View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

Half our portfolio is consumer. Here’s Mike’s comment: Boston’s B2C problem is one of values. To become a truly special consumer tech community, Boston needs more pillar B2C companies. “Brand experience is something you really want to figure out before you start spending on advertising.”

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

Across our portfolio and in my own entrepreneurial experience, I have seen three main sales models work successfully in scaling B2B sales: 1) Enterprise; 2) Telephone; and 3) Developer-driven. 80-90% software products vs. 40-50% advertising products) and company maturity (e.g., customer acquisition cost or CAC).

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 23, 2022

I was recently in a board meeting for one of my portfolio companies, and we had a discussion that must happen in almost every board meeting. The CEO shared the revenue target for the year at X, and the revenue target for next year at 3X. One of the board members asked a simple question: “Why is revenue our North Star KPI?”

Metrics 179

Metrics Revenue B2C Portfolio 179

Occam's Razor

JULY 22, 2013

Truly reflect on whether our marketing and advertising initiatives are broad enough and optimized enough for each customer consideration stage, and finally. And that comes before you think about marketing/sales/advertising/billboards/tv. For example: When we buy display advertising, who are we solving for?

Framework 163

Framework Marketing Metrics Audience 163

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

Applying it to digital advertising…. Revenue Per Human. But, you want people to obsess about Revenue and not Cost. If 10xing your revenue requires that you quadruple your costs, what's the problem? Leverage advertising solutions like RLSA. Each incentivizes such a different behavior, right? Subtle change.

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Acquisition Naming 60

Occam's Razor

MAY 20, 2013

Digital advertising and marketing is a key part of ZQI's multi-channel acquisition portfolio. If they enroll in the course but don't start the course, we don't make much money (maybe some cancellation fees, but come on, that is a pathetic revenue source). They do everything. Go, knock 'em dead!

Analytics 139

Analytics Aggregator Channel B2B 139

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

Advertising. He also combed the portfolios of VC firms and talked to people at start-ups, he says. If failure is defined as failing to see the projected return on investment—say, a specific revenue growth rate or date to break even on cash flow—then more than 95% of start-ups fail, based on Mr. Ghoshs research.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107