Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending June 18, 2021

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Last week I discussed how (often time) many base SaaS metrics are mainly in service to VC's - well here those are: A simple collection of the most common SaaS metrics (Churn, LTV, CAC, etc.) with clickable deep dives into each one AND interactive models - def a great bookmark-able page.
2. PROFIT: There are myriad opinions on how well software companies perform, especially in public markets. SaaStistics analyze this across two articles. The first asks the question 'Are Software Returns Really That Good?’ TL;DR - heck yeah - I want to temper that by rephrasing as "can software returns be that good?" - only if you don't count margin. The second one asks - cool! So which ones are the best? TL;DR Shopify…..but also Zoom!
3. GROWTH: SaaS Businesses have been on a bull market for well over a decade and though-out the pandemic. During this time it’s all been about growth and not necessarily profits (which is why Public Markets hit lately with inflation). A16z makes the case that to weather this pandemic storm and the new future, SaaS companies should be focused on efficient growth strategies and metrics. NfX compliments this by discussing the new rules of the historic Growth vs Profitability tension in SaaS.
4. FINANCIAL MODELING: Fun fact: SaaS financial modeling is uniquely complex and requires careful thought. Luckily for you, there is a boatload of helpful content out on the web to help with financial modeling. Baremetrics are incredible at this and have 1. An overview of why SaaS metrics are different; 2. A Deep Dive on a usable model for you; 3. An actual Google Sheet ready to go (just make a copy).
5. VALUE-BASED PRICING: It's a tough nut to crack as it makes the most of what the maximum cost customers would be willing to pay for a product or service - this means there is no magic guesswork or thumb-suck number. These prices need to be arrived at Empirically. Paddle.com has a pretty good guide on what this means (with examples) and Profitwell has a total guide on making it happen (and how to go about calculating/measuring it).
6. VENTURE: Pitchbook released the Q1 for 2021 Venture report a few weeks back (downloadable PDF here): Stuff is NOT slowing down ($69.0 billion USD deployed). The first quarter of 2021 saw record activity from non-traditional investors, which means non-VCs - mutual funds, hedge funds, and private equity. But three-quarters of all these investment dollars (75.2%) were deployed in late-stage deals, which may be setting the scene for a bunch of future exists/acquisitions or public listings. At first stage funding there were 722 deals reported (a historically low figure), but averaged $4.7 million per deal i- which is among the highest on record.
7. REMOTE SELLING: Hopefully you are fully prepped for onboarding remote AE’s and SDR’s but here is a run down if not of how to onboard WFH SDRs and AEs well. But how can you equip these people to sell remotely both tactically and strategically? Hunt Club has some suggestions.
8. PERSONALIZATION: SaaS marketers have been turning to personalization more and more in recent years as a way to increase conversion rates, improve customer success, and increase the quality of sales/marketing funnels. So check this great article from Chart Mogul on the (modern-day) personalization fundamentals. As a teaser: Personalization reduces acquisition costs by as much as 50% and 87% of companies see a lift in key growth metrics when they employ personalization.
9. VIDEO CONTENT: Nailing introductory and Demo videos is a total art form. Don’t know where to start or have a video block? Get inspiration from this curated collection of some of the best and here is a list of 6 videos every SaaS Company needs. (TL;DR Explainers, Company, Testimonials, landing, page, FAQ, and Personalized Sales).
10. CASE STUDY: Adobe! Remember when Adobe products were just software licenses? This seems like a generation ago - in Tech years it was as Adobe Creative Cloud was launched in mid-2012 and the transition was fast. Creative Closed surpassed product revenues by mid-2013 - last Quarter they are now at a whopping $10.69 billion in ARR for subscriptions. Here are 7 lessons for us all on this transition and from ChartMogul here is a breakdown of the strategy that got them here.

POD OF THE WEEK: To compliment #6 above - it's the podcast version of the VC in Q1 2021 report by Pitchbook.