Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 12, 2021

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: CAC payback (and accounting for the upsell) Often time many of the base metrics (CAC, CAC/LTV, etc) are in service to VCs and operationally don't tell us enough to make great decisions. This article takes an operator view on CAC Payback that includes (and celebrates) the value of net revenue retention and Tomasz Tunguz chimes in this week on the need for two types of payback period calculations - because Cash is the bigger driver.
2. BLOCKCHAIN 2.0: aka Web3. The crypto hype of 2018 is back and legit to the point where CB Insights has produced a State Of Blockchain Q3’21 Report. Blockchain startups have raised $15B of cold, hard FIAT so far in 2021 which is up 384% from last year and there were 12 blockchain unicorns added last quarter. SIDE NOTE: NFTs have JUMPED to friggin' $11B this Quarter.
3. VENTURE: Hands up if you thought that the Pandemic could be a great equalizer of Venture Capital distribution? I certainly did. Well here are some truths for us all to mull on: Startups in California, NY, and Massachusetts commanded over 3/4 of all venture capital dollars dished out in the U.S so far this year, venture funding going to female-only founders dropped to 2.2% in 2021 (lowest it’s been in five years) and in 2020, Black founders received only 0.6% of venture funding!
4. FIRST PRINCIPLE THINKING: Want to be more like Elon (but without the Twitter dramas)? Take a read here on the concept of First Principles Thinking. Not gonna lie, I've re-read it again this week and it still makes my brain hurt. Want more? Fine. Here is a full guide/website. Now that you are an expert on this principle, here is how First Principle Thinking can be applied IRL - in this example towards a Product Lead Growth business.
5. CUSTOMER SERVICE: In this current age of the customer, enhanced by COVID, SaaSx makes the argument that in the SaaS world, Customer Success is actually the product. Want to start building out that product? Check the HubSpot guide on getting started with your Customer team.
6. MARKETING: Add this one to your SaaS dictionary: Buyer Intent Data. I have posted all kinds of articles in this newsletter on Marketing strategies and tactics - but there is never a one-size-fits-all channel for a company. So how does a business find out what are the best marketing channels for them? This article suggests that everything needed to answer that question is already within the data a business generates every day. (you're gonna need Personas - so don't skip #5)
7. FRAMEWORKS: Beyond metrics, a successful framework can distill complex processes or models to make execution more of a simple recipe. Kinda why OKR's exist. Sarah Tavel has compiled a great list of compelling Frameworks covering: The 10x model, The hierarchy of engagement, Hype cycles, and more!
8. MRR LEVERS: OK -so what are the best ways that SaaS companies can grow their MRR? Check this article that looks at two (of the five) elements of MRR growth that often fly under the radar of acquisition (expansion and reactivation).
9. PLG FLYWHEELS: As a refresher, read this to understand the 4 basic principles behind PLG and then check this article out that goes into lengthy detail of how to design for PLG across the customer journey (and creating a flywheel). This is different from a sales funnel, as the flywheel model is designed to build momentum from one phase to the next, which also gives you a good way to segment users
10. CASE STUDY: OKTA - who earlier this year acquired Auth0 for a mere $6.5B - are an under-the-hood Tech company ("one of those" SOMA 2nd Street Tech Companies is the SF reference) but surpassing $1B in ARR. So check this SaaStr Case Study on the growth of the OKTA business on how they got there.

​POD OF THE WEEK: Scott Farquhar (co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian) on how he built Atlassian (and used Smart pricing)