Maybe you can't just decide to make a billion dollar business, but certain choices may decide whether that's what you're trying to do. The main thing is VC fund

Maybe you can't just decide to make a billion dollar business, but certain choices may decide whether that's what you're trying to do. The main thing is VC funding and hiring. If you are in a situation where you could get a big cash injection from a VC, at the cost of a reduction of control, you are considering whether to buy rocket fuel - if you do, you either hit the moon or explode while trying. And even before such a situation, the metrics that you choose to focus on will also reflect which strategy you are employing, e.g. are you focusing on total number of active users (think Twitter), or number of paying users (think Slack). Are you thinking growth, monetization or both? Are you spending money on advertising or do you wait to let word of mouth spread your product at whatever pace it can? And if you do spend money on advertising, do you pay more or less for acquiring a new user than that user's LTV is likely to be (hint: if you pay more, you're running a "get big fast" business).