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Lessons Learned: The three drivers of growth for your business.

Startup Lessons Learned

The spread between your LTV and blended CPA determines either your profitability or your rate of growth, and a high valuation depends on balancing these two factors. To the extent that you have good word-of-mouth, activation or retention, these factors tend to drive down your CPA or drive up your LTV, and so are nice bonuses.

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Business ecology and the four customer currencies

Startup Lessons Learned

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). This is the simplest ecosystem and simplest driver of growth.

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It's a startup, not a spreadsheet

Startup Lessons Learned

As the product got better, we could see the rate getting closer and closer to the mythical “ one percent rule.&# Luckily, we also discovered that certain other metrics, like LTV and CPA were much better than we initially projected. Even that early, it became clear that 4% was not an achievable goal.

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Beware The Consultant

infochachkie.com

Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. At the early stages of your company’s life, you cannot rely on disinterested, hired guns to define your company’s key tasks. John is a CPA and holds an M.B.A. Pyramid Power. from the Wharton School.

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