In this interview, host Akeel Jabber and guest Santi Bibiloni discuss the key performance indicators and strategic decisions that drive product scaling. They explain how Core transitioned from tracking many KPIs and OKRs to focusing on a few core metrics—ARR, net revenue retention (NRR), churn, and NPS—following the "one metric that matters" (OMTM) principle. The conversation then shifts to growth experiments that failed, notably a paid‑media campaign that drove free‑trial sign‑ups for an SMB audience while the product was not ready for self‑serve, highlighting the mismatch between sales‑led growth and product‑led acquisition. Santi advises founders to pick a single distribution channel (sales‑led or product‑led) and master it before expanding, and cautions that PR and media can boost credibility but often deliver low ROI if not aligned with the product’s stage. He shares personal motivations, emphasizing a culture of greatness aimed at serving the Premier League. For further learning, Santi recommends two sales‑focused books—The Sales Acceleration Formula and Predictable Revenue—and reflects on mentorship, recalling his father's advice to gain experience at larger companies before launching a startup. The interview blends practical metric guidance, hard‑won growth lessons, and personal advice for founders seeking sustainable scale.
Chapters
So you mentioned, you know, closing rate, days to closing, LTV to CAC. What are some other metrics or KPIs you guys are paying attention to on a weekly or daily basis and that are helping you kind of make improvements to help you guys scale?
So, you know, Akeel, we started the company working with OKRs, but before OKRs, we had a bunch of KPIs. Then we moved to OKRs and we have It was very confusing. We were measuring a lot of stuff and we decided to— we remembered 500 Startups' recommendation to go with the one metric that matters, the OMTM. And we put it— we put 3. So one metric that matters for— on the revenue side of the company, one metric that matters On the product side. And then we have like one metric for when it comes to customer satisfaction, right? So what we measure, our top 3 KPIs today are ARR, NRR, net revenue retention.
Retention, right?
Yeah. And churn. So yeah. Then if we want to do a double-click, we go into month-over-month growth and then the KPIs we already gone through, like LTV to CAC and more.
Love it. Yeah, that's super important. I think churn is huge. I mean, if you can solve churn at the top, I mean, that's product, that's activation, that's a lot of things, right? So just that churn, that number alone tells you a lot about a business.
Yeah, sorry. I forgot to say NPS, right? So NPS, NRR. So it's, it's, it's MRR or ARR on the, on the revenue side and churn on the customer success side. But NRR is like a double-click on the, on the revenue side. Then we have— so it's ARR, NPS, and churn.
Makes sense. That's something a lot of people skip and don't pay attention to. But setting up an NPS I think is huge. I think every— if you guys are listening today and you don't have an NPS, set that up today. I think you're gonna get a lot of value from what your customers tell you.
And NPS for us was the— was critical. I mean, it helped us change a lot of things.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, so you talk about what kind of worked well. Can you share any, you know, failures or, you know, coming to growth experiments that maybe you've tried in the past that didn't work with, you know, growth Paid ads, you know, other kind of SEO, any other strategies you've tried and just didn't work?
There are a lot.
A lot, okay.
So things that we did that didn't work. I can start with, yeah, you mentioned paid media, for example. We started, so first of all, we built a robust solution for for the enterprise market, but we were selling to the SMB market. And we started with free trials.
Mm-hmm.
And our product was not prepared for being self-serve, right? And we invested in paid media to get a lot of people, a lot of leads on this free trial. So that was also another mistake. So we did the free trial and we invest on getting leads for that free trial. That helped us to learn some, like we received a lot of inputs, but I wouldn't say it was a good move. I mean, if I would start another company today, I wouldn't, of course, I would decide rather going like sales-led company, sales growth-led, or are you doing like product-led growth or sales-led growth? You need to decide one channel.
Right.
And then after you found continued progress on that channel, Then that distribution channel, then you can think of others, but not at first.
So you focus on sales-led growth, but you were targeting— your marketing was based on product-led, right, is what you're saying? And it wasn't a match. And now what you're saying is if you were to do it again, like if you're going to run paid ads and drive sales, you've got to be really, really focused on product-led, right?
Is that accurate?
Yeah.
Totally accurate. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that.
So this has been fantastic, Santi. I appreciate you kind of digging in and giving us kind of the real details of what's going on behind the scenes. Switching gears, I want to get into the kind of the rapid-fire questions here and a little bit more personal. So what's one advice you wish you had known and you would tell your 25-year-old self, knowing what you know today?
Nice. One advice I will give to myself, well, probably that's the one we mentioned about how to start, like either just choose one distribution channel.
Right.
That's one thing. Other stuff I will tell myself is that PR and media doesn't get you so far if it's not the right place to be at, right?
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I remember myself on our previous company. I was excited to be on a lot of places and it helped on credibility. But it wasn't for sure the best ROI or inbound channel, right? So that's one thing, that's other thing.
That's good. So I mean, if you were to do that again, would you just focus on a few channels that you think have a bigger impact or something who, you Instead of being everywhere?
Now, like, more grown up, I like when the company speaks for the entrepreneur rather than the entrepreneur for the company. That's the thing.
Let the results speak for themselves. That's how it should be, right? Stop making noise when you haven't built anything. Yeah, something I love to do. Cool. What are some of the biggest challenges you're currently facing In order to continue to grow Core? What keeps you up at night these days?
Today, I'm very happy on the team we built. We have great directors and great people working on the team. I love the culture we built as a company. I'm proud of working Where I work, and I learn a lot from the people I work with. What keeps me up at night, I would, is we are here for, we're here for, for, for the Premier League. And so although we're doing good, we want to be great. And that's where I put my focus on being great and helping the team or trying to help the team to be great on what they're doing. So that's where I focus myself. Nice.
Santi, who would you say or what have you say are the best 3 resources? This can be books, Or it could be people such as people you follow, uh, who you'd say have been the most instrumental to your success over these last few years. I know you mentioned, um, you know, some mentors at 500 Startups. Any others that you recommend people check out?
Yeah, if you're, if you're looking for, for sales advice, I would, I would recommend you to, to read 2 books. One is The Acceleration Formula, The Sales Acceleration Formula. from Marc Roberge, former Chief Revenue Officer at HubSpot, and Predictable Revenue from Eric Ross.
Aaron Ross.
Yeah, the former Chief Revenue Officer at Salesforce. So Aaron Ross. So those 2 books are very good. And when it comes to people, there are— I've always received good and of course also bad mentorship as well, but very good mentorship from and very good advices from some people. And there are probably some of them that they don't know how I appreciate their advice. I remember my father telling me when I was 21, saying, hey, Santi, if you wanna build, because I was looking forward to build my own company. And he said like, hey, Santi, I'm not sure if that's the right move. Probably you wanna like own some experience on bigger companies and then start your own. But if you're really looking forward to start your company, I think that before before getting married, before having kids, before— although that was— I was very young at the time. But what he was saying is then when you start having a lot of responsibilities under your own, then making that jump, it's tougher, right?
Mm-hmm.
So that was one key thing that helped and empower all the following, like the rest of the things, and made that happen, right? Then I have Marcos Galperín, who's the founder and CEO of MercadoLibre. He was our first investor. MercadoLibre is like the Amazon for Latin America. It's a $100 billion company in NASDAQ. And Marcos is the the most successful entrepreneur in the tech, in the technology space in Latin America. And the fact of he just by the small fact of helping us when we were just starting a new business, that gave us a lot of power. And that gave us a lot of energy to continue looking for Big fishes like Marcos, but here in Silicon Valley.
