TOP 10 IN TECH
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​TOP 10 IN TECH

​a weekly newsletter
Curated SaaS and tech insight from around the web repackaged for people to put to good us

Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 25, 2019

10/25/2019

 
  1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: RUNWAY! This is the number every founder hates talking about - How much cash you have left to either a) Raise more or b) Be profitable. The SaaS CFO covers this metric in detail (along with a free download on how best to calculate it). Also references this site - which seems great!
  2. AUTOMATION: Like it or not, automation is on the rise. McKinsey discuss what the impacts of automation could be (and the challenge it holds for CEO’s) in relation to Economic Disparity. Brookings also weigh in on the possible impacts from a policy perspective.
  3. DIVERSITY in VC: Total VC deal value has reached $96.7 billion through the first three quarters of 2019 (on pace to be the second highest in terms of venture capital investment behind last year’s record totals), Crunchbase just released their 2019 Q3 Diversity Report:  $20B of that has been Invested In Female-Founded, Co-Founded Startups. Not bad, but still only just above 20% of total. Also keep in mind - the gender gap in pay at VC’s is still very real.
  4. WHEN TO QUIT: With the right (curiously optimistic) lens, this is a really great article with really sound pointers a start-up should be asking around traction, use, and market potential of your product. This is also a great complimentary one on a strategy to make hard decisions.
  5. SUSTAINABILITY: A reality check has hit the tech (and psuedo-tech) industry hard this year. In essence companies can build products and experiences leveraging tech that consumers absolutely love (such as Uber, WeWork, Lime, and Bird) - but all of these businesses suffer from the inevitable flaw of being far away from having any semblance of profitability. Crunchbase look hard at the economics of Scooternomics and micro-mobility, Investorplace suggest Uber could go Bankrupt and WeWork just had a MASSIVE down-round.
  6. MARKETING SPEND: How much does the average SaaS Company spend on Marketing? Tomasz Tunguz has taken a look and even supplied a simple worksheet. Looks like 10% (of your revenue) is about right.
  7. LAND AND EXPAND: A word of warning on this strategy from The Godfather of SaaS, Jason Lemkin - don’t assume a small deal at a big company will magically blossom into larger, pan-enterprise deals, without putting in a lot of work.
  8. TEAMS: At scale this is the biggest challenge to address for success. Here are some key lessons learned from 4 different tech startups. Convincing someone to join your startup is a sales pitch all in itself. Y-Combinator partner Dalton Caldwell gives his advice on how to pitch this and here is solid advice on how to level up as a leader.
  9. SEGMENTATION: From Point Nine Capital is a great article on Customer Segmentation with a complimentary article here on Cohort Analysis (with a free Cohort Analysis template!)
  10. TRAILBLAZER: My office is situated next to the SalesForce towers (there is more than one) and overlooks SalesForce Park, so I have a more acute interest than most on what it’s CEO has to say (HINT: It’s a lot for the head of a CRM business). But he is certainly full of amazing insight and value, especially for his shareholders - who are up something like 3,500% since Salesforce went public in 2004. The Dreamforce conference is also looming in my neighborhood (with 180,00 hoody-clad Salesforce attendees about to show up on the streets as well as Neil Finn and the rest of Fleetwood Mac), so here is an interview from Mark Benioff via Fortune Mag - it’s seriously a really great read.
POD OF THE WEEK:  Todd Farnham tuned me on to this one. It’s a really great listen to understand ways to solve challenges on staff Incentivisation (Also called Goodharts Law - who knew?)

BONUS: This is just straight up cool. Harvard have published this new data visualization tool data which can be used to understand the economic dynamics and new growth opportunities for every country worldwide - have a play! Tech for NZ weighing in at 5.35%. 

Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 18, 2019

10/17/2019

 
  1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Leading & Lagging Indicators - A cheat sheet. This is one from NZ’s very own Matt Cameron - a list of what to look out for in your sales pipeline.
  2. SALES RAMP: Hiring a Sales rep is a big deal in a startup and successful onboarding is key! A 30/60/90 day onboarding plan is a great idea and SaaSx have a great Google Doc Sample and accompanying blog post.
  3. PRICING: This is the problem that is never solved. SaaSx provide their 5 lessons, 
  4. MAKE A PLAN: Lessons learnt from some of the best planners (and their processes) at AirBnB and Eventbrite - it’s a very deep read and has some really fantastic templates for you to put to work inside your organization.
  5. COMPETITORS: 28% of companies aren’t doing any formal competitor research, which means over a quarter of companies are missing out on learning more about their customers via the competition. This post makes the case of why (in todays customer-centric world) you should definitely not ignore your competitors. 
  6. RECESSION: There will be one - we just don’t know when. Jason Lemkin of SaaStr explores what this will likely mean in the SaaS world. 
  7. 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 fourth part of the series, the focus in on checkout, and how to reduce friction both online and in brick-and-mortar.
  8. CUSTOMER SUCCESS: In this current age of the customer, SaaSx make the argument that (customer)  Success is actually the product.
  9. STREAMING: here is a really interesting data point that made me pause -  YouTube is now the most popular video streaming platform among US teens, passing Netflix for the first time. This is all likely due to mobility based experiences with YouTubes views happening on mobile 70% of the time, compared to Netflix who is at 10%.
  10. BaaS: Banking as a Service is on the rise! It’s actually not a new idea, it’s been around for a few years but with the spread of API’s and regulatory changes, we have seen opportunities really come to rise. Business Insider offer a deep dive on this  financial services opportunity (downloadable PDF report).

POD OF THE WEEK: Problem solving is an art - it’s a skill that can change everything. McKinsey dive into their methodology for problem solving (that is very McKinseyan) and actually a super helpful tool for business problem solving.

BONUS: Want to take a crash course on SaaS Metrics? The SaaS Academy have a great on-demand course (with templates) for $199 USD  

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

10/10/2019

 
  1. EARLY STAGE CAPITAL (DEEP DIVE): Last month I referenced that deal size inflation isn’t just happening at the high end of town. Tomasz Tunguz takes an interesting view of this trend this week, 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 and that Seed Stage deals are on the increase while everything else seems to be cooling a little.
  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 (and how to figure that out).
  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. The UI of this report is great so the web version is my fav, but here is the PDF, if that is your preferred thing. Product Led Growth businesses lead the pack!
  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 (using Topo Maps as a metaphor). SaaSx also provide a great primer on Finance terms every SaaS leader should be familiar with.
  5. CADENCE: The cadence at which a company operates is set by the Senior team, who keeps the rhythm and beat. But don’t conflate this with execution.  Startups and Tech companies operate at a fast cadence, often reporting on a weekly basis, some teams daily. But even in larger scale corporates, the top economic performers follow a faster rhythm than their industry counterparts. And this all requires a fierce focus and prioritization.
  6. DEVELOPER KPI’s: I love this post from JD Trask of Raygun discussing his perspective on what (and how) to measure the quality and efficient of work within product teams. 
  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 final part of the series, the focus in on
  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 here is a pretty good (current) guide from Founder Institute.
  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, as do the words used in your messaging. From Google here are 3 approaches to try with stories
  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.

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.

BONUS: Optimize dollar spend! From Gainsight an on-demand webinar on how Customer Success teams can become a growth center (and how to budget for that) 

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

10/4/2019

 
  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 and David Skok reviews it’s criticality 
  2. IPO DRAMA (mini-dive): What was expected to be a bumper year for tech IPOs has instantly become a year of reckoning for current operating models. Balance sheets and profits seem matter to investors again. The Information review IPO performance year-to-date for the companies and Fortune Mag takes a look at SoftBank's role in all of this drama. Tomasz Tunguz also chimes in with his observations on share price.
  3. VC NDA’s: Do you need your investors to sign and NDA? It’s not common - here is why (and how to manage it).
  4. PMF: Or Product Market Fit if you want to waste syllables was called “the only thing that matters” 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 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).
  5. MILLENNIALS: Are about to enter their prime spending years and CB Insights offers a great overview of 12 Industries that they forecast to benefit the most.
  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 and this article covers 5 Tips to Speed up Sales Onboarding without Sacrificing Quality.
  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) 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 into the case for organizational health.
  9. TRAFFIC: Mike Sonders researches the question: "What are the best sources of traffic for SaaS companies?” Leveraging the 50 biggest public 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%.
  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. (And they broke it down into 3 waves (over time) in this report).
​
POD OF THE WEEK: Complimenting #2 above on PMF, the 20 Minute VC podcast interviews Brad Feld on his thoughts on Early Stage metrics (and why Market size isn’t that helpful) 

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