# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 21, 2025 Published: 21 November 2025 Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-november-21-2025 ## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK Fundraising Metrics. For all of you hitting 2026 in fundraising mode, make your fundraising way less chaotic by [getting these metrics dialed in](https://wrap-text.equals.com/p/saas-metrics-for-fundraising). Unless you are [pre-revenue](https://www.antler.co/academy/pre-seed-metrics), Investors will expect to see detailed ARR, CAC, LTV, retention rates, and engagement metrics. A strong data deck (or data room) can answer investors' questions and show a clear growth path. Link: https://wrap-text.equals.com/p/saas-metrics-for-fundraising ## 2. GO TO MARKET Go to market motions can be pretty specific, and your GTM motions can [impact your marketing strategy and your org chart](https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/gtm-motion). Robert Kaminski has [distilled GTM motions into five types in this article](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/heyrobk_the-use-cases-are-endless-founders-use-activity-7153041418435854336-c8Y6/), based on number of use cases. [The summary diagram](https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D4E22AQFXFiR9Rt99kA/feedshare-shrink_2048_1536/0/1705417969822?e=1708560000&v=beta&t=fN0vSjpd3hta2Lz10BiO61uj0SGNw26JgI-_yyOvBhA) at the bottom is excellent. Link: https://newsletter.mkt1.co/p/gtm-motion ## 3. AI BUBBLE It's been a rowdy week in the public markets, and [Coatue, like me, loves some good charts (18 in this report) and makes the case that AI is early and not in the bubble zone.](https://www.thevccorner.com/p/coatue-ai-report-18-charts) $250B in funding, $100B in revenue… and only 2% of enterprise workloads on GenAI today. The mismatch between investment and adoption actually looks quite massive (and I reckon quite unsustainable). Link: https://www.thevccorner.com/p/coatue-ai-report-18-charts ## 4. SEED Seed VC is busted! In 2021, 55% of seed rounds had at least one institutional VC - in 2024, it's dropped to 38%. LPs are pulling back, seed funds are missing targets, and exits aren't coming fast enough or at all. [NextView warns: many firms raised too much, too fast](https://nextview.vc/blog/a-crisis-moment-for-seed-vc), and now lack the reserves or conviction to back winners through to liquidity. Sidebar, but even in the top quartile in venture, ["Doing Great" isn't enough to raise money](https://www.saastr.com/why-the-top-quartile-in-venture-is-brutal-today-when-doing-great-isnt-enough-to-raise-money/). Link: https://nextview.vc/blog/a-crisis-moment-for-seed-vc ## 5. MARKETPLACES How do Marketplaces work with AI in the mix? Answer - they go mutant. [a16z outlines how AI-native marketplaces will flip](https://www.a16z.news/p/marketplaces-in-the-age-of-ai) the advantage from owning the supply to owning the brain in the middle. Search, summarization, recommendations, pricing - all through agents. Link: https://www.a16z.news/p/marketplaces-in-the-age-of-ai ## 6. VALUATIONS The latest from Multiples.vc: Some Public SaaS is back above 6x revenue (median), but still far from the pre-COVID/free money-era highs. Median EV/NTM revenue is 6.8x, with only 26% of companies above 10x. Dev Tools lead at 10.5x; PropTech drags at 2.7x. 21% of the index is still unprofitable. Market's not frothy - it's got selective. ## 7. BEZOS? Jeff Bezos may be over his [flying-phallic-rockets-era](https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-rocket-resembles-penis-engineering-blue-origin-2021-7) and back into operator mode as [co-CEO of Project Prometheus](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/technology/bezos-project-prometheus.html), a new AI startup that's already hauled $6.2B in funding (Bezos is one of the funders). It's not chatbots - it's physical systems, aerospace, and hard AI. Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-rocket-resembles-penis-engineering-blue-origin-2021-7 ## 8. SAME-SAME Do you have a hard time with product discovery - there seems to be sooooo much out there. Well, [according to David Kellogg, "The Sea of Sameness" is real](https://kellblog.com/2025/06/29/navigating-the-mythical-sea-of-sameness/) (and IMO it's getting worse). AI and SaaS startups are flooding the market with lookalike products, identical landing pages, and copy-paste taglines. Kellblog lays out why most companies fail to position clearly: they focus on features, not meaning. If buyers can't tell what makes you different in seconds, too bad, you lose. His advice? Anchor your positioning in a deep understanding of why you exist and say something only you can say. Link: https://kellblog.com/2025/06/29/navigating-the-mythical-sea-of-sameness/ ## 9. GROWTH LEVERS Updated for 2025 - Growth isn't just about hacking anymore - [check this deep dive from Kyle Poyar and data from Chartmogul](https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-compounding-startup) on the "[outliers](https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-odds-of-making-it)" - which are the companies that made it to $20m ARR ([this chart](https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/llkmud919w5xjcorg6bhj/The-path-to-20-million-ARR.webp?rlkey=wisy102dbql3mn7mspmzoaguj&dl=0) is awesome). The big difference is that Groth levers shift and adapt over time for the outliers - from activation and monetization to expansion and retention. They all compound and have an outlier impact. Link: https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/the-compounding-startup ## 10. CASE STUDY Cursor is one of my new favorite apps (I've pivoted it into use on the Product and Operations side), and [this case study goes deep inside Cursor](https://joincolossus.com/article/inside-cursor/)and breaks down how the business operates and grew by targeting high-intent engineers, shipping relentlessly, and making copilots feel native to dev flows. Link: https://joincolossus.com/article/inside-cursor/ ## POD OF THE WEEK From the AI Engineer Summit, Sayash Kapoor cuts through the hype and shows [why today's agents fail in the wild](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5EltXhbcfA) - good guidance on evals, failure modes, and how to build agents that friggin work. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5EltXhbcfA