Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 18, 2019

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Leading & Lagging Indicators - A cheat sheet. This is one from NZ’s very own Matt Cameron - a list of what to look out for in your sales pipeline.
2. SALES RAMP: Hiring a Sales rep is a big deal in a startup and successful onboarding is key! A 30/60/90 day onboarding plan is a great idea and SaaSx have a great Google Doc Sample and accompanying blog post.
3. PRICING: This is the problem that is never solved. SaaSx provide their 5 lessons, 
4. MAKE A PLAN: Lessons learnt from some of the best planners (and their processes) at AirBnB and Eventbrite - it’s a very deep read and has some really fantastic templates for you to put to work inside your organization.
5. COMPETITORS: 28% of companies aren’t doing any formal competitor research, which means over a quarter of companies are missing out on learning more about their customers via the competition. This post makes the case of why (in todays customer-centric world) you should definitely not ignore your competitors. 
6. RECESSION: There will be one - we just don’t know when. Jason Lemkin of SaaStr explores what this will likely mean in the SaaS world. 
7. RETAIL 4/5: The future of retail is tech-centric and Business Insider are providing a 5 part series on the future of retail (2020 edition) In this fourth part of the series, the focus in on checkout, and how to reduce friction both online and in brick-and-mortar.
8. CUSTOMER SUCCESS: In this current age of the customer, SaaSx make the argument that (customer)  Success is actually the product.
9. STREAMING: here is a really interesting data point that made me pause -  YouTube is now the most popular video streaming platform among US teens, passing Netflix for the first time. This is all likely due to mobility based experiences with YouTubes views happening on mobile 70% of the time, compared to Netflix who is at 10%.
10. BaaS: Banking as a Service is on the rise! It’s actually not a new idea, it’s been around for a few years but with the spread of API’s and regulatory changes, we have seen opportunities really come to rise. Business Insider offer a deep dive on this  financial services opportunity (downloadable PDF report).

POD OF THE WEEK: Problem solving is an art - it’s a skill that can change everything. McKinsey dive into their methodology for problem solving (that is very McKinseyan) and actually a super helpful tool for business problem solving.

BONUS: Want to take a crash course on SaaS Metrics? The SaaS Academy have a great on-demand course (with templates) for $199 USD