A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
NOVEMBER 5, 2014
” How many times have you heard someone agree that “it would be great if someone did X,” but when show them someone did do X, but it costs $39.99, they don’t buy? Price is as important as any other feature to determine product/market “fit.” 10,000/mo means larger companies only.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
FEBRUARY 15, 2010
Many of my mistakes can be traced back to a failure to recognize and appreciate "sunk cost.". The term comes from economics: "Sunk Cost" is money you've already spent and cannot get back no matter what. Of course we carbon-based life forms can rarely be described as "rational," especially when it comes to ignoring sunk costs.
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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
APRIL 12, 2010
They were the disruptors, but they didn't profit from the disruption. Disruptive technology often comes from research groups commissioned to produce innovative ideas but unable to capitalize on them.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
APRIL 11, 2017
It’s wise because costs are low (every vendor is thrilled to have new business) and if you can get people to buy when money is tight, you’ve really proved you have a desirable product. Instacart might be a good idea in 2017, but Webvan wasn’t a good idea in 2000. I started Smart Bear in a recession (2002) and it went great.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
JANUARY 13, 2015
and 5%” or “cost to acquire a customer between $50 and $500″ or “average monthly revenue per customer between $20 and $200.” Including future cancellations, they’ll need to sign up a total of 2000 customers to net 1666. ” Estimating with these extremely wide ranges can be surprisingly useful.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 23, 2012
invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2. In other words, they’re back to seeking product/market fit, and only an immense market (and excellent fit) will counterbalance their crushing costs and pay back past investments. Support.com — On 2.5m
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 4, 2017
If we under-estimate, our support folks get overwhelmed with too much work, their quality of life suffers, and service to each customer suffers; if we over-estimate, we have too many people which is a cost penalty. Of course, the latter is a better failure mode than the former, but both are sub-optimal, and the solution is predictability.
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