In London, on layoffs, and KPI mapping exercise

Spending the week in London, I'm wrapping up the engineering hiring process with 3 new people joining + 2 more in the queue (third rounds) in our office in Sofia.

The truth is - the job market is crazier than ever. 2024 was mostly quiet due to the B2B down market over the board. It's not drastically different today, even though we're opening new roles due to the RevOps restructuring and landing more business for the new retainer offers for PE companies and different B2B categories.

This week, I'm meeting a couple of our UK clients, with preliminary sessions with some of our FAANG partners in town. Major metro hubs matter for a reason - building or warming up relationships, and crafting a better plan for the months to come.

(If you are in town, let me know - my schedule is packed, but we may be able to connect.)

What's mostly throwing the local market off are several layoff rounds from Yotpo, hosting companies, and several funded startups in my network shutting down due to a stalled demand in 2025. Most of these announcements came quietly - unexpectedly, with some hiring up until July before the final cuts came in. It's always unfortunate, and right now, also indicative of the turbulent job market we're all operating in.

And while we're slowly segmenting different swimlanes for positioning, sales, PR, delivery internally - with new hires, fractional consultants, and partners…

I'm spending the rest of the week refining operating KPIs for DevriX and a few of our clients.

Internally, we're working with a COO consultancy on some org chart mapping and scorecards, leveraging best practices from companies like Zalando, and top tech partners in California. This is augmenting our existing OKRs and scorecards we've been using since 2022, and I see how different the benchmarks are from what we've used in 2022 and 2023.

Think about your own organization at the time.

• Growth rates vary differently

• Sales pipeline looks differently

• Conversion rates are lower

• Buyer processes are longer

• Key acquisition channels are no longer the same

• Marketing teams aren't as large at the time

• Average contract values tend to be longer, and duration is often shorter

These numbers may vary, but after analyzing several portfolio companies + some of my advisory clients, the difference is night and day.

And I'm working on revamped benchmarks, following some public studies + our portfolio of DevriX and Growth Shuttle clients + companies I invest in.

If you have a good annual report to share, hit me up.

And if you haven't run that exercise yet - let's talk.

Mario

📚️ Books I read this month (mostly flat, binging some revenue/finops podcasts)

• Ray Dalio’s “How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle” (45% in)

• Hooked - on habits and cues and product alignment (50% in)

• “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen - a detailed intelligence brief of what happens if things really turn to the worst (30% in)

• “The Sweaty Startup” by Nick Hueber (10% in)

• “Revenue Architecture” by Jacco van der Kooij (40% in)

📰 Farewell to my Entrepreneur column - After 10 years, I’m stepping away from Entrepreneur due to a 4–5 week editorial cycle that can’t keep up with the pace of today’s market. Thought leadership today moves at market speed, and platforms like newsletters and X deliver impact instantly. I’ve detailed the full journey - from HARO quotes to global syndication, YEC & Forbes Councils memberships, and book tours - and why it’s time to pivot.

🔖 Plan RPA with clear priorities. Follow this practical roadmap for building your automation strategy step by step.

🔖 Build a risk governance framework. This guide helps consolidate risk oversight processes across the organization.

🔖 Reduce cloud costs with the right tools. Explore these platforms for multi-cloud savings and better visibility.

🔖 Streamline ITSM with automation. Learn how AI tools reduce costs and speed up incident response.

🔖 Track LinkedIn ROI more clearly. Use these reporting tools to analyze campaign performance and attribution in real time.

🔖 Get better stakeholder feedback. Compare the top tools for feedback that drive alignment and insight.

🔖 Personalize email with firmographics. Learn how SaaS firms tailor campaigns to business profiles.

🔖 Boost analytics with smarter design. Learn how decision tree pruning improves model accuracy and clarity.

🔖 Connect omnichannel for retention. Align teams and systems to improve omnichannel performance.

🔖 Prepare analytics for what's next. Check out the key features for a more resilient analytics stack.

🔖 Think with more leverage. See how mental models help top executives make faster decisions. 

📰 Poshmark names new CEO. Poshmark’s founder steps aside as Namsun Kim takes charge of the popular resale platform via new leadership.

📰 Job cuts signal risk. Over half of US industries are cutting staff, suggesting a recession may already be in motion.

📰 GPT-5 rollout backlash. OpenAI faces user frustration as it scales advanced models under high-stakes conditions.

📰 Nexstar eyes Tegna. A proposed merger could unite nearly 270 local stations as FCC rules around consolidation relax.

📰 Stripe tests blockchain. Stripe is quietly developing Tempo, a new layer-1 blockchain, signaling its move into crypto payments.

📰 Norway dumps Israeli firms. The sovereign wealth fund exits 11 companies amid Gaza tensions, shifting ESG investment mandates.

📰 EV charger funds return. Court ruling restores $5B for federal EV charger rollouts and speeds national network expansion.

📰 Sorrell in merger talks. S4 Capital shares jump after reports of early merger discussions with MSQ Partners.

📰 China leads AI video. ByteDance and Kuaishou outpace US rivals in text-to-video tech, reshaping the creator landscape.

📰 Grok 4 opens access. xAI offers free, unlimited use of its Grok 4 model to lure users away from GPT-5.

📰 Sun Tzu guides strategy. Digital leaders apply Art of War tactics for competitive intelligence and agile responses.

📰 Palantir clarifies business. The firm sells integrated analytics over scattered data, not just raw information.

📰 GenAI search shifts SEO. Visibility now relies on persona-driven content for generative platforms.

📰 OCR gets reasoning. NuMind AI’s open-source model applies layout-aware logic to convert documents into organized Markdown.

📰 Tariff revenue unreliable. Moody’s warns that depending on tariffs for federal funds risks collapse during economic downturns.

📰 Truemeds ups valuation. Truemeds gains 3.6x credibility and $85M by promoting drug swaps in India.

Let’s see the latest offers from Flippa. Don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for daily/weekly/monthly offers like these.

Multi-language Health & Wellness eCommerce Store: An online store for health and wellness products serving European and English-speaking markets through three multilingual websites. Low-maintenance with high growth potential - selling for $153,900.

Thriving Online Language School: A 7-year-old subscription-based platform specializing in English exam preparation. Operates with a global team, minimal owner involvement, strong customer retention, and low churn - asking price is $225,012.

Successful Walking Tour YouTube Channel: A 4-year old YouTube channel featuring 200+ original, evergreen videos showcasing diverse global cities, parks, and landmarks. Strong global reach with potential for international market growth - priced at $590,000.

Profitable Stock Broker Comparison Site: A well-established stock and forex brokerage comparison website generating lifetime revenue share from trading spreads and fixed income from long-term broker sponsorships - offered at $699,000.

Top-Rated Email Cleaner App: A fast-scaling productivity app that helps users clean and protect their email inboxes. Strong social presence with 10M+ organic views on TikTok and Instagram in the last 2 months. Available on both iOS and Android - available for $5,000,000.

Need My Help?

Keeping myself busy - here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling enterprises on top of WordPress? DevriX provides martech retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo and we manage high-traffic platforms (hundreds of millions of monthly views), B2B SaaS apps, partnership management solutions, supporting $10M - $250M businesses with scalability, custom funnels, CRO, big data augmentation, AI-driven processes, HubSpot workflows, programmatic SEO - and everything a modern business requires in digital in 2025.

🚀 Work 1:1 with me? At Growth Shuttle, I run two popular plans: Async Advisory ($3,500/mo) for $3M - $30M founders and executive teams and the smaller Strategic Growth Circle ($997/mo) for $100K - $500K entrepreneurs, agency founders, scale ups.

🌠 Feature your business across the community? The B2B Ecosystem includes this newsletter and 40 other digital properties (directories, newsletters, blogs, SaaS, and social accounts) targeting B2B executives. See how your business can benefit.

📈 International founder looking into US LLCs? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.

📊 Into digital M&A? I work closely with Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides the tools to list your business and close the deal.

💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.