Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending March 28, 2025

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Metric plot twist: Metric ownership. Metrics are only as good as the motivation to manage and measure them.  Let's say you have done the hard strategic work and clearly understand the metrics you want to measure in your business. So go check this framework for assigning metrics ownership within teams. All that clear ownership helps drive better performance and data-driven decision-making.


2. GTM 1: Sure, inbound is great, but it is often not enough. MKT1's 2-part series on account-driven GTM lays out how to map your TAM, tier accounts, and track intent signals to engage buyers earlier and close faster. Includes tactical tips on CRM setup, signals, and org structure. Part 1 here and part 2 here. (there is a third part, but it's not out or not free just yet)


3. MARKETING: Check out this recent survey from Insight Partners. According to their survey, 70% of marketing-sourced pipeline comes from just four channels: SEO, events, social media, and paid search (and of those 4 SEO is under most pressure). Despite this, 50% of companies in the report are using 11-15 different pipeline-generating channels, many with minimal impact (combined 30% obvz). There are also some great benchmarks in there: Marketing drives almost half of the pipeline across B2B companies, Sales drives a third (33%), and Partners/Channel is 15%.


4. TYPING: I'm a sucker for a good blog title and also terrible at typing, so obviously and "The Rise & Fall of the Keyboard" hooked me. Tomasz Tunguz explores a future where voice and agents replace traditional input, making "typing" feel archaic. Hey - I already talk to my AI tools about 30% of the time, so as UX evolves, expect startups to rethink how users even interact.


5. VERTICAL AI: Vertical AI startups are changing how early-stage VC works—faster GTM, lower upfront costs, and niche market domination. Unlike broad AI plays, these companies win by embedding deep into industry workflows. Investors are adapting, and founder-market fit in these cases is more critical than ever.


6. SOCIAL MEDIA: Conquering social media in startup land is no joke, especially in the early stages when no real marketing team or specialists exist. So check this 11-step article (using SMART goals, which we all likely already understand). Regardless of the steps, Social Media is a metric-driven game, here is how to build out that part.


7. PMF: Something to bookmark time: Explaining Product Market Fit to potential customers, investors, and other stakeholders is tricky, so check out this free template using something called the Value Logic Framework, which helps founders articulate how their product uniquely solves a specific problem. I'm definitely going to take a crack at adopting this one.


8. DEMAND GEN: You always gotta look at this from the buyer's perspective, so let's dig into the stages buyers go through - from problem recognition to decision-making - you can tailor your strategies to align with buyer needs. The goal being the increase of engagement and conversion rates.


9. VENTURE: Between 2021 and 2024, the number of active US venture capital firms reduced by over a quarter, but startups are raising more cash than at any point since 2021 thanks to investor AI: $80B in Q4 '24, but 40% of that was spread over just six large deals (OpenAI, xAI, Databricks, etc).


10. CASE STUDY: An expansion of number 6 above is a list of five SaaS companies who are doing their Social Media well. Includes Hootsuite, Slack, and Shopify.


POD OF THE WEEK: From SaaStr, how did Databricks scale from $1m ARR to $3B across sales, open source, pricing, and customer-led growth?