Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics. Control costs and adjust prices to maintain your margin. Document processes and metrics for economies of scale.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

How long does it take me to pay back my original customer acquisition costs? In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. How profitable is my product or service?

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Customers may be attracted to your marketing message, but investors look harder at the startup team, seeking superior expertise in the key areas of growing a business, product domain, financial, marketing and sales. Specific elements of your marketing and sales plans. Projected revenues and expenses over the strategic period.

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

Really, we're the sales and marketing arm of those companies. You have to make sure your cost of acquisition, retention rates, and conversion metrics are all in place. Then there was haggling back and forth about price. As fragmentation starts to go away and there's consolidation in the space, the bigger guys get bigger.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Obviously this definition is generic, so my first recommendation is that you take the lead in defining traction metrics for your startup, and then selling your results convincingly to investors. As an investor, I would like to see one month of sales, and see how that compares to your projections. Customer acquisition cost.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is. Greathouse: Having run these groups, I know all about the inherent friction between sales and marketing with regard to lead quality, volume, etc., Metrics related to customer acquisition, lifetime value and churn.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

He eventually applied his lessons learned in these experiences when he founded Zag, a company that helps consumers buy cars over the Internet at pre-negotiated prices with nearly 4,000 dealers across the country [disclosure: my firm GRP Partners is an investor in Zag]. Rumored to have turned down acquisition offers from Yahoo and Facebook.

Zag 248

Zag Truecar Venture Capital CarsDirect 248

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

Maybe its because Im 66", but I think most clothes shopping really stinks and when was the last time that a sales person was actually helpful. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. I really think MyShape has a great concept.

MyShape 150

MyShape CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. What price will your customer ultimately accept?

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 9, 2014

About $37B worth of lost sales a year, worldwide. In seed stage funding, we’re often told that the investments are ultimately about the people/teams, and not necessarily the metrics. They showed very impressive average customer repurchases. Rapt.FM – Rap battles over live chat. Look out for this company.

Startup 111

Startup Mobile Commerce Education 111

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Any great board member should tell you, “please don’t create any performance metrics or materials that analyze the business that you’re not already creating for your own management’s use.” Sometimes they don’t even know.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

." Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. Payback periods on customer acquisition way more important to you in the near-term. But if you raise at too high a price you make it harder to raise next round.

Software Review 242

Software Review Technical Review Pricing Metrics 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

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

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. Define metrics on customer feedback and user counts. Count connections with experts, media, and influencers.

Tips 79

Tips Metrics Technical Review Customer 79

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

For those patient enough to source great companies at reasonable prices and prepared to weather the next inevitable downturn, I believe firmly there will be economic rewards for discipline and patience. They compete on features, price and execution. Bottom of the sales funnel. Some will pay off, others will not. Morning in VC.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2010

There were no price guides, standardized rating systems or baseball card stores. We were happy to accommodate his request, as the money derived from the sale of the sets allowed us to purchase vintage cards via our weekly newspaper ads. Eventually, card buying speculation drove prices ever higher. from the Wharton School.

Pricing 138

Pricing Advertising Marketing Startup 138

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

First, let me recommend reading a previous blog, called omg I’m just a startup, I can’t do those fancy metrics. Once you create a small list of these queries, then you can start to formalize the ideas into specific metrics that you track daily. User acquisition via each method you use. Aggregate metrics.

Startup 29

Startup IP Email Report 29