# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending July 12, 2024

Published: 11 July 2024
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-july-12-2024

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

People are the most important (and expensive) metric for any company, especially SaaS (yes, I would argue more important than the actual product). Revenue per FTE is one metric to measure when it comes to company efficiency via people efficiency, but a better one, perhaps, is [the ROSE Metric](https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-rose-metric/) (Return on SaaS Employees). This metric highlights the tradeoffs between headcount, recurring revenue, and EBITDA growth of a SaaS company.

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/saas-rose-metric/

## 2. HOMEPAGES

The never-ending quest to create the perfect homepage. While there's no such thing as a "perfect homepage," there are certainly best practices you can follow. [This article breaks it all down](https://wraptext.equals.com/creating-the-perfect-homepage/) and [claims to be the ultimate guide](https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-homepages?).

Link: https://wraptext.equals.com/creating-the-perfect-homepage/

## 3. GROWTH

This fantastic read by the team at Reforge argues that [choosing between monetization and growth is a false dichotomy](https://www.reforge.com/blog/monetization-vs-growth-its-a-false-choice), suggesting businesses can successfully balance both for sustained, scalable success and also outline Growth as a system with three elements: acquisition, monetization, and retention.

Link: https://www.reforge.com/blog/monetization-vs-growth-its-a-false-choice

## 4. CHARTS

This is a fun one. "[Friends Don't Let Friends Make Bad Graphs](https://github.com/cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends)" is a GitHub article outlining some good and bad practices in data visualization. It includes examples and explanations.

Link: https://github.com/cxli233/FriendsDontLetFriends

## 5. AI ADOPTION

Even though apparently 60% of us released GenAI features last year (see #3 in [last week's newsletter](https://www.top10in.tech/top-10-in-tech/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-july-5-2024)), Tomasz Tunguz notes that [AI adoption remains slow in some areas](https://tomtunguz.com/why-ai-adoption-slower/). (Opportunity time?) Security, legal complexities, and meeting procurement standards seem to be the top reasons!

Link: https://www.top10in.tech/top-10-in-tech/top-10-in-tech-what-to-know-for-week-ending-july-5-2024

## 6. GTM DATA

I needed this over the past two weeks. [GTM partners have a really pragmatic article covering essential metrics and KPIs for your go-to-market strategy](https://gtmonday.substack.com/p/you-cant-manage-what-you-cant-measure#%C2%A7gtm-research-how-to-think-about-metrics-and-kpis-for-gtm) (at different stages), covering inbound, outbound, PLG, partner, community, and event-led growth. After all, you can't manage what you can't measure. It has scorecard templates, too!

Link: https://gtmonday.substack.com/p/you-cant-manage-what-you-cant-measure#%C2%A7gtm-research-how-to-think-about-metrics-and-kpis-for-gtm

## 7. VERTICAL SAAS

Many Big Tech companies are under threat from narrowly focused SaaS companies taking market share in niche areas and building massive businesses. Check [the difference between vertical and horizontal SaaS here](https://www.koombea.com/blog/vertical-horizontal-saas/), and then take a look at [how these vertical SaaS companies are taking market share from those cloud giants](https://www.protocol.com/enterprise/vertical-saas-platform-industry-cloud) and how [AI and Vertical SaaS](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/will-ai-accelerate-vertical-saas-adoption-2889de09f936) are the outliers to [achieving solid growth in this current market](https://openviewpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Chart-3.png).

Link: https://www.koombea.com/blog/vertical-horizontal-saas/

## 8. GROWTH

[Dealroom](http://dealroom.co) explores the [traits of top-tier SaaS startups](https://dealroom.co/blog/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-top-performing-saas-startup), focusing on growth rates, unit economics (my new fav is [Revenue per employee broken down by company size](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ajd8new49jitbvtg041zj/Screenshot-2024-06-25-at-08.05.49.avif?rlkey=n7b14pjchf1lfugjmxeswl673&dl=0) - see #1), and retention. Key factors include innovative products, efficient sales models, and scalability.

Link: http://dealroom.co

## 9. DILUTION

[This is a fantastic Chart from Carta](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterjameswalker_cartadata-dilution-founderequity-activity-7089635508355551232-dS8I/): How much equity dilution is normal? At the Seed and Series A stage, businesses usually see around 20% equity dilution. At later stages (Series C-D), dilution drops to ~10% per round.

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peterjameswalker_cartadata-dilution-founderequity-activity-7089635508355551232-dS8I/

## 10. CASE STUDY

Adding onto #7 above, [some learnings on Vertical SaaS from Toast & Procore](https://alexandre.substack.com/p/learnings-on-vertical-saas-from-toast). Includes the importance of industry-specific solutions, seamless integration, and focusing on customer needs

Link: https://alexandre.substack.com/p/learnings-on-vertical-saas-from-toast

## POD OF THE WEEK

[Funnel and revenue math, kindly explained by Mark Roberge and Matt Plank of Rippling](https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/the-funnel-and-revenue-math-w-matt-plank-cro-rippling/id1692614906?i=1000625343513) in the Science of Scaling podcast.

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/the-funnel-and-revenue-math-w-matt-plank-cro-rippling/id1692614906?i=1000625343513