Am I building a venture attractive business?
3 metrics to show investors.

Beyond the promises and earliest of days in startup land i.e. when you have some data (>6 months) there are 3 core metrics a VC will look for in your sales activity that denote more than ‘today’ customers and cash.

We’re looking for tomorrow.
How big how fast.

i.e. Is this really a venture scale opportunity
(Totally fine if it’s not your track, or even if you change your mind, but if going for VC this is what we’ll need to get a sense of.)

When pitching for investment it helps us if you showcase specific KPIs – which you can do in many ways. I’ve tried to highlight some of the basics below.

In essence it’s all about showing a healthy pipeline, which moves quickly, converts quickly – owning ideally brownfield (competitor crushing) and greenfield sales (new trend) who then do more with you over time (NRR).

I’ve broken down each (KPI) with ‘why’.

Pipeline
Sales – Speed and cadence is king with a defined customer profile. i.e. Who (ICP), how much (ACV), frequency.

TTV
Get to value quickly (Time scale improving) and ideally show (NRR) scaling up.

Crushing or Trending
Who are you replacing (competitor crushing) and how are you opening up new #sales and channels (highlighting trends).

Beware trying to do too much for too many across too many sectors or territories which can be a red flag, instead show your forward thinking on a stepped TAM roadmap.

Also use these metrics to highlight differentiation if you’re able. The numbers add real value to the story you’re telling. And we don’t expect much in the early stages. Just the shoots to extrapolate forwards.

In simple terms, if going for VC, show your inner sexy (numbers) beast.