Robbert van Geldrop| Founder and CTO

Innovation Accounting at BackupAgent (2013)

Lean startup principles put to practice

1

About BackupAgent

Vendor of Cloud Backup Software

• Based in Delft, The Netherlands

• Funded in 2007 by Solid Ventures

• Funded in 2013 by Runa Capital

No direct sales; exclusive through:

• (Hosting) Service Providers

• Telcos

• Cloud Service Brokers

Where are we

• Profitable business

• 400+ partners in 50+ countries

2

We build Cloud Backup Software

We sell our technology to service providers

We apply Scrum and Kanban

The key question is always what to build or improve next

3

Build

We have a lot to measure:

• Which features are customers

using?

• On which platform are they

installing it?

• Which features can our

partners sell best and why?

Business model:

• How to charge partners?

• How much customers are

they bringing in?

4

Measure

We measure software usage

through DeskMetrics:

• Features

• OSes

• Demographics

We keep track of our install

base through license

reporting:

• Increase of users

• Increase of TBs

5

Measure

We wanted to know if further improvement of our Exchange 2007

plugin would be a good idea:

Remember: we interviewed our partners about this too and they

confirmed this finding

6

Validation of features and improvements

7

Estimation of the opportunity of feature

‘A cohort is a group of people who share a common characteristic within a

defined period’

Cohorts can teach us about potential to scale and sustainability:

The hard part is how to choose your cohort

Do it yourself: http://www.alivelearn.net/?p=1240

8

Measure – Cohorts!

We wanted to validate the

sustainability of our partner model:

• Recruiting new partners is

expensive

• Not all of our partners are selling

our services successfully

A sustainable partner network

validates further investment:

• Increase marketing

• Develop new features faster

9

BackupAgent’s cohortsCohort analysis shows partnerships are very sustainable over time:

This includes churn, so successful partners outgrow churning

partners consistently.

Invoiced usage fees per cohort of activated partners per Q

Metrics validate scaling of marketing effort:• Average Lifetime Value (LTV) = ±12,000 EUR• Cost of Acquisition (COCA) = ±5,500 EUR• 100% recurring revenues

BackupAgent ALWAYS enriches data with in-depth interviews:

• You need to know about cause and reason that hides behind data

• These reasons and causes make the data actionable

Customer development is the best methodology for this

10

Measure – qualitative data

Learning is not a system:

• BackupAgent is only starting to embed the learning part

• It’s the softest side of Lean Startup

Active learning can be captured by the Business Model Canvas

It’s the process that goes behind making and updating the canvas

that really matters

Not all learning takes places at a time you plan for it, ideally

anyone could instantiate his/her own little iteration

11

Learn

12

Learn – BackupAgent’s Canvas

Your canvas will be a mess if you put all opportunities in the

model – so how do you deal with that?

We implemented the concept of ‘option cards’

• You draw a ‘mini’-canvas on a card symbolizing your option

• You do this for each opportunity

• By doing this you can log and track progress on everything

The deck of cards get prioritized and actions are agreed on weekly

basis

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Learn – Converting your canvas into actions

The Option Cards Kanban:

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Learn – Converting your canvas into actions

Follow us

@BackupAgent

facebook.com/BackupAgent

youtube.com/user/backupagent

linkedin.com/company/backupagent-bv

Questions?

Thank you for listening

Robbert van Geldrop

robbert@backupagent.com

@rvangeldrop