Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Sam also had a vision as early as 2012 about how MakeSpace would be a large employer of middle-income jobs: The company would hire employees rather than just have contractors and he would lead the effort to ensure they had opportunities for growth and benefits for their families.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

View from Seed

MARCH 1, 2016

That story is how you recruit employees, convince customers to give you a shot, and secure funding. Who better to advocate for the capability of the disabled than Keller, who not only triumphed and demonstrated communication competency, but a mastery of all forms of communication? Trying to recruit a co-founder or key-employee?

Founder 120

Founder Technical Review Cofounder Non-Compete 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2009

One theme that I always get is, “I’ve gotten an offer from a VC, but they want me to do X, what do you think?&# X is always something non-standard that the entrepreneur knows in his gut isn’t right. In these many exchanges similar questions crop up. Trust your instincts – they will serve you well as an entrepreneur.

Pakistan 297

Pakistan India Technical Review Software Review 297

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. I'm working quite a bit with startups who are leveraging social media, but I'm finding it hard to predict success and metrics.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

Occam's Razor

APRIL 15, 2019

Bubble Kings most commonly reside in organizations where there is little to no accountability (or misplaced accountability, ex: celebration of vanity metrics). To poke holes in the data/methodology (regardless of the Rationalizer’s analytical competence). They dilute the analysis with non-facts. To provide context.

Leadership 79

Leadership Non-Compete Analytics Software Review 79

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

In this case study on Moz.com by Conversion Rate Experts , the first phase of their conversion strategy was to interview paying, non-paying, and former customers about how they felt about the product. That was the metric that really told us we needed to start over.” ”- Eric Ries.

Customer Development 126

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Up and Running

JULY 10, 2017

In our example, it’s 20K non-paying customers. It’s critical to understand the metrics in terms of dollars per additional user, as you’ll have to spend this amount to serve thousands of your non-paying customers. Your non-paying customers don’t value the product as much as paying users do. How is your startup funded?

Startup 110

Startup Non-Compete Viral Software Review 110

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

It can also keep your employees employed or help you retain your job—a modicum of security in uncertain times. These companies tend to over rely on reducing the number of employees. The questions that clients ask in the coming months are going to be more focused on business results and less on trends and vanity metrics.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Knowing precise metrics about your business is prudent business management. According to an article published by Forbes, metrics that play a critical role in any startup management includes revenue run rate, average revenue per user, customer acquisition rate, churn rate, and operation efficiency. Measure Every Detail of Your Startup.

Operations 100

Operations Management Churn Rate Startup 100

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

As a consequence, corporations used metrics like return on net assets (RONA), return on capital deployed, and internal rate of return (IRR) to measure efficiency. These metrics make it difficult for a company that wants to invest in long-term innovation.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 6, 2010

No longer can tools or "analysts" just puke 15 metrics on a report and hope to survive. I absolutely love the idea of collecting "first impressions" from current customers, employees or just randomly selected people. All free from Compete. Got a creative use of statistics in your web metrics practice?

Analytics 99

Analytics Web Campaign PPC 99

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

The elephant in the room is this: Colleges just aren’t preparing graduates to compete in today’s marketplace. Businesses have a vital role to play in reshaping how we train tomorrow’s employees. Employers can stop judging job applicants by the long-accepted yet often worthless “degree” metric.

Non-Compete 113

Non-Compete Programming America Employee 113

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

Our biannual reviews are done internally by management; they are not intended as a way to give employees grades or gold stars. Its impossible to use hard-and-fast metrics to decide where someone fits in, and these kinds of metrics tend to accidentally incentivize the wrong things. Level 14 or 15. Level 12-13 Operational.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Its different from selling a product, because it is not part of our regular business practice, is not something that relates to our core competence, and tends not to happen in a repeatable and scalable way.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Transformify

JULY 30, 2019

She later led its diversity and inclusion refresh to accelerate results, helping MassMutual increase the diversity of its customers, employees, financial advisors and suppliers, as well as driving forward a protocol that measures diversity and inclusion results as part of company performance. This crosses a variety of efforts.

Hawaii 56

Hawaii Nicaragua San Francisco Non-Compete 56

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Every board meeting, the metrics of success change. This approach is fundamentally non-scalable. This is why companies often get out-competed by former employees (Palm vs Handspring to name just one), even though the upstart lacks all of the familiar resources, tools, processes, and support they used to have.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 11, 2022

Customer retention is a metric that measures customer loyalty and how good your business is at keeping customers over time. According to Paul Farris’ book Marketing Metrics , a repeat customer has a 60% to 70% chance of converting. That makes understanding needs and expectations table stakes for any brand looking to compete.

Retention 111

Retention eCommerce Channel Community 111

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  If the entrepreneur has two competing offers, that’s an excellent way to understand what the market will pay. Dividends come in two basic flavors – cumulative and non-cumulative.   So, let’s assume here we have an 8% non-cumulative dividend. Non-financial terms affecting Risk.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Up and Running

AUGUST 2, 2017

And, because the traditional publishing industry has one core metric—sales—that inevitably becomes their focus as well. When many authors think about their goals, they immediately jump to traditional publishing metrics: sales, reviews, or even revenue. How does a book get you attention? Because that makes them look better.

Viral 88

Viral Video Metrics Non-Compete 88

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 22, 2016

But at least if you’re working on an eCommerce site, you have clear metrics to hit. The Problems with Non-Financial Measurement. But many times, they’re dealing with non-financial metrics or competing online goals. An intranet could be a portal of information and communication that leaves no employees in the dark.

Conversion 48

Conversion Metrics Analytics Non-Compete 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 24, 2009 The metrics and levers of engagement, presentation on Engagement Loops for Facebook Developer Garage SF Ill be presenting a talk at the Facebook Developer Garage SF Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, its easy to lose track of positioning effects when optimizing for a single metric.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2023

Of course, they can outsource part of the work or hire employees, but that approach means more time and money to manage the work, which they don’t have. Use caution to avoid employer conflicts of interest and non-compete clauses. Jointly define major milestones and key metrics for the startup.

Partner 249

Partner Cofounder Silicon Valley Kansas 249

Hearpreneur

JULY 19, 2021

Not all employees get to make the decision about turning the wrong sort of work away. As a CEO and founder, I work with employees, contract individuals, and other business owners who are genuinely stellar, and I love being part of the small business dream. Through my non-profit Women Of Integrity Inc.,

Entrepreneur 138

Entrepreneur Jordan Non-Compete Community 138

Up and Running

OCTOBER 21, 2014

To my mind, it’s fear of the unknown that holds most of us back and not the thought of whether we’re competent enough or intelligent enough or whatever else we feel is needed to run a business. Or is it about running a non-profit soup kitchen for the unemployed? Are you going to be hiring employees? You get tax benefits.

Elevator Pitch 166

Elevator Pitch Software Review SBA Business Plan 166

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Here, the “public” includes your customers, prospects, your employees, vendors, and others who connect in any way with your brand. There are three parts to a good competitive analysis: (1) defining the metrics and identifying the competitors you’re comparing, (2) gathering the data, and (3) the analysis.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 30, 2018

While doing research for his extraordinary new book, Great at Work , Morten Hansen studied more than 5,000 managers and employees in corporate America to identify the key practices that explain why some perform better than others. How many of the employees find that value proposition personally meaningful? That’s no surprise.

Metrics 349

Metrics Startup Lean Detroit 349

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2021

Of course, they can outsource part of the work or hire employees, but that approach means more time and money to manage the work, which they don’t have. Use caution to avoid employer conflicts of interest and non-compete clauses. Jointly define major milestones and key metrics for the startup.

Cofounder 315

Cofounder Startup Silicon Valley Kansas 315

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

Explain why, hopefully you'll have rules you can apply and check if your Web Metrics are indeed KPI's! Update] Here are two recent posts that dive deeper into the topic of Key Performance Indicators and provide latest thinking (as well as real world examples): ~ Best Web Metrics / KPIs for a Small, Medium or Large Sized Business.

Metrics 123

Metrics Web Non-Compete Analytics 123

Up and Running

JULY 31, 2015

Whether it’s helping your employees understand their goals as they fit into the larger goals, or talking to strategic partners, or new hires, or potential folks who might want to acquire your business. That identity stems from the identity of the founders usually: the core culture, the core competency. That’s identity.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Forecast Software Review 60

BeyondVC

JANUARY 2, 2006

As I spent the week before the holidays on a few compensation committee calls, I thought I would share with you some of my philosophy on compensation and how to take care of that ever precious asset, your employees. These metrics should be simple Yes/No metrics – it should be quite clear if someone realized their goal or not.

Management 60

Management Equity Forecast Salary 60

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 2, 2021

Dara manages Uber’s fast-growing business in 63 countries around the world and leads a global team of more than 22,000 employees. And you were beloved by Expedia employees. And we were forced to be very transparent with our employees regarding both the good and the bad. They had to fight for the right to compete.

Iran 41

Iran Technical Review Non-Compete Lean 41

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

In this case study on Moz.com by Conversion Rate Experts , the first phase of their conversion strategy was to interview paying, non-paying, and former customers about how they felt about the product. That was the metric that really told us we needed to start over.” ”- Eric Ries.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Tim Keane

MAY 27, 2010

Remarks to the Visionary Companies Conference, Billings, MT May 27, 2010 It’s a fact that all net job creation since the 1980s has come    with under 100 employees.   The company grew to 250 employees in two states.   The company grew to 250 employees in two states. People are the whole game.

Bootstrapping 60

Bootstrapping Startup America Employee 60

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

His book Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production is a fascinating read, even though its decidedly non-practical. Hes a new employee, and he was not properly trained in TDD So far, this isnt much different from the kind of analysis any competent operations team would conduct for a site outage.

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

If you're working on the Sticky Engine of Growth , you're focused on very different metrics from those that you care about in the Viral Engine of Growth. Finding your One Metric That Matters But it's not enough just to know "normal". It's also vital to know what the most important metric is to your business right now.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Hearpreneur

JULY 10, 2015

Offering great prices alone is not good enough if I want to compete with the big brands and chain stores. At Zeeto we’ve created a reporting platform to track our key metrics and daily financial progress and give all employees viewing access. You get a greater buy in from employees when they feel like they are “in the know.”

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review Small Business 48

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2015

Of course, they can outsource part of the work or hire employees, but that approach means more time and money to manage the work, which they don’t have. Use caution to avoid employer conflicts of interest and non-compete clauses. Jointly define major milestones and key metrics for the startup.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Startup 120