Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2018

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Forecast 161

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 161

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

That last bit should sound familiar if you follow theories of Startup Laws & Metrics. Similarly, we hold up “viral growth” as the best sort of growth, because exponential curves overwhelm all others, thus once the mechanism is stable and the company gets large enough to be noticed, it’s neigh-impossible for competitors to catch up.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Viral Metrics Salary 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2022

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for a disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to InvoiceTracker. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Startup 335

Startup Social Media Metrics Viral 335

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

. × At Greylock , my partners and I are driven by one guiding mission: always help entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether an entrepreneur is in our portfolio, whether we’re considering an investment, or whether we’re casually meeting for the first time. Entrepreneurs often ask me for help with their pitch decks.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Revenue Viral Networking 111

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Neither would have achieved virality had customers not received something tangible for their efforts. How to create a growth hacking strategy using the pirate metrics model. Growth hacking in marketing incorporates the five stages of the customer lifecycle into the “ AARRR Framework ,” otherwise known as the “Pirate Metrics model.”.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

In the aftermath of the recent pandemic, which caused many businesses to close, a new raft of business workers and entrepreneurs are deciding to pursue their own dreams of being a new business owner, and controlling your own destiny. Define key metrics to measure progress and success.

Intellectual Property 245

Intellectual Property Social Media Angel Investor Metrics 245

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Entrepreneurs see “no risk” as meaning “no reward.” There are no guarantees in business, but it pays to learn from the experiences of entrepreneurs and business experts who have gone before you. Even non-profits need revenue to cover their costs, and continue to provide services. In reality, all risks are not the same.

Forecast 120

Forecast Startup Stock Options Technical Review 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Growth Hacking isn’t viral marketing (although viral marketing is part of it). and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph. If a startup is pre-product/market fit, growth hackers can make sure virality is embedded at the core of a product.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

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?”

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Too many entrepreneurs look for that one magic bullet -- an exciting new technology, perhaps, or their own determination to make the world a better place -- to override any shortcomings in their startup model. Validated pricing and a sufficient revenue stream. Yet, magic bullets are not sufficient to assure business success.

Exit Strategy 120

Exit Strategy Technical Review Distribution Viral 120

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior Great companies are almost always run by great management teams. Good metrics should also be actionable, and drive successful behavior. In a follow up post, I will use this technique to walk through the design of a set of metrics for a SaaS company.

Metrics 55

Metrics Design Entrepreneur Startup 55

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

Key metrics: Average View Duration, Click Through Rate, & Views 3. Refine titles, thumbnails, and content to increase those metrics — Eric Bandholz (@bandholz) November 24, 2020. Key metrics (90% of your focus). The wonderful thing about YouTube is that they have specific metrics to help you hit the above strategy.

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 9, 2020

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for that disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to Gallup. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Social Media 329

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 329

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012

Dell announced years ago that it had earned $3 million in revenue from using Twitter, and other businesses report daily on increases in web traffic up to 800%. Read everything you can about viral marketing. Define relevant metrics and measure. Social media demands two-way communication, rather than outbound only.

Social Media 289

Social Media Small Business Media Technical Review 289

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. 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

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 8, 2023

TikTok and Influencers One viral video on TikTok can reach 1.5 million people and generate monthly revenue. During this time, it is important to track all performance metrics, including conversion rates and profits, as only the key performance indicators will be able to tell you whether implementing the trend was a good or bad idea.

eCommerce 185

eCommerce Technical Review Software Review Analytics 185

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. The opportunity to transact at the point of purchase increases the sheer number of revenue opportunities. Web businesses can now grow revenue before they can even afford sales people.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2018

Should you be buying key words from search engines, building fabulous web content, blasting out e-mail campaigns, or putting all your efforts into viral videos or social media? In fact, the first challenge is to build a strategy, put together a budget, and define measurement metrics. Pick a theme and a team for each and get started.

Marketing 240

Marketing Viral Channel Metrics 240

View from Seed

AUGUST 30, 2016

However, it’s home to some of the smartest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met, along with a long list of exceptional colleges and universities. In addition, look at Facebook’s revenue per user growth globally over the past few quarters. They’re All in California. Social Has Been a Tale of One Coast.

Social Media 185

Social Media B2B North America Media 185

Cracking the Code

JULY 6, 2007

SaaS business metrics: why are they different? I was surprised today when I went through the NetSuite IPO filling (S1) to see that it looked very much like any Enterprise software document - not a single mention of churn or % of recurring revenues. Different models require different performance metrics. Friday, July 06, 2007.

Software Review 66

Software Review Metrics Valuation Technical Review 66

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Mayfield recently hosted a Mobile Marketplaces dinner with leading entrepreneurs, which yielded several insights. In the early days of e-commerce, sales were typically the most important metric for success. Entrepreneur Analysis and Opinion' Myth #1: Online marketplaces have no offline component .

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

As I look at more and more start-ups predicated on viral growth, and at the use of social marketing, its becoming simultaneously easier to understand some aspects of viral growth and still a gap in understanding whats going to be that "hook" that will grab people at the end of the day. Marketing, Startups and Networking in Los Angeles.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

In a previous post , I covered the three main drivers of growth: Paid, Sticky, and Viral. A business that strives for something like this should absolutely be charging money from day one, in order to establish baselines for their two key metrics: CPA (the cost to acquire a new customer) and LTV (the lifetime value of each acquired customer).

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. At this stage, simply list your primary revenue streams and your key expenses. At this stage, simply list your primary revenue streams and your key expenses.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Viral marketing. Digital marketing methods use trackable metrics that show marketing performance and behavior of customers. An entrepreneur just starting out in the business world may find these insights particularly helpful as they choose media channels and refine digital marketing campaigns. Infomercials.

Marketing 158

Marketing Early Stage Startup PPC 158

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

AUGUST 2, 2017

As the founder of a publishing company focused specifically on serving entrepreneurs, I see the same problem over and over: When a business owner decides they want to write a book (or do anything else, for that matter), their goal is to be the best. As an entrepreneur, attention is the pathway toward better clients, employees, and investors.

Viral 88

Viral Video Metrics Non-Compete 88

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 23, 2021

Entrepreneurs and executives will do all sorts of things to improve themselves, from taking a class on a particular technology, to reading a book about venture deals, to practicing intermittent fasting. When I evaluate entrepreneurs, one of the key factors I analyze is their decision-making calculus. It also means “faster.”

Venture Capital 46

Venture Capital Metrics Investment Bankers Framework 46

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

It would have been easy to explain the difference by changes in the 2010/2011 revenue growth projections but unfortunately that is not the case. revenues while large caps are trading at 6.4x. SaaS business metrics: why are they different? Popular Media: the key to viral marketing. Favorite VC and Entrepreneur blogs.

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. Chris Dixon, Partner, A16Z, observes , “Success in VC is probably 10% about picking, and 90% about sourcing the right deals and having entrepreneurs choose your firm as a partner”. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. I had been confused for years why I had to update an income statement each board meeting that said zero for 18 months before we had any revenue. Startup Metrics. Viral Acquisition Ratio.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. Even if it shows improvement in some micro metric, does that invalidate the overall design? That was evident in the metrics and in the in-person usability tests. No one feature is to blame.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs don’t know what to do at this point, largely accounting for that disappointing 50 percent of startups that fail in the first five years, according to Gallup. Others do far too little, assuming the viral effect and word-of-mouth will soon kick in, and sales will suddenly grow exponentially.

Social Media 120

Social Media Metrics Viral Channel 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” The company with no revenue and a $150k burn rate that raised $2.5 I often wonder why they didn’t find a way to bring in some revenue to cover costs. I see this weekly.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412