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When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. Start by building just enough of your product to get early CAC and CLV signals (they won’t be perfect). Next, define what you need from a metrics and reporting standpoint. What does the business do?
A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's StartupMetrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Define what you need from a metrics and reporting standpoint. A : Activation - what % have a "happy" initial experience?
I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. Most often I'm being brought in the early stage, Start-up or Expansion (as the company looks at new product lines). I was just talking with someone who asked me to define how that could work and what they meant.
Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Before I jump into the 28 questions, let me start with 14 questions that I will want to go through first so I know a bit more about what we are talking about. SEO for Startups )? Wireframes?
Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Before I jump into the 28 questions, let me start with 14 questions that I will want to go through first so I know a bit more about what we are talking about. SEO for Startups )? Wireframes?
If you’re a Web-based startup, for example, show me how many unique visitors you think you can get in the beginning, and what you’re using for an estimated conversion rate (buyers to browsers). And it’s surprising how few startup founders think in those terms. Part of those questions are around StartupMetrics.
Shallow and superficial and racing from segment to segment in search of some take up has never been a strong strategic plan for me. I have written this up before if you’re interested – I call it Deflationary Economics. 65 million monthly actives. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT. INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA.
Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. But the most important metric has been the deep and lasting relationships that have been built with startups and also between senior executives. There are at least 6 incubators now being set up in LA.
If you want to get in better shape and haven’t read that you might start there. I started advice with the premise that no amount of exercise or food eating plan would help with long-term fitness or weight goals unless you first had a mental plan and a set of measurements to track your progress. I want to share with you how I did this.
I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Later he posted about his experience in Challenges of Startups.
The startup said that the new funding round brings its total raised to $1.75M. ForwardMetrics, which is headed by Ozzie DiVinere, said its cloud-based software helps organizations create and track their strategic plans, helping to track the progress of employees towards business results--rather than just activity. READ MORE>>.
Four years ago, Los Angeles-based Adly (www.adly.com) launched to much fanfare as one of the first local startups to tie into the brand-new, Twitter micro messaging platform. Walter Delph: We started primarily on Twitter, but we now work on Twitter, Facebook, and others. Others are catching up.
Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.
And of course you could add up impressions by counting your the followers of everybody who had retweeted plus your own. It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! Startup Advice' End of story. End of story. Or Likes – LIKES! And so forth.
You don’t have to have previous startup problems to show resilience – everyone should have a story of tackling a tough challenge with minimal success, but using the failure to move on and achieve an objective. Evan Williams , for example, before cofounding Twitter, started a podcasting platform named Odeo.
TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. I started feeling panic attacks.
A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Marty Zwilling.
For this morning's company profile, we thought we'd connect with ShareSquare (www.getsharesquare.com), a newly funded Los Angeles startup focused on QR barcodes -- 3D barcodes -- focused on musicians and entertainers. We caught up with Matthias Galica , the firm's founder, to hear more about the company.
Instead of sizing up new opportunities and actively courting every new customer, you start worrying about cutting costs, repeatable processes , and overtaking known competitors. As a consultant, I hate to see you lose that startup focus on innovation, change, and customers.
In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kauffman Foundation , the numbers are here to show it. Who would not want to join the unicorns (recent startups with a current valuation of over $1 billion)? Networking no longer is primarily a face-to-face serial activity.
I will outline here his six required activities of every successful business to get you started down the right path for you: Wonder: identify the value and need for change. I recommend that you start online to find data sources. Invention: create a solution that satisfies the need. Discernment: evaluate and refine the solution.
I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. Phil Buckley, in his book “ Change With Confidence ,” provides practical answers to fifty of the biggest questions that keep change leaders up at night.
I recently got together with Aaron Shechet and an early stage startup to discuss the direction the company might want to take. I grew up in Los Angeles and went to undergrad at UC Santa Barbara, graduating in 2003 with Honors in Economics. While at UC Santa Barbara, I started a café which served over 1100 dorm residents.
As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. Pick a single metric that is the focus for all growth. Facebook’s winning strategy was a laser focus on increasing active user counts and time spent online. Less is more.
Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. Mike Starkenburg: The company was founded in 2000, and was started in Manchester, UK, by a handful of computer vision specialists. How did a company started in the UK end up here?
Not just in measured results per second (several metric crap tonne), but in number of tests measured (~1830), number of framework permutations tested (~464), number of languages included (26), and total execution time of the test suite (67 hours, or 241 billion microseconds to make that sound properly enormous). It's lost in the noise.
At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. Background Questions Let’s start with some background questions about the business and product. What are your key StartupMetrics ? Who are the customers? Ads, Viral/Social, SEO)?
And measuring activities or output can mislead you into thinking you’re doing a great job. So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc.
For today's interview, we caught up with Clark Landry , the chairman of GraphEffect (www.grapheffect.com), a Santa Monica company which is helping other companies to hone their advertising on Facebook. Landry is a serial entrepreneur, and active investor, having been co-founder of TagWorld. Thanks for the time today!
The startup has developed a system which uses information from online forums, source code sharing, technical communities, and the like to help find and rank technical talent. We're going up against the game of the resume, because we don't serve up bullet points of technical skills, we only surface data that shows tangible accomplishments.
A common challenge faced by every entrepreneur is that they don’t have the bandwidth, interest or skills to do everything that is required to build their startup. Two heads are always better than one in a startup. Your best friend, spouse or a family member is the least likely candidate, so don’t start there.
It seemed an ideal way to describe a scrappy, entrepreneurial activity. What happens to careful planning, sure-fire metrics, quality test scenarios, market research, a good business plan – all in place before pulling the trigger of a new opportunity. Startingup Positioning Surrounding yourself with talent'
I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. Phil Buckley, in his new book “ Change With Confidence ,” provides practical answer to fifty of the biggest questions that keep change leaders up at night.
I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. The number of startups being created has increased by an order of magnitude. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin!
For our Friday interview, we thought we'd catch up with Los Angeles-based MarketShare , the Elevation Partners-backed software provider, to hear where the firm is nowadays. Its primary goal is to focus on identifying what is truly driving demand, analytically, so that our customers can optimize their activities.
We all know that funding markets have changed for startups. In a funding round with 1 or 2 VCs and 15-20 angels or 4-6 seed funds if you gave every investor you financial information and performance metrics your proprietary information would increase in its probability of leaking out. There is a reason for this. The wolves operate.
Every new venture that survives the first five years starts to drift away from their entrepreneurial thinking, and assumes they have achieved the path to longevity. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup. No company can afford to lose the agility, flexibility, and innovation of a startup.
But very few are talking about how to measure your results and return on investment (ROI), and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. He has one of the first books on this subject, and he breaks the process down into nine key activities, as follows: Get focused and identify goals. Project the future.
In any business, accountability ideally starts at the top. Here are my key recommendations for how to prepare and what to do in more mundane business environments and organizations: Make sure your activities are aligned with business goals. Accountability requires that you manage your own efforts, as well as keep others up to speed.
Change is about the only thing constant in the world of startups. Since the startup environment is usually more volatile, the challenge there in balancing advantage, risk, and performance, is more critical than in big companies. It starts at the top with the founder and CEO, but has to extend quickly to the bottom of the organization.
Social media is so pervasive in today’s world that every entrepreneur believes instinctively that they know how to use it for their startup. Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results. Concentrate your efforts on two to three platforms to start.
A common pain of startups after an exhilarating first surge of early adopters is a long and frustrating plateau of slow growth, where it seems like nothing you do will get your business to profitability. There is no magic lever for growth, so several initiatives are required, with metrics to assess value returned. Marty Zwilling.
Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist. Market penetration.
A common challenge faced by every entrepreneur is that they don’t have the bandwidth, interest or skills to do everything that is required to build their startup. Two heads are always better than one in a startup. Your best friend, spouse or a family member is the least likely candidate, so don’t start there.
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