Setting KPIs and Goals | Startup School

YC Visiting 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.
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Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - KPIs and Prioritization for an Early-Stage Startup
04:48 - How to Prioritize Your Time in the Startup
05:29 - Setting the Right KPI Goals for Prioritization
08:33 - Simple Framework to Optimize KPI Goal
10:04 - 5 Things That Should & Should Not End Up on Your Task List
15:55 - Choosing the Right KPIs for your Startup
18:58 - How to Set Targets
22:14 - Setting Targets - Top Down & Bottom Up
26:15 - Exceptions To Revenue KPIs: Hard Tech

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:09 - KPIs and Prioritization for an Early-Stage Startup 01:12 - KPIs and Prioritization 04:48 - How to Prioritize Your Time in the Startup 05:29 - Setting the Right KPI Goals for Prioritization 05:38 - Identify top KPIs 06:50 - Identify Biggest Bottleneck 08:33 - Simple Framework to Optimize KPI Goal 10:04 - 5 Things That Should & Should Not End Up on Your Task List 11:42 - Common Mental Traps 15:41 - Prioritization Recap 15:55 - Choosing the Right KPIs for your Startup 17:18 - Vanity Metrics 18:58 - How to Set Targets 22:14 - Setting Targets - Top Down & Bottoms Up 23:40 - Non-Revenue KPIs 26:15 - Exceptions To Revenue KPIs - Hard Tech 26:46 - Challenge

[@dogan5173]

I think this must be one of the best marketing tactic without spending anything :) I am amazed and deserved big yes from me :)

[@danyfedorov3029]

This is the most brutal video of all startup school videos for me personally. Also one of the most useful ones I think

[@samsrilanka]

Agreed! Really loved the video!

[@butterflytv7240]

​@@samsrilankaDito

[@shubhangi11]

Ya, felt it! too real talk!

[@dejangegic]

Diana Wo had an amazing video too

[@MukeshDhama]

YC is breaking my reality every day. Thank you so much. Really appreciable.

[@milkvideo3116]

Some notes here if useful from this brilliant video: Key Takeaways 1. KPIs and prioritization are crucial: Early-stage startups need the right KPIs and task prioritization to accelerate product-market fit. 2. Focus on traction metrics like revenue growth: Vanity metrics should be avoided. Revenue growth should usually be the primary KPI. 3. Start charging customers and focusing on paying users: Other metrics like signups can be misleading without revenue from customers. 4. Use a five-step prioritization framework: The speaker outlines a process of analyzing bottlenecks, ranking tasks, and moving quickly. 5. Avoid mental traps that distract from top goals: Perfectionism, vanity tasks, and fixing small issues instead of large ones slow progress. Summary: - Setting the right key performance indicators (KPIs) and prioritizing important tasks is key for early startups to achieve product-market fit quickly. - Revenue growth should be the primary KPI for most startups. Focus on the tasks that will most impact the top KPIs. - Avoid vanity metrics like user signups and instead start charging customers to get feedback from paying users. - A framework for prioritizing work: 1) Identify top KPIs and set weekly goals 2) Find the biggest bottleneck impacting the KPIs 3) Rank potential tasks by likelihood of success and complexity 4) Pick high-impact tasks to work on 5) Adjust quickly if KPIs are not improving - Common obstacles to prioritizing KPIs include perfectionism, busywork that doesn't drive progress, and fixing small issues instead of big problems. - Divya Bhat challenges listeners to write down KPIs, set targets, review tasks, share goals, and work to achieve product-market fit faster.

[@Coolmintt]

Superb

[@boriszhilinskiy8187]

Insanely useful, practical, transformational! Every single word. Thank you so much for this most essential video! Divya is amazing!

[@user-ww4jq1lo7y]

Direct to the point and very practical to-dos. Love having examples other than very successful startups like AirBnB and DoorDash, the examples of failures or mistakes are super valuable.

[@talentsherpa]

I must listen to this again and take notes. We're developing an ai powered software which digitally prevents recruiter ghosting and becomes the recruiter’s double but only better. We just started, and your video will be a permanent reference for us. Thank you!

[@NourLababidi]

Thank you. Perfect timing right before q3 2023 starts. My startup telemedicx is saying Mahalo 🎉

[@ManiDoraisamy-GDE]

Wow, this video is pure gold! Isn't it amazing how Garry Tan's video on facing hard truths coincidentally released around the same time?

[@crazieeez]

Very useful. Very. Thanks a lot. With good fact based evidence to back up what’s important and what SEEMS important.

[@YosmelLGD]

Thank you !!! that was great, It took me 1 hour to go through the video because of all the notes I took. :)

[@cieliczka]

Great advice and really well structured video.

[@jeswer9]

Thank you so much , Divya, YC. Really grateful that people put time to put out this amazing content.

[@ohidotg]

I will keep listening to this dozen of times this year just to remind myself apart from taking notes.

[@vasilykovalev4205]

One of the most useful videos about the business. Thank you!

[@adamworsham]

What an incredible value-packed video, thanks Divya!

[@zainamjad7505]

Definitely, one of the best videos on startup.

[@mohammedabalkhil5628]

This is wild , Thank you so much very helpful video!

[@flavioptferreira]

Wow, that was fucking sobering. I've been doing a lot of things wrong. Guys, what you're doing is gold! Can't thank you enough for such valuable knowledge you're dispensing to aspiring entrepreneurs. Really, you're awesome!

[@ashb20081]

I love it! Fantastic video with great information. Thank you.

[@gsards]

There is so much valuable info in this video!

[@ahmedyahya3593]

I love this video, thank you soo much share this amazing video with us. Big love from Amsterdam

[@kaikomedia]

This was for me... Thank you!

[@zainamjad7505]

This content is gold.😊😊

[@aaronbelsh]

This is super helpful. Thank you.

[@GabrielSestrem]

OMG how much free content in this video 😱😱😱 Amazing

[@Therealjkelz]

Whew you called me out on a few things! this video is wonderful thank you

[@andreashandani4987]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@aliteshnizi672]

I find this relatively unapplicable to B2B Saas startups. Is it tailored to B2C?

[@truongngoc7800]

Really, really great! I love those things that should not be on my list.

[@hugoado]

Perfect 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@jonassteinberg3779]

Pure banger.

[@arthurmiller9103]

Awesome👍

[@meterfeeder]

Good to see Jared (Scribd) getting a shout out.

[@mustafamiracerkesim674]

The videos are great but I would like to make a video recommendation if it's not disrespectful. "The Best Way To Launch Your Startup | Startup School" in this video "Start ro build your own community" was a great recommendation. Maybe it would be great if there was a great video just on that quote like you did with the others. PS: If there is such a video, I apologize for my laziness.

[@joecod298]

And what if I’ve tried everything I could think of an idea in 3 weeks? I’ve tried to do this sometime ago and moved very fast but this happened. I got out of ideas in 3 weeks and didn’t know what to do anymore

[@entalpa]

I think that prioritizing goals is more important that KPI's.

[@FireLiteCreations]

Thanks for drilling-in what actually works, even though it's painful to hear... 😅

[@khong7]

Does anyone know how to get into the slack or whatsapp group? Many thanks!

[@bgvianyc]

Why is revenue growth the KPI to optimize for and not operating income? Seems like revenue can also become a vanity metric if a product or service is offered below cost or usage is being subsidized. How does one make sure to not fall into this trap?

[@scottwhittle6319]

cause you can't have operating income without revenue. Plus, once you have sales, COGS and SG&A stuff can managed to optimized for the desired income/EBITDA. More importantly for a startup- Revenue Growth = user adoption = product market fit = increased valuation. For startup tech business, especially MSP types, the free-cash-flow from "income" isn't the focus--- User adoption though market it fit is.

[@bgvianyc]

@@scottwhittle6319 it was part explained later in video with secondary metrics such as unit economics. Your right you can’t have op income without revenue, but you can have revenue without op income and if your simply paying for revenue ie: negative margin, aren’t you just fooling yourself into thinking it has long term viability as a value creating business?

[@amityone1]

❤🎉

[@painperdu6740]

how are there 4 month old comments on a video released 22 minutes ago

[@stevenpham6120]

I believe these were released to Startup School participants first as an unlisted vid.

[@painperdu6740]

@@stevenpham6120 Oh, ok ! thanks !

[@choongching]

"things that you brag about on Linkedin' lol so true...

[@BuckFanks]

2LITTY!

[@TheRaptor321]

KPIs and metrics are not the same thing.

[@HealthandBeautyAP]

This wasn't overly helpful for a service based company with in person services like massage and acupuncture

[@theTECHannel]

Here I am. The first one to view & comment. Love YC !!!