Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

You Manage What you Measure. One of the things I discuss the most with the portfolio companies I’m involved with is that “you manage what you measure.”. Having a set of metrics that you watch & that you feel are the key drivers of your success helps keep clarity. On measurement. You’ll have no idea when you’re off course.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

The Equity Kicker

MAY 3, 2018

Let me start by saying that I’m a massive believer in the power of metrics. However, it’s also true that metrics are not a panacea, with difficulties typically arising when a focus on metrics eclipses the big picture. Over focus on metrics at the expense of meaning, culture and innovation.

Metrics 87

Metrics CPA Early Stage Retention 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. Good performance management is more about rewarding desirable behavior than penalizing bad performance. People relationship focus.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Toronto’s Mark Attanasio has spent some 20 years advising businesses at various stages in their development on what it takes to position themselves for growth – whether it’s through traditional transactional activities like management buyouts and mergers and acquisitions or via a public listing on a Canadian stock exchange.

Partner 113

Partner Technical Review Management Due Diligence 113

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

Board Effect

DECEMBER 19, 2019

Boards and managers don’t agree on everything but they both agree that they need a strategic plan. One thing that they don’t always agree on is how to clarify the role of the board and the role of management in developing and implementing the strategic plan. Clarifying the Board’s Role in Strategic Management.

Management 64

Management Software Review Acquisition Merger 64

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

—– Lean Innovation Management. The first time a few brave corporate innovators tried to overlay the Lean tools and techniques that work in early-stage startups in an existing corporation, the result was chaos, confusion, frustration and ultimately, failure. I’ve been working with large companies and the U.S.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Like many product managers, my background is fairly eclectic. I was in charge of all product management and marketing for the first year-and-a-half, that was a great learning experience with a very talented team of folks. How did you do that?

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Among these opportunities, the chance to pitch an investor and secure funding is perhaps the greatest of all — at least in the early stages of your startup career — as it can ultimately determine the long-term fate of your company. Tailor your pitch deck.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140

VC Adventure

MAY 5, 2022

I’m observing that IRR is a metric that is becoming an increasing focus in venture, replacing fund return multiple as the key metric of success. I understand the draw of IRR, and – as a fund draws to a close – there’s no question it’s an important metric. management fee). Recycling hurts IRR.

IRR 116

IRR Metrics Valuation LP 116

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. What are your key Startup Metrics ? Content Management - do we need to allow easy editing of content in the system? Site Management - what will be needed in terms of site management?

Developer 396

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 396

David Teten

DECEMBER 16, 2015

I review a lot of board decks with a beautifully hand-crafted page with metrics for the company. The reason is that the real value of the board deck is not (ironically) for the board; it’s for management to track their own performance. So I want to see that management is using a dashboard every day, not just for board meetings.

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Balance Sheet .Net 60

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. What are your key Startup Metrics ? Content Management - do we need to allow easy editing of content in the system? Site Management - what will be needed in terms of site management?

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

David Teten

MAY 20, 2016

As one of the lead engineers at ff Venture Capital , I spend most of my day building custom software solutions that enhance our firm’s process–tools that range from portfolio investment management to co-investor and cap table tracking and more. We posted on our site a more in-depth overview of ff’s Tech Platform.

Private Equity 113

Private Equity Equity Cap Table Venture Capital 113

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

As two fund managers employing Flexible VC, we think it is a healthy addition to the ecosystem and will yield more predictable and stable healthy returns for investors. Too often, investment structures force the management team to make decisions between misaligned growth and investment (return) objectives. Early liquidity.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 25, 2023

However, if you do manage to find success, the rewards can be significant. And that can make or break your customer retention, especially in the early stages. The reality is that eCommerce is not quick, easy, or cheap, and getting your store online is only a small part of the battle. Thanks to Cyble Rizwan, Social Sharings ! #21-

eCommerce 133

eCommerce Omaha Entrepreneur SEO 133

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. After celebrating success at that level, they often find themselves ill-prepared to move to the next stage, for scaling their business into a high-performing enterprise. Managing business growth is more than metrics.

Mezzanine 368

Mezzanine Private Equity Bandwidth Metrics 368

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2019

This is the critically important metric that tells you how much of your cash you’re spending on a monthly basis.). For startups in the early stages of growth and development, it’s almost always better to avoid high-risk scenarios in order that core interests can be preserved. Putting it All Together.

Burn Rate 176

Burn Rate Startup Lean Early Stage 176

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

For example, in 2021 accounting software platform Bill.com acquired spend management tool Divvy in order to increase its market share. A common framework for defining your growth model is Dave McClure’s Pirate Metrics for startups : the AARRR framework. Think about the touchpoints at each stage of the AARRR framework.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 31, 2022

This early stage is often called the idea stage, best populated by people who see the need for change early, or always have a vision for unmet opportunities, or a better way to do things. This work requires market feedback, managing trials, and working with the sales team as well as developers.

Metrics 272

Metrics Early Stage Finance Programming 272

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. How are we going to manage the product roadmap? When will key hires come on?

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

The Startup Magazine

MAY 22, 2018

A simple workflow is supposed to be set to manage request customers. The fast-growing startups at this stage meet frequently to review the issues that customers have and come up with solutions to the roadmap of the product. Early stage. At this stage, the hiring of employees who are customer focused is paramount.

Customer 80

Customer Early Stage Churn Rate Startup 80

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. Good performance management is more about rewarding desirable behavior than penalizing bad performance. People relationship focus.

Leadership 120

Leadership Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

Cunningham’s term was coined to identify a specific problem in the tech industry, but the fundamental concept is universal — Ben Horowitz, for example, took Cunningham’s concept and applied it to management structures. . Exacerbating the problem are the subjective standards by which many young companies are evaluated.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. They now have a cool new way to get intros to these angels: StartupList.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Cofounder Technical Cofounder Cost 150

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Define what you need from a metrics and reporting standpoint. You only build what you need to prove that model.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

What I love about my job is getting to see teams of super-early-stage companies develop ideas that while raw have potential to make an impact on the market. For a well-funded seed company I have controversially recommended hiring a great office manager that doubles as an administrative assistant. HR & Legal.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

Learning the intricacies of how an industry works, building relevant relationships and understanding the right metrics can happen only over time. If a candidate for your technical lead was a CTO at a big company, for example, but he or she says they want to manage and not code, then he or she is not the right fit for an early-stage startup].

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

To keep you out of this statistic, I recommend the following steps to all aspiring business owners as they step into this new and exciting world of managing your own business: Solidify your funding plan before you start spending. Define key metrics to measure progress and success.

Intellectual Property 245

Intellectual Property Social Media Angel Investor Metrics 245

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. Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Rob Bailey is the CEO of DataSift. You should read it. Email updates frequently.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Once you have assembled the right core team, I recommend prioritizing as follows: First, meet with your portfolio company management. For instance, tracking ‘months-of-runway’ combined with the month-over-month change to that metric allows us to rapidly identify companies that may be distressed. – What are your fundraising goals?

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2015

The concept is fairly simple: identify an objective — what you want to accomplish — and outline the expected key results — how you will accomplish that objective with clear, measurable and time-related metrics. Use OKRs to establish how company success is measured, establish a metrics-driven culture and track performance progress.

Agile 100

Agile Startup Cofounder Metrics 100

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

So managing risk in a startup is less about compliance, it’s more about being as brave and ambitious as you can without breaking things. This may mean straddling the line between governance and management when necessary. Agenda items will focus on key metrics illustrating value creation, particularly in software as a service companies.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn about how a demand generation manager benefits an organization and which qualities they need to fuel your sales pipeline. What is a demand generation manager and why do they matter? The role of a demand generation manager (DGM) is to manage the team and the campaigns that create awareness and interest.

Demand 95

Demand Management B2B Campaign 95