# Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending September 5, 2025

Published: 4 September 2025
Canonical: https://www.top10in.tech/posts/week-ending-september-5-2025

## 1. SaaS METRIC OF THE WEEK

[Growth Endurance Score (GES](https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/a-guide-to-growth-endurance-score))**.** This is a new one for me, but it's a keeper. It's a metric that assesses a company's ability to sustain growth over time (something I have been discussing quite a bit lately, as I try to maintain my own growth momentum). GES measures this efficiency by factoring in both net retention and customer acquisition efficiency. A high GES correlates with long-term business health and resilience. This score provides valuable insights for businesses aiming for consistent, sustainable growth. Bessemer has [drilled deeper into it and plotted ARR growth lost YoY](https://www.bvp.com/atlas/scaling-to-100-million#Growth-Endurance), and found that the decay is fairly predictable at 30%. That's a benchmark - in other words, you should expect next year's growth rate to be 70% of the current year's, as the stakes get higher.

Link: https://www.mostlymetrics.com/p/a-guide-to-growth-endurance-score

## 2. PRODUCTS

Balancing the needs of existing vs new customers is a hard product act to balance, and that [push and pull is nicely described in this article](https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/the-push-and-pull-of-building-products-766e4e32f40a) with some great analogies and tips on how to influence the product roadmap, along with an article from First Round Review with a [list of things to avoid when building highly-technical products](https://review.firstround.com/how-product-strategy-fails-in-the-real-world-what-to-avoid-when-building-highly-technical-products).

Link: https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/the-push-and-pull-of-building-products-766e4e32f40a

## 3. AI NOISE

This is a [great article, sending a warning that the signal-to-noise ratio in AI markets looks to be collapsing](https://www.liorbd.me/blog/signal-market-collapse). As AI accelerates all kinds of content and capital flows, genuine information is getting harder to parse, distorting valuations and decision-making. So, the inevitable upcoming market correction may be less about fundamentals and more about all that noise.

Link: https://www.liorbd.me/blog/signal-market-collapse

## 4. STATE OF AI

I love me a good Bessemer Ventures Report. Their [AI report is out](https://www.bvp.com/atlas/the-state-of-ai-2025), and it's a beast. TL;DR: Infra is hot, agents are messy, and the winners will balance open-source velocity with enterprise-grade plumbing. And it's kinda adding onto #3 above, over 50% of Series A+ AI startups are building infrastructure (vs apps or agents) — infra is where the early-stage dollars are going (and they are less noisy). Agents still hallucinate. Plumbing, not magic, will win IMO.

Link: https://www.bvp.com/atlas/the-state-of-ai-2025

## 5. PR

Getting good PR if you're an unknown startup is hard (and also can be seen as a low priority in the endless stable of things-to-get-done) - but it's not as hard as you think without a publicist. [Here is a great 101 article from Point Nine Capital](https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-to-get-press-coverage-fe9dfb1249c8)(they call it PR for dummies) on how to get great press coverage. ChartMoguls also has [an article on PR for SaaS](https://blog.chartmogul.com/pr-for-saas), complete with sample scripts.

Link: https://medium.com/point-nine-news/how-to-get-press-coverage-fe9dfb1249c8

## 6. OUTAGES

Now is always a good time to front-foot your architecture. For techies, Google actually has a great article on [Architecting disaster recovery for cloud infrastructure outages](https://cloud.google.com/architecture/disaster-recovery). Here is a [good DR Plan](https://resultris.com/saas/compliance/saas-disaster-recovery-plan/) article, and [here is a good template](https://www.disasterrecoveryplantemplate.org/download/disaster-recovery-plan-template-basic/).

Link: https://cloud.google.com/architecture/disaster-recovery

## 7. GROWTH

Testing new tactics of marketing growth takes a lot of resources, and most of us often don't have much time for running experiments. Check out [this Google Doc from Dashly](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IQ_i-Xb84TW8rA5mCWdPnFmRBNfrBPdX7fVfKlEnfI4/edit?usp=sharing), where they've collected 100 growth marketing hypotheses tested by their experts. (includes advert retargeting, wait list for product launches, niche glossaries, etc).

Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IQ_i-Xb84TW8rA5mCWdPnFmRBNfrBPdX7fVfKlEnfI4/edit?usp=sharing

## 8. API DESIGN

You know the good thing about APIs? They are pretty much boring AF. That's the point. Sean Goedecke [breaks down why a "well-behaved" API should feel predictable, invisible, and dull](https://www.seangoedecke.com/good-api-design/) — like a fav spoon, not a Swiss Army knife.

Link: https://www.seangoedecke.com/good-api-design/

## 9. MARKETING

Why do some B2B SaaS ads actually land? Because they [nail three truths](https://newsletter.getsaasweekly.com/p/the-three-elements-behind-every-memorable-b2b-campaign): product (what you do), emotional (why it matters), and cultural (why now). Stripe and Slack get it. Most don't.

Link: https://newsletter.getsaasweekly.com/p/the-three-elements-behind-every-memorable-b2b-campaign

## 10. CASE STUDY

Slack took 8 years to hit $1B ARR. Zoom? Just 4. [Jason Lemkin asking the ultimate question: Does it matter](https://www.saastr.com/does-it-matter-how-fast-you-get-to-1b-arr-within-reason-probably-not/)? Because, maybe not. Saastr breaks down why long-haul growth often leads to stronger fundamentals (and fewer layoffs).

Link: https://www.saastr.com/does-it-matter-how-fast-you-get-to-1b-arr-within-reason-probably-not/

## POD OF THE WEEK

Fascinating thought exercise on what design is (As a design nerd, trying to answer that question is the cool bit). In the SaaS world, we are so CX focused - [so what, in this new AI world, if that Customer was a non-human/machine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEHKrSpftaI&ab_channel=MindtheProduct)? What changes from a product design and build perspective (API Design is a start) - new acronym alert - AX (Agent Experience).

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEHKrSpftaI&ab_channel=MindtheProduct