jueves, 29 de enero de 2015

How to measure success ... (TechRepublic)

As a startup founder, it can be difficult to measure how your company is progressing. Here are the baseline metrics to use as a health check for a SaaS startup. 
colordata.jpg

It's undeniable that the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model has become the de facto standard in both enterprise and consumer software alike. Subscriptions have taken over and they aren't going anywhere soon.
As I noted in a previous article, the demand for SaaS products is showing continued growth. SaaS startups are typically a little cheaper to start and easier to get going than other kinds of companies, but they have their own set of challenges.
For SaaS founders, it can be difficult to know how your company is progressing. Here are some initial metrics to help you determine if you are on the right track.

1. Gross margin

Gross margin is a metric that should be understood by all types of business leaders, but is it equally important to SaaS founders. Simply put, the gross margin is the amount of revenue retained by the company after subtracting the cost of goods sold (COGS), usually measured as a percentage.
An easy formula to find this percentage is the remainder after subtracting COGS (revenue minus COGS) divided by the revenue.
"Gross margin is an indication of that company's ability to command pricing," said Joe Floyd, a principal at Emergence Capital Partners.
Typically, a SaaS startup will receive revenue for both software and services. It's important to remember that recurring software revenue should be measured differently than services revenue.
"The best SaaS companies at scale are going to have 80-85% gross margin on software, and on services anywhere from 30-70%," Floyd said. "It really depends how strategic the services are."
If your company's services are mainly a simple implementation of the software, Floyd said, you'll probably land closer to 30%, but if your services include proprietary thought leadership it could be closer to 70%. Be aware of offering too many services, as it could negatively affect your gross margin.

2. Customer acquisition cost

Another metric that SaaS founders should be measuring is their customer acquisition cost (CAC). Ben Brooks, of Southern Capitol Ventures describes it this way: "To me, it's all the fixed and variable costs incurred in order to bring each individual client in."
CAC is important, first off, because it gives you a better vision of what it will cost to grow your client base, essentially what it will cost to grow your business. In calculating your CAC, you can then calculate how long it will take to pay that money back, a timeframe known as the payback period.
According to Christian Jensen, a principal at Accel Partners, the payback period can be understood as how many months of gross margin it will take to pay back the costs incurred during customer acquisition. It speaks to the marketing and sales efficiency of the business, he said, and it call tell you if you have a healthy gross margin profile for future growth.
It's difficult to give an exact payback period for all companies, but there are some best practices. Brooks said that he looks for companies that can pay it back within 12 months.
"Depending on how long it takes to recover that acquisition cost, is how much funding is going to be required to get a company to profitability," Brooks said.

3. Churn rate

The churn rate of a business is the percentage of clients you lose in a year's period. Simply put, how many clients declined to renew their subscription to your product at the end of the year.
"In one word, you could call it 'turnover,'" Brooks said.
The complementary metric is retention rate, the percentage of existing clients who renew their subscriptions. For SaaS startups, that number needs to be very high.
"Early days, the only customers you should be losing are pilot customers that, basically, you sold before you had a product and maybe they didn't renew in a year because it wasn't what they wanted," Floyd said.
Regardless of the type of product you are selling, SaaS startups should have at least a 90% retention rate. The ideal, however, is to be as close to 100% retention as possible.
"Strong renewal rates and strong retention rates are the best validation that the current version of the product is doing what the brand says it would or should, or the marketing said it would or should," Jensen said.
Measuring customer retention rate and churn rate is only part of the equation. SaaS founders should also be measuring their dollar retention rate as well.
"I like to look at this both on a logo and a dollar basis -- it tends to be that adding revenue quickly is wildly important, but if you're losing it at a similarly fast pace all that effort is worth very little," said Alexander Niehenke, a principal at Scale Venture Partners.
If your churn rate is greater than 0%, that means you are potentially losing revenue every year. Measuring your dollar retention is a good way to make sure this doesn't happen. Floyd said that a SaaS startup should have a dollar retention rate greater than 100%, meaning that you are taking steps to make up revenue lost to your church rate.
According to Jensen, companies should be looking for upsell or expansion opportunities within the existing customer base. Are there more users spreading through an organization, or are you releasing more sellable features that could be useful to them?

4. Annual contract value

As the SaaS model is driven by recurring revenue, it is important to look at how quickly a company is adding new contract bookings. Particularly, we use a metric called annual contract value (ACV) to separate new contract booking from renewal bookings, and to isolate the per-year value out from the total contract value (TCV) of multi-year deals.
According to Floyd, revenue growth is the main driver behind startup valuation. In a SaaS startup's early stages, he said, the growth of new ACV bookings is a good proxy for future revenue growth. Specifically, Floyd said that the best companies are tripling ACV bookings year over year, and the good companies are doubling.
Even just looking at the average ACV can prove advantageous, according to Niehenke, because it can help you better understand your customers.
"Business can succeed with a small or a large ACV, but this helps me understand the customer type and ask intelligent questions to see if the go-to-market matches the customer type," Niehenke said.

5. Sales and marketing efficiency

Because much of your success hinges on revenue growth, which usually requires growth of the customer base, it is essential to examine the efficiency of your sales and marketing.
If you look at it in terms of ACV bookings growth, Floyd said it can be measured by dividing new ACV bookings by the sales and marketing cost in the period it took to get those bookings.
Some folks look at it in terms of revenue, or revenue growth. Niehenke, who calculates it based on revenue growth, measures sales and marketing efficiency as "the change in revenue from one period to the next annualized and divided by the [sales and marketing] spend"
However you look at it, the bottom line is that you want the money you invest in sales and marketing to return more than what you put in.
"Best in class companies are going to get you two dollars of new bookings for every dollar of sales and marketing cost," Floyd said.
These metrics are, by no means, an exhaustive list of what you should be measuring as a SaaS founder, but they are a good starting point. A key thing to remember, also, is that there is a whole other set of qualitative characteristics that play into a successful startup.
"It's not like there's one metric to rule them all," Jensen said. "To build a great company, a lot of things need to be clicking."

martes, 20 de enero de 2015

President Obama announced his support for municipal broadband initiatives and faster broadband speeds in the United States.

President Obama called for an end to state laws that restrict the abilities of cities and towns to build their own broadband networks. Public Knowledge applauds the President’s recognition of high-speed broadband as a vital community resource.



Without high-speed internet, communities simply cannot offer competitive education, healthcare, and business opportunities to their residents. For too long, many towns have pleaded for affordable, reliable, and high-speed internet connections, but incumbent Internet Service Providers have been unable or unwilling to upgrade their services. 

You can be part of the growing movement of Americans who are standing up for the right of local communities to bring high-speed broadband to their residents. Learn more from President Obama’s video demonstration at the Oval Office and from his speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a city with an inspirational municipal broadband success story.  







miércoles, 14 de enero de 2015

Where to work as an early stage startup: Balancing the options (TechRepublic)

There are many places where startups can use to get work done in the early days. Here's how you can decide where to organize when you first launch. 
fueled2.jpg
Fueled employees working in their New York office.
The first time I worked for a startup, we met at a local coffee shop during the week. The second time I worked for a startup, we worked out of a closet.
When it comes to finding a work space, startups have to get pretty creative. Resources tend to be scare in the early days and, often, where you work isn't very high on the priority list (as long as you're actually getting work done).
Whether you become a regular at the neighborhood café, you engage the community of a co-working space, or you get a deal on your own office lease, there's a lot to think about when you are looking to set up camp.
Here are some of the common workspace options for early-stage startups and what they provide for your company.

Working at home

There is a certain romantic quality to the idea of building your company from the comfort of your own home. After all, fulfilling the archetype of a technology company built in a garage often makes for a great origin story down the road.
Cobi Druxerman, co-founder and CMO at Taplytics, said his company started out in his co-founder's basement and living room.
"Working out of one of our co-founder's houses was great while it lasted," Druxerman said. "At the time we just needed a place we could call our own to hash out ideas and come together as a group. It definitely filled the bill as we had a completely private space and were able to grow as a group."
Working out of someone's home is usually your cheapest option. It gives you privacy and an environment that you're probably already comfortable in. However, Druxerman noted, it's not the most convenient option for all founders, you typically cannot work all hours of the day, and it is far from the most professional place to hold a meeting.
A garage, or living room, or basement will inevitably play into your startup's life at some point, even if it is just a place for your founders to discuss the first iteration of your product. The question is simply how long will you stay?

Co-working space

For the uninitiated, co-working refers to a shared working environment where small teams or individuals can pay to work alongside one another. Co-working spaces come in all shapes and sizes, but you can expect a large, open concept space that puts you side-by-side with other startups, or independent professionals.
The standard arrangement is for workers to pay a fixed monthly fee that gives them access to necessary utilities, bookable meeting rooms, and sometimes other perks like an espresso bar or game room.
The main allure of co-working is the community that is built up within a particular co-working space. Having a many different professionals, from a variety of backgrounds, working alongside one another often leads to some interesting cross-pollination.
ThinkCERCA, an education startup, got its start at Chicago's 1871 co-working space in the Merchandise Mart building. After moving into its own private office, co-founder and COO Abby Ross said she decided to move back to 1871, partly due to the scalable, "all-in" pricing model.
"It's good to know that our internet, cleaning, printing, and security is taken care of, so it's fairly turn-key," Ross said. "The headaches of finding a place, furnishing it, and worrying about several little bills coming in, is not how I want to be spending my time, so the more turnkey the better."
Co-working is an inexpensive option for startups who need a place to work, and it is a step up in terms of professionalism versus a garage or basement. Druxerman, however, said his team spent time in a co-working space and it often felt too distracting to be productive.

Shared space

Another option, usually taking place on a smaller scale than co-working, is sharing space with another company. This can materialize as a shared office space or a shared private residence, like a rented house.
John Milinovich, CEO of URX, said his company decided to work from a shared space from day one, as it provided them a cost-effective way to get enough room for their team and be close to their customers.
"We knew we wanted to be in the heart of SOMA, which is the center of the [San Francisco] startup scene, and also where all of our customers are," Milinovich said. "Any startup that wants to succeed has to be close to their customers - not necessarily physically, but it doesn't hurt especially for a B2B company."
Shared space will cost you more than a co-working space, but it does have its unique benefits. With a shared space, you are in control of who shares the space with you, so you can choose who to work alongside. Also, there is typically more room to grow.
In addition to sharing a private space with another company or team, you can pursue shared space through your investors. Sometimes, angel investors or venture capitalists have unused space that they will loan to you for a time. Or, you can pursue an accelerator or incubator program, some of which offer shared space.
"These programs offer a workspace, seed money and invaluable mentorship opportunities," said Bob Ogdon, founder and chairman of Swiftpage. "However, they generally require you to give up a percentage of the company in exchange. Furthermore, these programs can be difficult to get into so they may not even be a viable option."
Depending on how its acquired, a shared space can be very expensive and still bring some distractions.

Private office

Finally, we have the holy grail of startup workspaces -- the private office. Almost every founder dreams of one day creating an environment that is built around the culture of his or her company.
While a private office is a great aspiration, it is not something that most companies need to consider at the outset of their journey. There are exceptions, though, such as legal and financial startups that need a dedicated, professional space to meet with clients.
For most new companies, a private office should be an end goal, not a starting point. If you are considering striking out on your own, there are some things you should keep in mind.
An independent office gives you more space and resources, but there are some drawbacks. Ogdon said that commercial office spaces usually look for at least three-year leases, meaning you would lose flexibility as company.
"To minimize the risk, look for an office space that will allow you to sign for a one-year lease or negotiate with the building manager to ensure that you can continue to expand in the building as your company grows," Ogdon said.
Wherever you end up, make sure you get there quickly. After all, you've got a world-changing business to build.


lunes, 12 de enero de 2015

Customs Broker Exam: The Time is Now (FCBF)



The Time is Now
February 5, 2015 - April 2, 2015 
What's Covered:
Customs Commodity Classification Training, Customs Valuation Title XIX Code of the Federal Regulations Review.  Various topics related to Customs Brokers responsibilities/ License Exam Preparation. With this practical training the student will walk out with detailed knowledge of the Customs References such as Harmonized Tariff code of regulations; knowledge of quick use of such references; knowledge of the Customs Broker Exam questions preparation; study and note taking requirements.

Course Materials:
Each participant will need to purchase the following two items:  1. Harmonized Tariff Schedules of the United States  2. Title XIX - Code of Federal Regulations parts 1-199 to end.  These items may be purchased through Spectrum at Ph: 305-231-7360  or the Government Printing Office on-line at  http://www.gpo.gov .

Who Should attend:  
Customs Broker Trainees; those studying for the License Exam; Importers, Freight Forwarders, and any person involved in Customs Transactions, Government Personnel in need of training.


February 5, 2015 - April 2, 2015
Mondays and Thursdays 
6:00pm-9:30pm
FCBF Members: $675
Non Members: $850
Registration Forms should be sent via fax to 305-499-9491 or email events@fcbf.com



Florida Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association, Inc.
8228 NW 14 St Doral, FL 33126
Ph: 305-499-9490 Fx: 305-499-9491




"Our mission in serving the Customs Brokers, Forwarders and the Trade Community as a whole, is to act as a forum for the interchange of ideas, promote greater knowledge and understanding among its members, encourage unity of purpose, ideals and ethics in addition to disseminating information of interest to the community and our members while advocating on their behalf."

Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.