Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

Between January 2015 and January 2016, we grew our platform Slidebean from $1K to $20K in monthly recurring revenue. Getting the first tracks of revenue is one of the toughest processes of building a startup. Then, in 2015, this is who we added to the team: Jan-15: Head of Customer Success (growth team).

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

The Next Web

OCTOBER 26, 2013

Enterprise clients for whom Private Workplace was introduced are a minority at oDesk, but this minority brings the bigger part of the revenues. In our customer service team we have a hundred freelancers, in our trust and safety team we have another hundred, in our engineering team we have close to 150. Who needs freelancers?

Russia 151

Russia Ukraine Latvia Lithuania 151

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?)

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 26, 2016

There have been countless debates about the demise of the mobile Web at the hands of mobile apps. One pundit sees apps dominating users’ attention ; another predicts apps will kill off the entire Web. Mobile apps represent a small fraction of the total mobile revenue for all but a handful of the biggest brands.

Mobile 100

Mobile Web SEM Affiliate 100

ConversionXL

JUNE 30, 2019

Knowing what the competitors are doing—how they’re thinking about the market, which tactics they’re using, how they’re crafting messages and design—can make all the difference in the battle for customers. How do customers think of my company compared to competitors? Interview your competitors’ customers.

SEO 126

SEO Conversion Analytics Design 126

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

To say he has had an impact on the web would be an understatement. I thing I’ve learned over the years is that technology purists hate advertising even when it is that revenue stream that truthfully drives much of our industry. His impact has even helped a small country gain admission to the United Nations.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

ConversionXL

MAY 11, 2017

Knowing what the competitors are doing – how they are thinking about the market, what tactics they are using, how they are crafting messages and design – can make all the difference in the battle for the customers’ mind share and conversions. How do my customers think of my company compared to the competitors? How do we stand out?

SEO 131

SEO Analytics Conversion Search 131

Hearpreneur

JUNE 5, 2020

When my revenues grew, I began to hire people with one clear criterion: only hire people I want to go on vacation with. ‘How would I out-maneuver our SEM keywords? An employee who is not visible can lose motivation, which can adversely impact customer interactions. Thanks to Shiv Gupta, Incrementors Web Solutions ! #15-

Leadership 111

Leadership Entrepreneur SEM Employee 111

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

YouTube takes too high of a revenue split (45% vs. 30% that Apple and many other distribution companies take – FWIW, YouTube argues this is because their costs are much higher since they host and stream the video). If you’re just a content company your advantages are too small to win on the web. But think of this.

SEM 150

SEM Los Angeles Silicon Valley Acquisition 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process. Labels: customer development , lean startup 8comments: Amy said. September 11, 2008 2:06 PM Editor said.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

ROBLOX ( www.roblox.com ) is a web/game startup in Silicon Valley that you have probably never heard of--unless you were an eight year old boy, in which case you're probably not qualified for this position. Our revenues have increased every quarter for the past two years. Now, all of that construction and destruction has moved online.

San Francisco 92

San Francisco CTO Hire Developer EC2 92

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is sometimes called “buying your way into search results.” For most, it sounds like a magical process or a scam, with the experts spewing so many acronyms.

Search 225

Search Engineer SEM Widget 225

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. Worry about the sales results. What did we learn? That’s 10x what many websites convert.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Occam's Razor

JULY 1, 2008

conversion rate (average as reported by shop.org) and you are dutifully reporting our revenue of $1 million as a result. While you might be doing great in terms of direct revenue impact of your website, pause and consider what in God's name is happening to that other 98.3% "unconverted" traffic on your site?

Analytics 116

Analytics Conversion Campaign Redemption 116

Occam's Razor

JUNE 4, 2012

Custom reports on the other hand are, well, hand crafted by you for a specific purpose with a set of guiding principles (" Acquisition, Behavior, Outcomes! ") In this post I want to share with you three insightful custom reports for effective paid search (PPC) analysis. One of the hallmarks of our course (my course!)

Analytics 127

Analytics Campaign Search Customer 127

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2012

Founders now routinely use their home to operate their startup until they are well into the revenue phase. Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Try Web-Ex, free teleconferencing, and Skype instead of international travel for client meetings. Facilities and staff. Sales and marketing costs.

Cost 255

Cost Burn Rate SEM Startup 255

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. to optimize this search.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 24, 2018

We’ve collected some of the essential marketing tools and services that can help you improve your marketing and grow your company’s revenues, even if you know little about marketing. With “Content Explorer” you can easily explore the most shared content on the web. Search marketing. Google Adwords.

Social Media 51

Social Media Marketing Analytics Audience 51

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 24, 2018

We’ve collected some of the essential marketing tools and services that can help you improve your marketing and grow your company’s revenues, even if you know little about marketing. With “Content Explorer” you can easily explore the most shared content on the web. Search marketing. Google Adwords.

Social Media 48

Social Media Marketing Analytics Audience 48

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Founders now routinely use their home to operate their startup until they are well into the revenue phase. Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Try Web-Ex, free teleconferencing, and Skype instead of international travel for client meetings. Facilities and staff. Sales and marketing costs.

Entrepreneur 235

Entrepreneur Burn Rate SEM Social Network 235

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 14, 2016

For most businesses, success translates to more revenue (and profits). For example, if your revenue model is driven by advertising on your site, one interim goal could be to drive a certain amount of additional traffic to your site. If you need some help, the terrific designers at crowdSPRING can help you to optimize your web design.

SEO 48

SEO Search Engineer Small Business 48

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Growing revenue and profits is a core objective of most companies, and it is the responsibility of every function to contribute to the pursuit of this goal. The Growth Manager function typically lives at the intersection of marketing and product development, and is focused on customer and user acquisition, activation, retention, and upsell.

Management 20

Management Analytics Technical Review Framework 20

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Growing revenue and profits is a core objective of most companies, and it is the responsibility of every function to contribute to the pursuit of this goal. The Growth Manager function typically lives at the intersection of marketing and product development, and is focused on customer and user acquisition, activation, retention, and upsell.

Management 20

Management Analytics Technical Review Framework 20

Gust

JUNE 10, 2012

Founders now routinely use their home to operate their startup until they are well into the revenue phase. Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM), like cohort analysis , yourself. Try Web-Ex, free teleconferencing, and Skype instead of international travel for client meetings. Facilities and staff.

Cost 139

Cost Burn Rate SEM Startup 139

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Sometimes, testing with existing customers is more complicated than with new customers. Existing customers already have an expectation about how your product works, and its important to take this into consideration when adding or changing features. On the other hand, existing customers can be a testing benefit.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Web Analytics Analysis. Web analytics analysis is next. Customer surveys. Customer interviews and focus groups. If you’re calling your tests when you hit significance, you’ll find that most of your lifts don’t translate to increased revenue (that’s the goal, afterall). Technical Analysis. Mouse Tracking Analysis.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Analytics Framework Software Review 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. For credibility with investors, stick to the organic SEO model and other revenue streams until you have the high traffic to survive on PPC revenue. Keyword research and budget forecasting.

Search 226

Search PPC Widget SEO 226

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

In fact, in the early days, when IMVU would experience unexpected surges of revenue or traffic, it was inevitable that every person in the company was convinced that their project was responsible. My suggestion: take a much-loved feature and split-test it with some new customers to see if it really makes a difference. Expo SF (May. .

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 68

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

Founders now routinely use their home to operate their startup until they are well into the revenue phase. Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Try Web-Ex, free teleconferencing, and Skype instead of international travel for client meetings. Facilities and staff. Sales and marketing costs.

Burn Rate 125

Burn Rate SEM Social Network Angel Investor 125

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Only after reaching $1M in CMRR should you consider hiring European sales and services execs behind customer demand. Be prepared to cross the desert - SaaS requires R&D and sales expense up front for a multi-year stream of revenue, so it demands enough investment capital to fund 4+ years of runway. 16 comments: BdH. Great list!

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Here’s the executive summary of the process we use at CXL: Heuristic analysis ; Technical analysis; Web analytics analysis ; Mouse-tracking analysis ; Qualitative surveys ; User testing and copy testing. Web analytics analysis is next. Maybe your funding depends on that stream of customers. Probably not. Doing a speed analysis.

Analytics 127

Analytics Technical Review Software Review Framework 127

Occam's Razor

JUNE 6, 2007

I am thrilled to say that my book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day has been published and is now widely available. Five Reasons Why You Should Buy Web Analytics: An Hour A Day: Web Analytics: An Hour A Day for the first time provides a Practitioner's in the trenches perspective on web analytics. There I said it.

Analytics 60

Analytics Web Affiliate Metrics 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

By now we all know that the largest part of the online spend has been SEM (search engine marketing) where people buy CPC (cost per click) links to display alongside the “organic&# search results in the search engine. It should lead to higher conversion rates and happier customers. Early evidence is good.

Advertising 284

Advertising Las Vegas Affiliate RSS 284

ConversionXL

JANUARY 22, 2015

You can’t rely on web analytics data – and just compare time periods – as everything changes. Andre says you can’t know unless the test is running at all times: Andre Morys, Web Arts. Andre says you need to change the way you run multiple tests at once: Andre Morys, Web Arts. Now 3, 6 or 12 months go by.

Analytics 48

Analytics SEM Metrics Conversion 48

Occam's Razor

AUGUST 6, 2007

It is quite likely that your company is spending tons of time, energy, and dollars on web marketing efforts yet conversion rates (or ROI) are stuck in the two to three percent range. It is almost instantly accessible in any web analytics tool. Web Analytics, CoreMetrics etc etc etc. So what is this mysterious metric?

Metrics 120

Metrics Analytics PPC Campaign 120

BeyondVC

MAY 18, 2007

What is interesting is that 24/7, AQuantive, and Doubleclick make most of their money from the boring stuff like SEM and display ads. I would go small and focus on building its publisher base where Google gets over 1/3 of its revenue.

Internet 60

Internet RSS SEM Advertising 60