
Why Misunderstanding Startup Metrics Can Cost You Your Business - taylorwc
https://bothsidesofthetable.com/why-misunderstanding-startup-metrics-can-cost-you-your-business-352923a53dcb?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_YixWur9ZgyHjHNzLer3ZUwEcvpGN5JJBdIivRUwXQq8JAn0mFfRoVmoAds3Wzp9lM7QfA2NRJ__eV0I1cgriCTif8LA&_hsmi=29010063#.41354c6gb
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mindcrime
Really good stuff from Mark Suster. I remember a time when this would have
been at the top of the HN front-page, instead of the latest general news story
from the NYT or whatever. Too bad that the Eternal September finally got to
HN, despite pg's efforts. Still, the "old" HN had a good run.

As for the article itself... the one metric that he didn't mention explicitly,
but sort of indirectly alluded to, is CoGS - Cost of Goods Sold[1]. CoGS is
directly related to your per-time profit margin and can explain how you can
have the scenario he described where _revenue_ exceeds _customer acquisition
cost_ but you still lose money.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_goods_sold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_goods_sold)

Edit: to be fair, the front-page is actually full of fairly interesting stuff
ATM. But man, is there WAY more "general news" most days, than there used to
be.

------
kingofsanda
Startups are risky and there's no guarantee that you are going to be
successful and make money with it.

