Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending December 15, 2023

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Revenue Churn - and the differences between Net vs. Gross revenue Churn are neatly explained in this article. This is great if you're trying to understand your churn, reduce it, and make negative churn your thing (ka Net Dollar Retention).


2. COMPENSATION: This is a great free library of 20 sales compensation plans that can even let you scenario plan into 2024. Seriously, next-level content marketing that has a significant amount of value.


3. AI UI: This is one of the AI topics that interests me the most: How will generative AI change UIs and the way we interact and use the internet? This article discusses how LLMs can now turn sketches into interactive websites, hinting at AI-generated, real-time, user-specific interfaces in the near future.


4. AI: The State of AI report has been released by Retool and specifically looks at internal & external enterprise use cases and pain points when building AI apps/features. Asking the real questions - such as whether AI will replace Stackoverflow (a notable shift) and noting that Data security and output accuracy are major concerns in AI development.


5. SECURITY: Referencing the security concerns above, the State of Data Security Report notes that the rise of AI has also corresponded to Enterprises becoming much more serious and aware of data privacy & security risks. Hopefully, this will increase data security budgets and prioritize data governance because stuff is moving fast!


6. GROWTH 1: ChartMogul's 2023 SaaS Growth Report is out and reviews trends and benchmarks from 2,200+ companies in the $0-$30m ARR range. Here are some highlights: Best-in-class achieve over 100% annual growth, top SaaS startups reach $1M ARR within 9 months, and SaaS business experiences mild seasonality, with Q1 typically showing the best growth and Q4 the slowest.


7. GROWTH 2: This fantastic read by the team at Reforge argues that choosing between monetization and growth is a false dichotomy, suggesting businesses can successfully balance both for sustained, scalable success and also outline growth as a system with 3 elements: acquisition, monetization, and retention.


8. CHARTS: This is a fun one. "Friends Don't Let Friends Make Bad Graphs" is a GitHub article outlining some good and bad practices in data visualization - including examples and explanations.


9. SALES: Do technical products need a different type of sales process vs traditional enterprise SaaS products? Check this guide on Tech SDRs. These Reps, understanding developer needs, are key for selling DevTools efficiently.


10. CASE STUDY: I love the presentation style in this illustrated case study on how Zapier successfully implemented a usage-based pricing strategy and notification system, encouraging user upgrades and boosting revenue through increased engagement.


POD OF THE WEEK: Need a SaaS Metrics refresher for the new year? CJ Gustafson interviews Alex Clayton on key software metrics and IPO evaluations in the software industry.