Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Consumer Internet Pitches

A good friend just sent me a great little company to evaluate. I love what they do - a new take on online dating. And no, this isn't Chat Roulette (thank God). They have really good traction and compelling numbers: time on site, users, growth, number of times users check in, paying customers, etc. What was missing is something that many, many Internet companies often miss. So, I thought I'd write a quick note about it. One of my partners calls this "useronomics." It's a very basic idea. What does a user cost to acquire? What is the lifetime value of that user? You may not have the answer to the second question for awhile, but it's something you should be tracking relentlessly. How do those "useronomics" stack up to comparable companies and situations? Know these numbers. Your investors will want them, and you should want to have them so that you know how good your business really is.

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