# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending December 4, 2020

Published: 4 December 2020
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-december-4-2020

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

NRG - [Natural Rate of Growth](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/new-saas-metric/#.X8bEWMszalY). This is for all you Product Lead Growth groupies. With NRG the assumption is that a PLG business has an organic, self-service, growth engine at the core (because they’re built to attract the end-user). The article linked above comes complete with benchmarks towards the end. Hungry for more PLG metrics? [I got ya!](https://productled.com/key-metrics-for-every-team-in-a-product-led-company)

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/new-saas-metric/#.X8bEWMszalY

## 2. PRODUCT LED GROWTH (PLG)

Nice little lead-in from above, Lemme tech-splain you: PLG is a go-to-market strategy that relies on using the [product as the main vehicle for growth](https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/growth-recurnow) (eg Slack, Evernote, Netflix, and Dropbox). PLG gives the user access to the product, driving their experience to meaningful outcome where upgrading to a paid plan just [becomes a no-brainer.](https://userpilot.com/blog/the-aha-moment-for-product-onboarding-activation/) It can become a [true growth fly-wheel if built right](https://userpilot.com/blog/user-adoption-flywheel/).

Link: https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/growth-recurnow

## 3. TRIALS

Are a proven method for a solid PLG go-to-market strategy. Check this article on [9 ways to optimize your SaaS trial](https://cxl.com/blog/saas-trials/) and then take note from Tomasz Tunguz on [how long should your customer trial period be](https://tomtunguz.com/how-long-free-trial/)?: TL;DR: Longer trials do not convert customers at greater rates

Link: https://cxl.com/blog/saas-trials/

## 4. CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Take a (deep) read of [this extensive guide for building great customer success teams](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/extensive-guide-building-your-first-great-customer-success-queener/) - CS is not just about limiting churn, but it also creates a department and practice to convince existing customers to buy even more from you. As Jason Lemkin said back in 2015: "[Customer Success is where 90% of the revenue is](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexmcclafferty/2015/05/18/customer-success/)”. Want a working example? Chart Mogul expand on this and [explain their approach to a (successful) success management strategy](https://blog.chartmogul.com/proactive-customer-success/).

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/extensive-guide-building-your-first-great-customer-success-queener/

## 5. MARKETING SPEND

Last week I mentioned Sales Budgets - Figuring out how to optimize marketing spend and growth rate is also a key question and this study doesn’t show great benchmarks - [percentage of revenue in pretty much equals percentage growth out](https://dskok-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/img_5d9ca9ffa3166-e1570548255940.png), but with an ever increasing range of outcomes as spend increases per business. More solid benchmarks are with the Sales vs Marketing spend ratios [which stay at about 2:1](https://dskok-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/img_5d9caac4cd7f7-e1570548437143.png) regardless of market-facing strategies (although Mixed is a bit of an outlier).

Link: https://dskok-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/img_5d9ca9ffa3166-e1570548255940.png

## 6. PROSPECTING

A lot of startups follow this path: Get an idea, build an MVP, convince friends and family to validate as beta customers. Then........OK - now what? This is ideally when prospecting needs to start - so [take a read here of the beginner’s guide to B2B prospecting](https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-super-beginners-guide-to-b2b-prospecting-df5fdc857ba6).

Link: https://medium.com/craft-ventures/the-super-beginners-guide-to-b2b-prospecting-df5fdc857ba6

## 7. GROWTH (Bootstrapped)

I love myself a good and fully transparent, with warts and all, SaaS growth story. So this one is a great beginning to end account: [Growing a SaaS from Zero To Sold](https://getmakerlog.com/stories/arvid-kahl) - BOOTSTRAPPED. On the flip side of that bootstrap world are the unavoidable and hard pitfalls of trying to grow a startup without any external capital: [6 things I wish I knew before I bootstrapped my first SaaS startup](https://thenextweb.com/growth-quarters/2020/11/24/6-things-i-wish-i-knew-before-i-bootstrapped-my-first-saas-startup/).

Link: https://getmakerlog.com/stories/arvid-kahl

## 8. CAPITAL

Good conversations this week prompted me to make sure to add some significant messages this newsletter focused on the Venture World. First up - seed stage start-ups do not have the pipeline, processes, or sales skills capability to give hard core growth metrics to an investor. So what metrics actually matter? [This article from The Startup lists 3 metrics that should truly matter to investors](https://medium.com/swlh/the-3-metrics-that-matter-to-raise-your-series-a-306a85b8b5b7) at Series A. Second is the SaaS napkin: Point Nine Capital have just launched a call for feedback to update their [SaaS Napkin](https://www.dropbox.com/s/etmgz1vbxuys1yw/SaaSNapkin2019.pdf?dl=0) for 2020 (it’s awesome but a little pre-covid) so here is the fresh publication from them on [what it takes to raise capital (in SaaS) in 2020](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/what-does-it-take-to-raise-capital-in-saas-in-2020-8fc96d4ed18a).

Link: https://medium.com/swlh/the-3-metrics-that-matter-to-raise-your-series-a-306a85b8b5b7

## 9. PITCH

The days of mandatory in-person pitch meeting to a VC are mostly behind us (at least for the foreseeable future). Pitching over Zoom is where we are at. Before you focus on getting the perfect lighting though - check these [16 rookie errors founder make pitching to VC’s](https://www.saastr.com/16-rookie-errors-founders-make-pitching-to-vcs-and-passing-the-20-minute-test/) from Jason Lemkin and read here on [how you will be Zoom-judged by the VC's you are pitching to](https://www.nfx.com/post/how-vcs-judge-your-startup-on-zoom/).

Link: https://www.saastr.com/16-rookie-errors-founders-make-pitching-to-vcs-and-passing-the-20-minute-test/

## 10. FINANCE

Founders - take a good review of this! How many of these mistakes are you making? (i'm making a few) : [8 Finance Mistakes Growing SaaS Businesses Make (and How to Fix Them)](https://www.saasbrief.com/edition/weekly-trends-social-media-2020-11-21).

Link: https://www.saasbrief.com/edition/weekly-trends-social-media-2020-11-21

## POD OF THE WEEK

Continuing the Bootstrapped theme from #7: [Bootstrapping To $640k MRR With Omar Zenhom of WebinarNinja](https://saasmarketer.io/ep-012-bootstrapping-to-640k-mrr-with-omar-zenhom-of-webinarninja/)

Link: https://saasmarketer.io/ep-012-bootstrapping-to-640k-mrr-with-omar-zenhom-of-webinarninja/