KPIs and Startups

Key performance indicators, or KPIs, have been around for decades as business jargon representing the metrics that matter most. Too often, I see startups measuring a ton of different things (which is good) and then making everything important (which isn’t good). The idea is to measure a bunch of stuff, but for the purposes of getting all team members on the same page, there should be a minimal number of KPIs that are shared and talked about regularly with the management team and company — the metrics that matter the most.

Here are some example KPIs that a startup should consider tracking on a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly basis:

• Cash on hand/runway in months
• Current annual recurring revenue (ARR)
• New ARR
• New customer churn ARR
• Current weighted sales pipeline
• New marketing qualified leads
• New sales qualified leads
• New clients implemented
• New bugs
• Current recruiting pipeline

KPIs are an important part of a startup and should be made as simple and effective as possible.

What else? What are some other key performance indicators you like to track?