The Open Journey
Public metrics for startup success
Picture this: unveiling the inner workings of your startup for the world to see. It's not a move most founders would consider, given the emphasis on privacy and confidentiality in the startup world.
However, there's a unique breed of founders—startup creators who are also content creators—that embrace transparency by sharing their company's details, from financials to metrics and progress.
This level of openness demands effort, requiring robust systems for tracking and reporting. Interestingly, some startups delay implementing such systems, despite the irony of hindering rapid growth—the very essence of startups. After all, how can you gauge your growth without proper tracking?
In the realm of indie devs bootstrapping small to medium-sized internet businesses, there's a distinct culture of incessant tracking. I learned about this open metrics habit from an interview with seven founders on Indie Hackers. The act of sharing data becomes a powerful motivator for founders to prioritize progress.
But here's the catch: it's easy to get distracted from tracking by building another product, even one designed for progress tracking. However, as long as you see it as a one-time investment and building a muscle, it will be worth it.
If I were to draft a startup guide, I'd list setting up infrastructure to track metrics as the first step. Personal experience led me to initially track social following manually, attempting weekly updates on social accounts. However, the lack of engagement and the realization that social media on Fridays was a dead zone made me rethink my strategy.
Despite a few people showing interest when my follower count doubled, my motivation waned. It wasn't until later that I regretted not persisting, realizing I could have accumulated over a month's worth of valuable data.
Recognizing the need for a more streamlined process, I developed donedb.com over a weekend to make metric tracking effortless. Adding graphs to visualize the data's evolution over time became an essential feature after sharing a video about the tool's functionality.
Today, the significance of this feature hit me: progress is the linchpin for growth. If you're a startup founder juggling content creation and entrepreneurship, I'd love to learn from your perspective. Let's schedule a call, and you can share how you approach this challenge and what insights you've gained.
