Hello everyone. Today, we’re talking about analytics software. As an early stage startup it’s very tempting to take free or steeply discounted analytics software and go straight down the rabbit hole on tracking everything. This doesn’t help and you will waste a lot of time and money. Until you have at least $100k a year run rate it’s massive overkill and will actually make it harder for you to focus on what matters.
My advice: start with 1 core metric and a max of 3 supporting numbers. These should be calculated using SQL queries on your database, and once a day is enough for most. You can chart your results using Excel, other spreadsheet software or open source tools like metabase.
Don’t spend months optimizing expensive tools — keep it simple, so you can focus on keeping customers happy.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
