Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending June 21, 2024

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: VALUE-BASED PRICING:  VBP is a tough nut to crack as it makes the most of what the maximum cost is that 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 Paddle/Profitwell has a complete guide on making it happen (and explaining how to go about calculating/measuring it).


2. SALES COMP (PLG): Figuring out the right sales comp and plan is super tricky for high-growth companies and it gets even trickier for companies that have PLG + Sales. So check this guide on PLG Comp Plans from the team over at OpenView.


3. AI SPEND: It's estimated that B2B companies are spending $15B annually on generative AI applications right now, which equates to about 1% of all IT spending. We all know that number is only going to go up.


4. PROMPTFRAMES: A new term for all of our tech dictionaries. Promptframes are the AI version of Wireframes for UX designers and provide structured instructions to guide AI interactions, hopefully ensuring better outcomes and user experiences.
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5. FAILING: I think that this is a skill. Successful failure is an oxymoron that requires a culture of safety and permission to be wrong. Tall Poppy doesn't help that out. Many organizations look to best failure practices from the tech industry. One hard lesson is that innovation needs a lot of failure before success, something they often do not configure culturally within a business.


6. ONBOARDING: Doing this well is key to increasing value, lowering churn, and being a PLG growth-driven business - aligning the product value with user goals is key! Check this onboarding guide from Userpilot, look at employing some diverse tools and channels, and focus on smooth user transitions - all good for enhancing retention and engagement. This Substack article also highlights the importance of what needs to be under the hood - good data analytics, conducting experiments, and building a community centered around the product.


7. PITCH: Want to compare how your Pitch Deck compares to others? Here is an absolute MEGA resource of links for you (and your pitch team). Pitches from AirBnB, Uber, Shopify, lesser-known startups, and famous flameouts (such as Fyre) can be found on Billion-Dollar Pitch Decks and Pitch Deck Hunt. A cool approach from OpenDeck lets you search by Category/funding year. If you want to see a breakdown/analysis of pitch decks, then look over at Alexander Jarvis - he has over 500 decks broken down by the good and the bad.


8. SEAT-BASED PRICING: Clouded Judgement asking the big questions - is the traditional seat-based pricing model dead? PLG models have already signaled the decline of seat-based pricing in SaaS (as it can seriously impact growth), but AI-based products may likely disrupt this further; the product value aligns way more with usage than user count. More akin to database software pricing, which emphasizes data architecture usage over user access.


9. GROWTH: ChartMogul has just released its SaaS Growth Report, which compares Bootstrapped vs. VC-backed startups' growth metrics. TL;DR Bootstrapped SaaS companies adapt faster to market changes but grow slower than VC-backed firms, which initially thrive but struggle more in downturns. Both rely on expansion for growth, but bootstrapped firms maintain steadier retention rates.


10. CASE STUDY: From the team at product led and complimenting #6 above, here are 36 best user onboarding examples from analyzing 150+ companies


POD OF THE WEEK: Following on from #7, Hiten Shah does a master class on How to pitch your startup. Providing founders with an investor perspective, the impression they'd get, and the questions they'd likely face.