article thumbnail

Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. Between 2006–2008 I sold both companies that I had started and became a VC. We wanted new things to exist and to solve new problems and to see our creations come to life.

Valuation 466
article thumbnail

Why vanity metrics are dangerous

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics. My personal favorite vanity metrics is "hits."

Metrics 167
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How is the VC Asset Class Doing?

View from Seed

At the time, I spent most of my time describing the metrics themselves and how VCs and their LPs evaluate performance based on these measurements. If you aren’t familiar with these metrics, I recommend reading the original post to get a sense of the numbers that I’ll be reviewing here. So, is this good or bad?

LP 256
article thumbnail

Cracking The Code: Happy New Year 2008!

Cracking the Code

Monday, January 28, 2008. Happy New Year 2008! The second part of the year has seen a lower flow of blog posts, but part of my 2008 resolutions are to remedy to this shortfall, so be prepared for a strong 2008. 1st 2008 with a base value of 100.00 ▼ 2008. (11). Churchill Club 2008 Top 10 Tech Trends.

article thumbnail

Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits. This same risk averse, conserve the cash, VC mindset would return after the 2008 meltdown of the housing market.).

Lean 335
article thumbnail

ESADE Business School Commencement Speech

Steve Blank

Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO. As Harvard professor Clayton Christensen noted, these efficiency metrics provided wise guidance for times when capital was scarce and raising money was hard. Ultimately this is not just another staff function.

article thumbnail

Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. Choose one.