I was expecting an article on how to measure performance in a startup - an interesting topic in itself given the fluid nature of the environment which makes it difficult to measure many important aspects - but the article seems to conflate web stats and metrics and does not offer much that is interesting or actionable.
Interestingly, the word metric is used 55 times in the article.
Perhaps you missed the point. Using metrics is important to decide what actions to take, or, more accurately, measuring whether a taken action lead to an important outcome.
It's no good just measuring visits or even conversions. What is important is measuring whether action a increased visits/conversions better than action b. The fluid nature of a startup means that most people probably don't know - there's no corporate history to lean on - and thus making careful use of metrics even more important.
Interestingly, the word metric is used 55 times in the article.