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. R : Retention - do they come back & re-visit over time?

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. For early stage investors, you probably don’t enough results to prove the power of your solution.

Exit Strategy 406

Exit Strategy Merger Angel Investor IPO 406

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. The full financial details and metrics were in the deck. Stock option top-ups after a few years are vital retention mechanisms. HR & Legal.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

ConversionXL

JANUARY 28, 2021

Whether you’re looking to improve conversions or retention CDP’s can provide a holistic view of both your opportunities and areas for improvement. As we wrote previously : Back to those (early) days when Marketing Automation was just born, the world was web-centric. Image source ). Use cases for CDP’s.

Technical Review 86

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Technical Cofounder 86

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 16, 2014

What does it actually mean that metric X is better than average and metric Y is below? Measuring yourself against the average or median isn’t much better.

Metrics 246

Metrics Early Stage Retention Revenue 246

OnlyOnce

AUGUST 3, 2023

(Post 1 of 4 in the series of Scaling CPO’s) In most startups, the HR function starts out as tactical, because you have to get people hired and paid, and while you might have a founder or early-stage employee who can do these things, often these tasks are frequently outsourced to a PEO. But those things won’t help you scale.

Hiring 62

Hiring Metrics Leadership Early Stage 62

Occam's Razor

MAY 2, 2017

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…. If you want to play along. Don’t read what I’ve chosen.

Metrics 141

Metrics Acquisition eCommerce Analytics 141

ConversionXL

AUGUST 13, 2019

SaaS sales and marketing teams can get overwhelmed by metrics. But without any metrics, it’s impossible to track growth. And while that figure is promising, early-stage SaaS companies need a ton of growth to survive. According to Gartner , three metrics form the foundation for those growth levers: (Image source).

Metrics 117

Metrics SQL Retention Churn Rate 117

VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 2, 2019

One question that keeps coming up when speaking with early stage entrepreneurs when it comes to funding, is what metrics the company needs to hit to raise seed/series A/B etc: What’s a good conversion rate? Investors look beyond top line metrics to assess other important factors. What should our MRR growth be?

B2C 141

B2C Technical Review Startup Retention 141

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

For consumer companies this is usually around user acquisition, engagement, and retention. So post-revenue companies should think hard about what metrics they can show, beyond total revenue or revenue growth, which show not only an accelerating business but also one that is trending towards a highly durable and profitable one in the long run.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

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

Version One Ventures

JULY 13, 2015

Now, inspired by our friend Christoph Janz at Point Nine Capital who created a KPI dashboard for early-stage SaaS , we have put together a KPI template for marketplaces. Overall Marketplace Metrics. Seller/Supplier Metrics. GMV retention: average percentage of Month 1 GMV generated by sellers/suppliers in Month 12.

Due Diligence 60

Due Diligence Retention Metrics Revenue 60

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

It’s easy to get lost down the rabbit hole of metrics for your business. When it comes to getting the most out of your website performance, only certain metrics are what you can consider key performance indicators. For websites, this can include “sales volume,” “number of visits,” “average cart value,” and a variety of other metrics.

Metrics 121

Metrics Acquisition Conversion Revenue 121

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Especially in the early stages of growth, standing up to competition means that your business also needs to minimize the cost of acquiring new customers. We’ll cover the following strategies: Retargeting and remarketing Partner programs A/B testing Customer retention Automated processes. Customer retention.

Acquisition 127

Acquisition Cost Affiliate Customer 127

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

The core of the article is my first attempt to articulate the key metrics (in graph form) that I believe demonstrate customer value. Retention cohort analysis. Unfortunately, they are disinterested in doing the hard work to help early stage entrepreneurs and companies. Funnel averages over time.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

What should an early-stage startup founder focus on if they want to implement PLG? But for early stage founders, I think there are two particular scenarios where PLG can be really helpful. So for early-stage founders, those are the two scenarios where PLG might be a great fit. That's the foundation.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

View from Seed

JUNE 16, 2015

So, the bar will be different for each investor, and for very early stage fundraising, the goal is to find true believers more than convincing skeptics. (My Here are some top-line metrics that I think are worth shooting for: For marketplace businesses: $5M-$10M in annual GMV run rate. For SaaS: At least $100K in MRR.

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Boston Syndicate Syndication eCommerce 120

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. What are those metrics?

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Haystack

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

2/ The Metrics-Momentum Signal: According to Forbes , Airtable’s revenues are slated to grow 4x this year to $20M annualized, with over 80,000 different companies using some part of the platform. It’s entirely possible the trend lifts these companies in due time, as well.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Open Source Software Review Venture Capital 127

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Over 13 years ago, in March of 2000, I wrote a blog post titled “ The Most Powerful Internet Metric of All. ” The key thesis was this: if an Internet company could obsess about only one metric, it should be conversion. As such, it is time to pound the table again – conversion is by far the most powerful Internet metric of all.

Metrics 93

Metrics Conversion Internet Acquisition 93

crowdSPRING Blog

MAY 23, 2014

Creating Customers for Life: 50 Resources on Loyalty, Churn, and Customer Retention | Help Scout – crowdspring.co/1lD094d. Creating Customers for Life: 50 Resources on Loyalty, Churn, and Customer Retention | Help Scout – crowdspring.co/1lD094d. 3 Key PPC Metrics Are Lying To You. – crowdspring.co/1j2mWos.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

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.

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API Viral Startup Retention 167

Gust

DECEMBER 27, 2012

You should know every metric regarding customer acquisition, conversion and retention. Before you start negotiating a term sheet with any potential investor, make sure that you GET A LAWYER , specifically, a lawyer with experience directly in the early stage financing world.

Software Review 164

Software Review Term Sheet Technical Review Angel Investor 164

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

The majority of the decline comes from much lower investment volumes in the growth stage, but also fewer companies getting funded in the early stages. If you’re a gaming founder, at the earliest stages, looking to raise money, below are a few tips to maximise your chances of success.

Founder 78

Founder Generative AI Early Stage Venture Capital 78

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.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

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). Two possible approaches: Approach 1: Define a threshold of “critical/must happen now”?—?anything

Hiring 120

Hiring Bandwidth Product Early Stage 120

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. 10) Metrics.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 18, 2013

Or is one person serving the engineering team, another person serving the sales team, one board member serving the VC fund, another serving the early-stage “angels” and another serving the CEO? Turn the broader mission into something more concrete with prioritized goals and unambiguous success metrics.

Metrics 107

Metrics Early Stage Retention Engineer 107

Hearpreneur

JULY 10, 2015

We use a hybrid approach of using data analytics and expert human recommendations to pick flavors, and through this approach, we’ve had great success in member retention. At Zeeto we’ve created a reporting platform to track our key metrics and daily financial progress and give all employees viewing access. 2) Facebook Ads.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review Small Business 48

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2016

See Also: The 5 Metrics You Need to Track for Your Subscription (SaaS) Business to Succeed. No matter what stage of the startup process you find yourself in, there’s a SaaStr Academy section dedicated to it. Kissmetrics should be your go-to if you’re interested in (you guessed it) metrics. Startups for the Rest of Us.

Startup 60

Startup Analytics Metrics Community 60

ConversionXL

JULY 11, 2016

3 Growth hacks for early stage startups: Find your scaling lever (HouseTrip, Facebook). Create Calculated Metrics (CLV, CPS, Non-Bounce, CAC). Create custom reports in Google Analytics using metrics & dimensions to create (horizontal) funnels and micro-conversions. Mature your metrics. Enhanced E-Commerce.

PPC 48

PPC Analytics Video Non-Compete 48

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Startup Metrics for Pirates â?? SaaS Metrics Tutorial â?? customer retention, churn reduction, lifetime value. It used to be hard to find information about early stage startups. VC & Startup Resources. Seed Startups.

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Software Review Technical Review Startup 53