Investors treating startup investments like stock investments led to unrealistic expectations, as they applied public market valuation metrics to early-stage companies, which have much higher failure rates.

Investors can help guide startups by encouraging transparency about financial metrics like runway and burn rate, which are essential for maintaining focus and discipline.

For Silicon Valley investors, growth is the primary metric for determining whether to invest, more so than team or past experience.

Investors often chase opportunities in startups, hoping to profit from future growth, which can lead to inflated valuations that may not be sustainable.

Avoid vanity metrics and focus on clear, actionable metrics that can guide your startup's strategy and decision-making processes.

Investors are generally incentivized to encourage companies to grow quickly, which can lead to misalignment of incentives if a company is profitable but not growing fast enough.

Investors often have different incentives than founders, which can lead to misalignment in priorities.

Startups must focus on measuring the right metrics comprehensively to understand their performance and drive success.

While revenue is often the best primary metric, some startups may focus on active users, especially if building a large audience is a prerequisite for monetization.