Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

Assemble an engaged new venture advisory board. Don’t let early success dilute your focus, or demand that the new venture quickly meet your mainline financial and growth metrics. If you wait to start until your new venture really needs the money, the project will likely die of starvation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? While thinking about the parameters of traction, and how to measure it, I was impressed with a new book, “ Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth ” by Ash Maurya, a serial entrepreneur, and creator of the one-page business modelling tool Lean Canvas.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2022

Use metrics on key deliverables to assure quality results. Establish an advisory board of experienced peers. Avoid death by success , where a fabulous large order from a big retailer exceeds your ability to staff up, deliver, or support it. Big growth takes big investment.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2020

You need to maintain explicit C-suite and Board buy-in for constant transformation through effective communication, highlighting the struggles of peer businesses, and establishing the right metrics.

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The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 25, 2017

Led by former Apple project manager Brian Brackeen, Kairos set up an Endeavor-facilitated advisory board. A key impact metric for Kairos is the number of faces processed. The Endeavor network provided Brian access to several high-quality enterprise connections. The Endeavor connections catapulted Kairos’ customer reach.

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YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Other times, the founding team may pull together a good core management team, but lack a comprehensive strategy to address the extended team: the board of directors, customer advisory board, products council, employee advisory group and so on. This is quite the balancing act.

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Other times, the founding team may pull together a good core management team, but lack a comprehensive strategy to address the extended team: the board of directors, customer advisory board, products council, employee advisory group and so on. This is quite the balancing act.

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Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

Define success metrics, and measure progress regularly. Every startup should have at least quarterly meetings with an Advisory Board or key investors to bring a new perspective to what is working and what is not. If you have completed four out of five milestones, we can both see success in your future.

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Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 7, 2023

So if your frontline team doesn't have what they need, it shows itself in those experience metrics on the customer side. My ask would be the next time you do or say something on behalf of the customer, like I've got a customer advisory board. Do you have an employee advisory board?

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Jeff Hilimire

APRIL 8, 2015

Outline the goals and metrics both parties care about. Advisory Boards. When it comes to advisory boards, I’m a big fan. But, I think an entrepreneur needs to be careful about how and when they create an advisory board. Choosing an advisory board is the first step.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

You can and must fix this by communicating business goals and objectives, and establishing personal metrics which only reward success. I believe that every business, whether public or private, needs to engage an advisory board or outside directors for a regular review. Unclear, misaligned, or overlapping job responsibilities.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We did three iterations of the product in less than 12 months, each one progressively going off of different consumer metrics that we found and then partner feedback. They still thought we were building what we had presented in a PowerPoint slide as the product, but that didn’t work out in our case. .

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery ? I gave my boilerplate answer, “I’m a product guy and I tend to invest and look at deals that have measurable revenue metrics. Dave McClure has some great metrics…” It was an honest but vaguely unsatisfying answer. As for #3. I agree completely.

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Austin Startup

MARCH 2, 2019

Both Bazaarvoice and Coremetrics started from scratch, and I’ve also angel-backed companies recently that have started from scratch, like Compare Metrics , where I serve as the Chairman of the Board (note that Compare Metrics also recently completed their Series A with Austin Ventures as the lead).

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David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

This structure allows for alignment on the front end, and real-time flexibility for performance metrics,” says Samira Salman , a family office investor and advisor. . Flexible VCs have created structures based on other company performance metrics than revenues, such as profits or founder salaries. Flexible VC 102: Variations.

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thebarefootvc

AUGUST 13, 2013

Slice and dice this landscape according to different features/metrics that you think are important to your CUSTOMER. Or at least get some of them on your advisory board. A competitive landscape (particularly when laid out in a visual way) will identify gaps and opportunities in the market.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We did three iterations of the product in less than 12 months, each one progressively going off of different consumer metrics that we found and then partner feedback. They still thought we were building what we had presented in a PowerPoint slide as the product, but that didn’t work out in our case. .

Columbus 120

Columbus Entrepreneur Cofounder Ohio 120

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

If youre interested in being part of my "customer advisory board" for this presentation, please get in touch. Eric, if youre looking for any help as a "customer advisory board", Id love to do anything I can to help. I would love to be on your advisory board. And thats where the call for help comes in.

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The Next Web

JULY 8, 2013

In the last few months we’ve been seeing great growth in 3 key metrics: The number of websites signing up and using the system. Adopt faster, understand the needed set of skills and surround yourself with smart people that have done it before (advisory board is my preferred option). We’ve spent $0 on outbound marketing.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Let board members know that you’re not walking through this in the actual meeting. Schedule 1:1 calls 1 week before the meeting to walk each board member through the key issues / performance metrics in the business. Between Board Meetings. Communicating Between Board Meetings. The Agile Board.

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Up and Running

MAY 20, 2014

In an industry that lauds performance metrics to constantly track progress, there’s something fluffy about a professional degree that is not a prerequisite for anything. That’s why companies have advisory boards that get compensated — you usually have to pay for that kind of support and knowledge.

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OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

The book is part of the Startup Revolution series that Brad has been working on for a couple years now, including Do More (Even) Faster , Venture Deals , Startup Communities , and Startup Life (with two more to come, Startup Boards and Startup Metrics). Writing a book is a LOT harder than I expected!

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2016

You need to quantify measurable criteria for success, using business metrics. It’s time for the executive team and advisory board to commit the necessary funds and people resources to complete the plan. It takes the right people to make a breakthrough happen. Clearly define and issue the challenge. A dream is not enough.

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Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

link] I believe that SaaS startups we’ve invested in (either as advisors or investors, or both), such as AlertMedia, Clarify, Edgecase, eRelevance, Fashion Metric, NewComLink, OneSpot, Onor, OrderGroove, Pivot Freight, RealMassive, and ShelfBucks, have natural network effects, some inherently stronger in their industries than others.

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David Teten

JANUARY 13, 2015

Jeanne Sullivan , co-founder, StarVest Partners, strongly recommends creating an advisory board, especially in the early days. That advisory board would be able to say, ‘Don really knows what to do and how to do it: organized, smart, and more.’”. Prove more through metrics.

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ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

It contains the story of your property, mission statement, sponsor benefits, demographics, marketing plan, goals, media opportunities, advisory board, and the sponsor fees.”. An inventory of metrics: Click-through rates, newsletter subscribers, downloads, social engagement, revenue figures, etc. Source ).

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. As the business grows, it pays to learn how to use automated financial tools, and review the key financial metrics daily.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections. Financial forecast and metrics. Investors invest in people - not just ideas. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

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YoungUpstarts

APRIL 7, 2013

They’re using metrics that are often unworkable in the current business environment, causing growing businesses to look elsewhere for capital and increasingly towards alternative forms of financing. It’s the paradox of the modern startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections. Financial forecast and metrics. Investors invest in people - not just ideas. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

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Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Every experiment has to be evaluated based on a single standard report of 5-10 (no more) key metrics. Any team that creates an experiment must monitor the metrics and customer reactions (support calls, forum threads, etc) while the experiment is in-progress, and abort if something catastrophic happens. It promotes rapid iteration.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

That’s why I also put major emphasis on startup traction, milestones achieved and metrics rather than listening again to how great it’s going to be. Nevertheless, I see tremendous value in understanding your entrepreneurial DNA, as part of your personal preparation, or in conjunction with incubators, accelerators or advisory boards.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and in 2009 he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

For a founder there’s nothing worse than searching for a business model day after day and then sitting in a board meeting with a VC who asks about some detail of year 5 of your revenue plan. Do they have metrics and a methodology they use for early stage companies that differs from companies that have already found a business model?

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Establish a customer advisory board. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev. Create a members-only forum where only qualified customers (perhaps, paying customers) can post.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each cycle was punctuated by a meeting of our Business Advisory Board (BAB). Leading up to a pivot, each cycle, despite our best efforts, the metrics werent good enough. More than anything, it forced us to take advantage of necessity, the mother of invention. Heres what it looked like. It was painful.

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Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

Don’t boomerang founders If you have specific metrics you look for in early stage companies. When I was fundraising if I heard “I’d like to invest when you get to $X in revenue” and their metrics weren’t disclosed up front, I often thought of the investors as chickens and I always heard it as a “no”.

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