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It’s a very important concept for me because in a startup you are constantly under pressure and have way too many distractions. Having a set of metrics that you watch & that you feel are the key drivers of your success helps keep clarity. And the more public you can make your goals for these key metrics the better.
When talking to startup founders or other innovators, we always ask questions to better understand their business as a core. How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? 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. If these numbers work out, then often scaling is more a question of capital.
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?
Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. The idea of “going deep” with customers has always shaped how I think. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT. My take on his argument is this: 1.
I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.
I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. Who are the customers? SEO for Startups )?
This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Large companies can be strange sometimes. Sometimes it actually does.
Under the heading, “The Book On Bezos,” the callout lists ten actionable and impactful nuggets of startup advice. We don’t give up on things easily. We didn’t give up.”. “ If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. Obsess About Customers, Not Colleagues Or Competitors. “We
It’s a conversation that creeps up from time-to-time. For a combination of reasons I didn’t end up talking with the CEO in time and the company quickly became over subscribed. And VC’s are tough customers. They might want you to start lean. I was interested in learning more. That’s OK, too.
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.
" I realized that I've never captured topics that I've covered (I'm always willing to look at other topics), nor have I put up my speaker bio. So, here goes: Dr. Tony Karrer Over the past 15 years, Tony has been a part-time CTO for more than 30 startups. Tony has a Ph.D. He is a frequent speaker at trade and industry events.
As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. In the evangelical phase you’re working through these with customers on the fly. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling.
I promised to do this post as a follow-up to the session to provide additional links and information. Once you build it, they will now ask you about the key metrics that they need proven in order to see if you really are a good investment. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either.
The empirical evidence highlights the lack of women and minority founders in the startup world. A 2012 Dow Jones'' report entitled Women At The Wheel encompassed 15-years of data on venture-backed startups. I recently asked Tracy why she believes that women are so under-represented across the startup landscape. What Gives?
Yet, as a business consultant, I often find minimal focus on improving employee engagement and assessing their customer-facing performance. For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees.
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! The other major pilot customer was. End of story. End of story. Or Likes – LIKES!
In addition to being a thought leader within the Lean Startup Movement , Steve is also a professor at Stanford and Berkley. Steve's first question was, “Who are our customers?" I) took the 300 latest cards, personally wrote a questionnaire and called 300 customers. SuperMac's main customer base were color desktop professionals.
There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. Importantly we also discussed: should startups raise small amounts of money or large? how should you organize teams in a startup? And make sure to pick up a copy of his book.
Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards.
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.
This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others. Click around on the various topics to find some amazing resources.
I’m convinced that this “me too” or incremental thinking is one of the key reasons that ninety percent of new startups fail, and most of the investors I know won’t sign non-disclosure forms, since they claim to hear the same startup ideas over and over again. Collaborate with experts and people with experience.
Creating a gerat company in a relative vacuum is an exercise in complete trust that the entrepreneur knows what’s best for the customer, perhaps even without interaction with such a customer. The first step : Involve potential customers early. The first step : Involve potential customers early. Startingup Positioning'
At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. Even when they have talked to multiple developers or development firms, we’re often the first to ask basic questions like “Who are your customers?” Who are the 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)? Building a minimum viable product, with customer validation.
I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. Yet you may not be so sure where to start, and how to put it all together. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entree on customers.
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.
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.
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. Your customers’ biggest need is not for more things. Your best strategy is to find more customers that fit the things you do best, rather than building more things.
With interactive social media and video everywhere, everyone needs to feel they have a relationship with their leaders, and every brand needs leader personification for customers to relate. Interact with employees and customers on a regular basis. Never be too busy to talk to real customers. Keeping it simple is the best course.
I'm going to be looking at aspects like: Things to consider before building your MVP Features often overlooked when documenting an MVP for developers Understanding important metrics you want to measure Risks and challenges in developing an MVP. What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles.
As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Even the strongest relationships are often tested and broken by the stresses of a new startup.
Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." If you do build the MVP and show it to them, they will ask you about your metrics. They really want metrics, not a product.
As I talk to many of you in my role as business advisor, I still often hear the concern for maximum return to the business and stakeholders, more than a passion for sustainably enriching the lives of your customers and team. This applies to your own team, as well as customers. Make every customer experience memorable.
When you see startups like SpaceX and Pinterest grow from a low valuation to a billion dollars in just a few years, it’s easy to assume that if you just keep doing what you are doing, you can get there as well. Of course, that means a mindset willing to give up much more equity, and taking on a whole new level of risk.
I just had to line up behind him. That, plus I love the space of high-customer-service, focused eCommerce for moms worried about what their kids eat & wear.&#. We then started talking about Dave McClure. I started to realize that Dave is able to do it because he approaches VC differently. I appreciate it. Show Notes.
Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.
As part of the onboarding process, the app asks both job seekers and employers what they’re looking for - in a text box - while providing a few suggestions in a pop-up. This isn’t just our opinion - our startupmetrics prove it! Even with the pop-up suggestions, we saw significant drop-off during user onboarding.
In a new book, “ Driving Demand: Transforming B2B Marketing to Meet the Needs of the Modern Buyer ,” top marketing consultant Carlos Hidalgo updates the old guidelines on how to set up demand generation processes, keep them current, and measure results. Understanding culture is paramount, but measuring results is even better.
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. When you look at how much median valuations were driven up in the past 5 years alone it’s bananas. Please follow him & welcome him to Upfront!! <== And reset they must.
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. On the other hand, if a new free iPad app has bugs, they can be corrected in the next automatic update, and probably without much customer noise.
It may not be as sexy, but starting a new business which builds on an existing technology or business model is usually less risky than introducing that ultimate new disruptive technology. Many of the major business successes started this way. Many of the major business successes started this way.
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