# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending February 4, 2022

Published: 4 February 2022
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-february-4-2022

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

[DAU/MAU](https://www.geckoboard.com/best-practice/kpi-examples/dau-mau-ratio/). The [DAU/MAU ratio is a popular metric for companies measuring user engagement](https://andrewchen.co/dau-mau-is-an-important-metric-but-heres-where-it-fails/). Rule of thumb: Apps with over [20% = good](https://twitter.com/sequoia/status/436302641992187904?_ga=2.138072432.1195518810.1630984396-1101450475.1630984396). If you have 50%+ - you're world-class.

Link: https://www.geckoboard.com/best-practice/kpi-examples/dau-mau-ratio/

## 2. REVENUE GROWTH

This one is from the archives, as I consider it one of the best presentations at [SaaStr Annual](https://www.saastrannual.com/). It's from [Mark Roberge](https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=869446) of [Stage 2 Capital](https://www.stage2.capital/) and Harvard Business School, who is providing a handy [step-by-step guide to revenue growth](https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/75247c_4ccb759ab5c5413b9cc4694ba6d85515.pdf) - broken down by stage (as a downloadable PDF!).

Link: https://www.saastrannual.com/

## 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). But Convertible Loans are a quick way to access money quickly via an interested investor. Point Nine Capital [describes 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.

Link: https://medium.com/entree-capital/the-math-challenge-with-convertible-notes-safes-8352d250e43

## 4. BUYERS vs. USERS

The person writing you a check is not necessarily the same person getting value from your Business. So take a read of [this insightful article from HeavyBit](https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/messaging-to-the-user-vs-the-buyer-is-there-a-difference/) on differentiating messaging based on this premise and [the different profiles](https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/ideal-customer-profiles-and-buyer-personas-are-they-different).

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/blog/messaging-to-the-user-vs-the-buyer-is-there-a-difference/

## 5. OUTBOUND vs. INBOUND

How you handle an inbound lead vs. an outbound lead is quite different. Check [this article from Jack Jorgovan on how Outbound leads differ](https://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/how-to-close-outbound-leads) (and how to close them). Oh, and do you want to binge some Outbound Sales TV???? Yeah, I knew you would. The team at predictable revenue has been running over 50 outbound sales experiments to find out what works best (and what doesn't.). [Watch the whole series on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAxmz91coGiNze-0mTDjrgrGOnvTqJ9uD).

Link: https://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/how-to-close-outbound-leads

## 6. BRAND MARKETING

Just how much does brand matter in B2B?….well, put your bias away as it's a lot according to [this article](https://www.marketingweek.com/b2b-brands-invest-brand-marketing/) and [this one](https://neilpatel.com/blog/does-branding-drive-sales/). Need to get started or run a branding review? Check this article on [how to get started](https://www.kracov.co/writing/how-to-build-a-b2b-saas-brand).

Link: https://www.marketingweek.com/b2b-brands-invest-brand-marketing/

## 7. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

It's a weird open secret that many B2B SaaS businesses generate a significant amount of revenue from implementation and deployment projects, [often captured as revenue from Professional Services](https://medium.com/@brooke.land/professional-services-and-customer-success-in-saas-startups-7ea002826b4d), due to deployment and configuration complexity. So what are the revenue benchmarks for a SaaS Business to capture revenue through professional services? On average, it [caps out at 11%](https://dskok-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/img_5d9cb5d8cdd26-e1570551296442.png) of all annual revenue with Enterprise focused businesses, but even at the lower end of town, it's still 5% of revenues with SMB focused companies.

Link: https://medium.com/@brooke.land/professional-services-and-customer-success-in-saas-startups-7ea002826b4d

## 8. CULTURE

LinkedIn has published a fascinating new [report into the rapid workplace culture shifts that have been in play since 2020](https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgblh2arhtc5o3f/global_talent_trends_2022.pdf?dl=0) and what these shifts mean for your internal team branding. Flexibility and work-life balance beat out compensation and salary.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgblh2arhtc5o3f/global_talent_trends_2022.pdf?dl=0

## 9. PRODUCTIVITY

Okta has released its [8th annual Business at Work report](https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsyrl8k6oo9u1sm/Businesses-at-Work-2022-Annual-Report.pdf?dl=0) covering the applications and services workers use to be productive; plenty have emerged in response to WFH and pandemic-related shifts. In a surprise to no one, companies focused on collaboration and data security tools as the top 2 most popular categories.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lsyrl8k6oo9u1sm/Businesses-at-Work-2022-Annual-Report.pdf?dl=0

## 10. CASE STUDY

From a VC perspective, the Series A funding round is a stamp of approval. It shows that product-market-fit is evident and that there is a venture-backable market out there for the Business to target. From the PointNine Capital blog comes [the story of how PlayPlay managed to raise their €10M Series A](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/9-tricks-to-be-series-a-ready-f93b2a050c85) (broken down into a digestible 9 point play).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/9-tricks-to-be-series-a-ready-f93b2a050c85

## POD OF THE WEEK

It's a video, not a podcast this week. The content pumping out of Y-Combinator at present is always good. YC Partner [Carolynn Levy details the basics of startup financing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qWZALyGSmg&feature=youtu.be&t=7s) and how modern early-stage financing rounds work using convertible securities, such as the SAFE note.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qWZALyGSmg&feature=youtu.be&t=7s