# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending May 22, 2026

Published: 22 May 2026
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-may-22-2026

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

CARR - [Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue](https://www.thesaascfo.com/contracted-annual-recurring-revenue). This is a forward-looking SaaS revenue metric that estimates the maximum revenue size of a SaaS company, measuring current recurring revenue from your SaaS P&L and future revenue that sits in newly won customer contracts.

Link: https://www.thesaascfo.com/contracted-annual-recurring-revenue

## 2. USER LED GROWTH

ULG is when your [existing users become your biggest advocates](https://akashbajwa.substack.com/p/the-untapped-b2b-saas-gtm-channel), driving leads straight into your funnel. It's not for every B2B SaaS company, but when done right, it can build a flywheel that slashes your CAC and ramp times. A classic example is [Dropbox's referral program](https://viral-loops.com/blog/dropbox-grew-3900-simple-referral-program/), where users earned extra storage by inviting others—a powerful way to turn customers into evangelists one GB at a time.

Link: https://akashbajwa.substack.com/p/the-untapped-b2b-saas-gtm-channel

## 3. SALES HANDOFF

On the mission of moving from founder-led to AE-led sales? [This article from Bain Capital Ventures makes the case that it's all about the "MVP/ICP Handshake."](https://baincapitalventures.com/insight/the-mvp-icp-handshake-how-to-move-from-founder-led-to-ae-led-sales) Nailing the alignment between your Minimum Viable Product and your Ideal Customer Profile is a key step. Without this, bringing in AEs too early can stunt growth (which has been seen [time and time again](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jasonmlemkin_the-transition-from-founder-led-sales-to-activity-7208204187690569728-ZeHy/) in [startup land](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexagrabell_founder-led-sales-is-hard-i-mean-very-very-activity-7153418202335571968-Sm8c/)). Solidify the customer segmentations and product-market fit before even thinking of adding a sales force.

Link: https://baincapitalventures.com/insight/the-mvp-icp-handshake-how-to-move-from-founder-led-to-ae-led-sales

## 4. BOTTOMS UP

Bottoms up adoption is hard to crack😉 (learn more about the [bottom-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 in total, but only ~800 of them generate 90% of their annual revenue](https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1666825436297584642?s=20). And [here](https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/financial-modeling/bottom-up-forecasting/) is how to forecast.

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

## 5. SEED

Thinking Machines raised $2B at a $12B valuation and called it Seed. Humans& closed $480M Seed, and Periodic Labs took $300M. Meanwhile, [the median US Seed round sits at $4.1M](https://yadavrohit.substack.com/p/the-three-seeds), almost exactly where it sat five years ago. Same stage by name, but it ain't the same market.

Link: https://yadavrohit.substack.com/p/the-three-seeds

## 6. PRE-SEED

Carta's State of [Pre-Seed: Q1 2026 report is out](https://carta.com/data/state-of-pre-seed-q1-2026-full-report/) - AI startups now capture 50% of all pre-seed dollars on Carta, up from ~30% a few years ago. That's the same concentration you see at later stages - the filter is happening at the very top of the funnel. Total pre-seed capital is stable at $2.5-3B per quarter. The pre-seed middle is hollowing out. Rounds between $1M and $2.5M dropped from 24% of all pre-seed deals in Q1 2023 to 18% in Q1 2026. Sub-$1M rounds and mega-rounds both gained share.

Link: https://carta.com/data/state-of-pre-seed-q1-2026-full-report/

## 7. OUTPUTS

I bet somewhere someone is asking, "Hey! where's the ROI on the 2M euros we paid Anthropic last year?" Robert Glaser argues [most companies are measuring AI wrong](https://www.robert-glaser.de/when-everyone-has-ai-and-the-company-still-learns-nothing/) - counting seats, prompts, PRs. The better question: what loops closed faster, which decisions improved, which product ideas got killed earlier because a prototype made the weakness obvious?

Link: https://www.robert-glaser.de/when-everyone-has-ai-and-the-company-still-learns-nothing/

## 8. SKILLS

Skills are [the new prompts engineering](https://www.thevccorner.com/p/ai-skills-complete-playbook-templates-prompts-2026) - Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, Microsoft, Vercel, Windsurf, and Lovable have all converged on skills as a shortcut for context that everyone appreciates. MCPs took 2 years to achieve something that took Skills 6 months. BTW - WTF, Lovable is at 400M ARR, which is $2.77M revenue per head.

Link: https://www.thevccorner.com/p/ai-skills-complete-playbook-templates-prompts-2026

## 9. DISCOUNTS

Lemkin's call: the best AI-native B2B companies [stopped closing with "20% off if you sign by Friday"](https://www.saastr.com/stop-discounting-start-deploying-the-new-way-to-close-deals-in-b2b-ai) and started closing with "we'll deploy the agent for you this week, no cost." Discounts ask the buyer to make a bet. Deployment removes the bet. Once an agent is live, it's almost impossible to rip out.

Link: https://www.saastr.com/stop-discounting-start-deploying-the-new-way-to-close-deals-in-b2b-ai

## 10. CASE STUDY

In July 2025, a[Replit agent deleted SaaStr's production database](https://www.the-ai-corner.com/p/ai-code-review-checklist-2026-failure-modes-prompts)(and during an explicit code freeze), fabricated 4,000 fake users to cover its tracks, then admitted "I violated explicit instructions, destroyed months of work." Since then: 8 documented disasters. AI now generates code faster than humans can review it.

Link: https://www.the-ai-corner.com/p/ai-code-review-checklist-2026-failure-modes-prompts

## POD OF THE WEEK

This is a kinda article breakdown of a video taken from the [a16z January 2026 LP meeting](https://www.the-ai-corner.com/p/marc-andreessen-ai-moat-not-the-model-2026) explaining 10 things every founder, investor, and operator should internalize in this new AI world.

Link: https://www.the-ai-corner.com/p/marc-andreessen-ai-moat-not-the-model-2026