Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction. Celebrate the ability to pay yourself a salary.

Sweat Equity 296

Sweat Equity Startup Salary Viral 296

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 28, 2018

While this reaction to such a valuation is understandable, to anybody who has seen the meteoric rise in consumer demand and actual revenue the valuation is much less surprising and may turn out to be quite conservative. I think it’s quite possible that Bird could be the fastest growing company to reach a billion dollars in run rate revenue.

San Francisco 256

San Francisco Valuation Technical Review Los Angeles 256

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Both have worked.Google reached $1 billion in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. Long-term stability requires revenue growth and profit.

Revenue 246

Revenue Entrepreneur Valuation Retention 246

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Customer Acquisition. Measuring viral adoption is obviously important. Those two things together would lower your acquisition costs nearly in half to $6.11. Ironically, there are times where it may actually pay to INCREASE your customer acquisition costs. Revenue Metrics. I like to think of revenue drivers.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

ConversionXL

APRIL 4, 2017

Paid Acquisition. You’re undoubtedly familiar with paid acquisition, as it’s the digital equivalent of traditional advertising. Here are some resources to learn more about paid acquisition: Customer Acquisition Master Course (includes SEO). When Does Paid Acquisition Work for SaaS Startups?

Channel 118

Channel Marketing Viral SEO 118

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 16, 2020

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction. Celebrate the ability to pay yourself a salary.

Sweat Equity 435

Sweat Equity Salary Viral Leadership 435

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2016

Some analysts argue that revenue drives growth, while others say user growth drives revenue. Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400B. Long-term stability requires revenue growth and profit. Both have worked. Traditionally, it was simple.

Revenue 145

Revenue Valuation Startup Retention 145

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. Cost of Acquisition (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a user through a given channel.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2016

Similarly, mentioning viral marketing without specifics won’t assure fundability. Even social entrepreneurs need milestones, quantifiable results, and revenue to sustain their value. Investors expect to hear annual revenues, average margins, customer acquisition costs and sales pipelines. Focus on customer needs.

Technical Review 134

Technical Review Intellectual Property Due Diligence Angel Investor 134

Software By Rob

JANUARY 25, 2012

And the funds came from revenue generated by my portfolio of web applications and websites that I’ve built over the past several years. This acquisition is a long story, but if you have a few minutes let me tell you the best parts. But within 24 hours we were off and running, discussing a potential acquisition.

Acquisition 63

Acquisition Software Review Fresno Algorithm 63

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Google Analytics is the standard for measuring acquisition—identifying the sources of traffic to your website or app. You’ll be able to see which acquisition channels are best for long-term retention or lifetime value, not simply those that drive initial conversions. Acquisition. Anything else is merely a list of data points.

Analytics 119

Analytics Technical Review Acquisition Retention 119

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Since 2015, clothing brand ASOS has grown revenue by an average of 22% year over year. For example, you may run the same ad on both Instagram and TikTok to measure which platform performs best in lead acquisition. Every improvement that you make to retention also improves all of these other things — virality, LTV, payback period.

eCommerce 129

eCommerce Marketing Social Media Retention 129

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Instead, watch payback period for acquisition efficiency, watch retention for product/market fit, watch expansion revenue for long-term growth, and watch gross margin for long-term profitability. The “boring” but established, large market is where revenue is easy and competition is old, slow, and has something to lose.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Sunday, February 25, 2007 Challenge of Predicting Winners I just read a bit on the payout to YouTube from the Google Acquisition ( Internet News , CNN ). Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

We spend a lot of time trying to get people focused on building products that have viral components and why that has to be measured and constantly tested. It’s why some companies are testing whether building applications on KIK might lead to better customers acquisition.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

In my daily work with ecommerce brands, I see two types of companies: The first type focuses on acquisition and conversion. Overall acquisition costs for both B2C and B2B have gone up by 50% in the past five years. Cohort analysis can be done for revenue, churn, viral word of mouth, support costs, or any other metric you care about.

Retention 126

Retention Analytics Campaign eCommerce 126

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

While those acquisition efforts worked well, not all do. Cheap acquisition is (too) cheap. Growth does require large-scale acquisition, but a product launch may not be the best time to do it. But cheap acquisition meant cheap leads. Cheap acquisition is (too) cheap. It’s not efficient.”. Conclusion.

Product 110

Product Campaign Acquisition Social Media 110

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? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue. End of theory.&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. of revenue, force-feeding sales pipelines with an unprofitable product. SaaS companies earn their revenue over time. time to earn back the revenue to cover all your customer acquisition expenses) 75% annual retention.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Motivators include altruism (helping patients and growing the knowledge database); professional pride (doctors actively rate and rank each other through endorsements and peer review); and only secondary income or new patient acquisition (patients pay for more detailed answers or video consultations).

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 25, 2020

At the eight minute mark, YouTube allows for creators to put extra ads in the content so they’ve got an incentive to show those longer videos and generate more ad revenue. For viral growth, you want most of your traffic coming from “Browse features,” which consist of YouTube’s home screen, subscriptions, and other browsing features.

Channel 129

Channel Metrics Algorithm Video 129

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. Popular Media: the key to viral marketing. Wednesday, February 23, 2011. SaaS Multiples: Recovery or Bubble? What happened? Software 2.0:

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature. The game has started getting some traction already, and has a good virality index. million in revenue. Brainscape. Note, I said, validated.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

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. An early indication that you’ve found the right business model is when you believe the cost of getting customers will be less than the revenues the customers will generate. Financials.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

All startups, including non-profits, need revenue to thrive, such as such as from subscriptions, retail, online, licensing, or services. They want to see revenue to share in the return. Here I recommend a 5-year projection of revenues, expenses, and funding requirements. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

VC Cafe

JULY 15, 2021

According to Statista, revenue generated from apps (paid downloads and in-app advertising) will reach $935 billion by 2023, and that doesn’t doesn’t include the many trillions of dollars transacted via apps in the last decade alone (think Amazon, Uber, games, etc). Worldwide mobile app revenues in 2014 to 2023 (in billion U.S.

Mobile 190

Mobile Social Media Distribution PR 190

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

I received the following question from a reader: I was wondering if you had any thoughts on cost of customer acquisition for freemium businesses. quite hard, but I don’t think paid acquisition could possibly work here. Have you seen paid acquisition work for freemium businesses? Photo by stevendepolo. My Thoughts.

Acquisition 56

Acquisition Customer Bootstrapping Viral 56

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

Increased investment in Facebook as an engagement/acquisition channel has translated into requests from CEOs, CMOs and other CxOs about the return on that investment. A good business analyst will measure how many clicks came through from Facebook, and she/he will also measure the conversion rate, revenue, etc., from those clicks.

Metrics 165

Metrics Advertising Marketing Social Media 165

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. 1970 – 1995: The Golden Age. Thus began the 5-year dot-com bubble.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

Given the predictability of SaaS GAAP revenues on a quarterly basis, the fact that the 08/09 projections were unchanged is not a surprise. Given that the revenues are not growing very fast, this means that most of the companies have reduced their sales force and focused on productivity improvement. Software 2.0: ► 2006. (7).

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 12, 2015

It’s really all about revenue. The key to more revenue? Consider that 40% of an ecommerce store’s revenue is created by 8% of its customers and that 82% of companies agree that retention is cheaper than acquisition. To drive customer acquisition, however, they offered the service for just $19. via 500 Startups).

Retention 48

Retention Conversion Acquisition Social Media 48

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2016

Having enough revenue to finally give yourself a salary is an inspiring event, and one that you should savor. New business models that provide an ongoing revenue stream, or a secondary stream from advertising, raise your margins and can give you some additional satisfaction. Celebrate the ability to pay yourself a salary.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Salary Startup Viral 120

Agile VC

MAY 26, 2011

Online social networking is a concept still being evangelized even in Silicon Valley… Friendster is in private beta (wasn’t until Oct 2003 they received Google acquisition offer which they turned down for Kleiner/Benchmark round). link] leehower. It was a pretty good valuation for the time. A lot has changed. link] leehower.

Term Sheet 178

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Technical Review Social Network 178

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

In many cases, I can break it down into: Customer Acquisition Cost – how will you reach prospects, how will you convert them and how much will it cost to convert them Customer Lifetime Value – how much will you make off of each converted customer This very simple model works for a surprising number of business models. Great stuff.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

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

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 23, 2021

For example, if you haven’t achieved product-market fit, instrumenting every aspect of customer acquisition is overkill. I’ve seen entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing all their efforts on customer acquisition when they also needed to fix a leaky funnel or customer churn. Just track metrics that help you improve the product.

Venture Capital 46

Venture Capital Metrics Investment Bankers Framework 46