Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. And of course ultimately on profitability.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

So most early-stage VCs have started to evaluate investment opportunities with an imaginary benchmark in mind: can this company become a $100 million opportunity? The biggest driver for high LTV is repeat purchase behavior (in an e-commerce business) respectively a low churn rate (in a SaaS company).

Churn Rate 168

Churn Rate Viral Acquisition Cofounder 168

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

I know it sounds obvious but just so you understand: There are more capital sources available for earlier-stage capital, the information on which they are evaluating the investment is less (it is almost certainly just team and product) and the risk of the investor getting things wrong is diminished.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Occam's Razor

APRIL 8, 2013

To win in business you need to follow this process: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act. We are far too enamored with data collection and reporting the standard metrics we love because others love them because someone else said they were nice so many years ago. That metric is tied to a KPI.

Metrics 156

Metrics Analytics Lean Churn Rate 156

ConversionXL

AUGUST 13, 2019

SaaS sales and marketing teams can get overwhelmed by metrics. But without any metrics, it’s impossible to track growth. And while that figure is promising, early-stage SaaS companies need a ton of growth to survive. According to Gartner , three metrics form the foundation for those growth levers: (Image source).

Metrics 117

Metrics SQL Retention Churn Rate 117

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

One question that keeps coming up when speaking with early stage entrepreneurs when it comes to funding, is what metrics the company needs to hit to raise seed/series A/B etc: What’s a good conversion rate? Is my churn rate below the category average? What should our MRR growth be?

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

Seeing Both Sides

OCTOBER 24, 2015

Since I see a few common patterns of mistakes, I thought I'd add to the LTV literature and point out the top three reasons many investors roll their eyes when they see entrepreneurs present inflated, poorly constructed LTVs: 1) Your churn rate is understated. A monthly churn rate of 1%?

Churn Rate 20

Churn Rate Early Stage Revenue Metrics 20