I've watched too many startups burn through millions.
90% fail because they're optimizing for the wrong metrics.
After 20+ years building and advising companies, the patterns are impossible to ignore.
Here's what actually separates winners from the wreckage:
1) Stop Celebrating New Customers
Most companies are obsessed with acquisition numbers like it's some kind of vanity metric Olympics.
That's just a sugar high.
The real enterprise value? Loyalty.
Getting someone to show up repeatedly. Making your product part of their daily routine. Embedding yourself in their life.
Anyone can get a first date (maybe not in this economy).
Building an audience that sticks around even when there are shinier options? That's the entire game.
2) Your Free Tier Is Killing You
The biggest unforced error I see: offering some neutered starter version of your product.
It's like a car dealer only letting you test drive their worst model.
Your entry-level experience needs to give people a real glimpse of the horsepower under the hood.
Create envy for the fully loaded package. Let them peek through the keyhole at what they're missing.
Show them the promised land. That's how you get them to pull out their wallet.
3) Mine Your Data for Irrational Behavior
Breakthroughs come from a two-step process most companies completely screw up:
Be a detective. Hunt through your data for strange, irrational human quirks that defy your assumptions.
Stop investigating and start mobilizing. Take that single discovery and apply it system-wide across every touchpoint until you've extracted every ounce of opportunity.
One weird behavior pattern is worth more than a thousand A/B tests.
4) Stop Hiring Impressive Resumes
In a market that reinvents itself every 18 months, a fancy resume is just a historical document.
It tells you what worked five years ago when Facebook was still cool.
I'll bet on the person with raw intellectual horsepower and a bias for action over the seasoned expert every single day.
You want people who can figure it out in real time. Who can adapt and move fast.
Not people who just know how things used to be done.
Which of these is your company getting wrong right now?