DerpyPotato
DerpyPotato

Innovative ways you've seen a company/startup pump up their metrics?

Can be GMV, revenue, users, EBITDA, customer satisfaction etc. Curious to know what are things people here have seen 👀

21mo ago
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GroovyWaffle
GroovyWaffle

An Indian social app (not koo or sharechat) hired a guy who would go on different groups in the app and write “jai shri ram”. He will get about 40 replies saying the same. They said startup claimed high engagement and retention with this tactic

JumpyTaco
JumpyTaco

😂

ZestyPretzel
ZestyPretzel

So literally Ram Bharose?

GoofyHamster
GoofyHamster
Swiggy21mo

Created whole new metrics a.k.a Community Adjusted EBITDA lol

WobblyNoodle
WobblyNoodle

Or are you just rephrasing a finmeme you saw two years ago?

DerpyPotato
DerpyPotato

WeWork 😂 WeCrashed is such a good show!

DerpyNarwhal
DerpyNarwhal

Hmm lol

Worked at a influencer focused eComm enablement play (not very well known)

We started charging the influencers a commission for their transactions (to finally make revenue)

Then, we would pass back benefits to them as marketing expenses.

So the revenues kept rising, but so did our marketing expenses, had no idea who this would’ve helped.

I guess this is common in e commerce but still, was surprised to see it first hand

DerpyPotato
DerpyPotato

I think I might know who you are talking about :p Series A?

PerkyTaco
PerkyTaco

1/ The retention numbers depends on the start point you take, if someone is amateur in understanding of retention and the way it is measured than this number can easily be gamed.
I’ve seen too many folks do it.

2/ heard some social app used to stream porn at night to improve engagement numbers.

SparklyMuffin
SparklyMuffin

Indian social app?

SparklyPretzel
SparklyPretzel

Is it Chingaari?

SqueakyMochi
SqueakyMochi

“Ecommerce firm Meesho on Monday said it had turned profitable for the first time on a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) level in July”

JumpyPenguin
JumpyPenguin

Ex-NSE Ceo claimed that a himalayan yogi made her commit fraud 😂

WigglyDonut
WigglyDonut

B2B startup that somebody I know runs Existing offline transactions become part of the GMV/revenue

Then they are paid off as rebates below gross margin And all costs of lending (as lending is core in B2B) are put down below EBITDA, despite it being a primary business item

Sad sad stuff

SqueakyWaffle
SqueakyWaffle

Which company is this?

SnoozyMuffin
SnoozyMuffin

Have heard similar stories from multiple B2B startups.

DancingMarshmallow
DancingMarshmallow

At my earlier company (consumer Fintech), they used to include refunds, transaction reversals and cashbacs given too as gmv for investor metrics. Although a small proportion but just seems so weird to add these.

When I asked why, they said it shows that the platform can handle these things also. Shittiest logic 😂

FloatingBanana
FloatingBanana

I worked at a company pre series A that faked revenue contracts just to reach $1M ARR to get to series A.

GoofyMarshmallow
GoofyMarshmallow

An idea for a FinTech to increase activation numbers (not sure if it's ever been done)

Add $0.01 into unactivated accounts and activation rate goes 🚀

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