A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

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Kung Fu

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Sometimes that’s defensible distribution channels. Find and focus on one reliable distribution mechanism before diluting your time diversifying. Or you can start selling to enterprise — nothing wrong with that — but then your high cost-basis of marketing, sales, and service will not scale downward. Sales” is not a dirty word.

Restful 202
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Why it’s nice to compete against a large, profitable company

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

They have everything: money, brand, momentum, existing customers, press, product teams, distribution channels, expertise, market insight, analysts, sales offices, product features, and, by definition, a working business model. A big, profitable company seems like the hardest thing for a small company to compete against.

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Why startup biz dev deals almost never get done

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

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). “Maybe,” thinks the startup founder, “I can tap that ass.

Startup 293
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If you build it, they won't come, unless.

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Then he'll describe his cutting-edge platform — cloud-based, scalable, distributed version control, continuous integration, one-click-deploy. Ask a technical founder about his startup, and he'll proudly describe his stunning software — simple, compelling, useful, fun. Maybe you'll even get a wobbly demo.

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How do I get my first few customers?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

If you’re Oracle with 47 product lines in 100 countries and 20 languages with distributed teams of tech writers is this the best tool? I had none of those things at Smart Bear , no unfair advantage at all, no network, no blog, no insights, no sales skills, no marketing skills, not even a particularly good product.

Customer 279
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The fundamental lesson of the forces governing scaling startups

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Marketing isn’t scheduling a launch and recruiting isn’t timing the start-dates of the next 50 hires in customer service and sales. We didn’t line up that press and have those sales materials and ensure code-quality high enough to scale on day one, without predictability. This means you can — and should!

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Our unhealthy fixation with emulating #1

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Of course the team earning the title of “number one&# is random because the contest is random, but the distribution how many teams made it to each stage and the fact that exactly one went undefeated is dictated by the tournament system. The outcome of most sporting events are a combination of skill and luck in unknowable proportions.