Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." The spread between your LTV and blended CPA determines either your profitability or your rate of growth, and a high valuation depends on balancing these two factors.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

In 2010 I deconstructed the filings for GameFly and Quinstreet. GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Filing Date: initial S-1 filed Nov 17, 2010 , updated March 9, 2011. What They Do: Travel search engine.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

I think this idea is particularly appealing to those of us from an engineering background. Luckily, we also discovered that certain other metrics, like LTV and CPA were much better than we initially projected. Tell your Startup Visa story Speaking 2010: Webstock, GDC, Web 2.0, Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

A business that strives for something like this should absolutely be charging money from day one, in order to establish baselines for their two key metrics: CPA (the cost to acquire a new customer) and LTV (the lifetime value of each acquired customer). The level of engineering quality will vary. The level of design required will vary.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156