SoCal CTO
OCTOBER 8, 2009
A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Normally, when I am talking to the founder of any startup trying to figure out what they need to do, one of the things I always try to do is understand their business at its core. Define what you need from a metrics and reporting standpoint.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 15, 2019
Almost any startup can start with Excel, and move to open-source data analysis tools, including Python or RStudio. Based on many years of HR leadership at SAP and elsewhere, these authors start by highlighting the risks of not leveraging data analytics. Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results. analytics employee Jenny Dearborn metrics tools
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socalTECH
JUNE 5, 2015
Los Angeles-based game analytics software developer Ninja Metrics has raised $2.8M The startup, led by Dmitri Williams, and helps mobile, online, and social game developers better monetize their properties. ninjametrics ninja metrics venture capital funding regulatory filing game videogame online mobile social analyticsof an ongoing, $5M funding round, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing this week.
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. In general I find that raising large amounts of money when you haven’t figured it out ends up papering over problems more then helping solve fundamental issues in the business.
Berkonomics
NOVEMBER 4, 2016
There is a universal truth: fewer than one in a thousand start-ups meet or exceed their projected revenues in the periods planned. So how do you use financial projections as valuation metrics when you know the odds of those being accurate predictors of the future are so very unreliable? I thought then that the best way to value a start-up is to give value to those elements of progress by the entrepreneur or team that reduce risk of success.
SoCal Tech Calendar
OCTOBER 17, 2018
Tuesday, October 23, 2018 -- Entrepreneurial Metrics-Measurements for Success. Chris will offer case studies and talk about ongoing research and start-ups addressing this topic. Investors agree that the single most important factor for a company's success is the entrepreneur. Join Pasadena Angels Chairman, Chris Wadden, at this special evening where he will talk about various methodologies that investors use to evaluate entrepreneurs.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 4, 2011
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. Commitment & urgency are key drivers of success in startup businesses. You need to start by measuring your “churn” or attrition.
socalTECH
AUGUST 15, 2011
Santa Monica-based BetterWorks , the employee fringe benefits management service, said late Friday that it has added a new company metrics dashboard to its product. betterworks company dashboard fringe benefits startupAccording to BetterWorks, the new feature allows businesses to measure their employee spending habits and interests in fringe benefits. The new feature provides charts, graphs, and other insights into how employees are using fringe benefits providers from BetterWorks.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 17, 2013
What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. As the end of the year approaches, it’s a good time for every startup to assess the metrics, technology, and platforms they’re using to manage the business. Of course, everyone is happy when the numbers keep going up, but the data needs to be mined constantly for deeper meanings and trends.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2013
In a move to convert that huge pile of data into something much more meaningful, Los Angeles-based Ninja Metrics (www.ninjametrics.com) launched a new predictive analytics product for the industry. We spoke with CEO and founder, Dr. Dmitri Williams , on how a collection of data scientists ended up in the online, social, and mobile gaming industry, and how the company is turning those petabytes of data into what''s important for companies: money. Explain what Ninja Metrics is doing?
Startup Professionals Musings
JULY 9, 2018
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. While his insights have come from large organizations, I give many of the same recommendations to every startup: Channel engagement performance. Carlos Hidalgo demand generation entrepreneur metrics pipeline ROI
Startup Professionals Musings
APRIL 26, 2012
But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his book titled " Social Media Metrics." Measuring message delivery in social media is a lot like measuring it in classic advertising, so classic metrics apply.
Both Sides of the Table
MARCH 21, 2010
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. Plus, we’re all allured by the false sense that our contract with BigCo is going to “make us&# because once they start using us it will spread like wildfire and the revenue will flow in.
Startup Professionals Musings
NOVEMBER 14, 2012
What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Here is my selection of ten key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but too many small businesses only monitor haphazardly, if at all: Sales revenue. Of course, everyone is happy when the numbers keep going up, but the data needs to be mined constantly for deeper meanings and trends.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 21, 2015
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. While his insights have come from large organizations, I give many of the same recommendations to every startup: Channel engagement performance.
SoCal Tech Calendar
JANUARY 6, 2017
Thursday, January 12, 2017 -- TCVN Workshop: Lean Analytics- Vanity vs Actionable Metrics. Most entrepreneurs are swimming in a sea of metrics. This Lean Analytics Workshop will give you strategies and tactics to more effectively and efficiently work on your business not matter the size, industry or if it is in startup mode. Learn what is an actionable metric, The One Metric That Matters and what is a Vanity Metric that just makes you feel like you are doing the right thing.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2013
In a move to convert that huge pile of data into something much more meaningful, Los Angeles-based Ninja Metrics (www.ninjametrics.com) launched a new predictive analytics product for the industry. We spoke with CEO and founder, Dr. Dmitri Williams , on how a collection of data scientists ended up in the online, social, and mobile gaming industry, and how the company is turning those petabytes of data into what''s important for companies: money. Explain what Ninja Metrics is doing?
SoCal CTO
MARCH 11, 2010
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. I’ve talked before about initial conversations with founders and the questions I’m likely going to ask Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 12, 2021
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. Measuring message delivery in social media is a lot like measuring it in classic advertising, so classic metrics apply.
socalTECH
NOVEMBER 12, 2013
In a move to convert that huge pile of data into something much more meaningful, Los Angeles-based Ninja Metrics (www.ninjametrics.com) launched a new predictive analytics product for the industry. We spoke with CEO and founder, Dr. Dmitri Williams , on how a collection of data scientists ended up in the online, social, and mobile gaming industry, and how the company is turning those petabytes of data into what''s important for companies: money. Explain what Ninja Metrics is doing?
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 22, 2016
That should make you wonder - how do you measure traction in a metric? While thinking about the parameters of traction, and how to measure it, I was impressed with a new book, “ Scaling Lean: Mastering the Key Metrics for Startup Growth ” by Ash Maurya, a serial entrepreneur, and creator of the one-page business modelling tool Lean Canvas. If Bill Gates has agreed to be on the board of your software startup, that’s major traction, even with no paying customers.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 11, 2010
But very few are talking about how to measure your results, and the right metrics for optimizing your marketing environment. Jim Sterne, who has written six books on Internet advertising, marketing, and customer service, tackled this complex world of social media metrics in his recent book titled " Social Media Metrics." Measuring message delivery in social media is a lot like measuring it in classic advertising, so classic metrics apply.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 2, 2010
As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. One of the biggest areas I’ve noticed many sales teams don’t spend time on to train their staff is “objection handling.&# When I talk to people about sales I often describe the sales process as a series of hurdles (objections) that are put up to avoid making a purchase and your responsibility is to work through these common objections with your customer.
Both Sides of the Table
JANUARY 31, 2010
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. Mine started this way … I started my first company in the “go-go years&# of the Internet: 1999. We had a $40 million round lined up to close in the Autumn of 2000.
SoCal Tech Calendar
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 -- Lean LA: The Metrics-Driven Startup: Which Metrics Matter and Wh. With competing priorities and limited resources, how does a startup identify and separate the wheat of actionable metrics from the chaff of vanity metrics?
SoCal CTO
DECEMBER 1, 2007
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). My focus in this post is on the Early and Start-up stages - expansion is more of a consulting, focused project role and it acts different. I was just talking with someone who asked me to define how that could work and what they meant.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 13, 2021
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.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 19, 2015
To confirm the value of checking yourself, I find more and more investment organizations and startup incubators, including StartupAmerica and CoFoundersLab , already use a formal process, such as StrengthsFinder , as part of their screening process. The Builder excels at constructing a business from the ground up. These people are the ultimate chess players in the game of startups, always looking to be two or three moves ahead of the competition.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 6, 2018
There is no scientific proof, no metric to measure the full meaning of “good.” Starting up Surrounding yourself with talentPeople argue over whether an entrepreneur with a sense of fairness, a desire for collegiality, a want to share the profits can succeed in the long run within a business world full of lions and tigers that eat timid entrepreneurs for lunch. Does a “good heart” diminish the chances of success?
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 25, 2009
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.&#. I learned a lot about how to set goals, manage projects, deal with competing personalities and, importantly, manage “up.&# [never mind who's nickel I learned all of this on, but that's a story for another day.].
socalTECH
JANUARY 5, 2009
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? Around 2006, they opened up a sales office here, with a couple of guys talking to the film and games business.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 22, 2022
Entrepreneurs and startups are big believers in innovation, but sometimes they forget that innovation must be continual to assure long-term success, rather than the one big-bang idea that initiated their journey. Stroh, which details the principles and metrics to follow for fostering innovation in any organization. A startup may start with a focus on one solution, but long-term growth and success requires a range of solutions, with annual innovations on every one.
Startup Professionals Musings
JUNE 23, 2021
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. Incentives should be a combination of metrics and recognition to highlight results.
Startup Professionals Musings
SEPTEMBER 11, 2021
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.” Sometimes it is not the numbers that indicate traction, but who you have signed up.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
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. So we switched to distribution through partners which already had massive amounts of traffic, and concentrated in providing great content and great offers that more than made up for the sharing of revenues. Starting up
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 5, 2013
It is most often missed assumptions about the market, the competition, the speed of adoption, or other critical metrics you’ve researched, or selected, or even just guessed at to create your plan. No-one challenged this number, and it became an unattributed source of the metric for market size for years. Starting up Raising money The biggest error in planning may not be spreadsheet calculation error. Or cost estimation.
SoCal CTO
APRIL 23, 2010
I’ve come to realize that I have lots of posts around startup software development scattered around in different posts. How to Work With a Contract Web Developer How To Bootstrap Your StartupThought it would be good to capture them in one spot and also include links to related posts from other sources.
Berkonomics
DECEMBER 6, 2018
There is no scientific proof, no metric to measure the full meaning of “good.” Starting up Surrounding yourself with talentPeople argue over whether an entrepreneur with a sense of fairness, a desire for collegiality, a want to share the profits can succeed in the long run within a business world full of lions and tigers that eat timid entrepreneurs for lunch. Does a “good heart” diminish the chances of success?
Tech Zulu Event
NOVEMBER 28, 2011
To prove that point, tonight I had the privilege of hearing him speak at Lean LA , a Los Angeles group that helps high tech start-ups build great companies on a budget. Noah completely opened up the kimono, let us peak under his Irish kilt and stood there vulnerable willing to share his honest experience growing his company. Noah has what I believe he called “Thank You metrics”. I am a raving fan of AppSumo.com.
Berkonomics
FEBRUARY 6, 2014
Making the effort to gather metrics from the field in any form and then ignoring it, takes guts and determination – and in most cases a measure of stupidity. Starting up Positioning 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. It’s probably happened, but not often enough to trust this method as a formula for success.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 30, 2014
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. Starting up Positioning Surrounding yourself with talent You’ve surely heard the variations on this theme. Ready, fire aim” was popular in the 1990’s, accredited to any of several authors.
Startup Professionals Musings
DECEMBER 13, 2019
When you are starting a new business, every resource is precious, including time, funding, and people. Some chaos is normal in every new business, but many wait far too long before they install metrics based on “best practices,” and fail to attack obvious bottlenecks with a vengeance.
Berkonomics
JANUARY 16, 2014
Example: percent of ownership, officer/operational, director/board member… What are the parties willing to give up in return for the prospect of business success? Review financial statements – up to 3 years if available. Review tax returns – up to 3 years if available. Clarify operation responsibilities and metrics used to measure performance. Starting up Protecting the business By JJ Richa.
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