strategies retailers are using to tap into growth.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hn2dmfzx9qwf9xo/future%20of%20retail%20online%20checkout.pptx?dl=0

## 10. ANTI-TRUST

In [this Business Insider report](https://www.dropbox.com/s/4n1nrtnvdyijvsn/antitrust%20and%20big%20tech%20bii%20report%20final%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0) they tale a look at the three most likely outcomes of the impending US regulatory clampdown on big tech and what it means for digital media and from Forbes an [article outlining what should be the (consumer based) focus](https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddoty/2019/09/26/the-current-big-tech-antitrust-probes-should-focus-on-whats-best-for-consumers/#5618f76522db) by lawmakers.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4n1nrtnvdyijvsn/antitrust%20and%20big%20tech%20bii%20report%20final%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0

## POD OF THE WEEK

It’s a Video, not podcast this week. The content pumping out of Y-Combinator at present is just too good. YC Partner [Carolynn Levy details the basics of startup financing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qWZALyGSmg&feature=youtu.be&t=7s) and how modern early stage rounds of financing are done using convertible securities, like the SAFE note.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qWZALyGSmg&feature=youtu.be&t=7s