Setting KPIs based on revenue growth is crucial for startups to build something people want.
Prioritize tasks that align with your KPIs to ensure progress towards product-market fit.
Deep dives
Importance of KPIs and prioritization
Prioritization plays a crucial role in an early-stage startup's success. As a founder, it is important to choose how you spend your time wisely each day. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help in measuring what matters and track whether your efforts are effective. By prioritizing tasks that align with your KPIs, you can ensure progress towards product-market fit.
Choosing the right KPIs
The primary KPI for most startups should be revenue growth, as it indicates building something people want. Secondary KPIs, such as retention and unit economics, contribute to revenue growth. It's important to avoid falling into the trap of vanity metrics and focus on what truly moves your business forward. Setting targets based on top-down and bottoms-up approaches helps ensure ambitious yet realistic goals.
Avoiding common pitfalls and staying focused
When prioritizing, be wary of fake progress tasks that provide a false sense of accomplishment. Steer clear of tasks that don't directly contribute to revenue growth, like passive fundraising conversations or optimizing technical benchmarks. To avoid common pitfalls, be honest with yourself, take risks, and learn from failures. Prioritize upside chasing over downside protection, and don't spend excessive time on small problems when there's a bigger existential one at hand. Stay focused on growth and making progress towards product-market fit.
YC Visiting Group Partner Divya Bhat talks about how to set your KPIs (key metrics) and how to prioritize your time. This talk helps founders launch faster and set goals in order to make real progress.
Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs
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