A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 13, 2011

We recently underwent a Cinderella-like transformation: A total redesign of the WP Engine website from despicable steaming pile of hideousness to a designed, thematic — dare I say artistic? — sleek new look. Does it matter? It must have mattered. Look how bad it was. Not only were the pages just ugly, they were peppered with database errors and CSS blowups: Just look at us now , sporting a grayscale 1950′s automotive motif playing off the “engine&# concept using the lates

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 9, 2011

A daily side-effect of my moderate fame is a barrage of “special&# offers, guest-post requests, pleas for attention, and modest, tasteful bribery. It’s not bad; most are sincere, and even those blatant marketing ploys requesting me to “review this fantastic new book that’s so relevant to your readers who are aching to read it&# are professional, direct, and come bearing gifts (even if it is just a free book).

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 24, 2011

What if you decided to provide something tremendously fantastic for your customers, even though it meant great expense and hardship? This one thing would be incontrovertible — you’d refuse to compromise on that one thing, even if it seems impossible to work out how to do it profitably. It’s easy to identify companies who became wildly successful with this technique.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2011

I finally started Smart Bear Live. It’s “ Loveline for startups ,&# where entrepreneurs get to ask any question about their startup and have me and a rotating co-host tackle the problem and devise constructive next-actions. Like most ventures, it didn’t work the way I’d imagined. For the last year I envisioned it as a weekly call-in radio show, and in this incarnation it wasn’t call-in, it wasn’t on the radio, and it’s not weekly.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 15, 2011

I built this software for myself, and then it turned out a million people wanted it exactly how I originally envisioned it. After hiring a few people, being the CEO became a lot easier, and I was able to focus on high-level strategic plans instead of fighting fires. I wish we had spent less time talking to prospective customers before designing interfaces and writing code.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 31, 2011

Color theory is a little obsession of mine. You’re here for startup advice, but this week I’m taking an indulgence. Leave a comment if you want to see more or fewer of these little distractions. Artists get it wrong. Ask any artist to explain how color works, and they’ll launch into a treatise about the Three Primary Colors : red, blue, and yellow: All other colors are created by mixing these three colors in certain proportions, they’ll explain.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 23, 2011

This guest-post was written by Noah Kagan, Chief Sumo of AppSumo.com , the daily deals site for web entrepreneurs. He was formerly an early employee at Facebook and Mint. I woke up and rolled over to the left side of the bed as I do almost every morning and snapped up my iPhone. My heart beats a little faster as I roll back over, my girlfriends naked back is showing and I click open the iPhone mail app.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

I’ve been there. It sucks. You know most startups fail “only&# because the founders stop working on them, and often, it’s because it’s emotionally draining. I don’t care who you are or how strong your ego is, you will have these moments — perhaps a continuous stream of moments — when you can’t take it anymore.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 21, 2011

Some problems in business can be solved with money; many cannot. When you’re pitching to an investor, one of the best things you can do is to show how the important problems facing your business are those that can be solved with money, because money is what they’re providing. Even if you’re not pitching this is a useful exercise, because if you’re good at the things money can’t buy, you’ll remain competitive even when confronted by a well-funded competitor.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 5, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). I can rip any business idea to shreds. Take NetFlix: The costs of inventory logistics, millions of non-technical customers, the Postal Service, and loss from wear and delivery will make profit impossible with a reasonable retail price. Movie-watchers are accustomed to the immediate gratification of browsing and selecting. People will copy movies, pissing off suppliers.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

It’s among the most-asked questions on startup forums, and an issue we’re dealing with right now at WPEngine as we bring on new employees: How do you decide how much equity (shares) to give a new employee or partner? Especially when the company is young and according to typical financial assessment the shares are “worth nothing?&#.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Get more involved in the Bay Area startup community: Join the WebWallflower mailing list to get a calendar of upcoming startup events and exclusive discounts sent right to you every two weeks. (Powered by LaunchBit ). Tweet. --> You might tacitly assume that I have no major blind spots when it comes building little tech startups. I pontificate on concepts that I learned through hard work, luck, observation, and failure, so surely I have all my bases covered.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). This is the conclusion of Episode 3 of Smart Bear Live; see the original post for details and the first half. You can listen by subscribing to my podcast on iTunes , or it’s enclosed in this blog’s RSS feed , or you can just download the mp3 of the first hour. Why listen? Especially if you don’t normally listen to podcasts?

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Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 3, 2011

Still debating whether this is the year to take an outsized risk, to make a strong decision, or whether “start a company&# should be your New Year’s Resolution? What’s stopping you? What are you afraid of? Is it better to be embarrassed or to do nothing worth judging? Is it better to make an argument and be wrong or to be complacent and thoughtless?

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 11, 2011

You already know that nowadays you’re invisible without some sort of social media presence. You already know the (alleged) benefits of having a personal or business blog. But you still don’t blog, and for good reason, right? Blogging is work, and ten other things are more important. Writing is hard and takes longer than you think it ought.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 18, 2011

ICANN recently announced the availability of new top-level domains (TLDs). So now in addition to.com and.org you can get www.startup or blackfly.chardonny.ironic. Just imagine: Slashdot.org could become slashdot.dot, making its full pronunciation &# eych tee tee pee colon slash slash slash dot dot dot.&#. A new TLD can be yours for only $185,000, but get 5% off with promo code “damnthatsalotofmoney05.&#.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 17, 2011

Finding and agreeing upon a worthy name is always a struggle, especially if you have co-founders. This is one of those emotional decisions where it’s not okay to agree to disagree. There’s a lot of advice on the Internet about naming companies; see this article from OnStartups.com for a particularly good, detailed checklist. Here’s a few additional things I’ve found useful.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 19, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). “WE STARTED THE TREND” “Wherever you hear companies talking about Managed WordPress Hosting, they are following our lead.” This is how one of our competitors attempts to differentiate and compete with us at WP Engine. Is it effective? Most startups insist they’re “first” at something.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Tweet. --> With IMVU not growing. And revenue not flowing. And with piles of cash monthly burning, They asked “Is it a mess, Or is it progress?” Then measured by validated learning. With their customers confused. Eric’s ego was bruised – All his basic assumptions were nixed. They had to unload. All that beautiful code. Before the product could ever be fixed. “What’s the last six months for, Tossing my code out the door?

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 11, 2011

SEOmoz founder and figurehead Rand Fishkin wrote a typically transparent, thoughtful blog post about his struggle of whether to raise a Series B. He’s in the best possible position — the company is profitable and growing and doesn’t “need&# the money, so with little dilution he could take $10m for safety, comfort, and scale. By putting his emotions and financials out there — both business and personal, not that there’s a difference — he’s also open

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.Net Cofounder Dilution Finance 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). This is a guest post by Mark Anderson , owner of lifestyle business Andertoons which produces all the awesome cartoons I use on this blog. He created a custom cartoon for me, and I thought it would be interesting to get a behind-the-scenes peek at how cartoons are created. The custom cartoon began with Jason sending over an early draft for an upcoming presentation he thought might need some livening-up.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

It’s Episode 3 my little “ Loveline for startups. ” Introduced a few months ago as an Austin event, I’m now doing this live audio advice column to the web, taking phone calls from startups around the country. My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast. It’s awesome having podcasting experts on board, Bob with pithy advice and Patrick producing and organizing the show which is a lot more work than you might imagin

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Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). Everyone likes New Year’s Inspiration this time of year; this interview is perfect to scratch that itch. This is the fourth installment in my “Uncommon Interview” series — interviews where we get right into the meat and dispense with pleasantries or “how did you get into this business” sorts of fluff.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

Tweet. --> It’s “ Loveline for startups ,&# if you like those kinds of phrases. Introduced a month ago as an event in Austin, this time we moved this live audio advice column to the web, taking phone calls from startups around the country. My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast. It was awesome having podcasting experts on board, especially Patrick who was on-site with me at Cospace in Austin, interrupting a vacation with his fa

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 1, 2011

We’re doing another episode of Smart Bear Live this Thursday, October 6th, 1:00-3:00 CDT (starts at 2:00 on the East coast and 11:00 on the West). Want specific advice from me and co-hosts Bob Walsh ( 47hats and the Web Startup Success Guide ) and Patrick Foley ( blog ) of the infamous Startup Success Podcast ? It’s like Loveline for startups.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). Tweet. --> It’s one of the hardest steps in a startup, getting that first rube to part with their money over your barely-minimum barely-viable product. Here’s an email I got last week: Hello Jason, I am a big fan of your advice and wanted to see if you could offer any advice for marketing my start-up XYZ. I was totally product focused for the last year and now it’s live, so I need to start thinking about finding some customers.

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Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

Everyone says small startups require focus. Say “no&# to anything that distracts from your goal, your vision, your strategy, tempting though it is to explore all opportunities, hoping each time that this is the one that will catapult you from Mixergy listener to Mixergy interviewee. Lack of focus results in half-assed initiatives, each interrupted by apparently greener pastures before you’ve invested the time and devotion it deserves.

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Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 17, 2011

I wanted to expand on the practical and mathematical implementations of the cancellation rate I referred to in last week’s post. Why cancellation rate is so important. As a preamble to the metrics, it’s useful to know what you’re measuring and why it’s vital. [Cancellation rate] = [product utility] + [service quality] + [acceptable price].

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Business Model Metrics Engineer Technical Review 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 25, 2011

This is a rough transcript of a talk I delivered recently at the start of Startup Weekend in Austin. Startup Weekend is a friendly competitive event in which teams of 3-5 build a startup from scratch over the course of a single intense weekend. It culminates with informal presentations to a panel of judges who declare a winner, but of course the competition is only an excuse to facilitate the true benefits: honing startup skills through experience, the thrill of pressure, and working side-by-sid

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 28, 2011

My single best advice about writing — whether for marketing copy, blogging, a sales pitch, an investor pitch, or even humor, is: BE SPECIFIC. All done, you can stop reading now. (As if I have the power to decide when you stop reading.). Writer’s Workshop. Sometimes it’s easier to demonstrate than to preach, so let’s take a simple statement and see how being specific makes it more powerful, more interesting, and even funny.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

(Powered by LaunchBit ). This is part of an ongoing startup advice series where I answer (anonymized!) questions from readers, like a written version of Smart Bear Live. To get your question answered , email me at asmartbear -at- shortmail -dot- com. Frustrated Builder writes: I have a general-purpose reporting tool that automatically creates reports from certain kinds of data sources.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 4, 2011

Most sporting contests culminate in a single-elimination tournament, meaning that after each match the winner continues and the loser goes home: At the end, only one contender will be undefeated, which makes it seem logical to crown them the undisputed champion. But this isn’t as clear and fair a process as it seems (as any NCAA football fan will agree).

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 6, 2011

As your self-annointed chief-skeptic-slash-statistician-slash-startup-commentator, I need play Devil’s Advocate against the latest buzz from the entrepreneurial online illuminati: The Startup Genome Project wherein global “rules of business&# have been extrapolated from a survey of 650 startups. But I prefer a discussion to a rant , so I showed this article to the kind folks at the Startup Genome Project and reprinted their response at the end.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 27, 2011

In Part 1 I explained how it’s senseless for small companies to compute “one correct value&# for the company, but rather that buyers and sellers must be considered separately. I covered the buyer side there; now let’s tackle the seller. Are you willing to sell your baby? At what price? Most entrepreneurs would love to be in a position to have to decide!

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Consulting can be a great way to fund a startup or make a bunch of cash. It’s easy to start; Just pick an hourly rate and jump in. But someday soon you’ll notice there’s only so many billable hours in the day, and you’ll be tempted to expand. Maybe hire an employee for $30 per hour and re-bill them at $60. Easy money, right? Unfortunately the math doesn’t work that way.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. This is a smart guy with experience and a logical approach to such things, but the way he was initially trying to value his company was not only wrong, but the wrong way to think about the entire sale. As you’d suspect, I was similarly ignorant of such things while watching the sale of ITWatchDogs (where I was a co-founder), and still harbored misconceptions as I went into the sale of Smart Bear.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

In a two-party political system like we have in America, the fight is always over the middle. The hard-lefts vote Democratic, the hard-rights Republican, even if they don’t know the candidate, even if they don’t like the candidate, because it can’t be as bad as that other guy who is even further removed from their ideology. No sense in either party trying to battle over those extremes.

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