Author Archives: nada bassam

Model Six: two-Sided Marketplaces Two-sided marketplaces are a variation on e-commerce sites, but they’re different enough to warrant a separate discussion. If, after reading Chapter 7, you’ve concluded that you’re running this kind of company, here’s what you need to know. In this model, the company makes money when a buyer and seller come togetherContinue reading “Lean Analytics 13”

Model Five: user-generated Content You might think that Facebook, reddit, and Twitter are media sites, and you’d be right: they make their money from advertising. But their primary goal is rallying an engaged community that creates content. Similarly focused sites like Wikipedia make their money from other sources, such as donations. We call these businessesContinue reading “Lean Analytics 12”

Model Four: Media Site Advertising pays for the Internet. It’s so easy to insert advertising into online content that for many companies, ad-based monetization is a fallback revenue source, which subsidizes a cheaply priced game or helps pay for the cost of operating a freemium product. Many websites rely on advertising to pay the bills,Continue reading “Lean Analytics 11”

Model three: Free Mobile App A third business model that’s increasingly common is the mobile app. If you’re selling a mobile application for money, you have a fairly straightforward sales funnel—you promote the application, and people pay you for it. But when you derive your revenue from other sources, such as in-game content, paying forContinue reading “Lean Analytics 10”

Model two: Software as a Service (SaaS) A SaaS company offers software on an on-demand basis, usually delivered through a website it operates. Salesforce, Gmail, Basecamp, and Asana are all examples of popular SaaS products. If you’re running a SaaS business, here’s what you need to know about metrics. Most SaaS providers generate revenue fromContinue reading “Lean Analytics 9”

Model One: E-commerce In an e-commerce company, a visitor buys something from a web-based retailer. This is perhaps the most common kind of online business, and it’s certainly the one that the majority of traditional analytics tools are aimed at. Big retailers like Amazon, Walmart.com, and Expedia are all e-commerce companies. If the e-commerce modelContinue reading “Lean Analytics 8”

What Business Are you In? How you get and make money drives what metrics you should care about. In the long term, the riskiest part of a business is often directly tied to how it makes money. Many startups can build a product and solve technical issues, some can attract the right (and occasionally large)Continue reading “Lean Analytics 7”

the Discipline of One Metric that Matters Founders are magpies, chasing the shiniest new thing they see. They often use the pivot as an enabler for chronic ADD, rather than as a way to iterate through ideas in a methodical fashion. But one of the keys to startup success is achieving real focus and havingContinue reading “Lean Analytics 6”

Analytics Frameworks Over the years we’ve seen a number of frameworks emerge that help us understand startups and the changes they undergo as they grow, find their markets, and help startups acquire customers and revenue. Each framework offers a different perspective on the startup lifecycle, and each suggests a set of metrics and areas onContinue reading “Lean Analytics 5”

Data-Driven Versus Data-Informed Data is a powerful thing. It can be addictive, making you overanalyze everything. But much of what we actually do is unconscious, based on past experience and pragmatism. And with good reason: relying on wisdom and experience, rather than rigid analysis, helps us get through our day. After all, you don’t runContinue reading “Lean Analytics 4”