# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 13, 2019

Published: 12 September 2019
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-september-13-2019

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK - NDR.

[Net Dollar Retention](https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention) is an important metric in the new world of Product Led Growth (SEE #2 BELOW). It’s used to help answer the following: Does my startup need to increase customer acquisition/marketing spend? [Tomasz Tunguz writes in detail about this](https://tomtunguz.com/does-better-ndr-imply-greater-tolerance-for-higher-cac/) and Crunchbase do the work to calculate what [good NDR benchmarks should look like](https://about.crunchbase.com/blog/net-dollar-retention).

Link: https://paykickstart.com/net-dollar-retention

## 2. PRODUCT LED GROWTH

So hot right now! TL;DR: PLG is when users drive the adoption and proliferation of products out in the wild - my old Alma Mater, [Yammer](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/the-differences-between-traditional-enterprise-sales-and-the-yammer-approach/#.XVsG-pNKhTY), were one of the pioneers of PLG, modern equivalents are abundant such as Slack, Zoom, Raygun, and Dropbox. Open View just [launched their article on what PLG is](https://openviewpartners.com/blog/what-is-product-led-growth/#.XVbfTpNKhLA) and I’m re-listing [this great guide from User Pilot](https://userpilot.com/blog/product-led-growth-marketing/) on how marketing works in a PLG company.

Link: https://openviewpartners.com/blog/the-differences-between-traditional-enterprise-sales-and-the-yammer-approach/#.XVsG-pNKhTY

## 3. FINTECH

[Here is the 2019 H1 report from KPMG](https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/campaigns/2019/07/pulse-of-fintech-h1-2019.html). It’s been a quiet start for fintech investment globally and Blockchain/crypto technology investment has returned to the levels of 2014-2016 following a two-year hype period.

Link: https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/campaigns/2019/07/pulse-of-fintech-h1-2019.html

## 4. CAPITAL

In the current tech world, it doesn’t have to always be about Venture Capital or equity (and dilution) when looking to finance. Revenue-based financing is quickly becoming a popular way for startups to raise funds without sacrificing equity, with the rise of significant services such as [Lighter Capital](https://www.lightercapital.com/) and [The 20-Minute Term Sheet](https://www.20mintermsheet.com/) in the past couple or years. [Here is how it works and what these financiers care about](https://blog.chartmogul.com/revenue-based-financing/). HINT: It’s ARR and growth. From the SaaS CFO here is the [Founder’s Guide to Venture Debt](https://www.thesaascfo.com/founders-guide-to-venture-debt) with advantages vs disadvantages of Debt vs Equity.

Link: https://www.lightercapital.com/

## 5. UNICORNS

From PitchBook, [the 2019 Unicorn club report](https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_2019_Unicorn_Report.pdf) (so far) - that’s companies valued at over $1billion: At midyear, there were 187 active unicorns in the US which held an aggregate private valuation of just over US$600 billion.

Link: https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_2019_Unicorn_Report.pdf

## 6. ARCHITECTURE

As a recovering tech architect, the (good) internal design of a software system is something I take a deeper interest in than most people. Martin Fowler has a pretty neat [comprehensive guide on the (current) different kinds](https://martinfowler.com/architecture/) (and why they matter).

Link: https://martinfowler.com/architecture/

## 7. WHAT IS TECH?

Just like asking the question “[What is a Salad?](http://www.sporkful.com/calls-should-potato-salad-be-called-a-salad)", trying to define what a “Tech Company” is can get incredibly complicated, the edges are very blurry. [Stratechery discuss this in-depth](https://stratechery.com/2019/what-is-a-tech-company/) to make the case why companies such as [WeWork](https://fortune.com/2019/09/01/wework-ipo-stock-should-i-buy/), AirBnB, and Uber hit that mark.

Link: http://www.sporkful.com/calls-should-potato-salad-be-called-a-salad

## 8. HUMILITY

I’m awesome at being wrong. It’s almost a second-rate super-power. This article originally came in via [Sam Gribben](https://www.linkedin.com/in/samgribben) via LinkedIn (thanks Sam) and really caught my attention on [the skill sets needed to be a great Product Manager](https://medium.com/@thor.mitchell/the-importance-of-humility-in-product-management-7878e6640b8b) (Hint: It’s humility).

Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samgribben

## 9. RETAIL 1/5

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 Part 1 [the focus in on delivery](https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1inraukqdl25hf/future%20of%20retail%201%20of%205%20delivery.pptx?dl=0) (and how US consumers are expecting same-day).

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1inraukqdl25hf/future%20of%20retail%201%20of%205%20delivery.pptx?dl=0

## 10. SWAG

The Swag industry is a healthy $23.3B industry (annual) and SaaS swag is everywhere! Which means it must work right? [Saleshacker dive into this question](https://www.saleshacker.com/swag-as-sales-tool) and get some pretty interesting results. Initial 26% increase in response rate and a downstream 3x increase in likelihood to book a meeting, and a 2.42x increase in opportunity value per prospect in their test groups. SIDE NOTE: You may never have noticed this before but Engineers HATE to be sold to, but LOVE to wear the swag of cool tech.

Link: https://www.saleshacker.com/swag-as-sales-tool

## POD OF THE WEEK

The [latest episode of the EnterpriseReady podcast](https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/enterpriseready/ep-13-prosumer-in-the-enterprise-with-rahul-vohra-of-superhuman) offers a deep dive into why amazing products start with obsessing about UX, and how great on-boarding experiences can scale successfully.

**BONUS**: It’s currently StartUp School at Y-Combinator and they release all of their lectures/curriculum out to the wild. This is a great one (warning it’s 30 minutes long) from YC Partner Adora Cheung on [how to set KPI’s and Goals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL6GdUHIBsM&feature=youtu.be).

Link: https://www.heavybit.com/library/podcasts/enterpriseready/ep-13-prosumer-in-the-enterprise-with-rahul-vohra-of-superhuman