Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending June 6, 2025

​1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: ARR - Here is a whole book for you covering ARR. It covers everything you need to know to define, build, and report on ARR from scratch based on experiences at Intercom, Atlassian, and Stripe. I also have Bessemer Ventures claiming to have a founder's roadmap to $100 million ARR.


2. OUTBOUND vs INBOUND: How you handle an inbound lead vs an outbound lead is quite different. Check this article from Jack Jorgovan on how Outbound leads differ (and how to close them). The team at Predictive Revenue has been running over 50 outbound sales experiments to find out what works best (and what doesn't.). Watch the whole series on YouTube. SaaS Weekly also has a guide on automating outbound emails by leveraging intent signals to drive better-targeted campaigns.


3. API: APIs aren't just dev tools—they're products, and pretty much all AI needs them. Zuplo's API guide outlines how to run API product management like a SaaS, covering pricing, usage tiers, onboarding, and churn. If you've got an API, this gives you a roadmap.


4. GROWTH 1/2: Testing new tactics for marketing growth takes a lot of resources, and most of us often don't have much time to run experiments. Check out this Google Doc from Dashly, which collects 100 growth marketing hypotheses tested by their experts. (includes advert retargeting, wait list for product launches, niche glossaries, etc.)


5. GROWTH 2/2: According to Mostly Metrics, companies and deals with ACV in the $50K to $100K deal range are feeling the heat right now as they are caught in the crosshairs of CFOs being tasked with cutting budgets. I'm feeling judged. The data shows that enterprise purchases are stickier due to their complex implementation and high switching costs, while SMB purchases fly under the radar.


6. BENCHMARKS: Check out this benchmark's goldmine with the BenchmarkIT Report (all B2B SaaS), and it's pretty interactive (or snag the PDF here). Median growth for SaaS companies is 30%, and Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is at 105%. Median Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) payback is 16 MONTHS! and here is one of my favorites - an average of $.69 per $1 of expansion revenue generated.


7. AGENTIC: This article argues that we're entering an agentic web era. This is where AI agents act on our behalf, not just answer questions; they also take action. But the "original sin" of the internet (SEO and ad-based enshitification) could distort this future - dammit.


8. AI SCALE: There's a hidden scaling law for LLMs: performance jumps when trained on multiple languages (original study here) — even if you only test in one. It's a fascinating take on multilingual data as a scale amplifier, not just a translation tool.


9. ADVICE: Here is the motherload of all advice, 99 of the sharpest insights from 99 founders, all in one post. From mindset to mechanics, it's a dense but skimmable wall of gold. There's gotta be at least three things you can copy into your notes.


10. CASE STUDY - MOATS: Complimenting the Pod of the Week (below), CB Insights reports on Moats IRL with 29 examples of enduring moats (from Amazon and Tesla to Starbucks and Coinbase). Key strategies include leveraging network effects, scaling through cost advantages, and capitalizing on brand loyalty.


POD OF THE WEEK: Expanding on number 9 and 10 above, here is Jason Lemkin's pod/vid on Top 10 Moats in SaaS.