be supplying the mentors (and other stakeholders) regular updates on specific data values.
Early on, founders must be able to articulate the problem they’re solving and describe their ideal customer. My framework calls for creating a “customer advisory board.” This board isn’t an equity-based board, but rather a panel of early adopters who face the kind of problems the startup wants to solve, and who would be interested in a prospective solution. Customer metrics might look like this:
—Meeting with x number of mentors, domain experts, and industry experts each week.
—Talking with x number of potential customers per week.
—Recruiting x number of customers who have agreed to join the advisory board (3-5 business-to-business; 10-15 business-to-consumer).
Establishing product metrics: All startups make a promise to their customers. The promise forms the basis of messaging and positioning. The promise encompasses the utility of addressing the customer’s pain or passion. Customers are “satisfied” with the startup’s product when the promise is fulfilled. So founders must hypothesize what level of functionality would be required to address the pain and fulfill the promise. This becomes the proposed “minimum viable product.” Founders should be able to hypothesize what it would take for a customer to be satisfied. Product metrics could be:
—Hypothesize the functionality required to fulfill the promise. (If we do x, y customers will do z.)
—List specific actions by customers that indicate their level of satisfaction. (Upload 2 videos/week, shares with > 10 friends/week; transactions/customer/day.)
By the way, satisfied customers don’t help a company grow. But passionate customers share