Guide to Analytics for Startups

You need to be data-driven.I say this because today everyone does.Whatever your competition, you can bet that they have optimized and learned from years of data.So you need your own "data advantage" because, without it, it's like playing the computer in chess. And If you're like me, the computer always wins.Analytics is what you'll use to make decisions on every level from top-level strategic ones to line-level tactical ones.So what investment is needed in analytics and data at my stage of business?The analytics world is moving quickly. So let's discuss what you'll need to do for every stage of your business.Why Listen to Me?In the last decade, I've run three startups, and in that time I've seen both the strengths of strong analytics and massive failures that can come from poor oversight.At my first "successful" company, we used data to make decisions that were massively successful. We used it to fuel marketing investment to the tune of $100k per month in ad spend (which earned a good ROI in a competitive space).I've also seen what happens when data is poorly sourced. I've seen big problems when there are mistakes in the way things are tracked. I've wasted 10s of thousands paying for bot traffic and click fraud.I've seen poor data management lead to massive technical failure that took months to fix. This led to a huge cost in terms of lost sales.As a result of these things, I started working on Darwin. A free analytics suite designed to help startup founders succeed.In this guide, I'm going to do a walk through of what your startup should be doing in analytics. I'll be considering the stage and mentality of the team and trying to keep things simple. Since I know you have a lot to do.Onward...Founding Stage (0 to 7 employees)Setting: you have no resources and no time. Hopefully a few good ideas and minimum viable product.At first, there are a ton of things you could be measuring. But you're close to the details and things are still small; because of this, you have a good instinctual basis to make decisions.Here you want to make sure you are measuring what's happening in your product. You'll want to watch session replays to visualize the user's mentality through sign-up and critical points in the adoption of your service.You'll need this qualitative and quantitative information to iterate quickly and get those insights for marketing and sales growth. Everything else can take a back seat.Use Old TechnologyMaybe the most important insight I can lend to people in this stage of business is this: "use old technology."Often startup folks get distracted by newer tech that seduces them into thinking that the tech will create a competitive advantage for them. Sadly, let's say 97% of the time this isn't true. What actually happens is the tech doesn't deliver on its promises or has a surprise missing, yet critical feature, that the team "has on the roadmap."So... for financials just use Quickbooks. For forecasting, deep analysis, project management, seo... just use Excel.For other things I'm not covering, just use old technology.Analytics TipsAt this stage of your business, a shotgun style, shoot and ask questions later style will work.Install both Darwin Analytics to your app and Google Analytics on your website via Google Tag Manager.

Google has better integrations and deeper analysis tools, while Darwin adds a lot of features needed for quick insights and understanding granular behavior.

At this point, the data won’t be perfect without more work but it’s not the right time to worry about that.If you're an eCommerce oriented business, make sure you have eCommerce tracking set up. You'll want to monitor falloff for each point of the checkout and purchase process.If you build software, you need to use custom event tracking. This is what separates the kids from the adults in the world of startup analytics.

The easiest way to get event tracking is to set up Darwin Analytics and integrate its API. From here, you're just steps away from measuring everything related to your business goals.Clean Data is KeyAt this early stage of your company, you need to know everything about the traffic you're getting. Presumably, you don't have the budget to waste and false positives/negatives can send you off towards failure.In addition, you'll need to find ways to tracking things over time and measuring perception.Early companies have an "incubation" period where they need to build market credibility and strengthen their value prop. Market signals are key in understanding where you're visitors are not getting reinforced or bailing. You can track where customers are falling off (exiting) to understand where they begin to have doubts about your readiness to serve them.Read the rest of the article here: Guide to Analytics Startups see hubwealthy.com/wealthy