# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending December 5, 2025

Published: 5 December 2025
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-december-5-2025

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

[Time to Profit](https://pawelbrodzinski.substack.com/p/time-to-profit-and-why-business-sustainability) - Probably one of the most important metrics in the post-COVID Civid/free money era. Most startups die not from bad ideas but from running out of cash before reaching sustainability. Shorter TTP forces discipline: fewer vanity bets, tighter PMF proofs, and faster elimination of anything that doesn't compound.

Link: https://pawelbrodzinski.substack.com/p/time-to-profit-and-why-business-sustainability

## 2. CONTRACTS

This is the report none of us knew we needed - but it's the unsexy stuff that matters as there are sone insightful gems: [A guide on SaaS Contracts](https://commonpaper.com/resources/contract-benchmark-2024-q1), complete with benchmarks such as customer signature roles (3/4 are Executives), AI and ML clauses (big increases in recent years), and the big one, time to sign - 3-5 days-ish (SMB to Enterprise). Have a read - I bet you will have some serious takeaways.

Link: https://commonpaper.com/resources/contract-benchmark-2024-q1

## 3. PMF

[Product-Market Fit is a spectrum and a gradual one, moving through stages of demand, customer satisfaction, and efficiency](https://iwantproductmarketfit.substack.com/p/the-product-market-fit-scale). Success means balancing high customer need with scalable growth. Check out [this dynamic scale](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e8q77n33ppup4f4l0letr/Product-Market-Fit-Scale.jpeg?rlkey=bje1pguryrfegqkxtui4vroxl&dl=0) - it's pretty interesting as it enables measures across multiple dimensions.

Link: https://iwantproductmarketfit.substack.com/p/the-product-market-fit-scale

## 4. MARKETING AGENTS

Some AI-adventurous marketers (vibe marketers?) are [swapping their ENTIRE teams for AI agents](https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-use-ai-agents-for-marketing). Check out SafetyCulture, who use AI-powered lead enrichment. Their outbound and follow-up workflows drove near-100% lead coverage, 2× more opportunities, and 3× meeting-rate lifts - without growing headcount.

Link: https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-use-ai-agents-for-marketing

## 5. SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

New phrase for your tech dictionaries. [a16z argues the next big leap is world models](https://www.a16z.news/p/from-words-to-worlds-spatial-intelligence) - what they mean by that consultant-ism is that soon AI will understand space, physics, and cause-and-effect. This shift unlocks agents that can act in real environments, not just talk about them—use cases for robots, AR, self-driving, logistics. Words are the table stakes - real-world shit is the moat.

Link: https://www.a16z.news/p/from-words-to-worlds-spatial-intelligence

## 6. STATE OF AI

Another week, another State of AI report - this time [McKinsey, who note that AI adoption has flat-lined at 47 percent](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai), yet enterprise spend is going vertical. The bottleneck isn't the models - it's companies. [Most are stuck in pilot hell,](https://www.sundeepteki.org/blog/the-genai-divide-why-95-of-ai-investments-fail) drowning in fragmentation, shadow apps, and zero governance. A key takeaway for everyone to understand is that real gains typically emerge when companies redesign processes around AI rather than simply layering new tools on top of existing workflows. Also, [check this neat infographic on Agent use](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/hwss81ocvc79cmro6hhaz/Pub-StateofAI2025-2-Ex-3.svgz?rlkey=z31o4fk4duonjzq4q6iph84dy&dl=0) by industry and business function.

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai

## 7. STATE OF AI (FOR REALZ VERSION)

I have had this conversation multiple times this week, even before OpenAI announced its "[Code Red](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/02/sam-altman-issues-code-red-at-openai-as-chatgpt-contends-with-rivals)" emergency; it's obvious they were [under pressure](https://www.ft.com/content/8881062d-ff4f-4454-8e9d-d992e8e2c4e3?accessToken=zwAGRMnu-vegkdOIgQYt_09EVNOOndmS6OLE4w.MEUCIC_ne2t1xC_wB03xTgc3tM0vdJzDrsRv4LICLFBcT_itAiEApmmEGxgLPIypQvvFx8LWH6pRPvbyc2HBwWHwng6_rmU&sharetype=gift&token=703783c7-8f6b-4e8e-bbdf-d9cb96441ca7&_bhlid=eb9463a01892f02f2c2d3c5581637f4f9c1c86fe). What's the long-term (and sustainable) business model for Agentic AI? It's a commodity expectation ($20/month for an account - sure!) - it's generating massive amounts of revenue, but it's MASSIVELY expensive to serve in its current state to run these models. Check t[his article for a deeper read on OpenAI's emerging challenges](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/openai-financial-situation-nauseating).

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/02/sam-altman-issues-code-red-at-openai-as-chatgpt-contends-with-rivals

## 8. INSURANCE

My day job is running a sexy Insurtech, and the insurance we need to operate globally is eye-watering. Mostly Metrics has [a great breakdown of what tech companies actually need for coverage](https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/your-complete-guide-to-business-insurance-for-tech-companies) – from cyber to EPLI to the stuff your broker forgets to mention. The (mostly ironic) surprise: most startups are underinsured in the risky areas and wildly overpaying everywhere else.

Link: https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/your-complete-guide-to-business-insurance-for-tech-companies

## 9. AGILE BRANDING

I love the good ol' marketing-ism of "50% of our marketing works; we just don't know which 50%." Well, hey - from a brand perspective - [there is an Agile Framework to figure out how](https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/brands/agile-brand-strategy-how-to-build-emotional-relevance-efficiently). Kantar's new research says most of us waste brand spend by guessing. And you can figure that out with fast, iterative testing of real consumer tensions, experiments, and (AI-assisted) creative screening. TL;DR: agile brand-building beats big campaigns and guesswork, and you can measure your way into relevance instead of hoping for it.

Link: https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/brands/agile-brand-strategy-how-to-build-emotional-relevance-efficiently

## 10. CASE STUDY

Everyone loves a good exit story, but [First Round's Merger Playbook is an IRL story of Crossbeam's merger](https://review.firstround.com/the-merger-playbook/) from its CEO, who breaks down a brutally honest playbook on merging with your fastest-growing competitor. It ain't pretty - 18 months of stalled talks, 70/30 equity fights, gun-jumping landmines, ripping out whole codebases, cross-boarding 30,000 customers, and firing half the C-suite.

Link: https://review.firstround.com/the-merger-playbook/

## POD OF THE WEEK

Bit of a case study - from [SaaStr, who have used an AI inbound agent](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnXnyHFT2A) where 71% of their closed-won sponsorship deals in Q4 came from AI-qualified inbound leads.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnXnyHFT2A