2 builders who never spoke to each other

Measure the launch in revenue, not volume

Set the analytics up before the traffic arrives, watch actives and retention alongside where people came from, and total the money from every route rather than one dashboard. Tyler Tringas's post-mortem names optimising for lead volume, on the assumption investors would do the arithmetic that turned it into revenue, as one of the team's biggest mistakes. Nathan Barry's launch record only stood once payments taken outside his main processor were added in.

The method

1. 01

   Instrument the funnel from the start and watch daily, weekly and monthly actives, retention and where the traffic came from.

2. 02

   Chase actual revenue rather than a proxy metric, and never assume anyone else will do the arithmetic that turns your volume numbers into money.

3. 03

   Count payments taken outside your main processor when you tally launch results.

What it returned

• $286

  PayPal added $286 on top of $26,586 in Gumroad sales, for a 24-hour record of $26,872

• Viewst set up Amplitude, Google Analytics and a CRM, and named those five metrics as the first ones they concentrated on.

• The team optimised for demonstrating lead volume on the assumption investors would extrapolate to revenue from average price per lead; the author names that assumption as incorrect and the dependence on each milestone unlocking a raise as one of their biggest problems

Sources

• Self-doubt and launch statsNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Sales stats · 2013-05-28
• Closing SolarList: a cleantech post-mortem - Tyler TringasTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Great progress and a big mistake · 2014-11-14
• Building a No-Code Ad Production & Design Tool to $50kVictoria Duben · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated