Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. And given your stage of development you sure better at least know what your goal is. Because it can be hard to define or agree company objectives at an early stage I believe most people avoid them.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round). You can sometimes attract capital from farther away but typically harder to do at early stage.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 13, 2011

When people ask me what areas I’m interested in, I often say “early” Taking meetings with entrepreneurs at these early stages means that you have to view these meetings in the right context. Sometimes, technology changes and old ideas that were before their time can be successful.

Viral 110

Viral Social Network Startup Early Stage 110

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

The chicken-egg issue of getting customers to your platform while you don’t have any money to spare is a puzzle that many companies are unable to figure out at all. Then, in 2015, this is who we added to the team: Jan-15: Head of Customer Success (growth team). 1x hacker in charge of product/development.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

However, for the past couple years, the metrics of “success” with early-stage digital media startups (especially consumer-facing ones) have clearly focused on distribution, as opposed to monetization. Now the new plan for distribution is facilitation through low-cost viral strategies via Facebook and other social media.

Distribution 103

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 103

Genuine VC

APRIL 30, 2008

However, for the past couple years, the metrics of “success” with early-stage digital media startups (especially consumer-facing ones) have clearly focused on distribution, as opposed to monetization. Now the new plan for distribution is facilitation through low-cost viral strategies via Facebook and other social media.

Distribution 100

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 100

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

This provides us more time to develop meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. Boardex and Relationship Science make it easier to understand and map social networks into potential limited partners. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

Being an engineer, I built myself a kind of algorithm that helps determine an early-­stage startup’s sales channels, and that’s what I’m sharing with you today. Step 1: Figure out the LTV (customer lifetime value). LTV is how much money you can make from an average customer during his or her purchasing lifetime with you.

Belarus 137

Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Friendster’s valuation set the tone for the entire social networking space. For example, if I were pitching LinkedIn’s Series B today with what I now know about successful pitches, the investment thesis would be: Massively valuable properties will be built off networks. There will be different networks for different domains.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Growth Hacking isn’t viral marketing (although viral marketing is part of it). and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph. If a startup is pre-product/market fit, growth hackers can make sure virality is embedded at the core of a product.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

I’m sure its customers wonder, “Why is an organic grocer named RydeOn?”. In the world of technology companies, a pivot generally involves changing the product in a substantive way that changes how the company engages with its customers. It’s easier (but still hard) when you’re running a small, early-stage organization.

Startup 36

Startup Silicon Valley Business Model Mobile 36

Occam's Razor

APRIL 8, 2013

If it's the number of invites sent, it's virality. Run a survey, or look at what else they do, or examine customer feedback, or simply pick up the phone. What makes your most loyal customers different from the rest? That’s because they require you to have a deep understanding of your customers. But they are.

Metrics 156

Metrics Analytics Lean Churn Rate 156

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? If not, do not launch there.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason. Patrick: Exactly.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

No doubt early-stage companies can be started on a shoestring by low-paid entrepreneurs, but when financing a scalable, sustainable product, a free application server won’t make much of a difference. In fact, it’s barely even the beginning for most companies in their seed stage financings. Check out our starter program.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

While the aforementioned example may not fit every startup, regardless, you need to have an actionable, scalable business model with measurable metrics (downloads, customers, etc.) In other words, angel investors and early stage venture capital (VC) firms will have different expectations than late stage VC firms.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

Reid Hoffman

OCTOBER 17, 2018

In fact, to achieve your aggressive growth goals in the face of uncertainty and change, you need to follow a new set of rules that fly in the face of what is taught in business schools and are completely counterintuitive to accepted “best practices” of either early stage startups or classic corporate management. Rule #1: Embrace Chaos.

Finder 28

Finder Rhode Island Cofounder Engineer 28

mashable.com

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Not to mention, early-stage startups usually only employ a few people focused on product and development. Customize Your Pitches. When you want a particular person to cover your story, customize your pitch to be relevant to his coverage area and audience. Instead, stick with custom emails. Social Media Lists.

PR 103

PR Startup Social Media Technical Review 103

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

B y definition, early stage startups don’t have lots of money and resources. They hope to raise awareness through viral marketing and word of mouth, since participating in professional industry events can be a pretty expensive ordeal when you take into account hotels, flights, tickets, etc.

Finder 128

Finder Startup Social Network Mobile 128

Rob Go

JULY 11, 2013

I was asked recently how NextView evaluates such early stage companies for investment. Here are a couple examples from our portfolio: Vertical Communities: One of the exciting attributes of GrabCAD in the early days was its rapidly growing, engaged community of mechanical engineers. This tends to be pretty hit-or-miss, I find.

Distribution 66

Distribution Vertical Viral B2B 66

mashable.com

MARCH 24, 2011

Mashable | The Social Media Guide Viral Topics Twitter YouTube Facebook iPhone Google Video About Mashable Company About Us Advertise Submit News Contact Us Announcements Resources Guidebooks Lists How To Trending Mashable Awards Subscriptions Partners W3 EDGE Rackspace Concentric Sky Dynect DNS Intridea Welcome to Mashable!

Programming 86

Programming Startup Technical Review Software Review 86

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Here’s an overview: Mitch Kapor: Kapor is founding partner of Kapor Capital , a firm that invests in seed and early stage startups. Brad Feld: Feld is co-founder and managing director of Foundry Group, a Boulder, Colorado venture capital firm that focuses on early stage investments ranging from $250,000 to $500,000.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

sharkseo.com

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

If your new product can rank for terms that potential customers are searching for, it can allow you to turn your startup into a success and can send you traffic that you may not be able to justify using AdWords for. Aaron Wall, SEO Book Add a free feature which is accessible, useful, and spreads virally.

Bootstrapping 49

Bootstrapping SEO Startup Widget 49

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

We’re co-leading the $6 million investment with Roger Ehrenberg at IA Ventures in NY and one of the most respected early-stage investors in the country in “big data&# companies. They know this because Twitter is social, open & asymmetric. In the industry they call this the “viral coefficient.”. is hot right now.

Viral 307

Viral Las Vegas Tunisia Syndicate 307

mashable.com

OCTOBER 5, 2012

Naming can be one of the most difficult challenges in the early stages of a startup. Our startup creates custom vertical search and decision making engines for people or businesses with structured data. of Web Users Meet Singles on Social Networks [STUDY] Want to Highlight Your New Facebook Pictures? Social Media.

Naming 84

Naming Startup Social Media RSS 84