Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Openly reward employees who make the extra effort, champion cost-cutting issues, and enhance the sales process. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Sometimes that’s defensible distribution channels. There isn’t one most important SaaS metric. You’re not allocating enough costs to gross margin or the cost to acquire a customer. Being focussed on SaaS metrics is not incompatible with valuing employee fulfillment and customer happiness.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Openly reward employees who make the extra effort, champion cost-cutting issues, and enhance the sales process. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Or, if the content team is producing awesome content but not distributing it across email and social channels, you’re once again missing an opportunity to maximize the ROI. Growth killer #2: Different goals and metrics. Once you’ve identified the metric, never lose sign of it. So, what can companies do about it?

Metrics 132

Metrics Campaign Channel Advertising 132

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. But not doing basic research makes no sense.

Startup 150

Startup Seed Money DC Software Review 150

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 25, 2023

With the increased demand for video content, a video marketing agency can offer a wide range of services, from video production to distribution and analysis. You'd only need your iPhone to manage this content and analyze these metrics so you can work anywhere else in the world as long as there is an internet.

Software Review 118

Software Review Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur 118

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Focus on distribution and understanding your business. Next, figuring out distribution is generally the most important thing to solve between Series A and Series B. This metric is over 90% for best-in-class startups and is a huge driver for above mentioned LTV. Hiring after an A round.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Distribution Metrics Retention 150

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

There is no golden metric for everyone, we are all unique snowflakes! :). and tell you what are the best key performance indicators (metrics) for them. In the past I’ve shared a cluster of metrics that small, medium and large businesses can use as a springboard…. If you want to play along. Don’t read what I’ve chosen.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2016

Founders want to get things going, as content marketing helps with brand awareness and lead generation, but often they don’t have a realistic understanding of how much these marketing efforts cost or just how much effort they really take. How to Hire a Content Marketing Consultant for Your Startup. An essay (with data) to decide.

Hiring 120

Hiring Marketing Startup Portfolio 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Activities might include hardware or software development, mastering a 10,000 mile supply chain, low-cost manufacturing, or to provide services in a foreign country. Resources are what the team needs to hire or own inside their company — the team’s physical, financial, human and intellectual property. Looking ahead.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Activities might include hardware or software development, mastering a 10,000 mile supply chain, low-cost manufacturing, or to provide services in a foreign country. Resources are what the team needs to hire or own inside their company — the team’s physical, financial, human and intellectual property. Looking ahead.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

David Teten

JULY 25, 2013

You just hired a new employee for $100K; congratulations! You probably spent 30-50% of her compensation recruiting her (her recruiting cost ratio ), and if she leaves early you’ll lose another 30-50% of her compensation recruiting her replacement. To assist with onboarding, I’ve developed a short list of best practices: Before hiring.

Hiring 114

Hiring Employee Distribution Metrics 114

David Teten

JULY 25, 2013

You just hired a new employee for $100K; congratulations! You probably spent 30-50% of her compensation recruiting her (her recruiting cost ratio ), and if she leaves early you’ll lose another 30-50% of her compensation recruiting her replacement. To assist with onboarding, I’ve developed a short list of best practices: Before hiring.

Hiring 114

Hiring Employee Distribution Metrics 114

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

Yet in expansionary periods, successful leaders spent significantly less on [selling, general, and administrative costs] than did their former peers. A focus on cost cutting—every decision is viewed through a loss-minimization lens. As the authors found, “Firms that cut costs faster and deeper than rivals don’t necessarily flourish.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

I strongly believe that the first few hires of a startup should belong to the growth department, whether they’re marketers, community managers, or salespeople (selling your product is the best way to learn how to improve it). This is when metrics come into play. See Also: The Top 10 Tools for Tracking Your Web Metrics.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

Build a realistic revenue model and price, based on cost. It takes real money to sustain a business, with a margin in the 50 percent range, and some realistic milestones and metrics. To get the visibility and distribution for scaling, plan on one or two levels of partner relationships, as well as real events and promotions early.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

If you want to scale sales, you hire more sales reps. Typically you want to see a 3x ratio between the contribution margin per rep (factoring in the lifetime value of the customer, or LTV) and the cost per rep to acquire that customer, fully loaded (i.e., customer acquisition cost or CAC). I''ll discuss each one below.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

And then eventually when I went into the corporate arena, I had the opportunity to work leading various areas like sales, marketing, service ops, distribution even. (02:13): John Jantsch (12:04): Hey, have you ever tried to hire freelancers and found that the quality of work was lacking? Yeah, Jon Picoult (12:01): That's right.

Customer 76

Customer Technical Review Employee Artificial Inteligence 76

ConversionXL

APRIL 14, 2021

What is the age distribution of your female demographic? What is the age distribution of your male demographic? There are significant differences between hiring a production team or doing it on your own and each of these tactics has its own pros and cons. The first metric is video views. Explore production options.

Video 141

Video Audience Metrics Analytics 141

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

My belief is that these lean startups will achieve dramatically lower development costs, faster time to market, and higher quality products in the years to come. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Other companies accomplish this by hiring a large staff of content production experts - and get a very good result. Plus, we saw some of the intrinsic limitations of supporting such a large staff: slower cycle times, higher cost basis, and - most importantly - the ability to serve only a limited number of customer segments.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Up and Running

OCTOBER 30, 2017

How easy is it (and how much will it cost you) to acquire a customer? How much money and effort will it cost to deliver the value you would like to be offering? Milestones and Metrics. Hiring staff. Distribution of competitors: Are there many competitors close to you? How long will it take to get to market?

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Business Plan Limited Liability Company Finance 166

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

They use different technologies of course, and different distribution mechanisms. They will need two different implementations, it is quite likely that you will end up with two sets of metrics (more people focused for mobile apps, more visit focused for sites). Mobile content consumption, behavior along key metrics (time, bounces etc.)

Analytics 141

Analytics Metrics Mobile DC 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Continually add new marketing and distribution partners. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Openly reward employees who make the extra effort, champion cost-cutting issues, and enhance the sales process. Real growth always requires real marketing.

Social Media 120

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 120

Up and Running

DECEMBER 14, 2016

MailChimp is affordable; their New Business Forever Free plan is no cost for up to 2,000 subscribers (you can send up to 12,000 emails per month)—no trial period, no contract, not even a credit card required. There are metrics to review. Building a list and setting up email templates and campaigns takes time.

Email 60

Email Small Business Marketing Campaign 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

We wanted an agile approach that would allow us to build our software architecture as we needed it, without downtime, but also without large amounts of up-front cost. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Agile Lean 94

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Good CEOs will look inside and say: “Hey, maybe we’ve been hiring a little bit too much during the sugar rush phase of the pandemic, and what does that mean for performance management? Can we squeeze out more from folks that we’ve hired, and are there things that maybe we have completely neglected? Have we become soft?

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 31, 2016

If your solution doesn’t help potential customers reduce cost, increase sales, or improve their service to their customers, you don’t have a business anyway. How else can you define a sales process or know what to look for when you hire a sales manager or seek distribution partnerships? Get over it. Get a different job.

United Kingdom 100

United Kingdom Entrepreneur Oklahoma Ohio 100

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

So one of the first things we did was to hire an Oracle expert and get to work. It cost us a few hundred thousand dollars to get our app up and running, but none of that was dollars spent on software licenses or professional services. I was building a new startup in 1999, and wanted to do it right. 1 comments: flixsterwidgettest said.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

ConversionXL

MARCH 29, 2017

Make sure you have a good understanding of your value proposition, cost structure, revenue streams, customer segments, etc. It’s important because this is where you’re gonna create a huge backlog of every idea that you and your company has on how to improve this one metric. The metrics you’ll be using. before continuing.

Marketing 48

Marketing Distribution Retention eCommerce 48

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

When we decide to hire someone, the interviewers who were involved in the "hire" decision will sit down with the candidates resume and salary history and figure out what level they will start at. However, we will have: Cost of living adjustments for different markets. Its neat and egalitarian. Educational adjustments.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

It seems many startups these days are under a lot of pressure to outsource their development organization to save costs. Startup Visa update ► February (5) Kiwi lean startup + Australia next Why diversity matters (the meritocracy business) Beware of Vanity Metrics (for Harvard Business Rev.

Customer Development 131

Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

Have an effective distribution strategy. All these metrics show whether a website you’re analyzing is following a shifty link building strategy or not. Theoretically, if you build a link on a website with DR 30, this metric has all the chances to reach 60-70 very soon. Create high-quality content. Optimize your on-page SEO.

SEO 157

SEO Metrics Acquisition Email 157

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

It is becoming easier and cheaper for companies to bring products to market, leveraging free and open source software , cloud computing, open social data (Facebook, OpenSocial ), and open distribution (AdWords, SEO). Lean startups have the ability to use this commodity stack to lower costs and, more importantly, reduce time to market.

Lean 102

Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Because they have no presence in the market, they have to find distribution channels to bring in customers. They know how much it costs to bring in a customer and they know how much money they can expect to make on each one. And yet, their investors are frustrated.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167