# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending July 7, 2023

Published: 6 July 2023
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-july-7-2023

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: Consumption-based LTV.

If you have a consumption-based model, then, like me, you probably have revenue that is not consistent monthly. Variable revenue is now a big thing in SaaS. Check out [How to calculate LTV with variable revenue](https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-calculate-ltv-with-variable-revenue/) customers from the SaaS CFO (comes with a template!).

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-calculate-ltv-with-variable-revenue/

## 2. CUSTOMER SUCCESS MODELS

Like customers, not all CSMs are built the same. And it depends, based on stage and strategy, as to how your CSM teams will evolve…...but they will. [Gainsight proposes five basic kinds of CSM](https://www.slideshare.net/GainsightHQ/gainsight-csm-org-structures) and a corollary org chart. But keep in mind, IRL, they all will be different hues. SaaSx has [this model](https://saasx.com/2019/05/26/a-saas-startup-sales-team-org-chart-example-3). Which one best resonates with you?

Link: https://www.slideshare.net/GainsightHQ/gainsight-csm-org-structures

## 3. MVT

Here is another one for your tech dictionaries: [MVT or Minimum Viable Testing,](https://review.firstround.com/the-minimum-viable-testing-process-for-evaluating-startup-ideas)which is about creating hypotheses and conducting tests that allow you to predict if a market will appreciate a product before even launching an MVP.

Link: https://review.firstround.com/the-minimum-viable-testing-process-for-evaluating-startup-ideas

## 4. BOTTOMS UP

Bottoms-up adoption is hard to crack😉 (learn more about the [bottoms-up model](https://www.stage2.capital/blog/the-secret-weapon-to-gtm-scaling-bottoms-up-model) here). For example, according to Gergely Orosz, [Hashcorp has 4,300 customers, but only ~800 generate 90% of their annual revenue](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1666825436297584642?s=20).

Link: https://www.stage2.capital/blog/the-secret-weapon-to-gtm-scaling-bottoms-up-model

## 5. NOLS FRAMEWORK

Not all decisions are made equally - As a former outdoor instructor and part of the National Outdoor Leadership School's (NOLS) network, I was pretty excited to stumble across this article from another alumnus discussing some of the excellent management frameworks to come out of there. This one [focused on group decision-making, outlining six different ways to make decisions in a group](http://6 different ways to make decisions in a group).

Link: http://6 different ways to make decisions in a group

## 6. AI

[This article from Honeycomb](https://www.honeycomb.io/blog/hard-stuff-nobody-talks-about-llm) discusses the tough challenges of building LLM-based AI products. Context window limitations, slow performance, prompt injection risks, legal compliance concerns, and the limitations of early access programs are all covered - must read if you have LLMs on your product roadmap.

Link: https://www.honeycomb.io/blog/hard-stuff-nobody-talks-about-llm

## 7. AI INVESTMENT

The race is on for AI Investments. Just [look at the astronomical Deals chart in this article from Pitchbook](https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/Amazon-Bedrock-generative-ai-q1-2023-vc-deals). Q1 2023 says $1.7b invested across 46 deals, with an additional $10.7 B announced (but still needs to be closed).

Link: https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/Amazon-Bedrock-generative-ai-q1-2023-vc-deals

## 8. FIRST PRINCIPLE THINKING

Want to be more like old-school Elon (the one without all the SEC/Twitter dramas)? Take a read here on the concept of [First Principles Thinking](https://fs.blog/2018/04/first-principles). Not gonna lie, I've re-read it for the 15th time this week, and it is a great way to make my brain hurt. Want more? Fine. [Here is a full guide/website](https://fpt.guide/). Now that you are an expert on this principle, [here is how First Principle Thinking can be applied IRL - in this example, towards a Product Lead Growth business](https://productled.com/first-principles-of-a-successful-product-led-growth-strategy).

Link: https://fs.blog/2018/04/first-principles

## 9. PRODUCT POSITIONING

It's easy for startups to underestimate the significance of product positioning and marketing in the early stages. [This article](https://ritikamehta.substack.com/p/missing-out-on-product-positioning) highlighted the importance of understanding the product, customers, and competitors. It had me at the subheader, "*A lot of startups suffer after initial growth because they can't figure out what they are building & for whom*."

Link: https://ritikamehta.substack.com/p/missing-out-on-product-positioning

## 10. CASE STUDY

Hootsuite migrated from a Sales based to a Product Led strategy with a 6-step process outlined in [this article from their head of growth](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/hootsuite-product-led-growth-journey).

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/hootsuite-product-led-growth-journey

## POD OF THE WEEK

Complimenting #7 above is a good listen from Bessemer Ventures with Dave Rogenmoser of Jasper discussing [mistakes made by building out AI products](https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew/dave-rogenmoser).

Link: https://www.bvp.com/wish-i-knew/dave-rogenmoser