Comment by phil_KartMe | Hacker News Reader

Comment by phil_KartMe | Hacker News Reader

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Good to we you agree with the points about how angel investors are busy and like to ride on momentum.

I also agree with you that a bright, shiny object is very important. For web products, it's a requirement to get past the first meeting. See my earlier post: Pitching without PowerPoint: 8 Tips for a First Meeting at http://www.kartme.com/node/31475

I'll qualify my statement on metrics by saying that, if your target angel investors aren't in your target customer segment, then you'll need metrics around usage to convince them of (a) the value of your bright shiny object to your target customers and (b) your ability to make it shine brighter. And I agree it's not about goals and plans. It's metrics about your past achievements and lessons learned.

Cool, thanks for the followup. I guess I could have phrased it better myself.

My experience was, after investment, we brought in (as cofounders) a really experienced team of marketing professionals (one from a big name, like Oglivy, and another who ran online marketing for a major bank). We had business metrics, we measured progress of focus groups, interviews, surveys, etc. The kind of metrics corporations use to "save money by making cheap mistakes on paper during planning instead of making expensive mistakes in production".

If I had to do it all over again I would have just built the wrong thing, and delayed the cost of finding the product/market fit until I raised more money with that wrong thing. Because metrics against a bright and shiny object, even the wrong object, are perceived as more valuable than metrics that bring you closer to building the right object in the first place.

i whole heartedly agree with your statement that "metrics against a bright and shiny object, even the wrong object, are perceived as more valuable than metrics that bring you closer to building the right object".

That was my experience with showing people "designs" that were moving us in the right direction. I got 0 credit for that. I had to show the designs live (i.e., shiny) and with user traffic data (i.e., metrics) as proof.

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