Published when the market shifts enough to justify a stronger editorial stance.
Signal EssaysWhen It Runs Editorial Standard Best For
Sharper essays for the moments when the market needs an angle, not a recap.
The Signal is where the publication takes a stronger editorial position: pattern recognition, category interpretation, and a clearer point of view on what is changing next.
Turn scattered movement into a clear thesis someone can act on.
Readers who want sharper analysis than the consensus take.
The Signal
Pricing
How to Price a SaaS Product With Zero Competitors to Benchmark
When there is no competitor list price to react to, guessing is not a strategy. Two methods, one from 1976 and one from 1981, tell you what to charge instead.
The Signal
Latest Signals
The most recent signal essays, deeper analysis on the market shifts worth understanding.
The Signal
Veeva vs. Salesforce Is the Test Case for Every Vertical SaaS Company
Rajiv Sankarlall
July 7, 2026
The Signal
Pricing Is a Product Decision, Not a Sales Decision
Rajiv Sankarlall
April 23, 2026
The Signal
The Second Product Problem Is Getting Harder, Here's Why
Rajiv Sankarlall
April 14, 2026
The Signal
Why AI-Native Companies Are Repricing Every Category They Enter
Rajiv Sankarlall
April 7, 2026
The Signal
Why Category Creation Is Losing to Category Entry in 2026
Rajiv Sankarlall
April 2, 2026
The Signal
Down Round Survival: The Decisions That Separate Companies That Bounce From Ones That Drift
Rajiv Sankarlall
March 31, 2026
Signal Archive
Previous signal essays covering the market patterns and category shifts that defined each period.
01Mar 24, 2026
The Signal
The Vertical SaaS Premium Is Real, And It's Widening
The pricing gap between vertical SaaS and horizontal SaaS has been widening for three years. The data on why it happens, which categories have the widest gap, and what it means for founders choosing between a horizontal and vertical GTM.
Strategy7 min
02Mar 24, 2026
The Signal
Category Creation Is Being Oversold, Here's When to Enter Instead
Every founder wants to be the category creator. The data on whether that strategy outperforms smart category entry in capital-efficient markets tells a different story than the play books suggest.
Strategy6 min
03Mar 15, 2026
The Signal
The 5 Best Pricing Decisions Ever Made by a Founder
Pricing is where founder conviction meets market reality. These five decisions didn't just set a price, they set the terms on which an entire category would compete.
Pricing8 min
04Mar 11, 2026
The Signal
What Founders Miss About the Second Product
The second product decision is where single-product companies either become platforms or plateau. The founders who get it right understand something specific about the relationship between what they already have and what they are about to build.
Product7 min
05Mar 5, 2026
The Signal
The Founder Who Disappears at Series B
At seed, the founder is the signal. At Series B, the founder becoming the signal is a problem.
Leadership6 min
06Mar 4, 2026
The Signal
The ICP Drift Problem No One Talks About
ICP drift is when a company's ideal customer profile shifts away from the segment where the product works best, usually through sales pressure, board pressure, or competitive reaction. It is one of the most common causes of NRR decline and one of the least explicitly discussed.
GTM6 min
07Feb 25, 2026
The Signal
Why Category Creation Beats Category Entry, And When It Doesn't
Category creation is the highest-upside strategy available to a B2B founder. It is also the most misunderstood. Most founders who claim to be creating a category are actually entering one with a different label. The distinction determines the strategy.
Strategy7 min
08Dec 24, 2025
The Signal
How Great Founders Think About Competition
Most founders track their direct competitors obsessively and miss the structural threats that will actually determine their outcome. The founders who navigate competitive dynamics best are playing a different game than the one on the radar.
Strategy7 min
09Dec 10, 2025
The Signal
How to Know When to Fire Your Best Salesperson
The top performer who is breaking culture, gaming incentives, or closing the wrong customers is one of the most costly problems a scaling company can have, and one of the hardest for founders to act on.
Operations6 min
What makes a signal piece work
How this section earns its place.
A signal essay has to be more precise than punditry and more interesting than summary.
Pattern First
A signal piece begins with a shift worth naming.
Opinion With Proof
The argument should be sharper than the consensus but grounded enough to survive scrutiny.
Language That Travels
The best signal essays give readers phrasing they reuse in their own conversations.