A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 7, 2013

This is the fifth article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap , COC: a new metric for cancellations , The mistake of 1/c in LTV , and SSEBITDA: Steady-state profit metric. Metrics summarize tons of processes, causes, and effects into a single number.

Metrics 244

Metrics Technical Review Revenue Cost 244

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

SnapChat, Pinterest, WeWork, InstaCart, Square, FourSquare, and even Twitter, who has impressive revenue but has still never been profitable). Large: USAA with $24 billion in annual revenue and $3 billion in profits is the 49th most valuable company on Earth. This is growth driven by values.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Viral Metrics Salary 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2011

When should a company should focus on growth only, ignoring the business model and revenue? We transform a company’s trajectory by rephrasing a long, confusing diatribe into a three-word pitch. How to “size a market&# when there’s no good data, and some common pitfalls when you try.

Cofounder 226

Cofounder Angel Investor Hosting Software Review 226

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2016

If it cannot be fixed, it means the business is a failure even if other metrics are stellar. It’s also by far the greatest determinant of equity value, because it maximizes both revenue and the revenue multiple. The unicorns are dying not for of lack of revenue, but for lack of profit. Once you’re scaling (i.e.

Metrics 270

Metrics Retention Revenue Equity 270

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 24, 2011

The convenience of online shoe shopping is a game-changer — to the tune of billions of dollars of revenue — but how could they make up the costs ? Turning a profit at a growing company is nearly impossible regardless of business model. Word-of-mouth by definition.

Intellectual Property 242

Intellectual Property Open Source Bandwidth IP 242

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

I'm a great example of someone who wasn't an authority on anything , but built that authority over time to the point where now my company (Smart Bear) is untouchable as the leader in both revenue and ideas in the area of peer code review. But how does authority convert to revenue?

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 28, 2014

Large company should send a few emails to the customer base, generating easy sales at no cost, and the revenues are split. The problem is that the amount of revenue is not interesting for the big company, yet it requires the big company to spend something not accounted for in the above equation: reputation.

Startup 293

Startup Hosting Distribution Revenue 293

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 16, 2013

Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan. Which means it costs 20-100x as much on marketing campaigns to achieve the equivalent revenue.

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 20, 2013

This is the third article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap and COC: a new metric for cancellations. Meaning, the gross revenue you expect to get from a customer over its entire lifetime. You earn R revenue from them in January.

Retention 262

Retention Metrics Revenue Bandwidth 262

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

This is the fourth article in a series on novel ideas for SaaS metrics, which started with The unprofitable SaaS business model trap , COC: a new metric for cancellations , and The mistake of 1/c in LTV. Its tough for a growing SaaS business to ascertain whether or not it’s truly profitable. Here’s a way to do it.

Metrics 238

Metrics Revenue Flash Later Stage 238

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

If you like this, go see his Shockwave Innovations blog ) Anyone that has taken an accounting class or learned basic business financials knows the interaction between key elements of a P&L (revenue, cost, expense) and a balance sheet (assets, liabilities, equity).

Churn Rate 288

Churn Rate .Net Metrics Hosting 288

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Sacha demonstrated the benefits of selling many copies of an eBook at a low price, while Jarrod pointed out the advantages of higher prices, bringing in more revenue with 1/6th the number of units sold. In that case, A can’t keep growing forever, so its revenue is limited, which is a bad spot. maximizing per-unit profitability).

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 3, 2011

And Dharmesh is a SaaS business-model God, as evidenced by his well-reasoned Business of Software speeches and tangible success with Hubspot. If we know a typical customer pays us $50/mo and stays with us for 30 months, that’s $1500 in “lifetime” revenue. That makes the business fantastic?

Metrics 273

Metrics Startup Revenue Engineer 273

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

After I sold Smart Bear, that division has increased revenue and profit every year, for five years, even through the 2008/2009 economic disaster. GroupOn’s engine that turned capital into revenue growth was a form of force-feeding rather than building a product). But really, are all those acquirers so stupid? Surely not.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 25, 2011

That’s great of course, because in a startup you either need to be making stuff or hauling in revenue — there’s no room for managers and executives and strategists. Construct a plausible business model. You make stuff. If you prove yours can work, you’re already ahead of the group.

Startup 284

Startup Algorithm Design Salary 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

But as the business matured and they started charging money, they ran into a problem. It turns out that the cost of customer acquisition for consumers was too high compared to the revenue being generated. “In It’s a 1-page business model tool. Those are horrible economics.

Lean 284

Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Edwin: Oh sorry, so the business model. Edwin: The business model is that the organizer has to pay. How do you split revenue? And then the final thing is just getting the revenue up. Jason: A lot of things are solved with revenue. Do you think that’s a good business model?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. Totally automate all that so it doesn’t bring me down all the time and instead I can sign all the revenue, because that’s fun. They have 27 business units. What’s the worst case?

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

Some startups die because their business model is platform-dependant. Like this: Used to be, Twitter let you post anything, even advertisements, even if you didn't identify those tweets as ads. Companies like TweetUp and Ad.ly popped up as liaisons between advertisers and popular Twitter-ers.

Marketing 229

Marketing Ruby SEO Widget 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

All you’ve proven is that you can make $200 a month in revenue off of some basic websites. Let’s just for now go with this Craigslist assumption, because at least it’s a business. The other stuff you’re talking about, to me – I still don’t understand the business model and the pain point.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220