Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

Should SaaS companies trade at a 24x Enterprise Value (EV) to Next Twelve Month (NTM) Revenue multiple as they did in November 2021? But it will be patiently deployed, waiting for a cohort of founders who aren’t artificially clinging to 2021 valuation metrics. What is a VC To Do? I can’t speak for every VC, obviously.

Technical Review 416

Technical Review Pre-Money Valuation San Francisco Valuation 416

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

A new wave of Revenue-Based Investors are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. I believe that Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) VCs are on the forefront of what will become a major segment of the venture ecosystem.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 11, 2022

Why Call Tracking Metrics Matter To Your Marketing Efforts written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. Husband and wife co-founders, Todd and Laure Fisher founded CallTrackingMetrics in 2011 in their basement and together have grown it into an Inc. Marketing Podcast with Todd and Laure Fisher. This is John Jantsch.

Metrics 85

Metrics Marketing Software Review Cofounder 85

VC Cafe

MARCH 1, 2024

Most startups equate the process of fundraising to dating – founders have to typically kiss a lot of frogs until the find the right fit. Digital Wallets – Digital wallets could grow select vertical software platforms’ revenues to $27-$50bn in 2030.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

Mucker Lab

OCTOBER 10, 2023

In navigating the transition from founder-led sales to a structured approach, the pivotal question arises: when to hire a Sales Development Representative (SDR) or an Account Executive (AE) ? However, for early-stage startups with limited resources, a fractional CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) can be a cost-effective option.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Sales Developer Development Team Review 78

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

But these look for founders who have a technical or business model insight and a team. Accelerators provide these teams with technical and business expertise and connect them to a network of other founders and advisors. Carlos stirred his coffee. Accelerators don’t sound like a fit for where I am at in my career,” he offered. “I

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

But for founders who do their homework, the cost of entry is lower and the opportunity is higher than ever. Excellent detailed resources are everywhere, including a classic book, “ The Startup Checklist ,” by serial entrepreneur and founder of the New York Angels, David S. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

So I recently re-shared a 2019 blog post where I’d basically advised founders who’ve raised seed capital to worry less about “how will I raise the next round” and more about “how will I execute my plan?” Has any pre-Series A company succeeded on every metric month after month? Is that a fair starting point? Kristen Anderson: Yes.

Founder 124

Founder Cofounder Metrics Technical Review 124

Up and Running

OCTOBER 7, 2019

However, as a founder of a small business or startup, you’re juggling many things. You need to use your time and resources productively by focusing on the right metrics so you can use data to help you implement improvements that matter. The first step is to formulate a KPI strategy by selecting the right metrics to track.

Founder 71

Founder Retention Metrics Technical Review 71

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 16, 2020

This method branches off into two schools of thought: Past Earning Capitalization – this suggests that the expected revenue in the future can be predicted by a record of the company’s past earnings, once undue revenue or expenses are accounted for and multiplies the projected earnings by a capitalization factor.

Valuation 162

Valuation CPA Software Review Revenue 162

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 20, 2023

With such daunting statistics, it’s clear that maintaining a startup becomes an uphill battle for founders without the right foundations. Meeting growth metrics, achieving profitability, and ensuring a substantial return on investment are now integral parts of the startup journey.

Technical Review 137

Technical Review Startup Silicon Valley Agile 137

Austin Startup

APRIL 4, 2017

I really enjoyed a recent post I read on First Round Review about vanity metrics, which touches on what I love about my startup vs. others with more funding, more engineers and more mentions on TechCrunch. Vanity metrics aren’t useless. Tracking clarity metrics builds great businesses.” “In Don’t focus on them internally.

Metrics 48

Metrics Silicon Valley Angel Investor Technical Review 48

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

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 14, 2013

Ego Metrics: What Measurements Matter? The problem is that some of these metrics aren’t meaningful. In fact, some of the most visible metrics are the most misleading. This is possibly the most visible metric in social media, but many of those followers are inactive or even inhuman robots. So what metrics really matter?

Metrics 72

Metrics Social Media Widget Chicago 72

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2014

In this webinar, we take time to discuss the different metrics that startups—and established businesses—should be tracking. In terms of pre-purchase, traffic and content metrics. So I’m going to keep going here, “Pre-purchase, the traffic and content metrics.” Peter, anybody have any questions as I go along?

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why vanity metrics are dangerous In a previous post, I defined two kinds of metrics: vanity metrics and actionable metrics. In this post, Id like to talk about the perils of vanity metrics. My personal favorite vanity metrics is "hits."

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013

But have you ever had the opportunity to pick the brains of founders who created amazingly successful startups and companies like Envato , Backblaze , Simple , or Treehouse ? Few people like talking about their mistakes, but thankfully nine founders took some time to share some of their hard-earned knowledge with you. Find your niche.

Cofounder 164

Cofounder Founder Startup Bootstrapping 164

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

This is a question startup founders ask themselves multiple times a week. It’s not just the competition against the incumbents and the large tech platforms that founders has to worry about, but most importantly is the company’s performance and product market fit. How are we doing?

Retention 109

Retention Conversion Churn Rate B2C 109

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

View from Seed

OCTOBER 24, 2019

As seed rounds have atomized, it’s not uncommon for founders to raise 3 or even 4 rounds prior to a series A. The reality is that if a founder raised every one of these rounds, and lead investors always got their “target” ownership, the level of dilution would be ridiculous. Founders with limited experience. should be avoided.

Dilution 149

Dilution B2B Burn Rate Early Stage 149

Feld Thoughts

JULY 20, 2020

I recently was in an email thread where a Black founder had a powerful and clear response to the question from one of her corporate partners. Maybe we all need to start talking about grit instead of metrics that can only be achieved with money, and then make sure all entrepreneurs get the funding required to achieve equivalent metrics.

Entrepreneur 221

Entrepreneur Software Review Metrics Community 221

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

More and more startups are pursuing Revenue-Based VCs , but “RBI” doesn’t fit everyone. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. Where else can fast-growing companies get funding?

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

EBITDA is the most important profitability metric to consider as many valuations are based on a multiple of this metric. Generally, companies sell for either a percentage of revenues or a multiple of EBITDA. She is a leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses, as well as increasing business revenue streams.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

ConversionXL

JUNE 8, 2017

Quantitative research with digital analytics tools like Google Analytics , Mixpanel, Amplitude or RJ Metrics will inform you about where your users are coming from, what they are doing during their sessions and where they are dropping off from your conversion funnel or when they churn. Image Source. Behavioral segments. Here is the biggie.

Programming 97

Programming Revenue Analytics Software Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. An example of the systems companies build are pricing & revenue management tools to best help to optimize yield.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

David Teten

DECEMBER 16, 2015

I review a lot of board decks with a beautifully hand-crafted page with metrics for the company. Good metrics are comparable across industries; comparative ; readily understandable; and help drive decisions. Comparative means that you can compare a metric across time periods, groups of users, or competitors. So how do you do it?

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Balance Sheet .Net 60

The Startup Magazine

JULY 21, 2021

Kevin Wu, co-founder and CEO of job search optimization program Pathrise , says “Digital marketer roles are some of the most in-demand positions in the tech industry.” Digital marketers promote the company’s product or service to their target audience in order to maximize revenue. And he’s right. Is it any wonder they’re essential?

Technical Review 147

Technical Review PPC SEM Marketing 147

YoungUpstarts

JULY 31, 2019

by Anish Sebastian and Juan Pablo Segura, co-founders of Babyscripts. Founders need seed capital to get their operations up and running, and to begin generating revenue. Ten years ago, Ward Cunningham published a Youtube video that introduced the concept of “technical debt” to the world.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Burn Rate Technical Cofounder Seed Capital 127

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 24, 2017

by Stefan Pretty, founder of Subbly. Subscription business brings recurring revenue. This allows you to enjoy a constant source of incoming revenue, as long as you’re keeping the subscribers satisfied (that is of course essential). The term itself sounds confusing, so should I even bother? SubCom offers ultimate flexibility.

Churn Rate 149

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 149

Austin Startup

MAY 19, 2018

As Bryan stated below, there are no shortage of “How to pitch” or “How to behave” articles by VCs but really very little advice for VCs by founders. Anyone notice there's a ton of VCs giving founder advice, and almost no founder advice for VCs? Lines Not Dots Raising money from a fund is a process, most founders get that.

Founder 75

Founder Early Stage Software Review Deal Flow 75

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. Founders tend to fixate on the product.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

leananalyticsbook.com

AUGUST 19, 2012

The One Metric That Matters. One of the things Ben and I have been discussing a lot is the concept of the One Metric That Matters (OMTM) and how to focus on it. Founders are magpies, chasing the shiniest new thing they see. There are also some rules for what makes a good metric in general. Contact us. ? Navigate About.

Metrics 58

Metrics Clickthrough Lean Analytics 58