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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.
But in my experience as an entrepreneur and now spending my time amongst investors I can generalize that almost all VC investments in early stage technology & Internet investments come down to just four key factors. It’s a conversation that creeps up from time-to-time. I was interested in learning more.
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.
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.
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.
I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. During the Q&A I was asked about how I make investment decisions in early-stage businesses. I fall in love.”
Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. Shallow and superficial and racing from segment to segment in search of some take up has never been a strong strategic plan for me. LEAN STARTUP MOVEMENT.
2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I said both in the article but felt compelled to provide a statement up front for the skimmers.
" 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.
skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, March 9, 2007 Map of VC Investments Found this Map of 2006 VC Investments post. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? .
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. We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. The Two Pizza Rule.
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.
As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. And the only way to do that is to help them calculate the ROI (return on investment) of using your product.
We built one of our companies upon forecasted metrics for a specific class of retail consumer base, but found that there wasn’t enough money in our universe to pay for marketing to create that much dedicated traffic to our site. Startingup' Email readers, continue here.] Some label this as “Bet on the jockey, not the horse.”.
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.
Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. Startup Grind was a truly awesome conference and Derek the consumate host. Some money out of every investment.
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.
Five startups have been named winners at the Siemer Summit , the tech confab which has been being held in Santa Monica for the past couple of days by local investment banking company and investor Siemer Ventures, highlighting some of the top startups in the region.
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. " Once you have the metrics defined, it focuses your effort.
In the classic 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. Return on investment for demand generation. Lead-stage content performance.
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.
At our mid-year offsite our partnership at Upfront Ventures was discussing what the future of venture capital and the startup ecosystem looked like. Even then private market investors can paper over valuation changes by investing at the same price but with more structure so it’s hard to understand the “headline valuation.”
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.
When I described to people why I initially invested my calls went something like this, “He’s taken kicks to the face for nearly 2 years and is still standing. I just had to line up behind him. We then started talking about Dave McClure. EcoMom originally started as SproutBaby. I appreciate it. Show Notes.
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. Show return on investment, growth rates, and market penetration.
I got a call a few years ago from a well-known investor up North. For all the things he’s likely known for, he probably hasn’t yet built a strong relationship as an early stage venture investor (he invests often in later-stage deals where he is very respected). He opted for two big VC funds up North who split $1.5
I work with a lot of startups. I start to notice when bad behavior creeps into the system as a whole. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.” They would prefer you always move up-and-to-the-right.
That's what Los Angeles-based MergeLocal (www.mergelocal.com) is looking to find out, by offering up points which can be converted to real cash, when users check into local businesses. What's your background, and how did you decide to start the company? We've gone through this before in startup companies and pushing things forward.
Its interesting to think about how universities might want to have their staff better aligned with moving ideas from the lab to start-ups. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? .
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.
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. In these many exchanges similar questions crop up. Either you’re not a good leader and he shouldn’t be investing at all, or he has no clue what it takes to build a startup.&#. They speak up on every topic. I guarantee this is a bad VC.
My friend Ethan Anderson put it best to me after the panel, “You probably shouldn’t have been up there. The VC industry has different segments in it that have different fund sizes, different investment amounts and different risk / return expectations. So in the past we needed VC to really get a startup going.
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. Return on investment for demand generation. Lead-stage content performance.
skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Monday, March 12, 2007 MyShape Article - Analyst Misses the Point The NY Times did a piece today on MyShape, a start-up in Pasadena - Log in Your Measurements, and the Clothes May Fit. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.
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.
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.
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.
As a frequent advisor to new entrepreneurs and startups, I often hear your frustration with being treated differently from other startups by investors, on expectations for valuation , traction, and market size. For many years, startups featuring all-electric vehicles fell into this stage of the business lifecycle.
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!
He also gave us some of his thoughts on why the "Paypal Mafia"--former PayPal employees--have gotten so much success from their startups. My cofounder and I know how hard it is to get a company up and running, and funded, to keep your investors in the loop. So how'd you end up here in Southern California?
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. I learned quite a bit from James, who knows more about this than anyone I've ever encountered, and who came up with the idea to start this.
Demographics at funds and startups will also be under the microscope, since signatories have agreed to report on their composition by race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability status, immigration status, veteran status, educational attainment, socioeconomic origin, tenure at a firm. for technology investment and corporate development.
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' So why do so many business-book authors stress the opposite behavior? Ready, FIRE, aim.
He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? . ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?
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