# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 8, 2019

Published: 8 November 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-november-8-2019

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK: TAM

(Total Addressable Market). This is the metric founders are commonly asked for that is designed to give a sense of the size of the prize for a business. It helps convince investors that a founder is chasing a venture-scale sized opportunity. It’s also a metric that in my opinion most get incredibly wrong. Look for [Bottom Up our Value based sizings](https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/calculating-tam). It is unrealistic for a company to capture the entirety of a TAM with their business or product, so building a narrative around what (within that TAM) is obtainable sets great expectations (and shows a deep understanding of the market) - called [TAM-TOM-SOM](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/tam-sam-som). Here are [some great examples of TAM](https://www.sleeperthoughts.com/single-post/TAMSlides)

Link: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/calculating-tam

## 2. RETAIL 5/5

The future of retail is tech-centric and Business Insider are providing a 5 part series on the future of retail (2020 edition) In [this final part of the series](https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8xygjpt1m84bwc/future-of-retail-5-amazon%27s-antitrust-backlash-november-2019.pptx?dl=0) it covers the big Elephant in the eCommerce room- Amazon.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e8xygjpt1m84bwc/future-of-retail-5-amazon%27s-antitrust-backlash-november-2019.pptx?dl=0

## 3. MICRO VC’s

[Here is a master list](https://medium.com/@Samirkaji/the-master-list-of-us-micro-vcs-aa35d9b294ab) of sub $100m USD VC funds!

Link: https://medium.com/@Samirkaji/the-master-list-of-us-micro-vcs-aa35d9b294ab

## 4. CADENCE

I [bang this drum](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-drumbeat-of-digital-how-winning-teams-play) fairly regularly Top tech companies are top performers in-part [due to the fact that they operate at a cadence that is faster than most](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/five-fifty-fast-and-modular). It’s [all about execution](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/the-rhythm-of-the-fight-why-a-startup-needs-cadence-to-succeed-bdc8938923a6) and [heartbeat](https://avc.com/2018/06/the-heartbeat/), which requires a [fierce focus and prioritization](https://feld.com/archives/2019/09/fierce-prioritization.html)[.](https://feld.com/archives/2019/09/fierce-prioritization.html) First Round Capital also have [their take on speed.](https://firstround.com/review/speed-as-a-habit/)

Link: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-drumbeat-of-digital-how-winning-teams-play

## 5. ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE

Great article from Capiche on how [SaaS has revolutionized the idea of enterprise software](https://capiche.com/e/enterprise-software-is-dead) via a well-worn “Bottoms up” model (SMB -> Mid -> Enterprise growth strategies). This Consumerization of business software is demonstrated by a recent study by Okta, who showed that [the number of apps in use has increased by 68% for large companies and 43% for small and mid-size companies](https://www.wsj.com/articles/employees-are-accessing-more-and-more-business-apps-study-finds-11549580017) since 2015.

Link: https://capiche.com/e/enterprise-software-is-dead

## 6. PLG

Product Led Growth is a strategy in use by many successful SaaS companies for years. I’ve referenced it plenty in past newsletters. From ChartMogul here is the [PLG Sales best practices](https://blog.chartmogul.com/product-led-growth-sales/) to compliment [the marketing Cheat Sheet](https://userpilot.com/blog/product-led-growth-marketing/) I referenced in a recent newsletter. Also don't forget that OpenView have launched a [Product Led Growth Maturity Grader](https://openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth-maturity-grader) - this tool is designed to give feedback on how far along your organization is on the PLG maturity spectrum.

Link: https://blog.chartmogul.com/product-led-growth-sales/

## 7. CYBERSECURITY

Threats are on the rise, [as is the adoption rates of apps and products within large organizations](https://www.wsj.com/articles/employees-are-accessing-more-and-more-business-apps-study-finds-11549580017). It’s a perfect storm of real risk that needs solid, strategic approaches to management. This article from McKinsey offers a risk-based approach to [managing overall modern-day cyberrisk exposure](https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/the-risk-based-approach-to-cybersecurity).

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/employees-are-accessing-more-and-more-business-apps-study-finds-11549580017

## 8. SOCIAL MEDIA

It’s modern-day maturity is reflected in its domination by just a handful of companies (who are under some [pretty hard scrutiny](https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/22/tech/facebook-antitrust-investigation/index.html) at present and saying [ludicrously lofty things](https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/10/mark-zuckerberg-stands-for-voice-and-free-expression)). The Information focus [this article on a number of neo-social-networking startups](http://thein.fo/f30b038b89550212) (I totally just made that term up) that have emerged on the scene hoping to gain traction by focusing on how young people like to communicate.

Link: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/22/tech/facebook-antitrust-investigation/index.html

## 9. NETWORKING

Relationships are a major currency in the tech world, and learning to network like a local in the Valley requires practice and determination. First Round Capital have [a great article on best practices](https://firstround.com/review/how-to-become-insanely-well-connected/), of course, [we do too](https://medium.com/north-america-tech-for-kiwis/networking-and-saastr-2018-6f6de48b8c3).

Link: https://firstround.com/review/how-to-become-insanely-well-connected/

## 10. IoT

Current and future IoT applications are a major driver of cloud computing and so it’s no surprise that Microsoft announced last week that [they will pour $5 billion into IoT over the next 4 years](https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/04/microsoft-will-pour-5-billion-into-iot-over-4-years-tripling-prior-spending), all on top of Azure and here is [their current summary of IoT based research](https://azure.microsoft.com/mediahandler/files/resourcefiles/iot-signals/IoT-Signals-Microsoft-072019.pdf).

Link: https://venturebeat.com/2018/04/04/microsoft-will-pour-5-billion-into-iot-over-4-years-tripling-prior-spending

## POD OF THE WEEK

Adding into number 5 above - a podcast story on [moving upmarket as a SaaS business](https://predictablerevenue.com/blog/how-proposify-went-from-selling-self-serve-deals-to-working-with-enterprise-clients)
**BONUS**: Sian and the Kiwi Landing Pad have scored an absolute legend for their webinar next week - [Jason Lemkin of SaaStr](https://www.crowdcast.io/e/jasonlemkin).

Link: https://predictablerevenue.com/blog/how-proposify-went-from-selling-self-serve-deals-to-working-with-enterprise-clients