Master of 500 Hats

Silicon Valley 2.0: The Startup Metrics Revolution (Tokyo, Dec 2008)

I'm giving a Startup Metrics presentation in Tokyo today... for those of you who've seen it before, it's modestly updated.  here is the latest & greatest:

Silicon Valley 2.0: The Startup Metrics Revolution (Tokyo, Dec 2008)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dave.mcclure tokyo)

Employees Suck. Don't Be One. Don't Hire One.

absolutely awesome presentation by John Buckman, given at LeWeb 2008 in Paris, about how to build incredible one-person companies that just don't suck:

Employees Suck

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: le web)

Startup Metrics Revolution: Tokyo, Japan (Fri 12/19)

at the moment I'm on my way to Paris for the LeWeb conference... but after i get back to Silicon Valley, almost immediately i'm headed off to Japan for a family visit and to hang out with some friends in Tokyo.

i'll be in Japan from 12/16 thru 01/08, and on Friday 12/19 i'm speaking at an event i'm putting together with Andrew Shuttleworth and his friends who run the Tokyo 2.0 meetup.  I'm doing an afternoon presentation on Startup Metrics called:

Silicon Valley 2.0: The Startup Metrics Revolution

Some of the material is similar to my Startup Metrics for Pirates presentation i've given previously at Startonomics and Web 2.0 Expo, but we'll also add a few new twists. Here's a brief description (i'll update as we have more details):

Silicon Valley is re-booting... again.  As the rest of the US economy gets turned upside-down, startups in silicon valley are getting used to a lot less capital, and a lot more numbers.  The "Web 2.0" startup model has matured, and internet startups are now applying a more scientific & metrics-oriented approach to their business, and a more cash-conscious approach to funding & operations.  The best startups now build products on a budget of less than $1M (some for under $100K), and use startup dashboards & web analytics tools to measure user behavior, product usage, feature conversion, and marketing effectiveness.  They also use rapid development, fast iteration cycles, and a/b / multivariate testing tools to optimize product features & marketing programs.

If you are a startup entrepreneur, developer, investor, or technology business executive, this 3-hour lecture & workshop will show you how to put together your own business metrics framework for your startup or company. The workshop will focus primarily on how to use a simple 5-step model for startup metrics (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) to make better product & marketing decisions. We'll show you how the model works, how to apply it to your business, and we'll do live "Startup Makeover" reviews for 5-10 companies. Examples & variations on the model will be explored for several types of startups, and we'll cover the following topics: creating a basic user conversion dashboard, defining your company & product keyword vocabulary, selecting & evaluating marketing channels, testing & optimizing landing pages, setting up simple email strategies for user retention, and designing a business model that will attract investors.

to see more of what you'll get, here is the latest version of my Startup Metrics presentation (from Startonomics SF, Oct 2008):

Startup Metrics For Pirates: AARRR! (Startonomics SF Oct 2008)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aarrr metrics)

hope you'll join us for a fun session in Tokyo!

NOTE: for Silicon Valley geeks who would like to tag along and visit Tokyo, we're gathering a small group of geeks to head over for about a week (altho i'm staying thru New Year's).  If you'd like to join us, twitter or email me for info.  I'll be flying over on Tue 12/16 out of SFO on a JAL flight at noon, along with a few friends.  Come visit Tokyo & meet some Japanese entrepreneurs!

Some new & old startup blogs & presos i'm in love with

in no particular order, here are links to a few new books, blogs, & presentations i'm falling in love with lately (plus a few not-so-new-but-awesome old ones too).

• Startup Lessons Learned (blog, Eric Ries)
• Customer Development Methodology (preso, Steve Blank)
• Four Steps to the Epiphany (book, Steve Blank)
• LaserLike (blog, Mike Speiser)
• Revenue Metrics (preso, Andrew Chen)
• Futuristic Play (blog, Andrew Chen)
• Startup-Marketing (blog, Sean Ellis)
• Sit, Stay, Click!  Making Users Beg for More (preso, Ted Rheingold)
• Zappo's: Customer Service & Company Culture (video, Tony Hsieh)
• Designing & Optimizing the DNA of a Killer App (preso+sound, Dan Olsen)
• Putting the Fun in Functional (preso, Amy Jo Kim)
• Copywriting Tips for Online Marketing Success (blog, Brian Clark aka CopyBlogger)
• ProBlogger (blog, Darren Rowse)
• Reality Check (book, Guy Kawasaki)
• Groundswell (book, Charlene Li)
• The Altimeter (blog, Charlene Li)
• Almost as Good as Chocolate (Shripriya Mahesh)
• KISSmetrics (blog, KISSmetrics.com)
• Startup Founder Evolution (blog, Tony Wright)

apologies to all the amazing folks i'm forgetting about... i'm sure you are many and wonderful, and i'll remember just as soon as hit publish.  will try to add some more if i can.

Hawaii Here We Come.

Now this is what i call work.

Me & Saya & the kids are headed to Hawaii in the morning. We're arriving at Kona on the Big Island, spending a few days at the Fairmont Orchid to relax & schmooze w/ hoi-polloi @ The Lobby. 

Saya's parents & grandma are also flying in from Tokyo to meet us there & see the grandkids.  should be lots O' fun :)

RIP Good Times my ass... let's get this party started.

Got SchadenFreude? Profit from Other's Despair -- Enter the SlideShare "Credit Crisis in 30 Slides Contest" (Judges: Cuban, Varian, Kedrosky, Wilson)

Can you explain why High Finance is/isn't Going to Hell in a Handbasket in 30 slides or less?  Terrific. 

Enter the SlideShare Credit Crisis Contest (C^3) and you might win an iTouch, Nano, or Shuffle.  (yeah we know the prizes are cheap, but listen up mofo we're trying to preserve cash)

The Credit Crisis in 30 slides contest

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Credit Crisis Contest judges include:

• Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks owner / Entrepreneur)
• Hal Varian (Google Chief Economist)
• Paul Kedrosky (Finance Guru & Blogger)
• Fred Wilson (Venture Capitalist Pauper)

Mark Cuban	Hal Varian	Paul Kedrosky	Fred Wilson

just remember folks: the Startup you Save might be your Own.

Fear is the Mind Killer of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur (we must be Muad'Dib, not Clark Kent)

Okay folks... i am getting really fucking tired of all your

negative shit. 

yeah, i know it's gonna be tough.  and the credit crunch / downturn / whatchamacallit has already changed the balance of power from entrepreneur to investor in less than a month.  if you are lucky enough to *GET* financing, your term sheets are gonna suck ass (learn about liquidation preferences & protective provisions). if you are running an existing startup, you are probably going to have to cut spending, cut hiring, and you may even end up firing people / doing layoffs.  and then you pay taxes and then you die. 

sorry, life's a bitch.

but listen up:

• Silicon Valley isn't Wall Street.
• Internet Startups are not mortgage finance companies.
• and... Entrepreneurs are not supposed to be Clark Kent.

in other words... WAKE. the FUCK. UP.

if you came to Silicon Valley to do a startup (or to join one), it ain't always fun & games.  this isn't Disneyland, or a Harlequin romance novel (unless of course you're Tom Perkins).  you don't always win every hand of poker, you don't always get a free lunch, an Aeron chair, or free child care. 

the popular [mis]conception of startups being free rides to a pile of cash and/or stock options is just so much horse shit.

twenty years ago, i moved out to Silicon Valley after graduating from college.  i did not do so with the intent to get rich quick, but neither to live among sheep.  i came here for geeks & technology, ultimate frisbee, and a free-wheeling, entrepreneurial spirit that has electrified the valley since The Traitorous Eight walked out of Shockley Semiconductor over 50 years ago and started a Revolution.

while i don't profess to understand credit or capital markets, i do know that internet startups cost less money than ever to get started. and unless i missed something, there are more people online now than ever, spending more money online than ever.  and i doubt any of these trends will likely reverse in the long-term -- lower costs, more people online, more e-commerce.  doesn't that seem like a pretty good environment for building new online businesses?  if not, then what the fuck are you doing here?  go back home & get a safe job in insurance or mortgage appraisals (oh, wait a sec...)

the long-term macro trend of growing global internet e-commerce has been the foundation of my own personal startup bets, and why i plan to continue to invest going forward.  the companies and people i bet on HAVE to be both optimistic & opportunistic, if only because THE ODDS AGAINST STARTUPS SUCK ***ALL*** THE TIME, not just in downturns.  you damn well *better* have a positive attitude, or you're just never going to get out of bed in the morning.

you mean the current market environment scares you?

try making payroll on credit card advances when you're carrying over $100K in personal debt (been there).  try dealing with your servers being stolen on new year's day while you're in the middle of trying to close an acquisition (yeah, that sucked too). try looking yourself in the face every morning, knowing 10-20 people depend on you for their jobs & families & kids, and feeling like you're completely inadequate to the task and can't hide it (every day for 3 years).

being an entrepreneur is a friggin' FEAR FACTORY, and a living nightmare every day of the week. this is nothing new.  4 out of 5 small businesses fail within the first few years, and the odds aren't that much different for startups.  you are going to be embarrassed, ashamed, labeled as an idiot, shunned, ridiculed, and occasionally driven from the village with pitchforks.  on average, YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL. MULTIPLE TIMES, in NEW & INTERESTING ways.

GET USED TO IT.

in fact, the more you are used to failing -- and failing fast, with data on how you fail -- the better off you will be.  for a great presentation on how to use speed & fast failure as the ultimate startup weapon, check out mike cassidy's presentation on SPEED: The Ultimate Startup Weapon.

Best Strategy Is Speed (Startup2Startup May 2008)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: stylus.innovation xfire)

and while we're at it, let me take on this issue of "conserving cash".  personally, i think it's the wrong message.  the point is not to spend less cash.  the point is to FIND YOUR FRIGGIN' BUSINESS MODEL.  if you know which direction you're going, it's ok to RUN... on the other hand, if you have no friggin clue where you going, it doesn't matter how slow you crawl you ain't gonna get there. you can slow down your spend until you figure out your business, but once you DO understand it, then by all means STEP ON THE GAS!  use your cash effectively to build product features, expand marketing, and hopefully use cash-flow positive arbitrage to MAKE MONEY.

to put it more succinctly: in a down market, it's even more important for you to understand the fundamental metrics of your startup, how activation & retention work, how customer acquisition & referral work, and how to make money.  these were always important, just more so now when people are looking harder at #'s.

*PLUG*: for more about how to learn more about Startup Metrics, see our recently completed STARTonomics conference. 

Silicon Valley has never been without risk or fear.  in fact, quite the opposite -- Silicon Valley is rife with fear & paranoia.  and yet GOOD entrepreneurs somehow manage to overcome their fear, somehow make their hopes & dreams bigger than their fear, somehow manage to find imaginative solutions to problems whilst being backed into a corner by a guy with a .44 Magnum who outweighs them by 75 lbs, and nothing in his pockets but a butter knife and a paper clip.  it doesn't matter.

and so i leave you with this:

the true Silicon Valley entrepreneur will find a way around these obstacles.  the true Silicon Valley entrepreneur is not frightened by a "down market".  they are not daunted by VCs who now have massive leverage.  and they are not going to back down.  the true Silicon Valley entrepreneur is full of optimism,  and sees the world as his or her oyster.

you are MacGyver. 

you are Jeanne d'Arc.

you are Luke Skywalker. 

you are Paul FUCKING Atreides, and the SPICE must FLOW, motherfucker.

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

Startonomics SF 2008: Yeah, We Rocked Your Face.

Summary of Startonomics SF 2008:

We Came, We Measured, We Conquered. 

  [mike drop to tha floor...]

all presentations & videos available via SlideShare and UStream, also on the Startonomics Blog.  additional coverage on CNet / Webware and Mashable, and other smart blogs. presos below via new SlideShare presentation pack widget:

| Get your Presentation Pack

look for us to hit the LA area sometime in January; other locations in 2009.  to hear about future Startonomics events, follow the Startonomics twitter acct @ STNX. much props to our speakers, sponsors, & supporters... and especially to Debbie Landa & the team at Dealmaker Media for kicking so much hiney.

STARTonomics is NEXT Thurs 10/2 in SF (seats going fast, register now b4 we sell out...)

Hope you folks are registered for STARTonomics next Thursday 10/2 in SF... if not, hurry up & register now, FOOL!  we've had a rush of signups in the last few days, so get in now before we sell out.

here's a preview of our speakers & sessions for next week:

Startonomics: Simple, Actionable Metrics for Startup Success

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: dealmaker.media 500.hats)

Time	Session	Who
9:00 - 9:30	Welcome to Startonomics & Startup Metrics for Pirates (AARRR!) Overview of conference agenda + Intro to Startonomics: how to create simple, actionable metrics to help startups make better decisions in product development & marketing.	Dave McClure 500 Hats LLC
9:30 - 10:00	Product Development 101: Designing & Optimizing the DNA of a Killer App What does it take to plan, research, and develop a great web 2.0 application?  Learn tips & best practices for setting the right process, goals, and metrics for your startup.	Dan Olsen YourVersion
10:00 - 10:30	Scalability for Startups: How to Grow Up without Blowing Up How do startups balance performance and scalability vs. fast iteration and cost efficiency? Learn how to scale your startup without blowing up, or overdoing it.	Frank Mashraqi Give Real
10:30 - 11:00	Break
11:00 - 11:30	Putting the Fun in Functional: New Trends in Applying Game Design to Web 2.0 Startups Find out how traditional game design mechanics can be used to make a website more compelling & engaging.	Amy Jo Kim Shuffle Brain
11:30 - 12:00	Marrying Design & Development: a Match made in Heaven, not Hell Learn about the basic fundamentals of web design, and find out how developers and designers can work together to create great websites and applications.	Jeff Veen Small Batch, Inc. Erika Hall Mule Design Studio
12:00 - 12:30	Sit! Stay! Click!  How to Create a Website that Makes Users Beg for More The best startups engage their users as fans for life.  Find out how to get users to fall in love with your website, and keep them coming back for more.	Ted Rheingold Dogster, Inc.
12:30 - 1:30	Lunch
1:30 - 2:00	Creating & Implementing a Web 2.0 Marketing Plan How to design and implement an online marketing plan for acquiring users from multiple marketing channels, how to prioritize & mix channels based on stage of startup growth.	Sean Ellis Startup Marketing
2:00 - 2:30	Searching for Users: SEO as an Engine for Customer Acquisition Learn SEO strategies and techniques for acquiring startup users & customers from search engines, links, & blogging.	Stephan Spencer Netconcepts
2:30 - 3:00	Social Media & Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Startups Digg, Delicious, Twitter.  Word of mouth has never been sexier.  Learn how to use social media & social bookmarking to spread the word to your mother.	Muhammad Saleem ACS
3:00 - 3:30	Arch Viral: Creating Social Apps for Social Platforms Facebook & MySpace are the largest social networks on the planet.  Find out how to create a social application for these platforms that's so viral it's an epidemic.	Lance Tokuda RockYou
3:30 - 4:00	Break
4:00 - 4:30	Revenue: The Internet Wants to Be Free, but You Need to Get Paid Learn how to generate revenue using a variety of business models & strategies including advertising, digital goods, subscriptions, lead generation, & e-commerce.	Andrew Chen Futuristic Play
4:30 - 5:00	Customer Service is the New Marketing Want more customers?  No problem... just deliver great customer service.  Find out how to make satisfaction  your most valuable viral marketing campaign.	Thor Muller Get Satisfaction
5:00 - 5:30	Funding Wisdom: What I Wish I Knew Then Forget the school of hard knocks - this is your chance to hear what 3 successful startup executives learned about the funding process, including timing considerations, types of funding, term sheets and working with investors.	Saar Gur Charles River Ventures Peter Pham BillShrink Manish Chandra Kaboodle Garrett Camp StumbleUpon
6:00 - 9:00	After Party Reception hosted by MySpace.com

SeedCamp 2008: congrats to BaseKit, Kyko, MobClix, Soup, Stupeflix, Toksta, UberVu :)

I had a great time being an advisor / mentor for SeedCamp 2008 in London this past week.  i'll be writing up a longer post on my experience there over the weekend, but just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the winners, as well as other startups & advisors who participated.  In particular, thanks to Saul Klein & Reshma Sohoni for inviting me over to London to present my Startup Metrics for Pirates (AARRR!) talk for the SeedCamp participants... it was a blast :)

Congrats to the SeedCamp 2008 winners:

• Basekit, Chepstow, Wales, England – www.basekit.com – a service for making building complex websites easy
• Kyko (nee Babuki), Oxford, England – a service for multi-player social gaming
• Mobclix, San Francisco, US – www.mobclix.com – rich analytics and targeted advertising platform for the iPhone
• Soup, Vienna, Austria – www.soup.io – simple way for anyone to share and publish experiences online
• Stupeflix, Paris, France – www.stupeflix.com – platform for turning photos into shareable videos in real time
• Toksta, Berlin, Germany – www.toksta.com – IM and video chat for social networks
• uberVU, Bucharest, Romania – www.ubervu.com – service for tracking and analyzing conversations across the web

Seedcamp Day 5  Highlights from Seedcamp on Vimeo.