Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. The risks you want to take are the ones that you planned for in your resources, set up metrics to measure, and manage on an ongoing basis. Almost always, risks are more predictable when you use coopetition for access to new customers, economies of scale, and shared resources.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Develop metrics to monitor work intensity. These metrics are also the best way to gauge when your team needs more help, and identifying strong and weak contributors. Let that be part of their job satisfaction.

Metrics 270

Metrics Conversion Global Product 270

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Most of the entrepreneurs I meet as an investor and advisor have no shortage of right-brain thinking, showing vision and creativity, but often don’t realize that their potential is being limited by a balancing focus on results, metrics, and customer specifics. They overwhelm and lose their followers, and they tend to run out of money.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review Metrics Leadership Technology 332

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

With a singular focus on building unicorns, very rapid growth has been a key metric. Even here, Elon Musk faced this issue with Tesla, needing a support ecosystem as well as new technology. Build for sustainability and resilience, as well as growth.

Global 345

Global Silicon Valley Marketing Indonesia 345

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2023

Most business metrics I see compare current performance to your own previous experience, rather than your performance compared to industry standards and competitors. Amend this culture to highlight and reward new initiatives on a regular basis, with metrics to assess value and progress.

Metrics 178

Metrics Technical Review Agile Hiring 178

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2018

You need to track what content is resonating with your prospective customers, through metrics including submit rate by content offer, elasticity, velocity, cost, and ultimately revenue by content program. Metrics which must be tracked include number of leads, conversion rates by lead stage, velocity, growth rate, and total lead database size.

Demand 144

Demand Metrics NPV Net Present Value 144

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Unfortunately, your personal assessment that you have traction probably won’t be convincing to potential investors and partners, so it’s important that you create and track your progress against some metrics. Define metrics on customer feedback and user counts. Count connections with experts, media, and influencers.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent or looking for the next refueling from investors.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards. Angel groups, accelerators, and incubators are pervasive. Measuring progress with big data and analytics. Set milestones and manage to those targets.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Simple metrics and your personal knowledge of the industry can’t keep up with all the relevant competitive forces. Today’s digital leaders all have a digital platform – a set of algorithms stitched together to collect and analyze key data, and tune their algorithms dynamically for every transaction. You need to be part of a larger ecosystem.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

It’s important to define your growth strategy, document it, communicate it to your team, and align metrics and employee rewards to target goals. Your focus for momentum could be sales, profitability, or number of customers, but trying to keep all possible parameters growing is simply not practical.

Technical Review 400

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. The risks you want to take are the ones that you planned for in your resources, set up metrics to measure, and manage on an ongoing basis. Almost always, risks are more predictable when you use coopetition for access to new customers, economies of scale, and shared resources.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. This means articulating and living the customer service mindset for the team, in front of customers and in the board room. Make your service deliver process “happy.”

Technical Review 249

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2023

Don’t fail to develop the proper comprehensive metrics for assessing how you and any partners are doing in terms of value creation. Most great business leaders, including Jeff Bezos , maintain a key internal team to study and implement the next steps. Not having a means to measure holistic impact.

Partner 350

Partner Operations Metrics Leadership 350

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? While thinking about the parameters of traction, and how to measure it, I was impressed with a new book, “ Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth ” by Ash Maurya, a serial entrepreneur, and creator of the one-page business modelling tool Lean Canvas.

Metrics 143

Metrics Advisory Board Startup Lean 143

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

But it is an important metric for firms in pursuit of explosive growth. Wessel also summarizes the costs and potential impacts of creating and building your startup in secondary markets, usually meaning not in Silicon Valley or one of the other super-hubs: It takes longer to raise money.

Las Vegas 309

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 309

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Here is my selection of ten key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but too many small businesses only monitor haphazardly, if at all: Sales revenue.

Metrics 266

Metrics Retention Acquisition Salary 266

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2012

But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his book titled " Social Media Metrics."

Social Media 245

Social Media Metrics Media Startup 245

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2016

Sets goals and milestones, with metrics to track progress. They define metrics for each goal, and diligently track themselves against these metrics. Execute processes and metrics around customer requirements, loyalty, satisfaction, and service. Tie executive titles and organizations to business roles.

Entrepreneur 266

Entrepreneur Technical Review Metrics Partner 266

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

You must have a strong Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) with a clear strategy for spending, and metrics to gauge results. If you think it’s hard to get the technical systems to talk to each other, I have found that it’s even harder to bridge the gulf between the various professionals who interpret them.

Acquisition 250

Acquisition Cost Customer Sales Cycle 250

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

Using metrics to measure results and commitments. Just like you can’t start a business alone, you can’t scale the business without external partners with expertise and access to specific customer sets, channels, manufacturing, and support. You need to highlight value for all parties to make every deal a win-win for all , rather than win-lose.

Silicon Valley 284

Silicon Valley Technical Review Leadership Metrics 284

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results. Efficiency in the workplace is the time it takes to do something, but it can ignore work quality and customer impact. Employees are often ineffective because they don’t care about their work or because they don’t possess the skills to contribute. Subjectively measuring employee engagement.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 19, 2022

Clients need to feel comfortable that you expect quality work from your team and technology, and have metrics, modern tools, and controls in place to make it happen. What are your academic credentials, firms serviced, and industry accolades and participation? Make sure clients know how you manage your business.

Technical Review 303

Technical Review Social Media Metrics Media 303

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2023

We all have our favorite metric and our passion, but keeping up with real-world changes and trends seems to be always just out of reach. In my experience, all business metrics are still used too often for people management and accountability, rather than business management.

Metrics 204

Metrics Demand Analytics Leadership 204

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

You don’t have to be a heavily funded later stage startup to get access to “big data,” customer analytics, and metrics dashboards. Angel groups, accelerators, and incubators are pervasive. Measuring progress with big data and analytics. Set milestones and manage to those targets.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2020

With a singular focus on building unicorns, very rapid growth has been a key metric. Even here, Elon Musk faced this issue with Tesla, needing a support ecosystem as well as new technology. Build for sustainability and resilience, as well as growth.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Indonesia Venture Capital Global 312

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

A required metric is average days to payment compared to expectations. Many startups see initial revenue from customers, and love the fast growth, but fail to anticipate the cost of early vendor payments, monthly overhead costs, and later taxes. Considering the job done once a client has been invoiced.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Finance Startup Salary 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. This means articulating and living the customer service mindset for the team, in front of customers and in the board room. Make your service deliver process “happy.”

Technical Review 385

Technical Review Salary Matching Metrics 385

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2022

Setting your own metrics, and measuring yourself , will facilitate accountability. Accountability requires that you manage your own efforts, as well as keep others up to speed. Don’t allow yourself to get focused on a specific task, at the expense of other work. Communicate ongoing needs and changes early.

Philadelphia 274

Philadelphia Technical Review Engineer Metrics 274

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2022

Put metrics in place to track decision results. Creative leaders always evaluate opposing alternatives for a positive solution to any issue, even if any similar alternative has failed in the past. Adopt the philosophy that making any decision is only the beginning, rather than the end.

Technical Review 302

Technical Review Social Media Metrics Hosting 302

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

Established company process rules and metrics now characterize the leaders in this market stage. If you are an ecommerce startup, this may be your path to fame and fortune. Focus shifts from growth to profitability as a mature market.

Artificial Inteligence 436

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Valuation Startup 436

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Investors check your burn rate to assess your efficiency, and project your remaining runway before you run out of money and into a brick wall. Don’t wait until you are almost out of cash before managing every dollar spent, or looking for the next refueling from investors.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Social Media 310

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 12, 2021

But very few are talking about how to measure your results and return on investment (ROI), and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Measuring message delivery in social media is a lot like measuring it in classic advertising, so classic metrics apply. Get attention and reach your audience.

Social Media 319

Social Media Media Metrics Advertising 319

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2015

You need to track what content is resonating with your prospective customers, through metrics including submit rate by content offer, elasticity, velocity, cost, and ultimately revenue by content program. Metrics which must be tracked include number of leads, conversion rates by lead stage, velocity, growth rate, and total lead database size.

Metrics 120

Metrics NPV Net Present Value Conversion Ratio 120