We spend much time at @GreylockVC looking at both networks & the infrastructure-layer of commerce. Few reflections...
2/ Tobi & Reid understand Platforms better than most
Gates: When economic value of everyone on the system > value of co that created the system, you have a platform
In 2018, Shopify did $1.1b rev, while platform partners generated $2b (and its 1m merchants do $60b+ in sales)
Mar 19, 2019 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
1/ CAC is one of those metrics that can be easily manipulated — intentionally or not.
But it’s not quite as simple as zooming into paid vs blended CAC.
A few thoughts…
2/ Much has been written about LTV:CAC ratios & dangers of (a) being overly-generous w/ the “L”, & (b) using blended CAC in this context
Expressing acquisition economics in terms of payback (# [months] for contributing margin to pay back upfront acq cost) is more accurate, BUT…
Mar 12, 2019 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
1/ Many companies talk about tech debt, hiring debt, etc — *analytics debt* is equally important/foundational.
2/ Operating without ability to reliably answer basic questions, or operating with distrust of data, is almost worse than operating with no data.
Jan 8, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
1/ Agree with much of this re: DNVBs, w few thoughts:
First, diversifying from paid -> organic channels is much more difficult than going organic -> paid. Building distribution into product from day1, operationalizing loops vs funnels, results in fundamentally different product.
This means prioritizing retention >> acquisition and building a deep understanding around how *quality* of acq impacts ret. For paid channels, decisions on channels>audiences>creatives>site should include both cost & quality in objective fxn.
