Steve Blank

JUNE 20, 2022

How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? I just had coffee with Anthony, a friend who was just hired as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a large company (30,000+ people.) Instrument the process with metrics and diagnostics. Get out of the office.

CTO 368

CTO Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Incubator 368

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Define hard (data) and soft (anecdotal) metrics on the change, as well as on the quality of your leadership. That means you have to start with assessing the current state against the same metrics, before you can assess progress or change. Make sure metric results are available to the team, to keep them motivated.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Simple metrics and your personal knowledge of the industry can’t keep up with all the relevant competitive forces. Select new hires with attention to values. You need a platform that is comfortable with the global scope of today’s market, with it’s wide range of social and economic cultures, trends, and needs.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

ConversionXL

JULY 21, 2022

By focusing intently on a single measurement, known as a north star metric. The north star metric defines success for the whole company and aligns teams on a growth trajectory. In this article, you’ll learn how other growing companies use the north star metric to achieve customer success. Customer-centricity. Accountability.

Metrics 120

Metrics Acquisition Revenue .Net 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Even after many years mentoring entrepreneurs and advising businesses, I continue to be surprised by the primary focus on products and processes, and the often incidental attention to hiring and nurturing the right people. Don’t let one incident, observation, rumor, or misunderstanding cause a rush to judgement, or hiring mistake.

Analytics 303

Analytics Hiring Open Source Employee 303

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2025

Prioritize growth as the primary metric for fundraising: For Silicon Valley investors, growth is the most important factor, even more so than the team or past experience. Focus on increasing average talent with each hire and hire slowly: Your early employees should ideally be smarter and slightly more risk-averse than the founders.

Cofounder 88

Cofounder Silicon Valley Technical Review PR 88

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. So your Q1 results will be $180,000 less profitable than if you hadn’t hired them. Hiring more people isn’t always the right answer.

Startup 418

Startup Revenue Technical Review Flash 418

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Technical Review 323

Technical Review Due Diligence Valuation Leadership 323

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Metrics are used to manage process rather than creation of new capabilities, outcomes and speed to deployment. This typically plays out in three ways: Often the first plan from leadership for innovation is hiring management consultants who bring out their 20th-century playbook. The consultants reorganize the company (surprise!),

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Metrics like Return on Net Assets, Return on Capital and Internal Rate of Return are the guiding stars of the board and CEO. As Harvard professor Clayton Christensen noted, these efficiency metrics provided wise guidance for times when capital was scarce and raising money was hard. Ultimately this is not just another staff function.

Private Equity 330

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 330

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

In his classic book, “ The Leadership Capital Index ,” Dave Ulrich, a best-selling author, business consultant, and business school professor, provides some real insights and metrics on what makes up the elements of goodwill in the minds of top valuation experts. I have paraphrased his key points here as follows: Leader personal impact.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. I always push companies to hire “an operationally focused CFO” during this phase because in order to systematize you need somebody who brings economic rigor to decision making. As an early-stage VC I love this phase.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen. It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Make your service deliver process “happy.”

Technical Review 385

Technical Review Salary Metrics Matching 385

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

Define realistic metrics to keep track of progress. You need metrics to incentivize the right team behaviors. Be sure to hire and cultivate new talent with the right mindset. Before you act, shut up and listen to employees, customers, and futurists. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

Technical Review 252

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Metrics 252

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2020

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. The risks you want to take are the ones that you planned for in your resources, set up metrics to measure, and manage on an ongoing basis. Customers like leaders, not followers.

Management 322

Management Entrepreneur Forecast Stock Options 322

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2020

Tends to hire helpers and not develop talent. Idea people are so bright that they don’t see the need to leverage the capabilities of others, or hire people smarter than they are in any given domain. When a major initiative is undertaken, they will anticipate the ripple of implications across the organization.

Founder 329

Founder Cofounder Bandwidth Matching 329

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. The risks you want to take are the ones that you planned for in your resources, set up metrics to measure, and manage on an ongoing basis. Customers like leaders, not followers.

Forecast 304

Forecast Stock Options Technical Review Metrics 304

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Define hard (data) and soft (anecdotal) metrics on the change, as well as on the quality of your leadership. That means you have to start with assessing the current state against the same metrics, before you can assess progress or change. Make sure metric results are available to the team, to keep them motivated.

Metrics 271

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 271

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

" Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Hire a CEO to Go Public. The VCs would hire a CEO with a track record who looked and acted like the type of CEO Wall Street bankers expected to see in large companies. The role of the independent member was typically to tell the founding CEO that the VCs were hiring a new CEO.). People had to actually pay you for your product.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 11, 2022

Why Call Tracking Metrics Matter To Your Marketing Efforts written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing. One of my favorite episodes who should be your first hire, what's your funding plan, Dr. Lisa Cravin shares her top advice from building spotlight oral. Marketing Podcast with Todd and Laure Fisher. This is John Jantsch.

Metrics 95

Metrics Marketing Software Review Cofounder 95

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2014

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Trying to save money by recruiting family members, or hiring only interns, is a bad risk. The risks you want to take are the ones that you planned for in your resources, set up metrics to measure, and manage on an ongoing basis. Customers like leaders, not followers.

Startup 283

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 283

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Cashflow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Unlocking the Power of Data: Transforming Metrics into Actionable Insights written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Janstch In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interviewed Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox, an innovative player in the realm of marketing analytics.

Metrics 92

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 92

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2023

These studios have different metrics than startup studios whose limited partners are private family offices or venture capitalists. Firms asking for greater than 60% are actually hiring an employee rather than a founder. Why Would an Entrepreneur Join a Venture Studio? What percentage of equity are they asking for?

Technical Cofounder 368

Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 368

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

He just hired Meg Whitman. Tech IPO prices exploded and subsequent trading prices rose to dizzying heights as the stock prices became disconnected from the traditional metrics of revenue and profits. Startups wrote business plans, generated expansive 5-year forecasts and executed (hired, spent and built) to the plan.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2017

We hired union laborers to do that. And the results weren’t the traditional PR metrics of number of articles or inches of ink. We were constantly doing internal and external audits and creating metrics to see the effects of different PR messages, channels and audiences on customer awareness, purchase intent and end-user sales.

Startup 329

Startup PR Public Relations Channel 329

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 15, 2014

My daily life consists of (a) setting the strategy and rationale of the Engineering & Innovation department, based on a mixture of vision, data, and the needs of the rest of the company, (b) participate in doing the same for the whole company, (c) hire, (d) manage the managers whose teams execute the real work.

CTO Hire 266

CTO Hire RSS Cofounder Algorithm 266

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2021

Hire an SEO professional to help you check for technical SEO issues on a regular basis — at least every six months — and make it a point to update your branding, imagery, and messaging on an annual basis to keep your site feeling fresh. Furthermore, metrics help you continually refine and improve your marketing over time.

Small Business 153

Small Business Marketing Software Review Technical Review 153

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

They help hiring managers raise the bar for every interview. Incorporate AI-powered data and metrics systems. In their recruiting process, they actually have a key insider designated as a “bar raiser” involved in ever interview, to make sure that the bar is never lowered due to any bias or pressing business urgency.

Global 308

Global Marketing Technical Review Agile 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2019

Institute deep metrics measuring all aspects of the customer experience. Raise the bar to avoid the biggest hiring mistakes. At Amazon, every position hire is assigned a “bar raiser” who is independent from the hiring team, and especially recognized for making good hires. Accept no excuses.

Artificial Inteligence 222

Artificial Inteligence Agile Technical Review Demand 222

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

As far as the company goes, an LMS is a great way to cut down on training costs and the time it takes to process and complete the onboarding process for a new hire. Types of Metrics Provided by an LMS. Other metrics provided include reports on peer review activity, fastest answers given, sharing activity, content views, and so on.

Management 173

Management Software Review Metrics Retention 173

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 9, 2019

For many remote (and even regular) companies, company culture is something ethereal and abstract: while the most important metrics (customer engagement and satisfaction, employee turnover and retainment) are closely monitored, features like company culture are often neglected. by Denis Kryukov from Soshace.

Balance Sheet 159

Balance Sheet Web Development Software Engineering Retention 159

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Hire a professional marketing and public relations agency once you have a good revenue stream but you don’t need them to start a free blog, establish Facebook and Twitter accounts with initial content and complete the basics of search engine optimization.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2017

That doesn’t mean you need to hire an expensive recruiter for every position, but it does mean that you must put the same time and effort into finding rockstar people, as you do in building a rockstar solution. Here are ten key questions you should ask in selecting any recruiter or firm: What are your search successful completion metrics?

Search 181

Search Technical Review Differentiation Hiring 181