# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending August 23, 2019

Published: 23 August 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-august-23-2019

## 1. FORECAST

Great [article and excel download](https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-financial-plan) from [The SaaS CFO](https://www.thesaascfo.com/) - A SaaS Financial Plan for Startups and SMB’s. It also comes with a handy complimentary [video tutorial](https://youtu.be/yZbniuVi1aY) to the worksheet.

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-financial-plan

## 2. SEED FUNDING

Tomasz Tunguz [takes a look at the current state of seed funding](https://tomtunguz.com/which-categories-of-seed-startups-are-thriving-which-aren-t/) to determine which categories of startups are thriving and which aren’t. WHAT’S HOT: AI, Blockchain, FinTech, Food and Beverage and Software. COOLING: Advertising, Analytics, Big Data, and Social Media.

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/which-categories-of-seed-startups-are-thriving-which-aren-t/

## 3. RECURRING REVENUE

It’s a great business model for building out predictable revenues as long as you are not a gym (which sit at an industry average of about [30% churn](https://www.glofox.com/blog/the-gym-membership-retention-statistics-worth-retaining-in-2019/)). That predictability also takes a hit that when subscriber growth is driven by Stranger Things, Game of Thrones or The Hand Maiden Tales. [The research team at The Information take a look at streaming TV revenue growth](http://thein.fo/bc777cd2ceb9bbb4) - specifically at Netflix as it relates to stock price and forward multiples (they are calling a 4x multiple for Netflix in comparison to SaaS industry average of 5.2)

Link: https://www.glofox.com/blog/the-gym-membership-retention-statistics-worth-retaining-in-2019/

## 4. FINTECH

[Here is the 2019 H1 report from KPMG](https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/campaigns/2019/07/pulse-of-fintech-h1-2019.html). It’s been a quiet start for fintech investment globally and Blockchain/crypto technology investment has returned to the levels of 2014-2016 following a two-year hype period.

Link: https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/campaigns/2019/07/pulse-of-fintech-h1-2019.html

## 5. EXPANSION

Growth is not just about acquisition. Far from it. As mentioned in prior newsletters, improving retention or monetization can actually [impact growth 2-4x more effectively than improvements in acquisition](https://www.dropbox.com/s/iyvvohthpee1g9g/BASiS_2017-patrick-campbell.pdf?dl=0). (see slides 41-46 for the real nuggets). Tips on how to optimize this via renewal [available here](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/in-saas-renewal-is-everything-is-your-process-working#.XVr2AZNKhTZ). But I really enjoyed reading [this working example](https://open.buffer.com/buffers-evolution-and-expansion) of what that means to a companies growth and revenues from a product perspective from the company [Buffer.](http://buffer.com/)

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iyvvohthpee1g9g/BASiS_2017-patrick-campbell.pdf?dl=0

## 6. MODERN WORK

The [Industrial Revolution 4.0](https://slack.com/state-of-work/saadia-zahidi) is apparently coming and Slack is a company with products that have reinvented a large digital part of how modern workers choose to work, collaborate, and communicate. Slack are focused on being a thought leader in this new state of (modern) work, so they embarked on a [global survey of about 17,000 knowledge workers](https://slackhq.com/slack-state-of-work-report) and came up with some fascinating insights around [alignment](https://slack.com/state-of-work/susan-david). Starting with the fact that organizations need to communicate their corporate strategy at least **once a month** to keep employees engaged and drilling into stats such as optimal number of meetings/day (**no more than 4**) and the loss of hours per person/per year simply by time spent switching between applications **(it’s 130 hours!**). [PDF Version of report here](https://a.slack-edge.com/18767/marketing/downloads/state-of-work/Slack_State_of_Work_2019.pdf)

Link: https://slack.com/state-of-work/saadia-zahidi

## 7. STARTUP CITIES

Yes, San Francisco is still the primary geographic location to nurture a fast growing tech company. But, unlike a [lot of disaster movies](https://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/article/The-bridge-Hollywood-loves-to-hate-Golden-Gate-13868573.php), the tech world doesn’t end at the Golden Gate Bridge. Three things here: 1. From Inc Magazine comes a list of the [top 10 US Startup Cities](https://www.inc.com/emily-canal/top-10-cities-successful-businesses-2019-inc5000.html), 2. In a [more extensive global report](https://medium.com/@foundercollective/startup-success-outside-silicon-valley-data-from-over-200-exits-in-17-cities-1872bf8e7619) are data on over 200 exists from 17 Cities around the world. (Nearly every month for the last ten years, a tech company has been acquired or gone public for over a billion-dollars from outside the SF Bay Area) 3. The [Startup Ecosystem report](https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/ranking-the-startup-ecosystems-of-1000-cities-and-100-countries/) from StartupBlink (NZ Ranks 26th - room to move!)

Link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/article/The-bridge-Hollywood-loves-to-hate-Golden-Gate-13868573.php

## 8. PRODUCT MARKET FIT

From Y-Combinator this is [a great (but 50 minute long) presentation](https://www.startupschool.org/videos/69) on how to measure product-market fit via high fidelity data. [Slides here](https://www.dropbox.com/s/a7p6pjc3q5l8akk/Growth_for_Startups_SUS.pdf?dl=0) if you can’t watch - which have really insightful charts and examples.

Link: https://www.startupschool.org/videos/69

## 9. VALUE

The test of long-term success for a modern tech company is with their ability to demonstrate value to customers - which can determine whether a startup can continually generate waves of success that are sustainable. TL:DR [Here is a playbook on mastering the art of successful customer outcomes](https://firstround.com/review/mastering-the-art-of-the-outcome-how-guru-turned-customer-success-into-a-company-cornerstone).

Link: https://firstround.com/review/mastering-the-art-of-the-outcome-how-guru-turned-customer-success-into-a-company-cornerstone

## 10. INSTAGRAM

Feel like the amount of ads in your feed have increased? Well they have (pretty much doubled) since 2018. [This article from The Information](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/growing-pains-facebook-pushes-instagram-to-earn-its-keep) is a fascinating deep dive behind the (tense) scenes at Facebook and Instagram over the past 18 months.

Link: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/growing-pains-facebook-pushes-instagram-to-earn-its-keep

## POD OF THE WEEK

From the B2B Sales Show featuring NZ’s own [Matt Cameron](http://b2bsales.libsyn.com/16-sales-coaching-to-win-w-matt-cameron)[on the topic of sales coaching](http://b2bsales.libsyn.com/16-sales-coaching-to-win-w-matt-cameron). (Matt will be in NZ next week as part of [SouthernSaaS](https://www.eiseverywhere.com/website/3805/programme))

**BONUS**: From Gainsight a Webinar on Thursday, August 29th (Pacific) at 11am on [The best ways to find friction in your Users Journey](https://www.gainsight.com/event/finding-friction-in-you-user-journey-and-how-to-fix-it/) (and how to fix it).

Link: http://b2bsales.libsyn.com/16-sales-coaching-to-win-w-matt-cameron