A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

Marketo filed for IPO with impressive 80% year-over-year growth in 2012, with almost $60m in revenue. time to earn back the revenue to cover all your customer acquisition expenses) 75% annual retention. Drastically reduce the cost of customer acquisition. Except, they lost $35m. It’s not impressive when you spend $1.60

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

It’s easy to get lost down the rabbit hole of metrics for your business. When it comes to getting the most out of your website performance, only certain metrics are what you can consider key performance indicators. For websites, this can include “sales volume,” “number of visits,” “average cart value,” and a variety of other metrics.

Metrics 121

Metrics Acquisition Conversion Revenue 121

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 2, 2013

Multi-channel attribution was the flavor of the month for every month in 2012. And just as in 2012 magic pills will be scarce, FUD will be plentiful, and vendors will promise the moon. On top of the graph click on Select A Metric and choose Goal Conversion Rate. Did you realize your acquisition was distinct on mobile?

Analytics 160

Analytics Search Campaign eCommerce 160

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. Note : not including vintages > 2012 because they have not been fully baked and there is some noise. For a primer, I would recommend refreshing yourself here. Ok, let’s jump in. State of VC: are we in a bubble? Source: Cambridge Associates.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. Note : not including vintages > 2012 because they have not been fully baked and there is some noise. For a primer, I would recommend refreshing yourself here. Ok, let’s jump in. State of VC: are we in a bubble? Source: Cambridge Associates.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

www.readwriteweb.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Along those lines, last week, Ryan Carson, co-founder of Carsonified offered a list of six key metrics for your web app and how to track them. CACR Definition : CACR is "Customer Acquisition Cost Ratio." CPA Definition : CPA is "Cost per Acquisition." Are there any additional metrics you think SaaS companies should track?

Metrics 58

Metrics CPA Illinois Acquisition 58

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 23, 2011

The sales productivity ratio (measured with the Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC ratio) are also fairly similar for the two groups (except for a small cap dip in Q4 09) and therefore do not explain the difference Why is scale so much rewarded by public markets? (1). ► 2012. (1). SaaS business metrics: why are they different?

Software Review 101

Software Review Technical Review Valuation Europe 101

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 21, 2013

Last year’s conference was no exception: speakers talked about their direct experience with practices you may need help implementing—things like metrics, feedback, and experimentation. This year’s conference will go deeper on advanced entrepreneurship topics, and we wanted to get you up to speed on some of the key ideas from 2012.

Lean 167

Lean Louisville Startup Metrics 167

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

While poised with a limited number of transactions this year, the world of public Cloud Computing and SaaS companies has been marked by two events in the past few months: the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe and the high profile IPO of LogMeIn, a leading provider of PC remote access and support with a very interesting freemium model.

Software Review 48

Software Review Technical Review IPO Cloud 48

VC Adventure

JANUARY 31, 2014

Or if you want to compare how they did in 2012 to 2013, just read Rand’s post Announcing Moz’s 2012 Metrics, Acquisition of AudienceWise, & Opening of Our Portland Office. When Rand Fishkin decided to hand the CEO reins over the Sarah Bird, he wrote Swapping Drivers on this Long Road Trip Together.

Portland 93

Portland Acquisition Metrics Revenue 93

The Equity Kicker

JULY 3, 2012

The aQuantive acquisition came hot on the heals of Google’s $3.1bn acquisition of Doubleclick and was clear evidence of Microsoft’s ambitions to be a serious player in online advertising. Yesterday Microsoft announced the write off of $6.2bn of the $6.3bn it paid for interactive ad company aQuantive in 2007.

Exit Strategy 96

Exit Strategy Acquisition Advertising Metrics 96

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Conventional wisdom suggests that the most important metrics for a startup - such as unit economics, cost of acquisition, lifetime value, churn rates - typically get better with time. One of the themes I explore in the class is the tough reality that many metrics can actually get worse over time for a startup. in 2009 to $11.80

Metrics 20

Metrics Churn Rate Acquisition SEM 20

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Warning – this assumes some basic knowledge of VC performance metrics. Note : not including vintages > 2012 because they have not been fully baked and there is some noise. For a primer, I would recommend refreshing yourself here. Ok, let’s jump in. State of VC: are we in a bubble? Source: Cambridge Associates.

Valuation 156

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 156

Cracking the Code

MARCH 12, 2010

The SaaS growth recovery does not seem to take a "V" shape 2) Sales productivity is ramping up: bottom was hit in the first half of 2009 However, the sales and productivity of the group, measured by the median "Customer Acquisition Cost ratio" or "CAC ratio", seems to be recovering more steeply. ► 2012. (1). Online Gaming. (1).

Software Review 63

Software Review Technical Review Cloud Forecast 63

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 8, 2009

But does Larry hate cloud computing that much or is he hiding a potential future acquisition of Salesforce.com? ► 2012. (1). SaaS business metrics: why are they different? A funny video of Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle on Cloud Computing. It was taken at a Churchill Club event last month. Online Gaming. (1). software.

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Venture Capital 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

But in 2012 a visit to any major college in America will show you the massive increase in aspirations of our young talent to become the next Mark Zuckerberg and build a future Facebook. So it is unsurprising that an over-funding environment and the commensurate returns hangover would have lasted until about – well – 2012.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Mobile 347

www.ere.net

JULY 15, 2012

Common reason for failure: no metric or feedback mechanism to measure the percentage of applications that were routed to the wrong job. Common reason for failure: the absence of a metric or feedback mechanism to measure the percentage of applications that were misclassified or that advanced without meeting minimum standards.

Hiring 57

Hiring Metrics Search Widget 57

David Cohen

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

FounderCon 2012 was an incredible three days packed with networking, amazing keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and bonding over group meals and a rousing game of Werewolf. Thanks to all of you who came out and helped make FounderCon 2012 a huge success. Every year, all the TechStars alumni and staff come together for FounderCon.

Boston 83

Boston Cofounder Software Engineering Acquisition 83

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

” April, 2012 – Andrew Chen writes Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing , which goes viral (2.4K September 2012 – Aaron Ginn, who currently does growth at Everlane , writes Defining A Growth Hacker: Three Common Characteristics to help define the term. via AndrewChen.co). ” Creativity. via TechCrunch).

Retention 48

Retention Metrics Acquisition Conversion 48

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

I also advised Antonio to defer his investor road show and even customer acquisition programs until this basic positioning exercise is in place. Cristina currently has a couple of large customers in pilot mode, and is starting to show metrics on how much improvement IDES can deliver over existing analytics engines. IDES Technologies.

Partner 117

Partner Belgium Portugal Bootstrapping 117

ConversionXL

APRIL 28, 2020

SiriusDecisions Rearchitected Demand Waterfall (2012). I also liked the DemandGen Framework because it considered customer expansion revenue in addition to the acquisition side , which is covered by the SiriusDecisions models. If you’re doing outbound, this version of the funnel doesn’t account for that. Image source ).

Demand 101

Demand Revenue SQL B2B 101

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 5, 2013

In January 2012, it was announced by comScore that Pinterest was the fastest website ever to reach 10 million unique visitors. The tool provides you with important metrics like group board followers, collaborators, total pins, number of repins, creator and last updated, to give you an idea of the popularity and activity on each board.

Social Media 76

Social Media Social Network Channel HTML 76

Hunter Walker

MARCH 23, 2015

This means PMs at Foursquare have a whole slew of responsibilities that PMs at Google rarely touch like product-level roadmap planning, owning and driving company-level growth metrics, and working directly with marketing on user acquisition. We are lucky to have them, their advice, and their patient capital.

Product 48

Product Founder Search Engineer 48

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

Its Ok to Exit a Little Early -StubHub was experiencing great growth and hitting its metrics when Ebay acquired the company in early 2007 It is quite possible that Jeff could have gotten a higher price for the company by waiting, but felt there were a number of benefits to exiting when they did. ► 2012. (1). Newer Post.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review San Jose Angel Investor Silicon Valley 28

Occam's Razor

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

They are slow to grasp new opportunities to rethink customer relationships, to revolutionize products and services, marketing, advertising, acquisition, and to deliver delight and make people happy. Customer acquisition. Re-think Customer Acquisition, Brand Engagement. Why not rethink acquisition? Celebrate a little.

Acquisition 146

Acquisition Mobile Customer Marketing 146

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

Conference 2012. So, we chose a business concept, established the pain point, discussed the solution, identified monetization and customer acquisition strategies, and assessed market opportunity. Acquisition. Thursday, March 8, 2012, 6pm - 9pm. Thursday, March 8, 2012, 7pm – 9:30pm. female founders. founder friday.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

ConversionXL

AUGUST 12, 2016

It’s a common acronym that gets thrown around in the SaaS world that’s basically a “businessy” way of saying “important metrics for tracking your business.” The Metrics That Matter. MRR is probably the most critical metric for any subscription business. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Is it starved of leads?

Software Review 48

Software Review Metrics Revenue Acquisition 48

View from Seed

AUGUST 30, 2016

Acquisitions are happening more and more, while companies like PillPack, Actifio, CarGurus, OnShape, Acquia, Applause, and others continue to march forward. Incepted in 2012, Alignable’s platform hit the market in 2014, and since then, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of business owners in North America join.

Social Media 185

Social Media B2B North America Media 185

YoungUpstarts

MAY 5, 2017

The company’s ascension, chronicled in “ Becoming Facebook “ , is a business adventure of unprecedented growth, game-changing acquisitions, recovery from a chaotic IPO and a continuing defense against foes large and small. Decide On, and Obsess About, Your North Star Metric. Above all, that climb was no accident.

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley IPO Metrics Global 150

Tim Keane

JUNE 13, 2006

In general, the first part of the discussion runs to whether or not your numbers are tied to metrics with an underlying set of assumptions, or if they are simply a function of a mathematically applied growth rate. In our first startup, my partners and I built a customer acquisition model and tested it. October 2012. April 2013.

Wisconsin 60

Wisconsin Entrepreneur Startup Angel Investor 60

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

Ben is currently VP Product at GoInstant, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2012. It turns out that the cost of customer acquisition for consumers was too high compared to the revenue being generated. “In Most consumer apps get around the high acquisition costs with some sort of virality, but backup isn’t viral. Hopefully not.

Lean 284

Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

Agile VC

AUGUST 12, 2011

” The challenge is that while there’s a simple answer, it’s not one that can be easily distilled into a set of metrics that can be followed as a cookie cutter plan. 4) Metric momentum – Everybody likes those up and to the right graphs. 10 July 2012, 7:05 pm Why Do VC’s Have Ownership Targets?

Seed Stage 113

Seed Stage Silicon Valley B2B Acquisition 113

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

The chart below shows their financial performance over the last few years, with forecasted 2012 revenue of $767M and EBITDA of $339M. I took a few of the relevant metrics – unique visitors, revenue and market capitalization – and calculated a few ratios to demonstrate how good a job TripAdvisors does at monetizing their users.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

ConversionXL

JUNE 16, 2016

While Twitter’s growth is currently disappointing investors , it grew rapidly from 2010 to 2012. Here’s a look at pirate metrics (AARRR) as designed by Dave McClure of 500 Startups … Image Source. For optimizers, those descriptions are a bit different… Acquisition: Optimizing emails, PPC ads, etc.

Framework 48

Framework Programming Metrics Engineer 48

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Building Metrics / Usage Reports / KPI 3. Product/Metrics (70%/30% time) * Get your product activation (sign-up + meaningful action) to 60% * then, Get your product retention to 20% weekly. 10) Metrics.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Effectively measuring and understanding your CAC and CLTV metrics are key to future success. Bessemer SaaS Law #1: Your key monthly business metrics are: CMRR (Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue), Churn, and Cash flow - “Bookings” is for suckers. Brian, Paglo www.paglo.com. Great list! Great list! Philippe Botteri.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

crowdSPRING Blog

JANUARY 10, 2012

This is not surprising and confirmed by other recent survey data, including a survey from StrongMail on 2012 marketing trends). Although it’s not clear how most businesses track this – many use customer acquisition as the key success metric. Fans/friends/followers are also an important metric (see graph below).

Social Media 96

Social Media Small Business Media Metrics 96