What are the key Business Metrics VC’s look at? Why are these Key Metrics vital for a Venture? How to Optimize these Metrics? Join GHV Accelerator’s MENTORS Mukul Singhal (SAIF Partners) and Prajakt Raut (Entrepreneur Evangelist), over our 4th webinar

1. Accelerator with a Difference

2. Prajakt Raut
Co-Founder - Applyifi
Founder – The Hub for
Startups
Mentor @ GHV Accelerator
Prajakt is an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship evangelist. Prajakt's personal goal in life is to
encourage and assist a 100,000 people to become entrepreneurs. Prajakt mentors startups on
strategy, business model & monetization, fundraising and on preparing the company for growth.

3. What are metrics?
Parameters used for quantitative assessment of performance
and progress.
Goals are about where to go - strategy is about how to go -
metrics are about tracking progress of your journey.

4. Startup phase is about discovering what works and
what does not. Scale up phase is about replicating
what worked.
Metrics help you understand what is working and what is not.
Metrics provide early warning signs - whether good or bad.
Helps you adjust your plans
Because you do not want to discover at the very last that you
progressed well, but in a different direction, or were going in the
right direction but at a different pace than estimated.

5. Why track metrics if B-Plans never go as planned? Why metrics
when the startup stage is about unpredictable outcomes?
Precisely because of that. B-Plans provide a framework for a
‘directional roadmap’ on which basis you plan your strategy and align your
resources.
If you do not measure how you are progressing on that plan, you will not have
inputs to help you adjust plans.
Success of a start is NOT in executing a plan well but in adjusting plans
efficiently, appropriately and effectively in order to go in the direction the
venture was intended to.
Metrics help you make better-informed decisions.

6. Some myths about metrics - IT IS NOT ALWAYS ABOUT
IMPROVING YOUR METRICS
• Performance does not always improve with scale e.g.
o Easier to grow faster when smaller
o Early customer acquisition costs may not hold good over time
• Some initial aspects that impact metrics cannot scale e.g.
o E.g. founders selling to companies can have a very different result than sales
teams
o PR efforts and e-mail marketing does not scale beyond a point
o Organically acquired, early customers through connections cannot scale
o SEM, ASO do not scale beyond a point
• Early customer engagement may not hold good at scale
• ARPU may decline over time

7. Prioritize on different metrics at different stages of the venture
Concept stage
• Discover insights about the problem you want to go after
• Discover who is the right customer for that problem
• Understand what the right solution for that problem for that customer is
POC or product development phase
• Focus on metrics that help validate product-market fit
• Feedback from customers
• Customer churn
• DAU/MAU
I.e. focus on ascertaining that people love your product

8. Prioritize on different metrics at different stages of the venture
Pilot/beta stage
• Registrations
• Referrals
• Customer engagement
• Traffic sources / channels
• Communication mediums and messaging
• Pricing
• Test your hypothesis and assumptions on the ‘business'
I.e. focus on discovering what makes more people buy/use your product

9. Prioritize on different metrics at different stages of the venture
Post successful pilot focus on performance improvement on
• Acquiring customers
• Engagement - retention, usage, volumes, periodicity, value
• Revenue
• Business case
• Operational efficiency

10. Metrics differ by business type
• Business that depend on ad revenues will have different metrics than
business that depend on subscription. Even if the product is the same.
• DAU will be very relevant for a wearable fitness device, not so much for an
e-commerce site and certainly not relevant for a OTA
• Vertical e-commerce businesses will have different matrics than horizontal
marketplaces
• SAAS ventures may have different metrics than software products

11. Spend time to THINK ABOUT METRICS THAT ARE IMPORTANT
Examples of what to track ...
Basics
This month Last month % growth TSM % Goal Deviation
Users
Revenue per transaction
Number of times used/purchased
CAC
Active users %
DAU
MAU

12. Spend time to THINK ABOUT METRICS THAT ARE IMPORTANT
Examples of what to track ...
Source of business
This month Last month % growth TSM % Goal Deviation
What channels are customers
coming from
What triggered the action
What days of the week are
registrations highest
What time of day are
registrations highest

13. Spend time to THINK ABOUT METRICS THAT ARE IMPORTANT
Examples of what to track ...
Engagement
This month Last month % growth TSM % Goal Deviation
Churn rate
Time spent on site
Number of pages visited
Features used
Support query raised

14. Some points to remember
• Metrics are like GPS, not the vehicle. It can tell you where you are, but
cannot take you there. Measuring is one thing, acting on it is more
important.
• Some metrics need to be seen every day, some every week, some every
month. Make time for it.
• Focus on what’s important and what can give you actionable insights. Not
just feel good factor. Increasing number of FB likes is useless unless you
have a plan to leverage them meaningfully.

15. Some points to remember
• Drill down on red flags. E.g. If registrations or conversions are lower than
expected, check what is the cause i.e.
o Is it because the product sucks
o Is is because the price-point is high
o Is it because the value proposition is not meaningful
o Is it because the communication does not clearly state the value
proposition
o Is it because the medium is not right
o Is it because the target audience was not correct
o Is it because the brand personality or UI was not good enough
o Any other reason

16. Some points to remember
• Drill down on green flags e.g. if something is working well, don’t just
celebrate. Analyze what worked. So that you can replicate it.
• At startup stage, share relevant metrics with entire team - let them know
how well/bad we are doing, and what we are doing about it.
• AARRR framework
o Acquisition
o Activation
o Retention
o Referral
o Revenue

17. Summarizing
• Metrics provides actionable insights about your business
• Develop metrics on what’s relevant for you
• Different metrics are relevant for different businesses –
identify what’s right for you
• Do not use metrics to make you feel happy – try and find out
things that will trouble you – use metrics to get early warning
signs
• Startup phase is about discovering what works. Growth phase
is about replicating what works.

18. GHV Accelerator with a Difference
Series A-Program
Partnerships
Secret sauce
Systems ready to support efficient scaling
Promising unit economics
Micro-market leadershipBig accessible market
The right people