Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. If the coefficient is > 1.0 , you generally have a viral hit on your hands.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Finally the day came, we unleashed the landing page, emailed our existing customers, and started advertising online. Dont worry about selecting particularly good keywords, if youre new to SEM. We finally settled on a $1.99 price point, figuring that we wouldnt make much money, but at least we wouldnt get in the way of achieving scale.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

If its part of a viral loop, its probably trying to get them to invite more friends (on average). More often This logic can be extrapolated to the web world to mean: more users, visiting your site more often, for longer amounts of time to maximize advertising exposure. But in my experience this is not useful most of the time.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

If the viral coefficient is 0.9, Start with a five-dollar-a-day SEM campaign. Launching is about creating circles within circles (groups of people that connect) and social networking, word of mouth, and real-world advertising are all contributing factors. Pay attention to your fundamental driver of growth. before you launch.

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