Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 6, 2020

The term “early-stage” covers a lot of territory in venture investing, from incubating a brand-new idea, to investing in a Series A. WHAT METRICS SHOULD A FOUNDER SHOW TO RAISE A SERIES A FROM A VC FIRM LIKE GREYLOCK? Reid and I have both done Series A investments in companies that have no metrics to speak of.

Technical Review 69

Technical Review Seed Stage Software Review Early Stage 69

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery ? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” End of theory.&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

1) It all starts from the Growth Hacking Funnel - in the early stages, startups should not just focus on top/bottom line metric like unique users and revenue. They should understand the different states of the user (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue) and focus on moving users from one state to the next.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ” Historically, investing was a manual, artisan process.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. Lean Case provides standard business models & metrics, so you can apply a standard approach to business planning, modeling, and profitability tracking. See their blog post on multiples.).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

Nevertheless, this example demonstrates that, even in the absence of data (which is frequently the case, especially with early-stage startups), this technique helps us arrive at a clear and sensible decision. Let’s also switch to a new example, to demonstrate the universal applicability of this framework.

Differentiation 120

Differentiation Framework Restful Software Review 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

In 2010, Alex Osterwalder published his book, Business Model Generation , where he created a framework for what Tim called “business identity.” Finally, while the Business Model Canvas asks for a basic list of expenses and revenue streams, it doesn’t help entrepreneurs determine if their company is truely financially viable.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

At NextView we invest across the spectrum of seed stage companies so roughly 1/3rd of the companies we invest in are pre-product, roughly 1/3rd are post-product but pre-revenue, and perhaps 1/3rd have some very early revenue. But here’s some examples or frameworks to consider. C) Post-Revenue Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

For example, if organic traffic is a priority for you, include a statement like this: From an SEO perspective, our primary goal in the early stages of this content strategy is to focus on low-volume, high-buyer intent keywords and queries related to specific pain points. This sets the intention for your early-stage priorities.

Audience 127

Audience Non-Compete Distribution Channel 127

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

It’s a very personal topic and I’d like to offer you a framework to decide for yourself, based on the following factors: How Long is it Taking to Raise Capital at Your Stage in the Market? ” and if anybody gives you a specific number I would be a bit skeptical because there is no universal answer.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 23, 2021

Those experiences led me to refine my decision-making framework. The metrics from the dashboard are the key inputs for collective decisions. You can always instrument your business and gather metrics, but that doesn’t mean the data you gather will be useful. Just track metrics that help you improve the product.

Venture Capital 46

Venture Capital Metrics Investment Bankers Framework 46

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

growth/revenue target) to get to the next stage/financing round. This is a common challenge for companies of all sizes/stages, but the tradeoff could be especially tricky for early-stage startups given the extremely limited engineering resources. product engagement, retention metrics).

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. And we can offer investors metrics to play Moneyball – with the Investment Readiness Level. We think we can do better. Here’s how.

Oakland 326

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics 326

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

we had no revenue. As a result, we knew that our pitch would need to steer into investors’ biggest concern: the lack of revenue. Instead, our strategy was to steer immediately into the revenue question because that was the top concern of investors in 2004. We made the mistake of listing three different revenue streams.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

Altgate

DECEMBER 17, 2009

it's up to the Board or CEO) One or more financial metrics Balanced scorecard For very early stage startups (e.g. pre-revenue and maybe even pre-product), I recommend a discretionary plan, particularly when you're dealing with annual plans.  You probably have operating budgets for each department.

Venture Capital 47

Venture Capital Metrics Startup Software Review 47

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. Finding your One Metric That Matters But it's not enough just to know "normal". to 3% a month.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users. In normal times, every company operates against some hypothetical growth model—a data-driven framework that describes how your product grows and how you acquire new users.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Be prepared to cross the desert - SaaS requires R&D and sales expense up front for a multi-year stream of revenue, so it demands enough investment capital to fund 4+ years of runway. Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. Great list! I particularly agree on points #2 and #4.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 25, 2022

If we recognize that robust exports are key to America’s economic success, why deliberately hobble companies like Alphabet, Apple, and Facebook, and Microsoft, all of which derive more than half their revenues from abroad? Think of it as something roughly akin to air quality standards or fuel economy standards.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review America Government Global 28

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

BeyondVC

JANUARY 2, 2006

On a public company board, for example, I look at other companies that we compete with and other businesses that are in a similar stage of revenue growth and financial numbers. In terms of bonuses, I am not a huge fan of cash bonuses for companies losing money, especially in the early stages of development.

Management 60

Management Equity Forecast Salary 60