# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending May 3, 2019

Published: 1 May 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-may-3-2019

## 1. FUNDING

If you are a European startup and you’ve raised a seed round, what is the probability that you are going to raise a Series A round? [Reviewing this article from Point Nine Capital, there are likely lots of similarities to NZ startups](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/the-journey-to-series-a-a-look-at-our-seed-to-a-conversion-rate-2d7d24802191).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/the-journey-to-series-a-a-look-at-our-seed-to-a-conversion-rate-2d7d24802191

## 2. SALES

94% of executives and 88% of employees said distinct [workplace culture is critical to business success](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-core-beliefs-and-culture.pdf). For a business to be successful, sales and revenue also need to be successful - so how does a great sales manager [build an amazing sales culture around the habits that need to be done](https://www.saleshacker.com/high-performance-sales-culture/)?

Link: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-core-beliefs-and-culture.pdf

## 3. $100m

Five ways to build a $100 million SaaS business: [The 2014 edition](http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-build-100-million-business.html) vs [today.](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/five-years-later-five-ways-to-build-a-100-million-saas-business-49ebca14825c) Comparing the two, a lot has changed (including the blog platform), but the most significant change is the transition into Enterprise sales.

Link: http://christophjanz.blogspot.com/2014/10/five-ways-to-build-100-million-business.html

## 4. AI

I often think about what happens in a post-SaaS business model world where information, not software, is the product: Point Nine Capital take a look this from the perspective of [how AI can disrupt the B2B Software model](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-ai-could-impact-the-b2b-software-industry-in-the-next-decade-cad18005773f) and Tomasz Tunguz also looks at [The Four Strategic Questions Facing AI Agencies](https://tomtunguz.com/the-ai-agency-a-novel-gtm-for-machine-learning-saas-startups).

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-ai-could-impact-the-b2b-software-industry-in-the-next-decade-cad18005773f

## 5. MARKETING

I download stuff so you don’t have to. This one is a [SaaS marketing fundamentals guide from SaaSX](https://saasx.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/SaaS-Marketing-Guide-SaaSX.pdf). While this is not necessarily a playbook for everyone, it contains concepts, terms, asset definitions, and channels types descriptions that are really helpful to understand and master.

Link: https://saasx.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/SaaS-Marketing-Guide-SaaSX.pdf

## 6. TEAMS

High performing teams make companies great. Google set out to uncover (via good ol’ fashioned rigor and data) what makes a Google Team Effective and came up [5 key pillars that set successful teams apart](https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/).

Link: https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/

## 7. CYBERCRIME

Turns out [Microsoft Office is the dominant target of choice](https://www.techspot.com/news/79678-microsoft-office-choice-target-cybercriminals.html) for your run-of-the-mill cybercriminals. Excel, Word, and their buddies account for 70% of all attacks in Q4 2018.

Link: https://www.techspot.com/news/79678-microsoft-office-choice-target-cybercriminals.html

## 8. CUSTOMERS

This is the [age of the customer](https://go.forrester.com/age-of-the-customer) and modern tech companies can’t survive without adopting customer-centric values - but where to start? [Here are five solid pointers](https://saasx.com/2019/04/18/5-lessons-about-customer-centric-change).

Link: https://go.forrester.com/age-of-the-customer

## 9. CLOUD

Think your personal tech subscription bills are high? Apple reportedly spends [$30m USD on Amazon’s AWS services per month](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/22/apple-spends-more-than-30-million-on-amazon-web-services-a-month.html). And this is just the bill for overflow from their iCloud data center. [Frenemies](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-apple/amazon-strikes-deal-with-apple-to-sell-iphones-ipads-idUSKCN1NE2HV) for life! Both [Amazon](https://www.statista.com/statistics/250520/forecast-of-amazon-web-services-revenue/) and Microsoft reported a [41 percent increase in its cloud business](https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/24/microsoft-q3-earnings-azure-cloud) last quarter. While both those growth numbers are the same Microsoft doesn’t report Azure separately. [AWS has over twice the market share as Azure](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-google-cloud-market-share-2019-4) (which is the closest competitor).

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/22/apple-spends-more-than-30-million-on-amazon-web-services-a-month.html

## 10. SLACK

A favorite tool of mine and adding in from above Slack have even bigger AWS bills than Apple at about [$50m monthly!](https://www.geekwire.com/2019/slack-renegotiated-deal-amazon-web-services-2018-will-spend-least-212m-2023) They are also going Public this year (and probably next month) and are choosing to do so via an unusual route using [what is called a DPO](https://www.nasdaq.com/article/slack-chooses-dpo-over-ipo-what-does-it-mean-cm1124210) (which Spotify also did). In preparation for their listing, they have to disclose financials and [this review of the business, that went from $0 ARR tp $600m ARR in 5 years, by Jason Lemkin](https://medium.com/@jasonlk/5-interesting-learnings-from-slack-as-it-gets-ready-to-ipo-159a0c6522e8) shows some really interesting learnings.

Link: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/slack-renegotiated-deal-amazon-web-services-2018-will-spend-least-212m-2023

## POD OF THE WEEK

From the After On Podcast [a deep dive into AI from Stuart Russell](https://after-on.com/episodes-31-60/047) (who literally wrote the book on modern AI) and why it scares him.

**BONUS:** Want to know how it all ends (The Universe that is)? Check this amazing video when you have a spare half-hour for a [4K journey to the end of time](https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA)

Link: https://after-on.com/episodes-31-60/047