Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 20, 2024

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: It's time to rewatch a video that should be Mandatory for onboarding every person in a SaaS company. It's from David Skok (a legend in the SaaS world) and covers hardcore B2B SaaS metrics such as Rule of 40, Repeatability, Net new ARR, Bookings, LTV:CAC, churn, etc., etc. - it's a metric-packed 20 minutes.


2. EQUITY: This bookmarkable series from Femstreet covers the startup founder's guide to equity. Don't worry about Part 1 - it's a very basic primer. The good stuff starts in Part 2 and covers the different types of equity at a startup (founder, investor, vesting, liquidation, pro-rata, etc, etc) and Part 3 - covers cap tables and things you can do if they are messy.


3. INVESTORS: Following up from above - the motherlode! Check out this Ultimate Investors List of Lists from The VC Corner. This list includes everything from venture capital firms to family offices, active angel investors, Corporate Venture Arms, and accelerators. Bookmark now!


4. CLOSURES 1: Startup closures continued to rise in 2024, and Q1 saw a record 254 startups shutting down, according to Carta. Check the graph - it's pretty alarming. This is a 58% increase from last year and came after a 124% jump between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023. It's hard to find updated data, but it looks as though this momentum has continued into Q2.


5. CLOSURES 2: And it's not just Startups. According to Equal Ventures, the VC landscape is facing consolidation pressures as large firms dominate the capital flow. In 2024, 44% of VC funding went to just two firms, and many smaller funds may not survive. The article predicts that 30-50% of venture firms could disappear, leaving the VC world increasingly homogenous and less innovative.


6. VENTURE: In another Carta report, the State of Private Markets: Q2 2024, we get a mixed bag of sentiment (this is for U.S. private startups) - mainly cautious with some whiffs of optimism: Median valuations increased somewhat across stages, but deal volume remains low. Early-stage startups are particularly affected, with fundraising still tough. Seed-stage valuations rose slightly, but it's still a volume problem, as the number of deals dropped significantly. Series B and C valuations are looking good, with Series D seeing a 200% increase. Adding in data from Crunchbase as it's taking longer and longer to close rounds (28 months' median time between Series A & B funding).


7. CUSTOMER SUCCESS: Great question: Where Should Customer Success Sit on your balance sheet? This article from Mostly Metrics answers whether CS teams should report to Sales or Product or operate independently. The answer? It depends. So read through because you may need to take a more flexible approach.


8. TERM SHEETS: Bookmark this for future reference. This Term Sheets guide explains the most important clauses—like valuation, liquidation preferences, and anti-dilution protections--it also offers some strategies for negotiating more founder favorable terms.


9. B2B MARKETING: Why do most B2B marketing plans fail? According to this article, it's because of "random acts of marketing." Complete lack of clarity is the main culprit. Then, they provide the goods with a structured approach. The article also has a helpful B2B marketing plan template with steps for planning long-term initiatives.


10. CASE STUDY: Adding onto #6 above, here are 15 SaaS Marketing Campaigns that had some pretty innovative strategies. This includes examples from Dropbox, Mailchimp, and Slack.


POD OF THE WEEK: All about SAFEs - this podcast has pretty extensive conversations on fundraising with SAFEs, liquidation preferences, and the relationship between founders and lawyers.