Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

The very best analysts distill, rather than dilute. 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….

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

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.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

Then you can do a little bit of research and find out that very few companies ever achieve this valuation in a trade sale so you’re clearly gunning for an IPO. Another firm we saw tried to raise $15 million at a $60 million pre-money with similar metrics. The risk wouldn’t be appropriate. Here’s the problem.

Pre-Money Valuation 336

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Silicon Valley Stock 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. Your focus for momentum could be sales, profitability, or number of customers, but trying to keep all possible parameters growing is simply not practical.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

A-Rounds used to be $3–7 million with the best companies able to skip this smaller amount and raise $10 million on a $40 million pre-money valuation (20% dilution). So in a way it’s self selecting. These days $10 million is quaint for the best A-Rounds and many are raising $20 million at $60–80 million pre-money valuations (or greater).

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

ReadWriteStart

JULY 18, 2011

At this stage, the founders pay for the dilution of the shares and the funders will take 20 to 25% of the company. key metrics or a dashboard showing how you've made progress in whatever the key metrics for your business are. VCs need to figure out the people side of the company and raising money is a sales job.

Investment Bankers 153

Investment Bankers Technical Review Cofounder Due Diligence 153

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

Future investors aren’t likely to mind that you had a PBW program because the dilution will be taken before they invest. Every share option you allocate to an employee is dilution both you and your investors face so they shouldn’t be allocated lightly. million in sales. million in sales (e.g.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

In any experiment, some metric within some group usually changes, but whether we’ve invested in the statistical rigor to discover it is another question altogether.”. Knowing these finer details can help meaningfully shift your metrics in a positive direction, where they may have once been plateauing. Image Source.

Chad 112

Chad Mobile Technical Review Aggregator 112

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

Because at least while the VC spigot is open and flowing for high-potential individuals that fit a pattern that some VCs seem to favor they can access cheap capital that isn’t terribly dilutive and can use the to fund development and swing for the fences with limited focus on monetization. And the dilution that goes with it.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Despite all the energy invested in talking to authors about the size of their platform, very few gatekeepers have a rigorous set of metrics for measuring it. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. My blog has over 14000 subscribers, for example. Is that a lot? Is that good?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

" Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth. Things happen, people tire, sometimes tragedies.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Occam's Razor

APRIL 15, 2019

When you do that much stuff, and you can measure almost everything… The result is that our ecosystem of data people are returning a lot more negative data when measuring performance of Marketing, Sales, User Experience and Customer Service. They dilute the analysis with non-facts. You might think it would be the Attacker.

Leadership 79

Leadership Non-Compete Analytics Software Review 79

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

It also assumes the entire value of the investment is captured for investors at a sale of the company in the time specified in the term-sheet. This results in a range of sale prices; in this example from $118.6MM to $21MM. Let’s start at the end.   So, let’s assume here we have an 8% non-cumulative dividend.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

You’re basically tinkering with everything at this stage – product, marketing, sales, partnerships, etc. You’re learning what the metrics that matter are, what your funnel looks like, and what actions you want your prospects to take. You’re tinkering with your marketing and sales channels. Now let’s talk about the metrics.

Metrics 136

Metrics Cofounder Cram Down Liquidity Event 136

Rob Go

JUNE 10, 2013

Write code, talk to users, and build the company (hire the best people you can find, get the culture right, fundraise, close sales, etc.) Don’t let your company be run by a sales guy. Worry more about making sure you pass than an extra point of dilution. Share results (financial and key metrics) with the company every month.

Startup 49

Startup Technical Cofounder Hiring Cofounder 49

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 30, 2018

If your brand tries to be too many things at once, the message becomes scattered and the brand grows diluted. Make sure that all communication, marketing, and sales endeavors support these messages. You’re going to need some brand health metrics to track. Track the metrics mentioned above.

Small Business 55

Small Business Metrics Social Media Audience 55

ConversionXL

JULY 22, 2021

Understand and maintain them and your website can rank prominently, drive traffic, and help boost sales. Identifying and merging content targeting the same or similar keywords; Removing duplicate content that dilutes importance, and; Improving metadata so that users see what they’re looking for in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Technical Review 162

Technical Review SEO Software Review XML 162

ConversionXL

JANUARY 14, 2020

It quickly shows that “[item] for sale” is a query syntax eBay ranks well for but Amazon doesn’t. As a result, a (theoretical) opportunity for Amazon would be to add a feature that lists item categories “for sale” on its marketplace. The example above compares eBay’s keywords to Amazon’s, with a minimum word count of 3. Hidden gems.

SEO 159

SEO Framework SCRUM Search 159

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

If there are no earnings yet, with your business plowing profits into long term growth, then revenue multiples or some other metric would be used. Forecasted earnings growth is typically the #1 driver of your valuation (e.g., Revenue multiples for established businesses are typically in the 0.5x-1x

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

Ben's Blog

APRIL 1, 2011

Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared to keeping my mind in check. If the sales team made unreasonable demands on the product organization, then that was my fault. Raise money in a highly dilutive way. It kind of sucked to be me.

Management 78

Management Cap Table Balance Sheet Bankruptcy 78

ConversionXL

AUGUST 30, 2018

The key is to connect user research to an improved user experience and, in turn, an increase in customer retention, leads, or any other metric for which C-suite members are accountable. According to that same NNG research: Ecommerce sites can expect to double their sales. User research is the foundation for those gains.

Design 111

Design Framework Product Development Technical Review 111

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

So when founders lose focus, they dilute their power and effectiveness, which diffuses the force of their impact. Or will you be fine with a head of marketing or a controller or a sales lead? The most valuable resource a founder has is his/her time and energy. But do you really need a COO?

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

You’ll usually get assigned a contact in the ad sales organization at Facebook or Google once you start spending big bucks. When is the right time to diversify your sales channel mix? Discounts too early can also have the adverse effect of diluting a brand when targeting a more affluent customer segment.

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 7, 2022

Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn't check out the sales podcast, where host Will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. That's what you should be benchmarking your profitability against. Anyway, they get to do it.

Cofounder 76

Cofounder Hosting Networking Software Review 76

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

There are three parts to a good competitive analysis: (1) defining the metrics and identifying the competitors you’re comparing, (2) gathering the data, and (3) the analysis. If your brand tries to be too many things at once, the message becomes scattered and the brand grows diluted. Start by defining what metrics are important.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. Why do I do it?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

million registered users, 7500 supplier partners, 600 team members, and a run-rate of more than $150M in sales in just 15 months. At Fab, mobile is already 33% of our visits and sales and we just launched our mobile apps nearly a year ago. Don’t skimp on fundraising because of dilution fears.?. So, here goes. Keep at it.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 6, 2017

If you don't go out of your way to not only create an outbound recruiting process, but track its metrics, you'll be fishing in only half the lake, or less. Just like in sales, if you don't put in lead generation tools for talent as early as possible, and start tracking it, that well is going to run dry very quickly. 4) They underhire.

Hiring 110

Hiring Lead Generation Dilution PR 110

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

Oh, oh, oh, and our long-term favorite: Does online advertising on TikTok, Snap, and Hulu actually drive phone sales in AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile stores in the real world? Don’t test for a vanity metric. Pick elements close to the end (sale) vs. at the start ( do people like this creative or love it? ).

Analytics 101

Analytics Programming Global Campaign 101

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

A couple of dilution points here or there wont matter in the long run but working with the right people will. Don’t skimp on fundraising because of dilution fears. It’s true what they say in sales, you’re only as good as your last sale. . Jason is also an investor in and Board Member at RJ Metrics.

Post-Money Valuation 92

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Dilution Advisory Board 92

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Anything that hints of a down round brings questions about the success metrics that have already been “booked.” It will also minimize future dilution. I get that you want to grow and I want you to grow, but let’s internally finance that growth by spending gross margin dollars rather than new dilutive dollars of equity.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

At the time, they said, it’s not enough to design a product that’s good for sales, it must also be good for the environment. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. So it works for as many stakeholders as possible.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 69

Reid Hoffman

JUNE 8, 2021

At the time, they said, it’s not enough to design a product that’s good for sales, it must also be good for the environment. The burden [should] just be that we care; that if we learn something, we improve it, and that we don’t only use single output metrics and its growth at all costs. So it works for as many stakeholders as possible.

Silicon Valley 36

Silicon Valley Hosting Rhode Island Design 36

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

When someone shares your YouTube video on Twitter, you can track that metric. You don’t want to overwhelm followers or come across as inauthentic and dilute your brand. The content Gong posts to its Instagram feed is a mix of sales tips, social proof, themed-based content (e.g., Around 77.5%

Social Media 145

Social Media Audience Media Marketing 145

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Within that dashboard is a funnel chart: The funnel bar chart shows the number of users at each stage of the sales funnel. This example from a presentation by Brent Dykes shows how unnecessary noise dilutes data and how much more effective its when stripped back: Image Filename: example-from-a-presentation-by-brent-dykes.jpg.

Marketing 100

Marketing Analytics Audience Design 100

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

JULY 21, 2011

My blog’s traffic (I was ranked under 15K on Alexa ), reader engagement, and sales showed me that I was on the right track. Writing personable content that attracts human interest, brings about discussions, connects with the reader on a deep personal level and keyword-stuffed metric-based content that would rank highly on Google?

Engineer 99

Engineer Search SEO Advertising 99

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Maybe you are wondering which metrics to track, or whether or not you should take out a loan for your business. Which metrics do you most rely on to understand your business itself. The question is what metrics do you most rely on to understand your business’s health? What specific metrics should they be monitoring?

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95