Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

I break the answer to that question down into three engines: Viral - this is the business model identified in the presentation as "Get Users." Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. If the coefficient is > 1.0 , you generally have a viral hit on your hands.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Part of the discussion around this is the talk about the founder who only got $83M (as compared to $3xxM for the other founders) who bailed out early and choose to go back to school. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? The poor guy. What a bad $200M decision. in Computer Science.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Founder Kevin Systrom launched Instagram with 25,000 beta users on October 6, 2010; two years later, the app continues to see massive growth, recently reporting 150 million active users. Luck, timing and social engineering are bigger components than most entrepreneurs care to imagine,” adds Werdelin. 3) Facebook. 6) Pinterest.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Myth #2: You can bolt on community, once the commerce engine is going. But now that we’ve entered a mobile, social era, commerce companies have to find engaging ways to keep customers involved and coming back to get the most bang for their buck,” says Manish Chandra , founder and CEO of Poshmark. “So

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

The Next Web

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Stef Lewandowski , co-founder of Makeshift.io, which has launched apps attending.io , hiremyfriend.io domain also references “input/output”, something that Courtney Boyd Myers , founder of audience.io says founder Kellee Khalil. My co-founder] Gavin thought of it, but really knew we wanted a.io “These new.io io” as well.

Naming 166

Naming Cofounder New York Taiwan 166

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2019

These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Engineering creativity, like innovate low-cost solutions, needs to be combined with marketing creativity, like viral social media campaigns, to build a sustainable competitive advantage today. Creativity is the key word here. Keep it simple and focused.

Entrepreneur 240

Entrepreneur Engineer Viral Cofounder 240

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

In fact, you need to have at least a prototype web site published several weeks before you expect anyone to find yours, since it takes that amount of time for the web search engine “spiders” to find you and index your content. Viral marketing needs a website. But word-of-mouth and viral marketing doesn’t work without a web site.

Viral 191

Viral Web Naming Internet 191

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

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. Examples might be a recommendation engine, search engine, matching engine or something with a complex interface. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Such was my recent meeting with Seth Sternberg, founder & CEO of Meebo. And I’d recommend them to any talented startup founders out there.&#. Meebo gained traction because there’s was viral component when users wanted to tell their friend. And there you have it. Not a chance. Series A round. I totally agree.

Connecticut 286

Connecticut Cofounder Silicon Valley Web 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2013

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. These founders need a reality check on what recognized brand names have spent to reach that threshold, and how long it is likely to take. Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start.

Marketing 265

Marketing Viral SEM Startup 265

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2014

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. These founders need a reality check on what recognized brand names have spent to reach that threshold, and how long it is likely to take. Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start.

Marketing 257

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 257

ConversionXL

APRIL 13, 2017

A growth team, however, is largely overlapped with product, engineering, and design as well. They work cross-functionally with engineering, design, analytics, product management, operations, and marketing to design and execute growth initiatives.”. Software Engineer. Product vs. Growth? Product Manager. Marketing Specialist.

Analytics 99

Analytics Engineer SEO Channel 99

Cracking the Code

MARCH 24, 2015

. - HT: don''t outsource communication b/c part of core UX even though APIs available - healthy dev environment around APIs, very important to get confidence you can build your platformon on top of them - APIs give you freedom, don''t have to invest both people and tech in maintain internal platforms - HT had to totally revamp their infra, to manage (..)

API 48

API Fractional CTO CTO Hire San Francisco 48

Agile VC

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

All of us at NextView extend our congratulations to founder Hardi Meybaum and the rest of the GrabCAD team. He had a clear vision of what he hoped to achieve with GrabCAD… to make collaborative CAD design easier in our connected world, where CAD engineers and product designers are more distributed.

Boston 154

Boston Acquisition Estonia Viral 154

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2021

Consider leveraging the founder and team’s expertise and sharing information that can make the reader’s life easier or better in some way. Some benefits to content marketing include: Building trust and credibility for the brand, company, founder and team.

Social Media 148

Social Media Marketing Public Relations Startup 148

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. Tell me a bit about the Founder's Institute. You mention social / viral aspects at both Google Photos and United Online.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

Up and Running

AUGUST 2, 2017

As the founder of a publishing company focused specifically on serving entrepreneurs, I see the same problem over and over: When a business owner decides they want to write a book (or do anything else, for that matter), their goal is to be the best. The number one search engine is Google. Writing a book helps people find you.

Viral 88

Viral Video Metrics Non-Compete 88

ConversionXL

MARCH 31, 2021

The more shares a piece of content gets, the higher the chance of it ‘going viral. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 71% of search engine users don’t click past the first page of search results. – Joel Klettke, Founder, CaseStudyBuddy. 45 percent of US adults shared an opinion piece they agreed with on social media.

SEO 163

SEO Metrics Social Media Audience 163

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 6, 2017

The story behind Khan Academy is tech legend: educator Salman Khan started by posting videos on YouTube to help his cousin with her math homework and the videos went viral. Originally created as online support for co-founder Lynda Weinman’s books on web design, the site has grown into a major learning destination. Best of all?

Programming 73

Programming Technical Review Small Business Illinois 73

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 12, 2013

In fact, you need to have at least a prototype web site published several weeks before you expect anyone to find yours, since it takes that amount of time for the web search engine “spiders” to find you and index your content. Viral marketing needs a website. But word-of-mouth and viral marketing doesn’t work without a web site.

Internet 247

Internet Viral Naming Web 247

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2017

These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Engineering creativity, like innovate low-cost solutions, needs to be combined with marketing creativity, like viral social media campaigns, to build a sustainable competitive advantage today. Creativity is the key word here. Keep it simple and focused.

Startup 148

Startup Engineer Viral Cofounder 148

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2014

These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Engineering creativity, like innovate low-cost solutions, needs to be combined with marketing creativity, like viral social media campaigns, to build a sustainable competitive advantage today. Creativity is the key word here. Keep it simple and focused.

Entrepreneur 260

Entrepreneur Engineer Viral Cofounder 260

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2017

In fact, you need to have at least a prototype web site published several weeks before you expect anyone to find yours, since it takes that amount of time for the web search engine “spiders” to find you and index your content. Viral marketing needs a website. But word-of-mouth and viral marketing doesn’t work without a web site.

Viral 120

Viral Internet Web Naming 120

SVPG

JANUARY 12, 2011

I recently asked the founder of a startup what he most wanted to know about marketing. Although their engineered virality was brilliant, it misses that people refer clients, parents and friends to Dropbox regardless of whether or not they benefit from it. He sent tech writers his week-over-week growth.

Product 69

Product Technical Review Social Media Viral 69

abovethecrowd.com

OCTOBER 17, 2013

The company, which the founder cleverly named “Stitch Fix,” had a remarkably unique offering compared to other women’s fashion experiences. Awareness of the service was clearly spreading virally through word of mouth. Customers are first asked to fill out an in depth profile to help identify their size, style, and preferences.

eCommerce 62

eCommerce Technical Review North America San Francisco 62

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Marketing first. Product second. B2B companies can have great unit economics.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

At Hustle Fund, we back both first time founders as well as repeat founders. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every repeat, previously-successful-founder focuses on the same thing for their respective startups: customer acquisition. Marketing first. Product second. B2B companies can have great unit economics.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most products are built by engineers and product people, and they are often uncomfortable cold calling customers to get meetings for early feedback. Hugo Woodhead is the founder of Pilcro , which sells brand management software. The classic problem of not validating a product, David Skok explains , is that. Test launch tiny products.

Product 110

Product Campaign Acquisition Social Media 110

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

It’s true that the carrier then gets their huge slice for being the billing and payment engine but the idea is that you as a website more than make up for this in terms of customer conversion. It is a platform to help brands building viral marketing campaigns. Wildfire was one of the darlings of the fbFund incubator program.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

crowdSPRING Blog

AUGUST 6, 2017

The story behind Khan Academy is tech legend: educator Salman Khan started by posting videos on YouTube to help his cousin with her math homework and the videos went viral. Originally created as online support for co-founder Lynda Weinman’s books on web design, the site has grown into a major learning destination. Best of all?

Programming 48

Programming Technical Review Small Business Illinois 48

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2010

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. These founders need a reality check on what recognized brand names have spent to reach that threshold, and how long it is likely to take. Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start.

Marketing 235

Marketing SEM Startup Viral 235

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 9, 2019

I’ve given advice in this area to many entrepreneurs, and I pose this lesson to you as food for thought (the right answer very much depends on the unique nature of the startup and its co-founders). But I’ll grant that he taught us a lot and had crazy-good engineers. How did my co-founders and I apply this lesson at data.world?

Stealth 48

Stealth Cofounder Los Angeles Technical Review 48

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 23, 2013

Viral reach (views) consists of posts viewed as a result of a friend’s actions (sharing, liking, commenting). It’s the “viral” metric, touching on one of your primary motivations for creating a Facebook Page- connecting with the friends of your existing fans for free! 1: Fan Reach. Here’s the scoop-. fans and non-fans alike).

Metrics 77

Metrics Social Media Viral Technical Review 77

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

In fact, you need to have at least a prototype web site published several weeks before you expect anyone to find yours, since it takes that amount of time for the web search engine “spiders” to find you and index your content. Viral marketing needs a website. But word-of-mouth and viral marketing doesn’t work without a web site.

Customer 225

Customer Viral Web Small Business 225

Gust

MARCH 9, 2014

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. These founders need a reality check on what recognized brand names have spent to reach that threshold, and how long it is likely to take. Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start.

Marketing 146

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 146

The Next Web

APRIL 22, 2016

With the advent and proliferation of “growth hacking”, many products are launching with hopes of leveraging data, A/B tests, and viral loops to manufacture a hockey stick growth curve. Instead, it looks more like this in the early days/months/years: Startups take off because the founders make them take off.

Hockey Stick 60

Hockey Stick Viral Engineer Web 60