Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 14, 2025

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: CAC - In a modern SaaS world that has maturing companies using both Sales Led Growth (SLG) and Product Led Growth (PLG) motions and teams, how do you calculate CAC? The answer is really that they should be kept separate.


2. MULTIPLIER EFFECT: Not all startups create equal impact. Some become engines. Endeavor's data shows that when a founder builds a breakout company, it often leads to dozens of new startups, hundreds of hires, and a cycle of reinvestment.


3. WEB ANALYTICS: Traffic is no longer a reliable metric. With 60%+ of Google searches now ending in zero clicks, and LLMs answering questions directly, your beautifully optimized landing page may never get seen. Growth Unhinged dives into why old-school analytics tools are failing and what teams are tracking now. How the hell will attribution even work anymore???


4. AI PRODUCT STRATEGY: Everyone's layering/wrapping/whatevering AI onto their products - but OpenAI shows how to build product with AI at the core. This teardown outlines their real strategy: multi-modal UX, agent interfaces, and ecosystem dominance. Key takeaway? AI-native ain't necessarily AI-featured.


5. LAYOFFS: It's been a shitty start to Q4 if you work in one of the big tech companies. The AI wave isn't just triggering layoffs — it's redefining how those roles are backfilled. Saastr unpacks why many tech jobs aren't returning (well, at least not in human form). AI is stepping in, quietly reshaping org charts and headcount plans.


6. AI & JOBS: Fast follow from #5 above. Don't panic, not all jobs are being eaten by AI.......yet. Bloomberry crunched 180M listings and found the real risk is clustered: entry-level admin, data entry, and some basic CS roles. For now, the creative, strategic, and cross-functional skills still have some air cover.


7. MULTIPLES: Tomasz Tunguz has been pretty off-task lately, but he's back with a great post that dives into public SaaS comps and shows the growth premium is still alive - just narrower. In 2021, fast growers earned a 5x multiple bump. Today it's closer to 1.5x. Growth still matters, but efficiency is what gets you paid.


8. DELIVERY: A project isn't just a pile of tasks. Second Thoughts argues that viewing projects as task bundles kills real outcomes. Instead: start with the outcome, then shape your workstreams backward.


9. GTM: ICONIQ loves a good report, and their latest, the 2025 GTM report (PDF here), shows that the early-stage pipeline is slowing, while top performers are building multi-threaded motion: PLG signals, outbound rigor, and deep post-sale expansion loops. CAC payback medians jumped to 24 months, but NRR is still holding strong above 120% for best-in-class.


10. CASE STUDY: CHAT GPT -  If you're wondering how AI tools like ChatGPT are really used day-to-day, check these 15 charts that explain how tech and venture are evolving from when access to money was cheap/free. From shrinking median round sizes to late-stage volume collapsing, this is a pretty great visual cheat sheet for understanding where we are at. ChatGPT retention/reach, and check chart 7, which matches 5, 6, and 7 above all in one chart.


POD OF THE WEEK: Being an advocate for people's happiness is part of my day job and mentoring mindset set, so it's nice when McKinsey comes out with a podcast on why it's cool to be kind.