Remove Cofounder Remove IPO Remove Mobile Remove SEM
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Lessons Learned: Lo, my 5 subscribers, who are you?

Startup Lessons Learned

Pick a similar product that they do use, and ask them "who was the first person you know who started using [social networking, mobile phones, plasma TV, instant messaging.]? For companies in the early-adopter phase, you can play "the earlyvangelist game" whenever a customer turns out to be too mainstream for your product. More of the same.

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Lessons Learned: The App Store after the gold rush

Startup Lessons Learned

On the web, we have many of these channels: SEM, SEO, world of mouth, PR and viral. For example, if any of the mobile ad networks gets major traction, they may become a dominant way that people discover new apps. Or if your lifetime value is high enough, you can just keep spending on SEM.

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How to get distribution advantage on the iPhone

Startup Lessons Learned

If you sell an online service that solves a defined problem, you can compete in SEO or SEM. So there is an opportunity to build new brands with attributes like "the most amazing mobile apps" but I think building a company around that strategy means really thinking through how to do it. Blake, thanks for the comment! Which app is yours?