A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

That’s great of course, because in a new startup everyone needs to be either making stuff or selling stuff — there’s no room for managers and executives and strategists. You love converting marketing requirements into 960-wide artwork, replete with whitespace, custom fonts. Have you talked to 50 potential customers?

Fractional CTO 310

Fractional CTO Coder CTO Hire Design 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 18, 2010

I would instruct customers on "best practices" for code review, but who am I to tell other people how to critique code? The tool really did save time and headache; customers said so. I doubt the quality of my software, so I fix bugs as fast as possible, I write unit tests proactively, and I thank my customers for their patience.

Software Review 335

Software Review Reputation Software Sales 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 21, 2009

Okay okay, "Planning == Bad," but the supposed benefits of planning are still important: designing for profitability, understanding your customers and competitors, focusing your attention, deciding what's worth doing next, changing directions, and ensuring the founders agree on important issues. But is that really the case?

Startup 315

Startup Revenue Cofounder Sales 315

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 12, 2011

If she left because she couldn’t stand the crushing bureaucracy, the tolerance of incompetence, and the lack of any visibility into what customers actually wanted, then she sounds like a person ready for a startup. In a small startup there’s no layer separating employees from customers. Or therapy.

Hiring 282

Hiring Employee Ruby Java 282

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

One thing I learned from there, is that the manager is the first step. And B,The manager often is the one controlling how the money works. So, if the manager’s on board, you’re probably going to start and if not, you’re don’t regardless of the band. So the manager, that’s one thing.

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 23, 2013

The mindset works like this: It costs a lot of money to land an enterprise customer. Marketing, sales, legal, account management, on-boarding, technical guidance, training. And: how many times do you run through that process and still lose the customer? So these costs are amortized over the customers you do land.

Business Model 335

Business Model .Net Revenue IPO 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 22, 2013

A great manager who develops the careers of their folks versus several average ones who are glorified project managers. A great customer support rep thrilling customers and causing love on Twitter versus 100 others “answering tickets” but never invoking an emotional reaction.

Engineer 257

Engineer Social Media Acquisition Sales 257

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. We use email; we use Word; we use task manager; we use a file sharing tool. Edwin: Okay, I have different types of customers.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 28, 2014

Distribution is the hardest thing for a young startup, defined as “getting in front of potential customers.” ” Large companies, on the other hand, have solved the distribution problem (proof: 100,000 paying customers). Big companies are surely scrounging around for new excuses to up-sell their customer base.

Startup 293

Startup Hosting Distribution Revenue 293

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

” What spurred this blog post was someone who wrote exactly what I quoted above, in the space of project-management (PM) tools. Who knows if they’re good ideas, but at least they are actual ideas, actual proposals, in that they define “better:” PM tools assume you already know about project management.

Distribution 267

Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful 267

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

Jared: Yeah, I think initially the real focus of Padseeker is going to be an on-demand solution to create a website for property management. Maybe you didn’t think it was worth it to spend $5,000 or more on a custom website, something along those lines. I guess I’m more targeting property management companies.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

But it’s surprising to me how many companies with recurring/subscription revenue don’t understand the interactions between the elements that make up customer acquisition cost (CAC), churn and lifetime value (LTV). Your company spends money on sales and marketing to acquire new customers (aka – new logos).

Churn Rate 288

Churn Rate .Net Metrics Hosting 288

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2017

This plays out in many important ways: Customers demand an improved UX , but they don’t want to learn a new UX. This is equally important for everyone in a startup, whether you manage others or not. Constant change can feel like management has no plan and no strategy. Top workplace complaints: 1) The way things are 2) Change.

Demand 159

Demand Employee Management Product 159

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

The company landed one big customer representing 80% of total revenue, but that customer canceled. It wasn’t a mistake to sign that customer — it funded the entire company. “One big customer” is brittle. But sometimes you experience the adverse end of that risk. Back to today and the here-and-now.

Software Review 294

Software Review Channel Revenue Non-Compete 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2017

So, no project can have fewer than, say, three people dedicated to it, plus people management and possibly some form of Product or Project Management. Marketing isn’t scheduling a launch and recruiting isn’t timing the start-dates of the next 50 hires in customer service and sales. Predictability.

Government 223

Government Startup Cofounder Technical Support 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 19, 2011

“WE STARTED THE TREND” “Wherever you hear companies talking about Managed WordPress Hosting, they are following our lead.” Our support is more responsive and knowledgable because we employ more WordPress experts per 1000 customers than anyone. (Powered by LaunchBit ). Is it effective?

HTML 243

HTML Hosting Engineer Leadership 243

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 8, 2010

This is a guest post by Jarie Bolander, author of Frustration Free Technical Management and a moderator at Answers OnStartups. Most people dread following up with customers, vendors and even employees. It’s hard to get rejected by a customer or partner, or even a stranger. Scenario: A Customer Interaction.

Harvest 227

Harvest Email Lean Customer 227

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Of course you expect these moments to happen at the beginning of startup life — when you’re least confident, have the worst product, and the least knowledge about your customers and the market. It’s still there three years in, despite real revenue, profitability, customers arriving everyday, and a great team.

Bootstrapping 312

Bootstrapping Sales Texas Salary 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason. Patrick: Exactly.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 8, 2010

If managed improperly, you're unnecessarily risking lawsuits and worse. For example, you know that to avoid social media shitstorms you're supposed to have stupendous customer service , so you claim as much on your website. laptop, customer lists, Photoshop) is automatically the property of the company. Don't lie at work.

Startup 252

Startup Email RSS Internet 252

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 18, 2012

(We put up with colic for 3 months and it was hell, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I can calm a disgruntled customer over ZenDesk.) I know a startup founder who likes hiring parents because they understand time-management and the importance of being present in the moment. But there are useful skills.

Social Media 246

Social Media Restful Media Startup 246

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 28, 2014

Not to mention 10 minor incidents with degraded performance, or a DDoS attack somewhere in the data center affecting our network traffic, or some other thing that sets pagers a-buzzing in our Tech Ops team and mobilizes our Customer Support team to notify and help customers. Now consider what happens as we try to inform 50 customers.

Technical Review 275

Technical Review Social Media Engineer Cost 275

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 31, 2012

” It’s the founder who says she doesn’t need to talk to customers before embarking on a $100,000 development project because “my customers are idiots.” I could have used those 10 hours to make it easier to share a website speed report and to tell a friend about our free WordPress management portal.

Bootstrapping 230

Bootstrapping Java Revenue Hosting 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 17, 2010

After all: Tech support deals with insane customers. Tech support keeps angry customers at bay while having no power to effect change. For most of your customers, tech support is the only human interaction they'll have with you. Enabling your customers isn't just about your product , but rather your entire company.

Technical Review 245

Technical Review Sales Turkey Software Review 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. But we managed to grow a few customers, so that’s good, in spite of the name. Noel: So we been looking on enterprise power management tool.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

It’s rich contact management, event planning, notification services, and task management, but at the family level. We’ve got amazing calendar tools, we’ve got contact management tools. Maybe just 50 or 100 customers and you’re making enough money that this is your deal. What would they say it is?

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

None of their customers used Macs, so they didn’t think Macs were important, but then it turns out the main investor is keen on seeing the demo on a Mac, and when they tried it, it didn’t work. One day I got a call from some poor schleps I didn’t want to help. Should we take on those clients?

Java 311

Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 10, 2010

For example, Priceline has to sell each hotel chain on the value of their service, create integrations between hotel management systems and their database (in real time), and negotiate legal and financial details. And you could ask for a few things in return: They complete a survey (your customer/market research).

Business Model 310

Business Model Finder SEO Bootstrapping 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 15, 2014

My daily life consists of (a) setting the strategy and rationale of the Engineering & Innovation department, based on a mixture of vision, data, and the needs of the rest of the company, (b) participate in doing the same for the whole company, (c) hire, (d) manage the managers whose teams execute the real work.

CTO Hire 266

CTO Hire RSS Cofounder Algorithm 266

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

No wait, I forgot, actually the question is: What happens when employee #2 makes off with your code and roadmap and marketing data and customer list, moves to Bolivia, and starts selling your stuff world-wide at one-tenth the price? Just on the basis of these advisors, Hiten will get hundreds if not thousands of customers.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

On this day we stopped looking at the hosted version as a new product line, and started looking at it as a market test; to see if we could build enough of a customer base to warrant a major investment in the hosted invoicing market space. If customers decide to use it, then you can automate it. So we tossed it.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

She’s in business for over 10 years and she’s been able to pursue this hobby of her’s and it’s a huge part of her life while growing a very successful business that is very manageable and has kept her very satisfied and happy. The customer asks and they say yes.

Cofounder 223

Cofounder New York Conversion Entrepreneur 223

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. Produce evidence of potential customers already looking for a solution to this problem (e.g. You make stuff. This is a startup contest.

Startup 284

Startup Algorithm Design Salary 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

All technology depends on "platforms" — operating systems, browsers, libraries, even pre-existing customer prejudices. Take Heroku , a fully-managed Ruby on Rails platform. Of course you can't conclude that using another platform is automatically imprudent. Some things look like scary platform lock-in but aren't really.

Marketing 229

Marketing Ruby SEO Widget 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 2, 2013

Never mind managing consultants or employees! Yes, except if you don’t listen to what customers are telling you to do, you’ll build a product no one wants to use. I’m responsible to our 10,000+ customers to fulfill the promises we make around service and product. Nothing real-time. No investors.

Cofounder 312

Cofounder Startup Founder Engineer 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 5, 2010

These might seem obvious, but look at most blog posts (from unsuccessful blogs) and you'll notice how almost none fo the posts manages to be one of these three things. Inspiring aka "I’m pumped up to take on the world.". It's rarer than it should be. What do people not share? What do I do?" You have the power to not be in that situation.]. #5:

Community 261

Community Audience Video Social Media 261

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 14, 2013

Should you cut off the affiliate program since it’s a waste of time, or redouble your efforts in affiliate management? Should you work on optimizing AdWords since they’re working, or optimizing banner ads since they’re not working? Should you optimize these existing channels or try to find a new, more productive channel?

Affiliate 282

Affiliate Marketing Campaign Channel 282