A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

They’ve heard rules of thumb like “A growing software company is worth 5 times their trailing 12-months revenue.&# Even narrowing the field as much as feasible, revenue multiples varied between 1.2x The “Multiples&# argument does work well in industries where company’s growth and revenue is highly predictable.

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. Typically, this caliber of bankers wouldn’t talk to you unless your company had five profitable quarters of increasing revenue.

Founder 252

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 252

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. Cost of Acquisition (CAC): The total cost of acquiring a user through a given channel.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Your revenue plans are no longer valid. What’s your monthly cash burn at your new low revenue level? The CEO should dial through as many of the largest existing customers to get a firsthand understanding of the magnitude of any revenue shortfall. Ask yourself: Are there now new customers, new services and new channels to pursue?

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

So rather than hiring a VP Marketing [to establish a strategic marketing plan, build and manage the marketing team, manage outside vendors, etc.] I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.” ” He advocates for people who test all channels, use quantitative methods and commit to growth as one’s “true north.”

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

View from Seed

JANUARY 24, 2018

And they tell us over and over again that they just care about four things: Hiring and developing a great team. For this reason, we’ve partnered with Guild members who have experience across different kinds of customers, business models, and distribution channels. Building a great product. Getting more customers. Back to Top).

Operations 176

Operations Cofounder Technical Review Angel Investor 176

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Customer Acquisition. If you can break this down by channel that you’ve acquired them from this is obviously better. The next step after measuring the customers you’re adding is to add the “cost to acquire” by channel. Those two things together would lower your acquisition costs nearly in half to $6.11. Revenue Metrics.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup Acquisition SEM 346

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

ConversionXL

JUNE 8, 2017

Acquisition segments. Acquisition segments. It is about focusing your marketing efforts on a few select companies that could represent huge revenue streams. In these cases, it’s best to get an intimate understanding of the job itself, what creates demand for it, and what you’d hire to do the job. Contextual segments.

Programming 97

Programming Revenue Analytics Software Review 97

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Now, startups, mid-level companies, and large corporations turn to VPN providers such as Surfshark to create secure network channels without the complexity of a conventional security infrastructure. Hire Remote Contracted Employees. All of that goes away when an employer hires remote contracted help.

Cloud 113

Cloud eCommerce Security Advertising 113

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 13, 2019

by Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of “ The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue “ Everyone knows that retention is crucial for subscription-based companies. Blue Apron is hardly alone with its churn problem. Maybe he just wanted to binge watch his favorite show.).

Customer 173

Customer Technical Review Retention Acquisition 173

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Sometimes that’s defensible distribution channels. Instead, watch payback period for acquisition efficiency, watch retention for product/market fit, watch expansion revenue for long-term growth, and watch gross margin for long-term profitability. A reliable paid acquisition channel results in a somewhat stable business.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

15:59] What’s the first strategic sort of leadership hire that you think an agency needs? [17:07] 17:07] I’m seeing more and more agencies talk about growth through acquisition – is that a good way to grow? I'm gonna go hire 'em now they know. Is that fraught with lots of challenges? [19:44] Here's what happened.

CPA 73

CPA Technical Review Revenue Forecast 73

Women Entrepreneurs Can

AUGUST 30, 2020

Generally, companies use artificial intelligence to cut costs or increase revenue. Because financial institutions are not able to invest that money, fraud also indirectly results in lost revenue. Enhancing the Hiring Process. To combat these issues, more and more companies are using AI for their hiring processes and operations.

Artificial Inteligence 59

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Retention Aggregator 59

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Not all startups need outside investment to grow.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

The launch of the Xbox and Kinect, and the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer happened on his shift. If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. On day one there are no customers to lose, no revenue and profits to decline.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

The launch of the Xbox and Kinect, and the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer happened on his shift. If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter to quarter or even year to year revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. On day one there are no customers to lose, no revenue and profits to decline.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. 500k had come through the last acquisition. For some reason the industry of bankers who try to buy or sell businesses work in what is called the “M&A (mergers & acquisitions) Industry.&# I’ve never understood this.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

The reason that incumbents can’t react is that their revenue and defensibility are continued by serving the high-end of the market for which it would take too much time & money for any competitors to effectively challenge. new arrivals plus library versus just library) or even create channels (i.e. No time soon.

Los Angeles 329

Los Angeles Revenue Retention Acquisition 329

Austin Startup

MARCH 26, 2019

25 questions that DTC entrepreneurs should ask themselves before scaling customer acquisition So you run a direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand. You just spent a few thousand dollars on advertising and your paid customer acquisition cost (CAC) numbers tested well relative to your best guess for customer lifetime value (LTV).

Technical Review 49

Technical Review Software Review China Acquisition 49

ConversionXL

MAY 1, 2017

One of the greatest threats to long-term success is when companies aren’t vigilant enough about responding to the changes in their market—whether it’s by failing to spot product or channel fatigue, acknowledge new competition, make needed updates to products or marketing adjustments in a timely fashion, or embrace new technology coming online.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review Algorithm Channel Analytics 127

ConversionXL

JULY 3, 2020

Say your objective is to increase sales revenue from your existing customer base, and your key result is to generate an additional $500k from these customers by the end of Q2. Your hypothesis might be that if you remove the promo code field at the checkout, cart abandonment will go down, and revenue from existing customers will increase.

Technical Review 107

Technical Review Software Review API Analytics 107

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 6, 2018

In other words, you should demonstrate that revenue and/or engagement are repeatable and achievable in a cost-effective manner, and not just a function of pent-up demand from a small segment of underserved customers that will dry up in the near future. . Hiring after an A round.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Distribution Metrics Retention 150

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Just take a look at these three channels: Facebook : 171% Increase in Cost per Thousand Impressions, or CPM ( 2017 ). There are other channels, of course, but these numbers give us a hint that, well, marketing isn’t getting any cheaper. customer acquisition process and channels). Twitter : 20% Increase in CPM ( Q4 2017 ).

Marketing 289

Marketing Sales Cycle Acquisition Sales 289

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. What’s the customer acquisition cost? Lets see why. Something else? Who’s the customer?

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

mashable.com

JULY 18, 2012

The search giant’s VP of Corporate Development, along with CEO Larry Page, signs off on the dozens of acquisitions and acqui-hires made every year, large and small. The 10 Most Expensive Google Acquisitions. Google integrated Admeld with its additional DoubleClick and Invite Media acquisitions. DoubleClick.

San Francisco 104

San Francisco Acquisition Social Media Mobile 104

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

The best drivers apply the brakes just ahead of the curve (they take out excess costs), turn hard toward the apex of the curve (identify the short list of projects that will form the next business model), and accelerate hard out of the curve (spend and hire before markets have rebounded). but polls and surveys are obvious choices, too.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

Last week, I wrote about Akamai , a company with strong network effects that successfully transitioned from a single product to build a platform that garners over a billion dollars in revenue and is now a core part of the Internet’s fabric. Kaufer originally hired writers to product professional reviews and allowed user reviews on a whim.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2016

But in my experience as a startup advisor, too many entrepreneurs get stuck there, and always find excuses for not really exploring mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and alliance alternatives. The organic solution is to hire more people, spend more money, and ramp up your focus. That’s called organic growth , and everybody does it.

Merger 120

Merger Intellectual Property Startup Acquisition 120

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 26, 2022

Good CEOs will look inside and say: “Hey, maybe we’ve been hiring a little bit too much during the sugar rush phase of the pandemic, and what does that mean for performance management? Can we squeeze out more from folks that we’ve hired, and are there things that maybe we have completely neglected? Have we become soft?

Partner 132

Partner Cofounder Retention Acquisition 132

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

B2C sales and customer acquisition efforts are a different matter (and one I''ll perhaps address in a future blog), but for B2B, those three models are the most common pattern. If you want to scale sales, you hire more sales reps. customer acquisition cost or CAC). I''ll discuss each one below. 1) Enterprise Sales.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

ConversionXL

JANUARY 18, 2022

Indeed’s CMO Paul D’Arcy says their priority is brand awareness and reducing friction: “The number one thing we’re doing is making sure that that product is everywhere and a click away when people are looking for a job or looking to hire.” [ via The Drum ]. Deciding on this starts with your “why,” which we’ll cover in a moment.

Marketing 128

Marketing Campaign Software Review Tulsa 128

View from Seed

MARCH 16, 2016

These companies have a long way to go until global dominance in many cases, but they are all growing, hiring, and strengthening the local community right now. Look out for bootstrapped CarGurus , one of the leading used-car properties, targeting over $150M in revenue this year.

Boston 215

Boston Early Stage Artificial Inteligence Semantic 215

Hearpreneur

MAY 15, 2019

I loved working for start-ups, except for the being laid-off part, as a result of acquisition or pivot. We will be hiring people with mental and physical disabilities in the near future. million in annual revenue. #3- Being laid-off. Photo Credit: Kristie Jones. Being laid-off is the mother of invention. 5- Two reasons.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO Entrepreneur CTO Hire LLC 122

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

As this job ad for a DGM role at DeepCrawl details: “The Demand Generation Manager will work closely with the channel marketing managers to plan and deliver marketing campaigns. Other times, they’ll focus on a particular channel or initiative. Ideas and demonstrable demand generation experience are high on the list of hiring managers.

Demand 95

Demand Management B2B Campaign 95

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

Chapter 2: Defining and Testing the Story…Start Out By Admitting You’re Wrong, A Lean Business Plan Template, Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, Unique Value Proposition and Unfair Advantages, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure and Revenue Streams. Chapter 3: Telling the Story to Your Investors…The Business Plan is Dead.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95