Question: What's the most important success metric you track in your startup? Why?
Referrals From Current Clients
"We love tracking exactly where our leads come from, and the best ones tend to be referrals from current clients. This is extremely important to us because outside of the ROI benefit, it means that we're doing a great job delivering and keeping our customers happy enough to spread the word!"
@patrick_conley
Payment Failures
"Although it's not a success metric, I insist on tracking how many payment failures are occurring with a business. I track this not only because it impacts revenue, but also because rising payment failures could mean we're not reaching the right audience or conveying the value of our programs and services. And those are bigger failures than a bad credit card."
@krazevedo
User Engagement
"Tracking visits and signups is important, but we focus more on how long a user spends on our website than just how many people simply came to our website. It provides a more realistic figure on which we can base our success."
@moneycrashers
Committed Weekly Recurring Gross Profit
"We've built a metric that we call committed weekly recurring gross profit, which measures the percentage increase in weekly committed recurring profit. Unlike monthly recurring revenue, this includes all sales made in the last week and only focuses on gross profit, not revenue. It gives us a week-to-week number the entire staff can see and shows us the week-to-week health of the company."
@vtamethodman
Conversion Rate
"Whether it's converting new users or converting new customers, knowing these numbers tells us a lot about where we are with our value proposition, messaging and conversion pipeline. By not converting, we can learn a lot about our business and the needs of our audience. Don't just listen to your users or customers, but also listen to those who tell you "no." "
@andykaruza
Repeat Users
"No matter how many users your site may have, the real proof of success is having those users come back. If 1,000 people sign up in a week, but only 5 percent come back, there is a real problem with your business, and you need to evaluate what it is. The repeat customer proves that your site has more than a free product to offer; it's something they like and want to use. "
@aronschoenfeld
Client Change
"We're a services business, so growth and revenue are hugely important, but it's paramount that we measure and consider the change in our clients' growth and business as a metric. If we've helped them develop a culture, then we want to see a change in employee engagement. If we've helped them build a talent strategy, then we want to see a reduction in time to hire or increases in retention of high-potential talent."
@SusanLaMotte
