Keynote presentation at LeanCamp Madrid 2012. Metrics are key for every startup. This presentation shows some basics about metrics and analytics, with specific examples about how they're being used in 24symbols, a publishing-related startup.

1. Startup metrics:
because everything counts
Justo Hidalgo
jhidalgo@24symbols.com
@justohidalgo

2. Let’s talk about metrics and
startups!

3. Watch this…
500startups’ Dave McClure

4. … and this!
Carsonified’s Ryan Carson

5. Hi!
■ Co-founder,
■ Data Integration and Management,
Product Strategy and Innovation
■ Ph.D. in Computer Science on Data
Integration and Web Automation
■ Ergo: Love Data 
■ @justohidalgo

6. 24symbols is a service to read digital books on
the Internet based on a subscription model
= cloud + social + freemium
@justohidalgo

7. 40000
45000
50000
55000
60000
65000
70000
75000
80000
85000
Nov-11
Dec-11
Jan-12
Feb-12
Mar-12
@justohidalgo
Apr-12
May-12
Jun-12
Jul-12
Aug-12
Sep-12

8. My goals today
Metrics are important
Metrics are useful in many dimensions. Start from day
1
There are some “standards” but focus on actionable
metrics
Get feedback from your experience!

9. What I won’t talk about
A/B Testing
Qualitative measurement
• Competitive landscape, UX quality, …
Standard financial metrics
• Revenue, Balance, Burn rate, Runway, …
All possible metrics in the world
• As many as asses

12. AARRR
Acquire Activate Retain Refer Get Revenue
SEO Landing Content Campaigns Shopping
SEM Page (blogs, Emails cart
Campaigns Product articles, … Subscriptions
Email Features …) Lead Gen
Blogs … Emails …
… Alerts
…
traffic social business

13. AARRR is great for starters…
… but focused on linear acquisition flow

14. Traffic Metrics

15. Acquisition
How do people find your site?

17. @justohidalgo

19. 15 seconds in “La
1”

20. Metrics
Number of visits Distributions (per browser, region,
…)
Bounce rate
Number of page views

21. Pivots? Customer-segment pivot
But always… Cohort Analysis and
Segmentation!!!!

22. AActivation
How sticky is your site?

25. Metrics
# Sign ins!!! Recency (time since user did
85000
something meaningful)
80000
75000
70000
65000
60000
55000
50000
45000
40000
Time per page
Time on site
(and churn as well!!!)

26. Pivots? Channel pivot
Needed faster growth
But 0€ for marketing!
Content is critical but it cannot be an excuse
3rd party channels to increase breadth and
virality

27. Biggest Apple
Reseller in Spain
1-year
subscription to
24s per iPad/Mac
purchased
@justohidalgo

28. AARetention
Why do users come back?

31. Metrics. The standard ones…
Number of unique/returning visitors
Visits over time
Average session time

32. … engagement…
D/WAU: Daily/Weekly Active
Users
MAU: Monthly Active Users
D/WAU
Stickiness =
MAU

33. … but also domain-specific!!!
# Active readers
# Books read per user
Pages read per active
reader per month
Pages read per
paid user per
month

34. Pivots?
Not yet, but:
• Retention and
engagement through FB
is extremely tough
• A confirmation:
engagement is directly
proportional to content

35. 85+ publishers, 10+ in UK and growing
@justohidalgo

36. Social Metrics

37. AARReferral
Do people talk about your site?

38. Types of users
Visitor
Contributor
Distributor

41. Virality
Amplification rate:
• (#shares, #RTs, …)
K-Factor = AR *
conversion rate
• = 1: steady state
• > 1: growth
➤ 1.4 < x < 2.1 => hot &
viral!!!
• < 1: decline

42. The Four Viral App Objectives
% viral hosts
Contact rate per active host
Duration of each active host’s
infectious time period
Infection conversion
Source: http://framethink.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/the-four-viral-app-
objectives-aka-social-network-application-virality-101/

43. Pivots? Engine of growth pivot
1st: Let’s use SEM, …
• Expensive
• Might use it, but carefully
A few campaigns have shown the value of
virality. Focus now:
➤Product built-in viral campaigns (member-get-member)
➤Carefully measure each campaign and see “what sticks”
➤Work on Amplification Rate
➤Improve and enhance the social experience (but watch
out!!!)

44. @justohidalgo

45. Business Metrics

46. AARRRevenue
Do you make money?

49. 3 metrics for SaaS
CMRR
LTV
CACR

50. Churn

51. CMRR
SaaS = recurring revenues
CMRR = Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue
• Recurring + new accounts + new upsells – churn

52. LTV
ARPU *
100%
Churn rate
Lifetime Value =
Source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-calculate-lifetime-value/

53. Customer Acquisition Cost
gross margin per customer
CAC Ratio=
sales/marketing costs per customer
Bessemer: average ratio of SaaS companies = 0.6

54. LTV vs CAC
Of course, LTV > CAC
But, moreover: LTV > 3x CAC

55. Freemium. Conversion Rate
Free
Users
Delayed subscription Premium
(test the service & engage)
Conversion
Rate
Time
@justohidalgo

56. Freemium for Books. Price per page
Price/page
Profit threshold
Growth Consolidation
time/conversion rate
@justohidalgo

57. Pivots? Too soon, but… Channel pivot
http://www.businessinsider.com/state-of-internet-slides-2012-10?op=1

58. Tools

67. Conclusions

69. @justohidalgo

70. 2. Have someone taking care of it

71. 3. Only measure what you truly care about
@justohidalgo

72. But again, choose right

73. 4. Beware vanity metrics…

74. … they may hide an awful truth

75. Thanks for your time!
Justo Hidalgo
http://www.loscuentosdelabuelo.com
jhidalgo@24symbols.com
@justohidalgo

76. Credits
Olivier Guin, from The Noun Project
Dima Yagnyuk, from The Noun Project
Redesign from Otl Aicher’s icon, from The Noun Project
Axsys, from The Noun Project
Monika Ciapala, from The Noun Project
Rob Schill, from The Noun Project
Martin Karachorov, from The Noun Project
Alexandre Mendes, from The Noun Project
All other icons from The Noun Project
Publishers trademarks, logos and brands belong to their
respective companies.