Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending July 18, 2025

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: CHURN: We never like to call it, but when should churn be recognized?  ChartMogul walks through 4 churn recognition models and why choosing the right one matters for your SaaS metrics, Ops, and board reporting.


2. TERM SHEETS: Bookmark this for future reference. This Term Sheets guide explains the most important clauses—like valuation, liquidation preferences, and anti-dilution protections - and it also offers some strategies for negotiating more founder-favorable terms.


3. AI 1: Every year, Benedict Evans goes on an absolute blinder in PowerPoint exploring macro and strategic trends in the tech industry, and this year's version is just an updated version of his last from late last year (both titled 'AI eats the world').


4. AI 2: This is also a Ben Evans part 2 as he dives into the messy reality of measuring generative AI. Are metrics like tokens, MAUs, or revenue actually useful objectively? Turns out maybe not. As AI tools blur the lines between product and infrastructure, he suggests we need new ways to define what "success" is. Tomasz Tunguz also asks a similar Question on token I/O.


5. COMPETITION: Being asked to talk about your competitors? This post breaks down the dos and don'ts of competitive framing—how to show you're different without sounding insecure, clueless, or an asshole.


6. SPEND: According to Bessemer Venture Partners, here are the benchmarks for B2B SaaS to measure your payback against (full report here). Across all companies, Engineering is consistently the largest department, Customer Success and Product at about 10% and Marketing at only 7%. This slide also has median headcount by stage, which is a great metric to track.


7. CUSTOMER SUCCESS 1: Great SaaS-CSM-isms from Jason Lemkin: 1. Each Customer Success manager should be able to manage 50–100 customers for a $20K ACV product. 2. Hire one customer success manager for every $2m in ARR. But it's a relative rule and varies with deal sizes, and you can forget the $2m/CSM rule at the earlier stages of growth. But start segmenting & investing early: For big deals ($50k+ ARR), hire a CSM per 2 customers. For mid deals ($5k+), proactive outreach is possible with 400 customers. Just automate!


8. CUSTOMER SUCCESS 2: Follow-up question: Where should Customer Success Sit on your balance sheet? This article from Mostly Metrics looks to answer if CS teams should report to Sales, Product, or operate independently. The answer? It depends. So read through, and you may need to take a more flexible approach.


9. SALES AND MARKETING: ChartMogul delivers a great 101 for startups on when (and how) to scale sales and marketing (as a pair). If you're early-stage and wondering how to figure all this out and CAC traps, this is a pretty good playbook.


10. CASE STUDY: Checkout PagerDuty's IPO prep playbook: lock in top talent 18 months out, scale finance ops (especially FP&A), get a grip on churn math, and overhaul comp plans. Bonus: founders were still hands-on with sales and forecasting.


POD OF THE WEEK: This is from David Skok (a legend in the SaaS world) and covers hardcore B2B SaaS metrics such as Rule of 40, Repeatability, Net new ARR, Bookings, LTV:CAC, churn, etc., etc. - it's a metric-packed 20 minutes.