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? Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. Time-to-complete-a-sale is not a bad metric for validated learning at this stage.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

We are the leader in the professional domain with viral growth. For early stage companies, it’s important to show that you’re on path, that you have prospects, and that you can get to your vision. Here, we argue that we have a viral product that creates a network that possesses network effects.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

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. I used Ipreo heavily at one of my prior VC funds.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Cracking the Code

DECEMBER 11, 2015

Mastering your pitch to a VC, prospective customers, new hires or partners is part art and part science. Docusign, Peopledoc): typical outbound sales model targeting mid market+ companies and relying on being able to hire consistently sales people making their quota. content development) to generate inbound interest.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco Churn Rate Silicon Valley Engineer 48

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. Step 8: Track your metrics.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

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? This is the usual reason given for a marketing launch, but for most early stage startups, its a failure. If the viral coefficient is 0.9,

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. For startups the early stage funding landscape looks like this: Step 1: The Pre-seed round – you raise $100-$750K. What is some of the critical metrics that matter? 2M in 18 months.

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Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Reid Hoffman

JANUARY 19, 2021

With his usual awesome first principles focus, my friend Reed Hastings has articulated that the fundamental responsibility of the board is to hire, fire, and compensate the CEO. For example, I frequently tell people that hiring a CEO is an activity that usually has–at best–a.500 You rarely can find that quality in a hired gun.

Startup 36

Startup Cofounder Advertising Hiring 36

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".

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Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

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.) You’ll also likely be hiring local staff for your new office. in place before you expand.

France 77

France Marketing Social Media Startup 77

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Do you feel like the more users you have it helps accelerate, is there some kind of, maybe not necessarily viral, but that people just tell their friends at all. One of the things we find, because we certainly threw out what can we do to make this more viral or to work more in a social way so that we can try to get more people on the system?

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. The traditional metric of Bookings would value Customer A at $120,000 and suggest Customer B is more valuable at $180,000.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48