A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Founders almost never have a real strategy. Founders explain failures with things like “our two main competitors did [thing] to us” or “customers didn’t understand [our point of view].” The 10,000th biggest company in the world is a very successful company, as is the two-person company where the founders each take home $300k/year.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

GrowthHackers founder and former Head of Growth at Dropbox, Sean Ellis , coined the term: “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. In his course on Growth Mindset (part of CXL’s Growth Marketing Minidegree ), WeTheFuture.org founder John McBride describes three key components of a successful growth marketer: 1.

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Haystack

FEBRUARY 1, 2019

For Spotify’s core business, which charges consumer subscriptions for the ability to have unlimited mobile access to an enormous music library, music as the audio source converts high engagement minutes into recurring revenue via subscriptions. market by launching in connection with Facebook viral invites? Remember Stitcher?

Acquisition 134

Acquisition Media Audio Technical Review 134

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Two of the teams focused on the two main sources of revenue, one team on inbound leads, and the last team on site conversion rates. We were optimizing revenue from these campaigns by testing different versions. Suddenly, our revenue from these campaigns dropped by 50%. But the exceptions are rare and tend to be founders.

Conversion 133

Conversion Technical Review Channel Engineer 133

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Founders tend to fixate on the product.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Founded in November 2007 in New York City by Alexis Maybank and Kevin Ryan (co-founder of DoubleClick); CEO is Susan Lyne (ex-CEO Marta Stewart Living Omnimedia) Revenue estimates: $50mm in 2008; $170mm in 2009 (versus budget of $150mm); $450mm forecasted for 2010. Note that these are “gross” revenue numbers. Employees: 20.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

View from Seed

APRIL 23, 2015

However … An unfortunate side effect of this particular POTAJ is that, in many startup pitches, entrepreneurs focus so much on product or tech that they leave out one crucial, deal-making-or-breaking detail: distribution. ” Founders must address distribution in their pitches both overtly and succinctly.

Founder 120

Founder Distribution Viral Seed Stage 120

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. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV): The potential revenue that you’ll be receiving from a given user.

Revenue 60

Revenue Acquisition Channel Campaign 60

VC Cafe

JULY 15, 2021

According to Statista, revenue generated from apps (paid downloads and in-app advertising) will reach $935 billion by 2023, and that doesn’t doesn’t include the many trillions of dollars transacted via apps in the last decade alone (think Amazon, Uber, games, etc). Worldwide mobile app revenues in 2014 to 2023 (in billion U.S.

Mobile 190

Mobile Social Media Distribution PR 190

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue. End of theory.&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

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. But its not really viral growth, even when its exponential.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

As an advisor to many new venture founders, I often hear their frustration at being told by investors “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” The intent is to indicate that founder passion is not a substitute for real customers buying the product. Build a realistic revenue model and price, based on cost.

Angel Investor 147

Angel Investor Distribution Bootstrapping Viral 147

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 4, 2023

Joe Flanagan, Founder, 90s Fashion World No, Too Many Lenders While the idea of sourcing capital from multiple smaller sources is an enticing one, the reality is far less pleasant. A campaign should only be used if your product has a “viral” quality to it. Inbar Madar , Founder and Business Consultant, M.I.

Startup 141

Startup Campaign Cofounder Venture Capital 141

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2013

But the insights I see from her book and elsewhere are equally applicable to startup founders of all ages, and businesses of all ages. Viral marketing campaigns to lure new customers will cost you big money. Look for operations that are hogging resources without generating significant revenue. Look for hidden sources of revenue.

Startup 247

Startup Viral Revenue Distribution 247

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Then they increased their revenue from $2M to $6M in six months. In this article, you’ll learn how to build a demand generation funnel that fuels the pipeline, shortens the sale cycle, and generates revenue. Your number one metric for any marketing initiative should be revenue. Like SEO, demand generation is a long game.

Demand 124

Demand B2B Distribution Channel 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

They realized for them this was dumb because people didn’t want to use up their credits so viral adoption wasn’t happening quickly enough. How has the viral coefficient been for you? Gregg gave us specifics on how viral adoption has worked. The viral adoption went to 15-20 per share action.

Viral 303

Viral Investment Bankers Video Business Model 303

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

billion and revenues likely exceeding $250 million (Wikipedia lists 2015 revenue at $167 million). That is why I invited the Founder & CEO, Jonah Peretti , to come talk at the 2017 Upfront Summit and make the case himself. I asked Jonah in my interview how he became this viral guru. I asked Jonah about this. “I

Media 210

Media Los Angeles Russia Viral 210

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? All things being equal, of course, you’d rather have more revenue rather than less. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Successful product launch campaigns have a strong value proposition, multi-channel distribution, supporting content, and other trappings common to every marketing campaign. Hugo Woodhead is the founder of Pilcro , which sells brand management software. Product launches are one phase in the product lifecycle. Image source ). Conclusion.

Product 110

Product Campaign Acquisition Social Media 110

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2012

But the insights I see from her book and elsewhere are equally applicable to startup founders of all ages, and businesses of all ages. Viral marketing campaigns to lure new customers will cost you big money. Look for operations that are hogging resources without generating significant revenue. Look for hidden sources of revenue.

Entrepreneur 234

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Distribution 234

ConversionXL

MAY 29, 2019

billion in annual revenue that trades on the NASDAQ—had published only four videos in nearly 12 years. It also brings clout from related review channels and a known commodity in founder Jeff Rizzo, whose primary channel has nearly a half-million subscribers. Reddit has worked as a distribution path for other YouTube channels.

Channel 106

Channel Video Audience Software Review 106

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. Russell Rothstein, Founder and CEO, IT Central Station , a product review site, said, “We see VCs on our site very often. 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet. This refers to the monetization or revenue model. Most startups these days use one of three primary growth engines: the viral, sticky, and paid growth models. Platform pivot. Business architecture pivot.

Silicon Valley 273

Silicon Valley Architecture Startup Channel 273

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. We created UpKeep to fill this void—a cloud-based solution that was affordable for any size business.” – Ryan Chan, founder of UpKeep.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 1, 2020

Founders can often use this to their advantage by slipping back in to former organizations in which they were a part and charging more per hour for tasks they are already comfortable performing, while still looking for other similar gigs and opportunities elsewhere. Become a viral success. Have a unique value proposition.

Startup 120

Startup SEO Private Equity Venture Capital 120

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

AUGUST 5, 2011

I have seen Nick La , founder of webdesignerwall.com , go from one website to five successful website launches in multiple but related niche markets. Finding advertisers and maximizing revenue can become hard work at times. Design, usability, code and trends blog for web designers. So that’s kinda nice as well.

Web 81

Web HTML Software Review SQL 81

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Putting together a financial model and having the founders understand the interrelationships of the variables that can make or break a business is a worthwhile exercise. I had been confused for years why I had to update an income statement each board meeting that said zero for 18 months before we had any revenue. Financials.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet. This refers to the monetization or revenue model. Most startups these days use one of three primary growth engines: the viral, sticky, and paid growth models. Platform pivot. Business architecture pivot.

Lean 255

Lean Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Architecture 255

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

In the Udemy course, Alistair and Ben expand these basics into a description of how to create empathy, stickiness, virality, revenue, and scale. LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders. Alistair: There are plenty.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 11, 2020

There's a good enough vaccine to get the virality rate below one. I just saw a friend of mine who's a finance person temporarily pause his job and volunteer to be the CFO or investor, whatever investor relations person for a startup was trying to work on a cure so that the founders could have more time to do the science.

Silicon Valley 68

Silicon Valley Technical Review Government .Net 68

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. 1970 – 1995: The Golden Age. Thus began the 5-year dot-com bubble.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

View from Seed

MAY 27, 2015

We’ll talk to founders as well as executives, investors, and journalists, all of whom did something smart or sneaky or downright brilliant to go from zero to one in an important area of their business. Yes, there are other tech podcasts out there that do a great job talking about industry trends, strategy, and founders’ stories.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Early Stage Non-Compete Silicon Valley 120

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

by Rachel Strella, founder of Strella Social Media. Sometimes it can require months — or even longer — of relationship-building to acquire major clients with large-scale revenue possibilities. Content doesn’t have to “go viral” to benefit your business. Invest in producing and distributing content; it pays off!

Social Media 113

Social Media Sales Cycle Audience Media 113

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

The book has been a year in the making, and authors Ben Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll —themselves successful founders with several exits under their belts—spent much of that time speaking with founders, investors, and analysts to understand a really basic, but seldom-asked, question: What's normal?

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Gust

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

Many founders envision their solution as a platform for future products, but don’t have a single killer application just yet. This refers to the monetization or revenue model. Most startups these days use one of three primary growth engines: the viral, sticky, and paid growth models. Platform pivot. Business architecture pivot.

Silicon Valley 187

Silicon Valley Architecture Startup Channel 187