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In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten discuss the KPIs (key performance indicators) a company should be tracking—from startup phase to the more established. Most emerging companies are clueless about which metrics to track while others are trying TOO many metrics measuring the numbers incorrectly. While it is common to make such mistakes, Steli and Hiten wish to SAVE YOU TIME and give you the rundown of where your focus needs to be. Tune-in as Steli and Hiten discuss everything metrics and emphasize the importance of goal-setting when it comes to improving your numbers. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:03 – Today’s Startup Chat is about what KPIs to track as a startup 00:55 – Most emerging startups are asking which key metrics to track and how to measure success 01:42 – As a startup grows, the struggle is there’s too much data to track or they’re tracking the wrong information 02:46 – Most startups don’t have many performance indicators in the early stages that are trackable 02:57 – For Hiten, there are several lenses that he flips on a business to determine the KPI 03:05 – First, is the stage of the company 03:24 – Second, is the type of business 04:08 – If a new company doesn’t know its initial product market fit and the product is working: 04:17 – The metrics will be around the product 04:25 – The key performance indicator will be on customer satisfaction 04:43 – As a business moves on to a later stage and the business model is more defined; the metrics will be determined by the business model 05:00 – Hiten’s Crazy Egg had only one feature called Heat Map for the last 12 years 05:14 – Recently, they’ve added 3 new features 05:32 – Their metrics have changed because of this 05:50 – The only metric that they’re focused on now is the MRR (monthly recurring revenue) for every new paying customer 06:02 – They want existing customers to become used to the new features 06:41 – Content specific KPIs are what Hiten is after more than anything else 06:51 – Steli shares the most impactful thing for them during their first week with Y Combinator 07:00 – They had a chat with Paul Grant and they described to him how their business was doing 07:14 – The conversation was around the measure of success and how people are getting value from the business 07:35 – Paul asks them if they can promise him a 10% weekly growth until the end of YC 07:58 – Steli was confident and he agreed 08:18 – Steli then asked Paul if he has his credit card with him so he can sign up on their website 08:29 – Paul wanted Steli to focus on one number 08:45 – Steli’s team were able to focus in on that one goal 09:15 – Prioritizing is important 09:50 – Challenge yourself to pick a number for your goal that is the most meaningful and closest to reality 10:58 – Tracking the wrong numbers won’t be helpful for your business 12:35 – Hiten shares the common mistakes he’s seen with tracking KPIs 12:42 – If you pick the wrong metric to improve, you’re going to improve the wrong metric 14:18 – One of the mistakes is not measuring the metric properly 15:32 – Compounding growth is what you’re going after 16:04 – MRR is naturally a compounding metric 16:36 – Third mistake is people having TOO many metrics 17:28 – A lagging indicator tells you where your goals should be 17:35 – A leading indicator helps you understand if you’re moving in the right direction or not 18:02 – You don’t want to focus your KPIs on a leading indicator 18:46 – KPIs are fluid—don’t change them unless you’re learning why you should change it 19:03 – If you keep changing your KPIs, you keep changing your goals which isn’t good 19:08 – Some would also change KPIs because they ...