Every company has vanity metrics and honest metrics.
Vanity metrics look good in pitch decks. Total signups. Page views. App downloads.
Honest metrics tell you if your business will survive. Active users. Retention. Revenue per customer.
The temptation is to focus on vanity metrics because they go up more easily.
Resist it.
The best founders know their honest metrics by heart. They check them daily. They make decisions based on them.
Ask yourself: what's the one number that, if it went to zero, would kill your business?
That's your honest metric.
Everything else is decoration.
The investors who matter will ask about it. The customers who stay are reflected in it. Your company's future depends on it.
Know your honest metric. Watch it closely.
This is Founder FM. Build what matters.