A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

article thumbnail

A Scorecard: Should a decision be fast, or slow?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Conversely, time-pressure means the more time you spend deciding, the less time you have for implementation and unanticipated problems, so you’re adding risk by dragging out the decision. If the status quo isn’t that bad, there might not be a reason why a decision should be made quickly.

Engineer 264
article thumbnail

If you build it, they won't come, unless.

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

In a world where everyone and their brother is "joining the conversation" (oops, I use that phrase constantly!), I'm not talking about "triage" strategies like buying AdWords linking to a page of ads, I'm just pointing out that most companies on Earth don't depend on "joining the conversation" to acquire customers.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

We're better at SEO and social media. Social media and SEO is ever-changing quicksand. Leave a comment and join the conversation. It's even true in hardware: Every mp3 player uses zillions of patents, but that didn't stop Apple from winning. 80% of Americans believe they are better-than-average drivers. Can't be true, right?

article thumbnail

Capturing Luck with “or” instead of “and”

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

This is true of everything from product features to website copy for conversions to avenues for exiting the company years from now. The converse of this is a business that has extra “and” clauses — even more than usual. The general rule is optionality is strength.

Affiliate 245
article thumbnail

Do I dare call bullshit aloud? Do you?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

I mean, as much as Social Media is supposed to be about “honesty&# and “being human&# and “genuineness,&# of course most isn’t. Surely the recipient of my missive couldn’t care less, but it’s important to me because I finally grew the stones to say what I feel even if it pisses someone off.

Affiliate 250
article thumbnail

Not disruptive, and proud of it

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

When they hear about a new social media craze they cringe in agony, desperately hoping it's a passing fad and not another new goddamn thing they'll be aimlessly paddling around in for the next decade. Leave a comment and let's continue the conversation. But most people are creatures of habit.

article thumbnail

Fermi estimation for startup business models

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or business model component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% You’re not going to get a 10% conversion rate from Adwords, for example. Early in a company’s life, you don’t know anything.