Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 26, 2025

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK - VC MATHS: IRR vs Return Multiple — they sound similar but measure totally different things. This post breaks down the math VCs actually use to rank funds, justify exits, and explain why speed sometimes beats size.


2. CHIP WARS: After the US government took a 10% stake in Intel last month, Intel and NVIDIA just announced a major partnership. Intel will manufacture NVIDIA's next-gen AI chips — a move that could reboot Intel's foundry biz and reshape the AI infrastructure race. Huge signal bringing together two of the biggest players in the industry.


3. M&A: Navigating some kind of acquisitions process is a relatively unexplored topic in this newsletter, so check this guide to running an M&A process as a Founder from First Round Review.


4. LANDING PAGES: Want to get better at creating effective landing pages? Scrapbook's SaaS landing page optimization checklist provides a guide to creating compelling headlines, using high-quality visuals, optimizing for mobile, indexing, and, of course, including strong CTAs to boost conversions. BONUS: How to write killer CTAs.


5. PITCH DECK: A great pitch deck resource from Alexander Jarvis, who hosts almost 540 of them (and 10,000 pages)! The cool feature here is that you can search/filter startup decks by stage, topic, and country.


6. SALARIES: Want to retain startup talent? Their pay still matters. This breakdown shows how overall compensation mix (cash vs equity) impacts retention, with really clear data points by role, stage, and geography. Bookmark this for your next comp review for sure.


7. DATA MOATS: The idea that data creates a durable moat? It may be overhyped. The Platforms Substack argues most pure "data moats" leak — fast. Unless you've got proprietary generation and tight reinforcement loops, someone else can out-model you.


8. BOTS: One-third of the internet is now bots (see the live feed of that here)  — and we have some very good bots out there, but most of these are not the good kind. Vice digs into how fake traffic, scraped content, and automated engagement are distorting the web. It's not just noise, it's business models built on BS that's enshittingifying what we have.


9. MANAGEMENT: Ever feel weird running a startup like it's a friggin' classroom? If you nodded your head, you're not alone. This piece unpacks "educational trauma" — why many leaders default to teacher mode, and how to build an adult-to-adult culture instead.


10. CASE STUDY: OpenAI isn't just building models — it's building a distribution machine. This breakdown shows how ChatGPT's product, pricing, and plug-ins mirror some classic SaaS GTM… but it all moves faster than traditional SaaS ever could. And it's publishing how people use their products.


POD OF THE WEEK: Complementing number 2 in this week's newsletter is from a16z on the Chip Wars. A Deep dive into the AI chip race, TSMC choke points, and why NVIDIA's real moat isn't just hardware.