Rob Go

JULY 11, 2013

I was asked recently how NextView evaluates such early stage companies for investment. We tend to favor companies that have a “distribution advantage”. So what are some examples of distribution advantages? Legacy Distribution Power : Quite a few successful companies got a nice head start because of legacy traffic.

Distribution 66

Distribution Vertical Viral B2B 66

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. The old playbook six years ago was that the web distribution could be bought for a price with Google Adwords.

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. The old playbook six years ago was that the web distribution could be bought for a price with Google Adwords.

Distribution 100

Distribution Widget Viral Social Media 100

Rob Go

JANUARY 12, 2015

As an early stage investor, should you pay up for team or traction? When you are thinking about joining an early stage company, how should you be evaluating the risk of the overall company? How should you be weighing the presence of a great founding team vs. early signs of traction? The Case for Traction.

B2B 28

B2B Early Stage Distribution Software Review 28

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. The Pocket Negotiator is very early-stage attempt to aid in the negotiating process itself. Some technology vendors are providing options to limit distribution of confidential information from GP reports.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Reid Hoffman

JULY 20, 2022

To see this in action, consider the DALL-E images that go viral on Reddit and Twitter. Even in the early stages of ideation, an architect may want to explore a skyscraper that’s exactly 50 stories high, not just “very tall.”

Warrant 44

Warrant Artificial Inteligence Social Media Early Stage 44

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2015

When you are thinking about joining an early stage company, how should you be evaluating the risk of the overall company? How should you be weighing the presence of a great founding team versus early signs of traction? Great teams fail to build a product and get early distribution all the time.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage B2B Distribution Early Stage 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Business Model Affects Metrics and Exit Criteria Web-based Business Model Exit Criteria In a web-business model you’re looking for traffic, users, conversion, virality, etc – not revenue. Even startups that are dominated by technical risk have the customer validation risk of finding positive ROI distribution in a large market.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 224

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

When I first wrote about ‘creative automation’ Dall-E wasn’t open for beta users, and while the tech of generative text to image AI existed, it wasn’t widely distributed. If you’re an early stage founder inworking on something novel in this space, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Colorado 104

Colorado Viral Early Stage Open Source 104

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. We find that these are great, and I personally listen to many of them.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 120

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.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

As I ask questions to understand the thinking, what usually comes out is something vague along the lines of web marketing, and/or viral growth with no numbers attached. A quick look around all the B2C startups shows that, although viral growth is often hoped for, in reality it is extremely rare.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. You’ve built detailed analytics tracking into your product and you should be seeing organic and viral growth; and can provide Daily/Weekly/Monthly Active Users, 30d/90d/120d retention. 2M in 18 months.

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

The Next Web

JANUARY 26, 2014

If a big corporation is pushing a new product, you might expect them to take out TV ads, online ads, maybe hire a PR agency and set up big distribution partnerships. Rely on cheaper forms of marketing : Blogging, email, viral tactics etc. PayPal famously offered a $20 2-way reward in their early stages of growth.

Thailand 167

Thailand Social Network PPC Singapore 167

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. channels (search, social, viral, new media), cost-efficient distribution He also points a fair bit to Eric Ries – The lean startup. A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Wow” moments lead to word-of-mouth viral growth and high net promoter scores. The opposite was true for OpenTable where the installation of a personal computer and internet connectivity were part of the early roll-out requirements. When this experience delta is great enough, it creates “wow” moments for new users.

Aggregator 101

Aggregator Marketing Software Review North America 101

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. It''s a good measurement because it captures both satisfaction and virality. That''s why the most critical attribute of early-stage product development is the ability to learn quickly.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

Or in utility speak, they are transmission and we are last-mile distribution. 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. In the industry they call this the “viral coefficient.”.

Viral 307

Viral Las Vegas Tunisia Syndicate 307

The Next Web

AUGUST 21, 2013

Bubba is an early stage investor in consumer internet and mobile technology companies for @DFJvc. It constricted their distribution channel to the app store and the device itself, and users just don’t have enough opportunity for discovering and trying new apps in those environments. Attracting and growing a user base.

Mobile 137

Mobile Design Differentiation Startup 137

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue? Because they have no presence in the market, they have to find distribution channels to bring in customers. But all things are never equal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

I have a massive bias against the current click-bait, let’s go viral , “hot story of the moment” traffic. Continuing the obsession with deeper relationships… TBT is a newspaper that’s updated 80k times a day, how does the Recency distribution look like? It is not hard to pick New Subscriptions.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

The Next Web

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Giant Media is a video platform that distributes long-form content for brands. Choose something efficient : When you’re starting something in the early stages, you should focus on what makes you more efficient and what makes your business scalable rather than less so.

Southern California 138

Southern California Los Angeles Media Founder 138

View from Seed

JUNE 30, 2015

As a founder, I think it’s easier to talk to potential investors about where they invest across the lifecycle of a company (whether it’s truly early-stage/early lifecycle, for instance), versus round stages like seed, series A, etc. Almost all VCs actually invest across this spectrum.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication Dilution 120

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you’re working closely with partners who are helping you distribute your product, it’s especially important to make sure they understand who you are, how you speak, and who you serve. Konstantinos says, “As we were validating the value of our solution and recruiting early adopters, we started talking to a few VC firms.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

If you're working on the Sticky Engine of Growth , you're focused on very different metrics from those that you care about in the Viral Engine of Growth. In the early days of a SaaS business, churn really doesn’t matter that much. Similarly, a two-sided marketplace cares about different things from a traditional e-commerce product.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

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

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 4, 2011

When you can take something that used to take people two hours or ten hours to do and you can make it a single click and everything just works, that tends to grow virally. So it’s a powerful tool for social proof and distribution and evangelism. ” I think that’s a really powerful thing.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Venture Capital San Francisco Boston 60

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

There are a number of other variables here like virality (the chances of a user referring another user), but I don’t want to overcomplicate things. Especially in the early stages, keeping a relationship with your customers can be paid off exponentially, not only in overall engagement but with extremely valuable word of mouth marketing.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Rob Go

MARCH 2, 2017

The third thing we often talk about is “Distribution Advantage.” The idea here is that we tend to really like companies that have some built-in edge in distribution. Or, it might be that the team has particularly important relationships or a superpower in the most relevant go-to-market approach for the company.

Portfolio 28

Portfolio Distribution Business Model Viral 28

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. We find that these are great, and I personally listen to many of them.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 28

Rob Go

MAY 27, 2015

But we noticed that while the information in these podcasts is interesting, many are often far removed from the actual day-to-day challenges of very early stage founders that are just trying to go from nothing to something. We find that these are great, and I personally listen to many of them.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Non-Compete Early Stage Silicon Valley 28

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 11, 2015

I like to understand for these models how many sales people are quota carrying, what is the distribution of quota attainment, and what is the profile of an ideal sales person Inbound model (e.g., Here are a few typical models and some of the points I would find interesting to highlight: Enterprise sales (e.g.,

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Churn Rate Silicon Valley Engineer 48

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

As a developer, I feel that design/creative is undervalued in the early stages of product development. Notwithstanding examples like Plentyofish, people respond to well designed, well branded products, and that can be important in getting traction early on. to echo Yyz earlier you need to prove early stage market traction!

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42