Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

There has been a lot of public debate over the past several weeks about whether it’s a good thing to be “gross margin positive” or not and commentary always reminds me that some people at startups don’t quite understand financial metrics or even how to think about which ones are healthy. If you can’t raise — you’re dead. End of story.

Metrics 150

Metrics Cost Acquisition Startup 150

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. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. He had a track record of taking small teams and growing them into successful product lines.

Technical Cofounder 346

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 346

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. Iterating with intelligent editors – products that enable users to take an existing output and refine it (ex. regenerate one frame or feature) without completely starting from scratch.

Artificial Inteligence 176

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Software Review Generative AI 176

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 2, 2023

They poured their hearts and souls into creating an innovative product fueled by the desire to make a difference in the lives of their target audience. It’s disheartening, but sadly, this is one experience that many startup founders face. I understand the struggles that come with being a startup founder.

Design 105

Design Product Churn Rate Architecture 105

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. Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

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

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

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

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

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. Yet, navigating this landscape requires more than just a unique product or service. Diversify Revenue Streams Relying on a single income source can be risky.

Technical Review 137

Technical Review Startup Silicon Valley Agile 137

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Founders laud their own “end-to-end” thinking. Starting in 2009, Savoia began using an approach as an engineering director at Google that helped the tech giant know whether it was about to build the right product for the market … or a product that would flop.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

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. Growth hacking is about caring for and optimizing the user experience to build trust and keep customers using your product. The skills and mindsets of world-class growth hackers. The result?

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

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

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

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

They are as follows: People, Products, Processes, Proprietary, Patrons, and Profits. Products are the products or services that are offered by your company. Products are the products or services that are offered by your company. Is your product thriving or dying?

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

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

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.”

Metrics 84

Metrics Startup Churn Rate Forecast 84

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. How profitable is my product or service? As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

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

ConversionXL

JUNE 8, 2017

The website, the mobile application, the advertising, the support, the different screens and features of the product… everything could be personalized. It’s more productive to start with a few, well understood personas instead of going at full speed into micro-segmentation right from the start. Image Source. Acquisition segments.

Programming 97

Programming Revenue Analytics Software Review 97

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

OCTOBER 21, 2023

How do you convince investors that your business model will really work, before you have a revenue stream that exceeds your expenses? Too many founders have learned that passion and free beta products do not imply a sustainable business. Of course, that has be a repeatable event, with enough revenue to sustain the business.

Business Model 273

Business Model Customer Angel Investor Bootstrapping 273

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. One characteristic remains: the products subscription businesses can provide, ranging from magazine subscriptions to literally anything, can appear on a customer’s doorstep every day, week, month or year. Subscription business brings recurring revenue. Eco products.

Churn Rate 149

Churn Rate eCommerce Business Model Bootstrapping 149

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Every year I teach classrooms full of students who leave class understanding the basics of how to search for product/market fit—and thinking their next goal is to “get funded.”. You (think) you have product-market fit with real customers and real revenue and need money to grow and expand. That’s a mistake.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

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. Old School But Effective.

Technical Review 146

Technical Review PPC SEM Marketing 146

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Founders almost never have a real strategy. Founders explain failures with things like “our two main competitors did [thing] to us” or “customers didn’t understand [our point of view].” The 10,000th biggest company in the world is a very successful company, as is the two-person company where the founders each take home $300k/year.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

(Almost) everything you need to know (but are afraid to ask) before you wistfully ask a product manager to coffee so they will help you find a job. TL;DR Product management is a unique and poorly understood discipline, especially as it applies to software and other tech-related companies.

Management 85

Management Product Technical Review Software Review 85

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow 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 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2023

If you or your team sees you as an idea person, your first task as an entrepreneur should be to find a co-founder who can deliver. Finding a co-founder is rarely a bad thing, since two heads are always better than one in meeting all the startup challenges. Detailed product specifications and prototypes.

Cofounder 389

Cofounder Startup Term Sheet Acquisition 389

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2019

by Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund. Competition from other startups and established incumbents, constraints on time and capital, and limited access to talent and technology resources are just a few of the hurdles nearly every first-time founder faces while trying to build a business. Be ready when it counts.

Technical Review 140

Technical Review Due Diligence Early Stage Differentiation 140