Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending February 15, 2019

1. SMARTPHONES: Folding display screens are coming for your phones. With both Samsung and Xiaomi announcing and demonstrating prototypes earlier this year and again this week.
2. FACEBOOK: The Federal Cartel Office (FCO), which is the Anti-trust Watchdog of Germany has ordered Facebook to stop combining user data across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. The FCO argues that Facebook’s market dominance makes it impossible for users to give true voluntary consent. This could really impact Facebooks ability to deploy targeted advertising using hyper-personal profiles. (Which will likely upset a major part of its current business model).
3. SaaS GROWTH: One of the best presentations at SaaStr Annual this year was by Mark Roberge of Stage 2 Capital and Harvard Business School. Providing a handy step-by-step guide to revenue growth (downloadable PDF). 
4. FREE TRIALS? This is good. The Top 10 Learnings from the Redpoint Free Trial Survey results were released during SaaStr Annual last week. Lets start with the fact that top quartile respondents observe net dollar retention of 120% - upsell/crosssell and renewals are key! The other interesting tidbit - What is the optimal duration of a Free Trial? Turns out that it doesn’t matter. Conversion results at 7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 30 days all stayed at pretty much the same rate (15-16%).
5. TEXT MESSAGES: Have you ever wanted a deeper dive into the effectiveness of texting as a business tool? Huh!?! you say. Well me too. But check it out. It’s a really powerful communication tool (as long as you reply).
6. PRODUCT LAUNCH: Take a deep dive with the team from Intercom on evolving product launches at scale.
7. SUBSCRIPTION DELIVERIES: The science and data behind the subscription delivery movement of the last few years. Why do we love them so much? 
8. AI: Artificial Intelligence is the next big technological thing (as long as we manage it ethically). So who will be a stand out AI Business in 2019? Business Insider takes a look at 12 with potential.
9. SEED: 2018 was a measurable banner of a year for VC spend - records were broken. Things seem rosy, but while we saw cheque size increasing, and competition between investors intensifying, that is not necessarily the rule of thumb for companies at Seed Stage of growth, with seed investments down by all measure (dollars, deals and funds).
10. TRANSFORMATION: Digitalizing the business model has had massive dramatic effects on many companies in recent years. But how do companies progress their efforts to digitalize the business model? This is a great overview of how to think about this strategically and tactically from the team at McKinsey.

POD OF THE WEEK: McKinsey discuss how companies can ethically deploy artificial intelligence.

BONUS: The Information are currently testing out their news and analyst services by providing courses on specific topics. Very interesting approach. Check out their first course, all about……….Scooters…well, “Micromobility” You can register for this 101 course here. It’s a 15-day guided primer on the multi-billion dollar global industry for small transportation vehicles, one of the most hyped startup sectors to emerge over the past year.