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

1. Late last year, Business Insider obtained confidential startup salary information from top venture-capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Check how much Silicon Valley startup execs really get paid.
2. Who makes the smart speaker with the highest IQ? Loupventures asked each of the top 4 brand speakers 800 questions each. (HINT: The answer rhymes with Dougal)
3. How to Build Growth Teams from Andrew Chen of a16z (shareable PDF!)
4. Callaghan Innovation report on the potential impact for blockchain technologies on the New Zealand economy.
5. Southeast Asia remains the best market for FinTechs. Fintech investments in ASEAN countries in 2018 will exceed the $5.7 billion invested in 2017 by 20% to 30%
6. Smart Speaker penetration hit critical mass over 2018. The smart speaker market nearly doubled, reaching around 41 percent of U.S. consumers, up from 21.5 percent in 2017.
7. Microsoft ends 2018 as Americas most valuable company. Other tech companies (Amazon and Apple) reached a far higher market cap in 2018, both exceeding valuations of over $1 Trillion, however with the stock market bear run late in the year, Microsoft proved to be much more resilient.
8. 15+ of The Top Sales & Marketing Mistakes SaaS Startups Make from Jason Lemkin of SaaStr
9. Innovation disrupted. CB Insights just published a fantastic report on the disruption of traditional business management consulting. A lot for NZTE to extract in this, as well as NZ’s Jumpshift/Adeption who are disrupting 
10. NZTE are off to CES next week and will have a bunch of reporting coming out of the conference. But here is a teaser of what to expect. CES is also becoming the center of innovations in the automative industry.
11. Making it big in the US - Kiwi tech companies that 'got away’ - very interesting article on Stuff about Kiwi tech companies journeys to the US.

BONUS: Founder University is a free course Jason Calacanis and Wilson Sonsini lead in San Francisco designed for founders that have a product in market, but have yet to raise a Series A. The next class is next month: February 11-13. If you know of a suitable founder, they can apply here ( deadline is January 7th).



POD OF THE WEEK: David Skok on choosing the right metrics for the right growth stage