5 ms·

Startup Index: First Round Capital

43 points by dmor 13y ago

rdl 13y ago
Wow, their B2C portfolio looks really strong. If they got in in the "first round", as their name would imply, they've made some (paper) money. I've also heard good things about them from a lot of founders -- particularly that they move fast.
bravura 13y ago
Some comments on data analysis: "How the Startup Index Ranking System Works: This index is built on a weighted points system which considers the following factors: website traffic, social media following, social media engagement, employee count, page rank, inbound links, and SEOmoz domain trust score." The weightings should be published, the establish trust in the measure. These features are useful for evaluating B2C companies, but not B2B as much. A company can be silently killing it in B2B but not have good traffic / social scores. For this graph: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApqWF3CqjgjSdEwzbkdSVzdCTGljMGUtLU4tVnpzY2c&oid=2&zx=hcdkx3bwckur https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApqWF3CqjgjSdE... Don't make the y-axis "Natural log of total funding". 12.5 or 15? What does that mean? Instead, show the total funding in $MM, and put the y-axis on a log-scale.
hammerzeit 13y ago
I'm a big fan of first round in general, and this is a cool idea and great data. But this index seems to be extremely sketchy, especially for B2B companies. The article says: "This index is built on a weighted points system which considers the following factors: website traffic, social media following, social media engagement, employee count, page rank, inbound links, and SEOmoz domain trust score. Funding information is provided to give the reader context, but is not factored into a company’s ranking position." First of all, many of these factors would seem to be correlated and self-reinforcing (is the ranking data published somewhere?) Also, the vast majority of these factors ultimately come back to publicity -- which is not necessarily remotely correlated with success outcomes. Companies like Invite Media, which certainly qualify as a substantial success, would rank low on this index. Ultimately, this index seems to reflect less about which startups are actually sound businesses per se and more about which ones are generating excitement and hype. Ultimately I'd be more excited to see an index doing the former not the latter. Are the data sources for this linked to and/or explained anywhere in greater depth?
- dmor 13y ago
  Couple things: 1. I could post the raw data, I've held back doing so because it is quite expensive to collect and organize and I'm hesitant to give it away for free. 2. I agree that this data may skew toward companies with a great deal of hype, there is more data I look forward to collecting down the road to produce a more complete picture. Employee count is quite meaningful for B2B companies, and because B2B companies are not ranked against B2C companies their respective Twitter followers do have some meaning. If you build a "boring" B2B business and it is doing well on social media, you probably have a pretty strong brand.
  - codewright 13y ago
    >because it is quite expensive to collect and organize Right so why aren't you working on pivoting Referly instead? I do enjoy hearing from members of the community but I'm reaching the point where I feel like you need to have a blogging intervention or something. Do you need one?
    - orangethirty 13y ago
      Are you a refer.ly investor?
phil 13y ago
9gag > Square? This is really interesting work, but the ranking system seems flawed.
- dmor 13y ago
  I think Square is actually just on the wrong side, it should be on the B2B list. I'm working on figuring out how to move it over. Update: fixed
trg2 13y ago
My feedback is similar to what others have said - this is a great idea, but the ranking system seems a bit skewed towards sites that are fundamentally sound in SEO over anything else.
wikiburner 13y ago
Serious question not intended to be snarky at all, but shouldn't you be busy pivoting? I've always been in awe of founders who can manage to find the time to write articles, blog posts, do speaking engagements, and be "thought leaders", and somehow still find the time to rapidly grow a company. To me, it seems like an either/or proposition, especially when you hear someone like PG describe what an all-consuming effort starting Viaweb was. I guess I'm just genuinely curious what your thinking is on the value of all this blogging in the midst of a pivot, which must be an extremely busy and stressful time. It seems like every other day you've got another post at the top of HN. Does it help generate buzz for and drive visitors to Referly, or is blogging just your version of unwinding after a hectic day? Obviously your situation is a bit unique in that your startup (or at least the first incarnation of it) was user-generated content based, so maybe it makes sense in your case. Anyway, please don't take this the wrong way, I'm just genuinely interested in your thinking on this. Best of luck with Referly.
- jkuria 13y ago
  On a similar note, it is hard to imagine folks who spend time on a video like this one being that good at their core business! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okueA9dFcnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okueA9dFcnc
  - FelixP 13y ago
    Brett, who leads First Round's platform team, was a film major at NYU... plus I have to imagine that they could outsource most of the heavy lifting to contractors to do the editing, mixing, etc.
- bitsweet 13y ago
  This probably IS the pivot. Companies like pitchbook.com make $ awe of founders who can manage to find the time to write articles, blog posts, do speaking engagements, and be "thought leaders", and somehow still find the time to rapidly grow a company It's all marketing, which if done well, helps grow your company.
- hkmurakami 13y ago
alexatkeplar 13y ago
As far as I can understand: 1. Your first passion was referly v1, which didn't work (as I and many others predicted at launch 188 days ago) 2. referly v2 is pivoting into a "community-contributed magazine of free and paid content" 3. Your new passion is writing about startups, and building metrics to rank them Life is way too short to work on things which you're not passionate about. Why not junk Referly and build a Crunchbase/Pitchbook/Second Market? You're obviously putting huge amounts of time and mindshare into this, rather than the referly magazine pivot. Sources: 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4655702 2. http://refer.ly/please-read-referly-discontinuing-rewards-paying-existing-links-through-march-31st/c/67f9d3fa890311e2bfbf22000a1db8fa 3. http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/03/*
btrautsc 13y ago
I love these, they're vastly interesting. While you're pivoting refer.ly I hope you can sustainably produce many more. Thanks dmor

43 points by dmor 13y ago

rdl 13y ago

Wow, their B2C portfolio looks really strong. If they got in in the "first round", as their name would imply, they've made some (paper) money. I've also heard good things about them from a lot of founders -- particularly that they move fast.

bravura 13y ago

Some comments on data analysis: "How the Startup Index Ranking System Works: This index is built on a weighted points system which considers the following factors: website traffic, social media following, social media engagement, employee count, page rank, inbound links, and SEOmoz domain trust score." The weightings should be published, the establish trust in the measure. These features are useful for evaluating B2C companies, but not B2B as much. A company can be silently killing it in B2B but not have good traffic / social scores. For this graph: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApqWF3CqjgjSdEwzbkdSVzdCTGljMGUtLU4tVnpzY2c&oid=2&zx=hcdkx3bwckur https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0ApqWF3CqjgjSdE... Don't make the y-axis "Natural log of total funding". 12.5 or 15? What does that mean? Instead, show the total funding in $MM, and put the y-axis on a log-scale.

hammerzeit 13y ago

I'm a big fan of first round in general, and this is a cool idea and great data. But this index seems to be extremely sketchy, especially for B2B companies. The article says: "This index is built on a weighted points system which considers the following factors: website traffic, social media following, social media engagement, employee count, page rank, inbound links, and SEOmoz domain trust score. Funding information is provided to give the reader context, but is not factored into a company’s ranking position." First of all, many of these factors would seem to be correlated and self-reinforcing (is the ranking data published somewhere?) Also, the vast majority of these factors ultimately come back to publicity -- which is not necessarily remotely correlated with success outcomes. Companies like Invite Media, which certainly qualify as a substantial success, would rank low on this index. Ultimately, this index seems to reflect less about which startups are actually sound businesses per se and more about which ones are generating excitement and hype. Ultimately I'd be more excited to see an index doing the former not the latter. Are the data sources for this linked to and/or explained anywhere in greater depth?

dmor 13y ago
Couple things: 1. I could post the raw data, I've held back doing so because it is quite expensive to collect and organize and I'm hesitant to give it away for free. 2. I agree that this data may skew toward companies with a great deal of hype, there is more data I look forward to collecting down the road to produce a more complete picture. Employee count is quite meaningful for B2B companies, and because B2B companies are not ranked against B2C companies their respective Twitter followers do have some meaning. If you build a "boring" B2B business and it is doing well on social media, you probably have a pretty strong brand.
- codewright 13y ago
  >because it is quite expensive to collect and organize Right so why aren't you working on pivoting Referly instead? I do enjoy hearing from members of the community but I'm reaching the point where I feel like you need to have a blogging intervention or something. Do you need one?
  - orangethirty 13y ago
    Are you a refer.ly investor?

phil 13y ago

9gag > Square? This is really interesting work, but the ranking system seems flawed.

dmor 13y ago
I think Square is actually just on the wrong side, it should be on the B2B list. I'm working on figuring out how to move it over. Update: fixed

trg2 13y ago

My feedback is similar to what others have said - this is a great idea, but the ranking system seems a bit skewed towards sites that are fundamentally sound in SEO over anything else.

wikiburner 13y ago

Serious question not intended to be snarky at all, but shouldn't you be busy pivoting? I've always been in awe of founders who can manage to find the time to write articles, blog posts, do speaking engagements, and be "thought leaders", and somehow still find the time to rapidly grow a company. To me, it seems like an either/or proposition, especially when you hear someone like PG describe what an all-consuming effort starting Viaweb was. I guess I'm just genuinely curious what your thinking is on the value of all this blogging in the midst of a pivot, which must be an extremely busy and stressful time. It seems like every other day you've got another post at the top of HN. Does it help generate buzz for and drive visitors to Referly, or is blogging just your version of unwinding after a hectic day? Obviously your situation is a bit unique in that your startup (or at least the first incarnation of it) was user-generated content based, so maybe it makes sense in your case. Anyway, please don't take this the wrong way, I'm just genuinely interested in your thinking on this. Best of luck with Referly.

jkuria 13y ago
On a similar note, it is hard to imagine folks who spend time on a video like this one being that good at their core business! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okueA9dFcnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okueA9dFcnc
- FelixP 13y ago
  Brett, who leads First Round's platform team, was a film major at NYU... plus I have to imagine that they could outsource most of the heavy lifting to contractors to do the editing, mixing, etc.
bitsweet 13y ago
This probably IS the pivot. Companies like pitchbook.com make $ awe of founders who can manage to find the time to write articles, blog posts, do speaking engagements, and be "thought leaders", and somehow still find the time to rapidly grow a company It's all marketing, which if done well, helps grow your company.
hkmurakami 13y ago

alexatkeplar 13y ago

As far as I can understand: 1. Your first passion was referly v1, which didn't work (as I and many others predicted at launch 188 days ago) 2. referly v2 is pivoting into a "community-contributed magazine of free and paid content" 3. Your new passion is writing about startups, and building metrics to rank them Life is way too short to work on things which you're not passionate about. Why not junk Referly and build a Crunchbase/Pitchbook/Second Market? You're obviously putting huge amounts of time and mindshare into this, rather than the referly magazine pivot. Sources: 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4655702 2. http://refer.ly/please-read-referly-discontinuing-rewards-paying-existing-links-through-march-31st/c/67f9d3fa890311e2bfbf22000a1db8fa 3. http://www.daniellemorrill.com/2013/03/*

btrautsc 13y ago

I love these, they're vastly interesting. While you're pivoting refer.ly I hope you can sustainably produce many more. Thanks dmor