B2B Startup Metrics | Startup School

In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Tom Blomfield discusses one of the most important elements of running any startup: metrics! Tom shares what key metrics to track and how to use them to make the best decisions for your company.
Apply to Y Combinator: yc.link/SUS-apply
Work at a startup: yc.link/SUS-jobs
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro
00:21 - Importance of Metrics
01:16 - Pre-launch Metrics
02:23 - Metric Overload Caution
03:17 - Key Metrics Selection
04:54 - Consistency in Metrics
07:13 - Investor Update Metrics
09:17 - Retention's Significance
13:13 - B2B SaaS: Net Dollar Retention
16:50 - Cruciality of Gross Margin
21:10 - Challenges of Negative Margin Scaling
22:18 - Metrics Recap
22:42 - Final Thoughts
23:24 - Outro

[@ycombinator]

What metric at your startup are you most proud of?

[@MarkMark]

Organic Monthly Viral Coefficient (or just "virality") - how many new "active" users an existing "active" user generates over 30 days.

[@MartyCardenas]

​@@MarkMark90

[@crazechill1]

Happy to see Ter Stegen doing well in Business.

[@IsaMutlib]

This is brilliant. More of Tom please.

[@rilwanj]

Session replay tools, like FullStory, Glassbox, Hotjar, Smartlook, Sentry, Datadog, Dynatrace, etc. are in my opinion the best tools for tracking metrics, improving user experience, finding bugs, etc. outside of user interviews and usability testing of course.

[@lesgun16]

You forgot about LiveSession. Is a more like FullStory but definitely more cheaper. It’s a young Company but very fast grow.

[@CELLPHONETECH078]

Super greatful for this knowledge may God Continue Blessing You guys.❤

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro 00:21 - Importance of Metrics 01:16 - Pre-launch Metrics 02:23 - Metric Overload Caution 03:17 - Key Metrics Selection 04:54 - Consistency in Metrics 07:13 - Investor Update Metrics 09:17 - Retention's Significance 13:13 - B2B SaaS: Net Dollar Retention 15:28 - Early-stage SaaS: High Net Dollar Retention 16:50 - Cruciality of Gross Margin 21:10 - Challenges of Negative Margin Scaling 21:53 - Risk in Negative Unit Economics Scaling 22:18 - Metrics Recap 22:42 - Final Thoughts 22:47 - Pre-launch Metric Tracking 23:01 - Clear Metric Definitions 23:24 - Outro

[@diaguilidiagana9314]

This is amazing!

[@FundiCrypto]

Great video guys!!!

[@UsernameR8]

Very helpful content

[@lesgun16]

Im proud about DAU and MAU metric we increased. Thanks to focus on this metric we reduced churn Rate, and increased customer satisfaction. We saw that our users were not active „enough” (we used LiveSession metrics) then we watched user session replays (also via LiveSession) and talked with users. And then we knew what to do. Simple but very satisfy 😉

[@maloxi1472]

Lemme guess: your product is called "LiveSession" 😏

[@SocialMediaVersusReality]

8:32 This is very helpful. Thank you. Is the video for consumer companies up yet?

[@aaronrecto9222]

following this comment. Can't find the video.

[@startbeast]

What about the metrics of b2b startups on medtech field, where you have a service that includes both hardware and software?

[@user-pb7wm7wc9k]

thanks!!!!!!!Out of curiosity, I would like to know why you offer these courses?

[@george_davituri]

Metrics seem essential tool, tracking customers behavior is crucial for successfully selling product

[@DJjussi1]

Big issue using revenue. Surprised he doesn't bring this up, given making the point of the importance of defining metrics. Revenue equals many different things to different people. Bookings or sales are typically known as cash-basis revenue, which sales-people and startup founders usually focus on. Earned revenue or accrued revenue is based on usage of the service/product (also known as accounting-based revenue), which CFOs and investors typically care about. This is absolutely critical to differentiate. We track bookings but separately track accounting-basis revenue.

[@DrewWilson192]

Burn rate is how much cash you burn per month, and is not "minus revenue". That would be "net burn rate". The difference is important because it means that if your income isn't coming in, how long will your runway be based on your current cash.

[@nicholasrescobar2769]

Is there a chance we can watch a Y Combinator video without you mentioning Brian from Airbnb?

[@alisherzaitov]

Question about net dollar retention: Shouldn’t I count retention by customers not by cohort? Like if the overall cohort generates me more money because of upsell is great, but the cohort itself is just a mind construct, clients are not related and if one of them leaves that indicates something. He leaving because he is no longer in business and he leaving cause my product can not fulfill his job to be done is different

[@alisherzaitov]

And also how should I track people who renewed their subscription after a while? Are they go in a new cohort or in a cohort that they were initially in. And also should I charge such user the old price or a new one

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

you should question the metric and the purpose of measuring it absolutely. dont take his advice to a T- its generic and simple and a goodstarting point. but metrics is very specific for each business.

[@ray-hj1do]

c'est intéressant

[@robsherwood5932]

The video mentions a separate video on B2C metrics; I've searched for it and not found it. Has it been posted yet? Can i hve link pls? :-)

[@ycombinator]

As you wish! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnepppapj82srrc

[@consommableechographiealge8418]

Unfortunately the video of B2C is no longer available.

[@MarkMark]

hm, what kind of customer retention would one expect for an online dating application?

[@etf_chach]

If the application is successful, the retention should be really low!

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

Lol depends what segment of dating. For those looking to explore their sexual side, retention should be high.@@etf_chach even for finding a partner, you'd want the daily usage to be high [this means theres a good level of engagement drawing the user back regularly], but you'd want to measure 1)how long it takes to get a match 2) how long it takes to get a date 3) how many dates that user goes on because of the app 4) how many dates it takes for that user to get into a relationship. This is far more nuanced and how I'd expect a team to track metrics. Funnily enough an idea sprang to my mind which is Bumble could monetise date-ideas with local services etc. They're missing an obvious revenue stream related to activities re. the job of finding a partner.

[@carlosbraga9381]

Those apps are actually hook up apps, not dating apps kk

[@ginxnu7268]

What is matrics can anyone explain me

[@ZikrAlloh]

❤

[@andy_ppp]

How should we build metrics for apps, Apple ask you not to track people I thought otherwise you’ll be banned from the App Store?

[@consommableechographiealge8418]

how to do in this case?

[@skillme7777]

I am pretty sure, if y combinatior starts to startup for free, they have more companies to invest in ever. Because if people will start the startup more, the higher probability is to get funding from where they acquired knowledge from. Start a series where you learn to startup from very basic to the advance. Its basically win - win for everyone. The presentator should be paul graham, etc.

[@kwhandy]

even though you've been rejected for years and your chance to enter this gang nearly 0, i would admit yc teach business better than typical paid business college

[@kshitijdhamija06]

Hi Can you please also add dub to videos in different languages like Hindi ....

[@madhubalasoni7534]

I don't have money for investment can u help on that ..how to start a business ...😊

[@alexanderj4545]

Please give some other content other than something only related to SaaS or building a webpage.

[@Whimwell]

In the past three months they’ve published videos about building a bio company, the state of AI, working as a software engineer and much more. What would you like to see?

[@alexanderj4545]

@@Whimwell MedTech (since I'm a founder of one, and that's industry is changing rapidly), but also other industrial tech, consumer tech, greentech etc.etc.

[@sergismael]

Software is eating the world.

[@etf_chach]

You do realize that YC primarily invests in SaaS companies? The speakers on this channel are previous tech founders.

[@alexanderj4545]

@@etf_chach This is not true. Please use facts.

[@sandykr3380]

This is not broad based enough for B2B startups. Its somehow still stuck in the narrow band of consumer facing businesses

[@denysolleik9896]

The only metric you need is revenue.

[@aryanjain5535]

Ycomb The best Better believe it.

[@BizLytInteractive]