
Things that aren't progress - tlb
http://www.aaronkharris.com/things-that-arent-progress
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tomhoward
Said another way: anything that flatters the ego feels like progress to the
ego-driven. Real progress starts with quietening the ego.

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akharris
That's a great way to think about it. Guess I could just call this "vanity
metrics."

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hbt
It's amazingly difficult to find the right metric when you are still at the
MVP level.

However, once the system has proven itself, it's only a matter of
optimization.

I think it's one (amongst many) reason why so many startups fail at the MVP
stage. Looking for metrics at that stage is just speculation; optimizing for
them is a complete waste of time. The focus of the MVP is to build a proven
system without getting lost (minimal waste of time/effort/resources).

~~~
akharris
You're right that optimizing for metrics too early is a mistake. I do think,
though, that there are good metrics to focus on at the MVP stage. Talking to
users is generally a pretty good one.

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mistercow
>Fundraising is just a tool to accomplish your real goals, not a goal in and
of itself.

I don't disagree with that point, but it's weird to say that obtaining a tool
to further your goals is "not progress".

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jrapdx3
Kind of reminds me of visiting photo gear forums. People get into crazy
discussions about megapixels, resolution, dynamic range, shot noise, and
everything but actually taking pictures. "Pixel peeping" is a far cry from
using the gear for its intended purpose.

Fundraising is like a camera, it's a tool, a means to accomplish something. A
great photographer can do amazing things with a cheap camera. Achievement is
measured only by the images produced, not the gear used in making them.

Analogously "progress" is measured by what an enterprise produces, not how
much money was raised. In short, having tools is not the same as using them,
especially using them well.

IOW having tools is a necessary, but not sufficient condition of making
progress.

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dsugarman
I really love these, I spend some of my time trying to help groups come out of
my alma mater with working startups and it's frustrating how hard it is to get
these points across to virtually all new founders, we've all been there and
know what it's like chasing the shiny object.

I understand what you are saying on the last point, there's no silver bullet
and you better come in ready to really work, but it has to constitute progress
when you get in YC. Anything that you do to improve your expected value by a
multiple is progress, this includes getting into YC (specifically), recruiting
a stellar co-founder or landing the perfect investment partner.

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stevesearer
This is a good list.

Press/Retweets in and of themselves aren't progress but they can be a good
indicator of it (and also a poor indicator). I've had many conversations which
have turned into sales that included that person talking about how they've
been seeing my site everywhere these days.

Eyeballs/Uniques are precisely why the advertising I sell is done on a monthly
basis. Either the advertiser will like the results of the campaign by tracking
the activity on their site, or they won't.

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xivzgrev
Honestly who considers these their primary goals? Every company I've
interviewed / interacted with has focus on real numbers or a sense of why
something ties to underlying strategy. Most likely I'm suffering from
selection bias, but honestly curious what companies run like this.

This must be directed at first time, earliest stage founders.

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tomhoward
Probably usually novice founders who think they too can pull off the _launch -
> go viral -> fundraise -> scale -> monetise/exit trick_ that rarely works but
has worked for some of the biggest successes (eg YouTube).

I fell for it.

These days, most of the companies doing well enough to offer you a job are too
smart for that.

But I still hear of "well credentialed" founders who succeeded that way in the
90s or 2000s, trying to do it again and failing miserably - burning 8-figure
sums of money in the process because to VC's they're "proven" \- eg Color.

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krallja
Upvotes on HN.

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a3voices
Maybe progress is anything that increases your revenue.

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_sentient
I'd take it a step further: Progress is any work that is enterprise value
accretive. Prioritized to the degree to which it is.

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squidlogic
That's a good way of putting it, I think. Revenue is obviously very important,
but there are other values that an enterprise may be concerned with as well.

