# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending April 19, 2024

Published: 18 April 2024
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-april-19-2024

1.[**CAC**](https://www.paddle.com/resources/customer-acquisition-cost) **-** in a modern SaaS world that has maturing companies using both sales-led growth (SLG) and product-led growth (PLG) motions and teams, how do you [calculate CAC](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/cac-payback-basics-what-it-is-how-to-calculate-it-and-why-it-matters/)? The answer is [they should be kept separate](https://medium.com/@JamesColgan/unlocking-efficient-growth-collaborative-strategies-for-a-hybrid-plg-slg-approach-to-transform-8b60aa4c423) (see Pod of the Week for more below)

2. GTM:

Go-to-market motions can be pretty specific and can [impact your marketing strategy and your org chart](https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/gtm-motion). Mark Roberge at Stage 2 Capital gives some [PLG context on go-to-market strategies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prLzBINL4tI) in a really great presentation. The slide deck from the presentation can be [found here](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1uRSgFkbuFtBP6lcIf5EEIRJ64aKb8nrF/edit?__hstc=57080053.24dd4cadb3a0af1c6aa018f550cee0eb.1664315903437.1664315903437.1664315903437.1&__hssc=57080053.1.1664315903443&__hsfp=4095787860&submissionGuid=624608af-3881-4077-b191-2547d355dcf6#slide=id.p1).

3. CONVERTIBLE LOANS:

They are a kind of debt [until they are not](https://medium.com/entree-capital/the-math-challenge-with-convertible-notes-safes-8352d250e43). However, convertible loans are a quick way to access money quickly through an interested investor. Point Nine Capital [describes in detail what is involved in a convertible loan](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/convertible-loans-what-to-look-out-for-404e888ea0c2) and what to look out for.

4. PLG vs. SLG:

According to the [Expansion SaaS Benchmarks report](https://www.dropbox.com/s/nt6wcvfjvwdovez/2020_SaaS_benchmarks_deck_vFINAL.pdf?dl=0) (it's a downloadable PDF), [PLG](https://openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth-maturity-grader) businesses lead the pack, but as stated above - SLG can outperform PLG, and [according to this article](https://saasoptics.com/blog/sales-led-vs-product-led-why-you-dont-have-to-choose), it's not a "vs." thing - you don't have to choose, both strategies can co-exist.

5. KNOWLEDGE BASE:

I complain all the time that [building a comprehensive and useful customer Knowledge Base platform](https://www.saastock.com/blog/how-to-scale-saas-business-self-service-knowledge-base/) is hard. But here is something to consider (it's certainly a helpful article for my mindset): There are probably stakeholders/purchasers of your product who [do not respond well to traditional marketing](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7151299) and, in fact, [may actively hate it](https://martech.org/avoid-developer-dis-content/). These people are like me, and while I may moan about how difficult creating good documentation is, it may be [one of the best anti-marketing-marketing tools you have available](https://hackernoon.com/nerds-dont-respond-to-marketing-try-technical-documentation-instead), Especially [if you have an API](https://cloud.google.com/files/apigee/apigee-developers-hate-marketing-ebook.pdf) as part of your product.

6. DUE DILIGENCE:

For investors, what the heck does due diligence look like for pre-seed or pre-rev companies (especially those seeking out Convertible Loans - see #2 above)with no real traction or trends to share? It's hard to do - but [this article captures many key areas, ](https://chudson.substack.com/p/due-diligence-checklist-for-pre-seed)especially founder equity, non-founders on the cap table, and founder vesting.

7. SEO (and AI):

Last week, a post on how[ SEO is becoming less reliant](https://www.animalz.co/blog/distribution-first-strategy) (thanks to AI) was the second most clicked article. Apparently, everyone is interested, so here is more on [how to prepare](https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/seo-content-strategy-sge-ai/).

8.[VENTURE](https://gtmonday.substack.com/p/the-average-enterprise-has-23-vendors): According to Pitchbook, the one-year rolling internal rate of return (IRR) metric for [VC funds in the US is at the -10% mark](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/venture-capital-fund-returns-uptick-2024) (yup, that's a negative), started in late 2022 and has continued through to now (with a dip to almost -18% at the end of 2022). These Fund returns remain negative due to portfolio markdowns and a lack of liquidity.

9. ANNUAL DISCOUNT:

We are all [part of the great SaaS Ponzi Scheme](https://twitter.com/top10intech/status/1460448403326844933?s=20), and [the average enterprise has 23 vendors in their tech stack](https://gtmonday.substack.com/p/the-average-enterprise-has-23-vendors), so it probably comes as no surprise to you that annual SaaS contracts are discounted. But how much? [10% is the median, and the range is tighter than I thought, at 6%-14%](https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Slide49.png). Why? [Jason Lemkin has the answer for you](https://www.saastr.com/negotiation-and-human-behaviour/) (TL;DR - behavior - Human behavior)

10. CASE STUDY:

This is more of a guide this week and a follow-up from #5, which I assume 95% of you think is boring. Yes, yes, it is—but it's super necessary. So read [this guide to knowledge base creation for SaaS](https://userpilot.com/blog/knowledge-base-creation/). I use it as a case study as it's also Userpilot drinking its own lemonade.

 POD OF THE WEEK:

To marry #1 and #4 above from the SaaS CFO [Calculating CAC when you have PLG and SLG motions](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/calculating-cac-when-you-have-slg-and-plg-motions/id1697566096?i=1000651530858).