# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 11, 2022

Published: 10 November 2022
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-november-11-2022

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

Not just one - but 32: It's the motherlode from the Chargebee Blog: [32 SaaS KPIs Every Company Should Track](https://www.chargebee.com/blog/saas-kpis/), awesomely split across 5 different divisions: Marketing, Sales KPIs, Finance KPIs, Revenue, and Customer Success KPIs.

Link: https://www.chargebee.com/blog/saas-kpis/

## 2. MARKETING

SaaS Marketing is a practice [covering many different disciplines](https://tomtunguz.com/bill-macaitis-talk/) and specialties. Which one should a startup [hire first](https://tomtunguz.com/most-frequent-mishire)?

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/bill-macaitis-talk/

## 3. FAILURE

This is a skill. Prove me wrong. Failure also requires a culture of safety and permission to be wrong. Tall Poppy doesn't help. As many organizations look to best practices from the tech industry, [one hard lesson is that innovation needs a lot of failure before success, something they often do not configure culturally](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/fasttimes/have-you-made-it-safe-to-fail).

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/fasttimes/have-you-made-it-safe-to-fail

## 4. CLOUD

Battery Ventures' "[State of the OpenCloud 2022](https://www.battery.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Battery-Ventures-OpenCloud-Report__2022.pdf)" report is out this month. Revenue multiples are down across the board - The median forward multiple for SaaS companies has fallen from about 16x to roughly 6x today and was at its max (44.1x) a mere 11 months ago, and the market is shifting from "growth at all cost" to "measured growth" - growth + profit. It now needs to be both.

Link: https://www.battery.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Battery-Ventures-OpenCloud-Report__2022.pdf

## 5. SALES TEAMS

Take a good read of this article from David Sacks on [the simple math you can use to set up a sales team.](https://sacks.substack.com/p/simple-math-to-set-up-a-sales-team) With Individual plans, team plans, and expansions/renewals are all considered for a high-growth sales team structure.

Link: https://sacks.substack.com/p/simple-math-to-set-up-a-sales-team

## 6. MOATS

As mentioned in past posts, Moats are one of the best ways to provide a competitive advantage for your business, and moats come in all kinds of different flavors (such as [speed](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-site-speed-importance/), [Brand](https://nothingventured.rocks/brand-the-only-true-moat-in-saas-24459d8d4eae), or [growth](https://www.kevanlee.com/articles/product-led-growth-moat-framework)). But [here is a great one that conceptually covers b2b and b2c: EMOTION!](https://productlessons.substack.com/p/building-personal-moats-and-killer). Regarding B2B, [this post lists some popular and effective ways](https://medium.com/@soumyamohan_34366/moats-in-b2b-saas-businesses-a8b11826712f) companies create moats for their products.

Link: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-site-speed-importance/

## 7. LAYOFFS

Twitter, Lyft, Stripe, and Meta all joined the layoff lists this week - see htpps://[layoff.fyi](http://layoff.fyi) for a comprehensive list so far. "Lean Big Tech' or "Lean Ops" is probably a phrase we are going to hear a lot of in the upcoming months (and I totally coined both). Stretching Capital is the main reason why, [according to Jason Lemkin](https://www.saastr.com/the-simple-reason-startups-that-just-raised-100s-of-millions-are-doing-layoffs/?).

Link: http://layoff.fyi

## 8. HIRING

The ying to the yang above. The new opportunity for [early-stage startups is to scoop up laid-off Tech workers](https://www.wsj.com/articles/startups-look-to-scoop-up-laid-off-tech-workers-11667608650) - something unheard of a couple of years ago. It's important to note that, as of now, [unemployment in the tech industry is still crazy low: 2.1%](https://www.itprotoday.com/it-operations-and-management/it-job-market-remains-strong-growth-outlook-positive).

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/startups-look-to-scoop-up-laid-off-tech-workers-11667608650

## 9. INFLATION

Who's increasing prices this year due to inflation and/or FX rates? Tomasz Tunguz notes in this week's newsletter that [8% annual inflation for a startup means losing a month of runway yearly](https://tomtunguz.com/eight-percent-inflation-yield/)! That is some perspective that hurts.

Link: https://tomtunguz.com/eight-percent-inflation-yield/

## 10. CASE STUDY

There is nothing better than a good case study covering products I love to use. [Grammarly is still privately held (and last valued at $13 Billion](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/11/23/grammarly-founders-become-billionaires-from-fixing-your-sloppy-writing)) with 30 million daily average users (of which I am for-sure one) - they have been profitable since day 1 as they are one of the ultimate PLG businesses that merge B2C and B2B with a TAM of.........pretty much everyone with a computer. [An excellent case study on SEO, engineering, great content, and an embedded and rewarding product experience](https://bettermarketing.pub/teardown-how-grammarly-became-a-13billion-grammar-app-ae6e57524ff).

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/11/23/grammarly-founders-become-billionaires-from-fixing-your-sloppy-writing

## POD OF THE WEEK

Speaking of SEO (in 10 above), here is [how to grow your B2B SaaS with SEO](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-grow-your-b2b-saas-with-seo-with-jeremiah-smith/id1512511617?i=1000544846527) with Jeremiah Smith, who operates a SaaS-focused SEO and Content Marketing agency.

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-grow-your-b2b-saas-with-seo-with-jeremiah-smith/id1512511617?i=1000544846527