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Why we picked it Anu Hariharan walks through the two or three metrics that actually matter at the earliest stage depending on how you make money, which spares a first-time founder from drowning in a dashboard of numbers that do not decide anything. Her clearest warning is the one non-technical founders miss most: never report a metric without defining it, since a company once reported daily active users that really meant emails sent. It is a trusted, founder-facing primer, so use it to pick your three real numbers before you argue about the rest.
Nine Business Models and the Metrics Investors Want
On Y Combinator Startup School by Anu Hariharan
- At the earliest stage only two or three metrics matter, and revenue (or, if you do not charge yet, a clear definition of the core user action) is usually the truest one.
- Always define what active means and always show the absolute number alongside the percentage, because an undefined or relative metric quietly misleads you and everyone reading it.
- Which metrics matter depends on your business model, so match your handful of numbers to how you actually charge rather than copying another startup's dashboard.