One of the best features of SaaS businesses is how easy they are to measure. Only a handful of metrics really matter. This post breaks down those key performance indicators (KPIs), and provides the benchmarks that we at Craft like to see at the Series A stage in order to lead a new investment.  We’re also releasing our internal tool, SaaSGrid, which we’ve used to analyze KPIs for hundreds of SaaS companies, as a free publicly-available tool to help founders calculate metrics (anonymously if they wish) for their own startups.

In mid-October I boarded a plane in Ternate bound for Lombok, via the cities of Makassar and Surabaya. My journey across Wallacea — from its southwesternmost point on Lombok, to its northeasternmost island, Morotai — was complete. After more than five months on the road, I was finally headed home. In the course of my journey I’ve seen many things, but it was perhaps fitting for it to end in the Spice Islands, destination for traders, explorers and colonizers for over two millennia.

~ LOVE & MURDER ~ 30ml Campari 20ml green Chartreuse 10ml gin (or vodka) 15ml lime juice Pinch of salt (optional) Place all of the above in a shaker. Add the ice. And then shake it all up. Double-strain into a chilled coupe. Some L&M notes: 1. The Love & Murder is in cocktail terms, a babe-in-arms. It was invented by Nick Bennett of Porchlight, NYC, in 2021 where it is still on the menu, price: $18.

Hedge fund legend Julian Robertson passed away this past August (Institutional Investor obituary, WSJ obituary, Bloomberg obituary). In my search for lessons from his life I revisited my archive of articles as well as the best chapter on Robertson which is in Sebastian Mallaby’s More Money Than God (I’ve talked to Mallaby about the history of hedge funds including Tiger). There is also a book about Robertson, A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bears, but it didn’t blow me away.

APPLE PODCAST Hello friends, it’s been two weeks and it’s time for a new episode of MUSIC & MEANING. This time out, we give props and respect to Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a groundbreaking musician and Jesus follower who merged gospel and rock music. In a time when the deck was stacked against her, Sister Rosetta Tharpe stood tall and delivered gospel performances that could turn a skeptic into a believer. Her profound legacy was finally acknowledged with a 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.