Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending October 22, 2021

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Net Dollar Retention is an important metric in the new world of Product Led Growth. It’s used to help answer the following: "Does my startup need to increase customer acquisition/marketing spend?" Tomasz Tunguz writes in detail about this and Crunchbase does the work to calculate what good NDR benchmarks should look like. 
2. THE FUTURE (of the Internet) part 1: Two significant reads this week (and one in 2 parts) - the first one is from a16z who are proposing an agenda for the future of the Internet. The firm envisions a post Web 2.0 article and discusses "web3" (which is mainly all things crypto. blockchain, De-Fi (see below), NFTs, and DAOs). Their positioning is that this isn’t just a new wave of innovation — it’s an opportunity for a reset.
3. THE FUTURE (of the Internet) part 2: This two-part series goes beyond an agenda and describes what could await us in this more decentralized future. Change is coming! Part 1 here (taking us through Web 1.0 and 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0) and Part 2 here on how to create that future.
4. DEFI: Open source is coming to the fintech world, and a real possible future within that is leveraging blockchain ledger capabilities beyond cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Etherium via Decentralized Finance (Defi) - here is a little 101 intro on what Defi Infrastructure is.
5. CRYPTO CAP TABLES: While I'm in the crypto mood this week, have you ever wondered how the funding and cap-table of a crypto/token-based startup works? Tomasz Tunguz explains how the equity and token cap tables work.
6. CHAOS THEORY: OK - hear me out on this one: There has never been a more significant time for a different way of thinking about change in modern organizations. Digital Transformations are important, strategically. But the mindset needed requires a certain kind of improv style to get there - as the systems in place that are needed to change or pivot are usually very complex - change IS chaos. So take some time to read this article to understand more of what this is about - I also aspire to have the title of "Chaos Manager" one day...
7. AI: Now it's its fourth year (which is like 28 Dog AI years) the State of AI Report is out for 2021 and it's a 188 page Google Slide deck! AI has been pretty clutch in the last year with faster simulations of human machinery such as proteins and RNA - starting at Slide 24; 88% of top AI educators/faculty have received funding from Big Tech (MSFT, APPL, IBM, et al); and a record amount of funding this year into AI startups with over USD $115B raised (slide 141)
8. IDEAS: This is a framework for managing them - I found this a really helpful article with a template that is now on my wall! An HD version of it is here. A little bonus is a compilation of mental models that entrepreneurs and investors leverage to develop new startup ideas & venture theses from the same author.
9. MARKETING - Here is a list of 9 great marketing tips for B2B SaaS businesses and BTW - 2022 is coming. It can't be worse than 2021 (can it??) so here is a planning guide for all you B2B marketeers.
10. CASE STUDY: Contrary to traditional startup lore, not every founder is a domain or industry expert (and I've got my hand up here). Here are 6 lessons from founders who (successfully) founded a startup in a space they are not an expert in.

​POD OF THE WEEK: From SaaStr to compliment #1 above:  Churn is dead. Long live Net Dollar Retention (NDR) with David Kellogg

BONUS: Here is a free online pass to TechCrunch's SaaS event next week (Oct. 27). Use the code "techstarsfree".