Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending March 6, 2020

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Lets take this week to 11 (if you are a B2B business) - 11 key GTM Metrics for B2B Startups from the team at a16z (with the handy addition of explaining why they are important…….to a board).
2. DEBT: As mentioned in previous articles, some VC Firms are turning to debt as a non-dilutive financing alternative, especially as startups are staying private longer and supply/demand pressures are more skewed than ever. Debt is coming to the tech industry - here is a great article on what this all may mean.
3. QUANTUM: I think Quantum computers are a thing of cyber-punk beauty and I gleefully don't really understand exactly how Quantum Computers work - admit it, you don't either. But whatever, these machines from the future have already arrived and in the next five-years there are some industries (pharmaceutical, finance, transportation, and cybersecurity) that can really see some powerful gains from Quantum computing. McKinsey have a game plan (of course they do) and have outlined some great use cases for Quantum.
4. PRODUCT MARKET FIT: Everyone thinks they have it (when they don’t). Andrew Chen from a16z is awesome and his PDF on going from zero to Product Market Fit is excellent (For SaaS he calls this as 5% conversion rate from free-to-paid, or 3X CPA to LTV ratio or <2% monthly churn rate or just a clear path to $100k MRR). He also has an accompanying article with notes
5. BRANDING: This is a bit of a confusing deep-dive as it's all about perspective. A16z argue why brand marketing is mostly useless for consumer startups (they argue that a great brand is the lagging indicator of success - which is all about hard work and effort). Point Nine discuss why branding matters for VC's
6. PRESENTATION: I never say the word “Deck" with my NZ accent to Americans, because it sounds inappropriate. But the team at Front are making public (again) the deck they used to raise their latest round of funding. It’s a great presentation and the notes within the article really summarize the narrative (and questions) they were trying to convey well.
7. CUSTOMER DATA: Customer data management is a practice, not a technology. I love that simple message. Bluconic give the crib notes/5-steps in this article about how to develop a strategy to optimize and improve customer experience using good data management practices.
8. TEAM: At the early/seed stage of life, a startup needs doers and wearers of multiple hats: T-shaped people, not specialists. Andrew Chen of a16z gets a second appearance in this weeks newsletter and discusses how to hire these kind of team members at early stage (hiring those first 4-6 people).
9. EMPATHY: The ability to cognitively and emotionally understand another person's experience is a skill that can be practiced and sharpened. Inc Magazine maps out 4 areas within a startup where leveraging empathy can be very advantageous. (Hint - it’s in Sales, Marketing, and Hiring)
10. CORONAVIRUS: Fine, I’ll jump on that bandwagon - channeling the lens of a VC.  Tomasz Tunguz looks this week how Forward Multiples have been impacted by this global event - down about 12% at time of publication. Overall tech stocks have taken a huge hit but there have also been big upsides for certain tech stock such as Zoom, where isolated/remote work is their jam.

POD OF THE WEEK: This is to support #4 above. Every now and then I have to drop a David Skok bomb to highlight the various stages of a startup as they progress from validating a product in a market to becoming a rocket ship. In this Podcast Mr Skok charmingly explains how to navigate a business successfully through product/market fit.