Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 6, 2024

1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: ARR per FTE: Capital Efficiency is a new-fangled metric we all want to track in these LeanOps times. Benchmarking this - the median is $143K per FTE according to the 2022 KeyBanc Private SaaS Report. With public companies, it's double that, according to data from Maritech, and Kyle Polar from Openview breaks this down to tell whether you're on the right track.


2. COMPENSATION: Kruze Consulting has a great article, with a calculator and awesome visuals, covering startup CEO Salaries based on data collected earlier this year. YoY salary is beginning to recover (but the data is diluted over a longer time between stages). Sadly, the gender gap persists. The data tracks well with a report from June


3. PITCH: Last week's whopper guide on Raising was popular, so here is a little bit extra: Need to craft some super effective pitch decks? Take a look at this "Pitch Deck eBook" by Deck Doctors and Hustle Fund, covering all the pitch deck's greatest hits: problem statement, solution, market opportunity, business model, traction, and team. (Real-world examples and insights are also included.)


4. CAPITAL EFFICIENCY: Capital Efficiency is back in Vogue (see #1 above and also #5 and #6 below)! According to Bessemer Venture Partners, here are the benchmarks for B2B SaaS to measure your payback against (full report here). Across all companies, Engineering is consistently the largest department, Customer Success and Product at about 10% and Marketing at only 7%. This slide also has median headcount by stage - which is a great metric to track.


5. SPEND: Question - How much do you plan on spending on your future operational plans? SaaS Capital has a wonderful B2B SaaS Spending Benchmark report to best forecast what to send on sales, marketing, CS, COGS, and R&D. And because 2024 will continue to be your year of LeanOps - here is how to manage burn and extend your runway into 2024 from Capchase.


6. ACCOUNTING. Check out this excellent guide from the SaaSCFO that covers key aspects of SaaS Accounting, such as recognizing revenue, managing deferred revenue, and tracking key metrics. It emphasizes what can sometimes be a bit of a disconnect, which is the importance of aligning accounting practices with our SaaS-specific challenges to make sure we have the right SaaS financial reporting to support good business growth.


7. DEVSECAIOPS: This is not a real port-port-portmanteau. I just made it up (you're welcome). With AI transforming every landscape, AI security is unavoidable and a crucial problem for builders and integrators to solve. This article dives into how enterprises are securing AI/LLMs, highlighting the shift towards security for AI (DEVSECAIOPS), with categories like governance, observability, and security leading the charge.


8. FOUNDER-LED SALES: I've had some healthy discussions on this over the past few weeks: Founder-led sales is a well-documented part of the startup journey, especially in the early days and often with very inexperienced or more technical founders. Here is a great article (with Engineering-based analogies) on how Founders can mentally re-frame and execute an excellent sales program. Here is a great diagram that summarizes how this works as you scale - do not skip steps (especially Step 2)!


9. PERSONALITIES: No one wants high-performing assholes - and there is now data to prove it! This article from The VC Corner explores how a founder's personality traits impact company culture, decision-making, and investor confidence. Resilience, vision, and adaptability can make or break a startup. Also - good news for you cool people: "Hipsters," "Hackers," or "Hustlers" are twice as likely to succeed.


10. CASE STUDY: Expanding on number 8 above, here is a list of 10 Founder-Led Sales lessons learned with a recent roundtable from Race Capital.


POD OF THE WEEK: Generative AI won't take over your job anytime soon, but coding skills may become less critical in the future, according to Paige Bailey of Google. ​