Measure Twice – Cut Once

As part of the FOWA conference Dave McClure spoke on what startups should measure to enable them the most. While he moved quickly and was a bit hard to follow at times (not to the lack of cuss words) it is evident he knows what he is talking about.

Doug’s 5 Metrics (by color) and Associated Flow

· Why it caught my eye Being a startup myself I was curious on what metrics he would emphasize. About 10:50 in he actually gave his five and hinted throughout that you should actually focus on 2-3. · Would I recommend you watch it?: Perhaps, but you will find yourself rewinding portions of interest to try to catch what he is saying. He moves very fast through the material and the slides are too detailed to capture as he talks. · Most Notable Point: Biggest issue with startups is Marketing and Sales not technical. · When should you fast forward? The hardest hitting points were 6 minutes on · What the audience didn’t hear: He pointed to 3-4 notable bloggers on the concept of startup marketing. I dug up their actual blog URLs in the notes below.

Hope it helps.

*** START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING ***

• Dave McClure – Founders Fund

• http://vimeo.com/6925856

• 0:7.201 – Overview

…….○ Key you are measuring too much stuff … focus on less

…….○ Startup metrics for pirates

…….○ Build a culture of feedback

…….○ Kill a feature

• 2:23.149 – Him

…….○ What he invested in … 9x on Mint

…….○ 13 … 3-4 success

…….○ Founders Fund … 12 seed deals (22 total)

…………..§ Small checks

• 3:49.630 – Measure User Behavior Real Time

…….○ Unique to internet

…….○ Watch customer behavior

• 4:43.26 – Be Humble

…….○ Listen to customers if using products

…….○ Analytic rigor

…….○ Read –> Smartest Person in the Room (blog post)

• 5:45.488 – Make money and users happy

…….○ Measure discontinuous increases in user happiness or value

• 6:33.643 – Startup Metrics (smarter than him … who to read)

…….○ Sean Ellis http://startup-marketing.com/

…….○ Andrew Chen .. http://andrewchenblog.com/

…….○ Eric Ries http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/

…….○ Hiten Shah (hnshah on twitter)

• 7:12.77 – Biggest issues is Marketing issue not technical issue

…….○ Conversion

…….○ Iteration

…….○ Simple & Actionable

…….○ Less = More

…….○ 8:33.429 – Have two options (A / B)

…………..§ Figure out which is better … don’t go w/ just one

…………..§ Shipping new features adds complexity .. Does value offset for net users

…….○ i.e. Uniques to conversion, conversion to purchase, conversion to feedback

• 10:31.903 – Iteration loop

…….○ Lean Startup

• 10:50.904 – Startup Metrics for Pirates

…….○ Acquire (new)

…….○ Activate (like 1st visit – feedback)

…….○ Retention – come back

…….○ Referral – do they refer?

…….○ Revenue –

• 12:6.794 – 5 Step Startup Metrics Model (above)

…….○ Figure out one basic feature users like and will come back for

• 12:50.253 – Startup Pyramid

…….○ Product Market Fit (taking away a feature does it matter?)

…………..§ Process of taking away and see if they care

• 13:25.850 – Roles

…….○ Founder – What to measure

…………..§ Critical few actionable metrics – ones you can answer questions from … is it better or worse .. Trend information versus changes to product

…………..§ Look for 2-3 features

…….○ Product / Engineering – What features make user happy and make $

…………..§ Why are we shipping … why not remove?

…………..§ Kill a feature … what sucks? Every week.

…………..§ Focus on one thing users like … than more features

…………..§ 17:33.723 – The goal is ONE feature that users can’t live without … NOT a suite

…….○ Marketing / Sales – How to access channels (low cost mass distribution)

…………..§ 18:30.613 – High Volume, Low Cost, High Conversion. Map out marketing on this front

• Summary – 19:27.720

…….○ Focus on Good Product (activate, retain)

…….○ Market the product – Acquisition and referral

…….○ Make money –

• 20:5.940 – Links / References

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