A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2011

Still, it was early in our life and we wanted every customer we could get, especially since they were willing to pay a good rate for hosting. After a few weeks it became apparent that the “technical&# person on the customer’s side also didn’t fully understand the scope and implications of the customizations. So we kept on.

Technical Review 236

Technical Review Software Review Reputation Sales Cycle 236

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Most sales and marketing costs fit nicely into an expense category that’s even summarized on the high-level P&L as “Sales & Marketing” But what about the hosting costs associated with that free trial or freemium offering that’s only in place to help acquire new customers rather than generate revenue?

Churn Rate 288

Churn Rate .Net Metrics Hosting 288

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast. This episode my co-hosts are Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley of the Startup Success Podcast. Startup Exercise: What can’t be solved with money? Startup Weekend pep talk: It ain’t the code.

Audio 211

Audio RSS Hosting Austin 211

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I've started a new company called WPEngine.com : Fast, Secure, and Scalable WordPress Hosting. It's real: this blog and 50 others are hosted there right now. Can he do it again? Let's find out.

Bootstrapping 232

Bootstrapping Hosting Reputation Restful 232

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 20, 2012

They’re growing faster than my hosting company did. To see why, let’s wind the clock back to 2002 when Erica started her hosting company, Simpli. And high-tech-America was in post-bubble recession with barely anyone at all who would actually pay a premium for WordPress-specific hosting. circa 2008.)

San Jose 233

San Jose Bootstrapping Hosting Engineer 233

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 25, 2010

The most common reaction to my recent announcement of starting a new WordPress hosting company was that this blog provides me with a ridiculous unfair advantage. Still, the blog was instrumental in getting those first 50 customers, but not because I'm able to push WordPress hosting onto 17,000 unsuspecting victims. But was it?

Reputation 229

Reputation Hosting DC Social Media 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2016

Which is better anyway, because it means we’re building sustainable, value-creating companies, not just companies that grow like a virus , without purpose and possibly killing the host. The unicorns are dying not for of lack of revenue, but for lack of profit.

Metrics 270

Metrics Retention Revenue Equity 270

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 1, 2011

Want specific advice from me and co-hosts Bob Walsh ( 47hats and the Web Startup Success Guide ) and Patrick Foley ( blog ) of the infamous Startup Success Podcast ? We’re doing another episode of Smart Bear Live this Thursday, October 6th, 1:00-3:00 CDT (starts at 2:00 on the East coast and 11:00 on the West). Why not you?

Startup 206

Startup Lean Hosting Web 206

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.” Amazon is the quintessential example in the hosting industry. (Powered by LaunchBit ). ” This is how one of our competitors attempts to differentiate and compete with us at WP Engine.

HTML 243

HTML Hosting Engineer Leadership 243

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 14, 2014

TO EVERYONE AT WP ENGINE: My hope is that being an essential part of this unique journey is your dream too, not just mine, and that you’ll point up to that sign five years from now and explain to the children in your back seat that it’s there because of you , not because you were “there for the ride,” but because you actually (..)

RSS 309

RSS Engineer Metrics Government 309

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 15, 2012

In this episode, Jason speaks to Nick from PinfoB.com at the AZ Disruptors Kickoff meeting in December with co-host, Hamid Shojaee. Transcript Automated transcription services provided by: Announcer: Welcome to Smart Bear Live with Jason Cohen. Nick: The name of the company is PinfoB.com.

Naming 199

Naming Advertising Audio Software Developers 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Free legal services to set up agreements, contracts, and EULAs, free graphic design work to make a nice logo and website, free PR services for product announcements, free office space, free website hosting, free software, and more. Present at Demo Day.

Seed Stage 211

Seed Stage Startup PR Programming 211

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. More than two years ago, my business partner and I discussed launching a hosted version of our ASP.NET invoicing software, DotNetInvoice. Introduction. With that in mind, things started flying off our "must-have" list.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Join me in my new startup WPEngine: Super-fast, super-secure WordPress hosting. How we collect first impression feedback from our new users by sending a simple welcome email - [link]. I Welcome New Users on Tuesdays – Prefinery Blog.

Liquidation Preference 216

Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley Startup Software 216

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

” and the hosting costs, that’s not even really much of a lifestyle business yet. If you have an individually hosted solution, even if you have an API, how are people going to find you? They want cheaper hosting. And then there’s some hosting costs. Presumably your websites aren’t so bad.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 31, 2012

For example, last week I spent about 10 hours saving about $1000/mo in hosting costs. I still find myself sometimes running WP Engine like the bootstrapped startup that it was for the first 18 months of its life, instead of the funded growth machine that it’s evolved into. Not bad, you say, that’s $1000/mo right into your pocket!

Bootstrapping 230

Bootstrapping Java Revenue Hosting 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 29, 2013

Companies with large budgets to deploy at scale will often be happy with 6-12 month payback periods; some very high volume businesses like shared hosting will accept 24 or 36 months even! .” Also, ideally you’re getting the first month of revenue back immediately, so it’s really three months of cash-float.

Bootstrapping 285

Bootstrapping Affiliate Cofounder Channel 285

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

Andrew Warner, the interview host, summarized it well: "My hands were trembling as I was faxing eighty pages of the agreement over to the lawyers in New York City," Jason Cohen said about what it was like to finalize the sale of the company he founded, Smart Bear. How a smart bear built a company so he could sell it (Video).

Angel Investor 161

Angel Investor New York City RSS Viral 161

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 28, 2010

Just yesterday someone explained to me what they expect from their website hosting company: I want someone else making sure the server doesn't go down. A lovely new company/customer etiquette has emerged, and small startups are especially suited for exploiting it. I hope you're not ignoring it.

Social Media 233

Social Media Stock Hosting Media 233

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

But the market we’re in, which is WordPress hosting is huge, because 10% of the websites on the Internet are run by WordPress. The reason I started working with you is I started by using WordPress’s own hosted product. I then took over the hosting of that and started hosting at RackSpace.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 15, 2010

You'll need a Wordpress account but it also works on a self-hosted blog (like mine). So here are the Wordpress plugins I use, and why. Can't live without these: Akismet. Free comment-spam protection from Wordpress. I get 30 spam comments per day, and Akismet blocks very nearly all of it. Comment Relish. Auto-email ( once !)

HTML 216

HTML RSS Caching PHP 216

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 20, 2010

I searched for a WordPress hosting service that would help with speed, scalability, and security and found nothing. And having gone through the experience of being hacked, I knew how painful that can be, and WordPress is known for being hacked constantly (more often because of poor IT than WordPress itself, but either way you're screwed).

Startup 239

Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Dan: Member Desk is a hosted membership site software. So Member Desk is a virtual and yet it can also be physical, literally sitting in the front of the co- working space inexpensive way to do that for pretty much any organization. Dan: That’s pretty decently close, actually. Jason: Right. So what is it really?

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

Maybe not — after all the stated goal of WPEngine is to serve the “middle market&# — the folks who have outgrown free blogs, don’t like maintaining their own servers, but aren’t so large that they have extreme hosting demands. That’s our profitable niche. So we think.

Java 311

Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Same with my current company in the WordPress hosting business , started just last year. It doesn’t matter how I started Smart Bear — even I can’t copy it. How did I get those initial fifty conversations with WordPress bloggers ?

Customer 279

Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 17, 2011

For example, quick cancels are often due to situations things like “I decided I didn’t want a blog after all” or even “My son used my credit card to set up my website but I’m not going to pay for hosting.”

Business Model 245

Business Model Metrics Engineer Technical Review 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 5, 2010

I’d never really hosted an offline event before. Since 2008, I’ve hosted 25 events ranging from Dinners and Discussions to Lunch & Learns bringing people I’ve met in the online world to offline. Every post I would put up would have an average of one comment. Zero media appearances in traditional media.

Community 261

Community Audience Video Social Media 261

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

So if you had to leave Heroku, you'd just get a hosted server somewhere, "git clone" your code, install a database, and restore from a backup. Of course it would be a pain in the butt and could even mean a day of down-time and lost data, but that's true no matter where you host. Your company is still alive.

Marketing 229

Marketing Ruby SEO Widget 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

My marketing site is hosted at WP Engines so … Jason: No wonder you get so much traffic. Have you done that before where you’ve supported hosted things behind the firewall? I think another thing you wanted to talk about was the whole keep bootstrapping or raise money question. Edwin: Right. I get a decent amount of traffic.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast. . ” Introduced a few months ago as an Austin event, I’m now doing this live audio advice column to the web, taking phone calls from startups around the country.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2013

Two things are important about this: Robert could not have learned about the poor economics until he had learned a host of other things (that people cared about online backup storage; that customers stayed engaged for a long enough period of time; etc.) So we had to pivot [from consumer sales] to go after businesses.”

Lean 284

Lean Analytics Metrics Viral 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 4, 2012

A hosting-related startup, not related to WordPress, contacted me because he wanted to build “WP Engine but for XYZ,” and had specific questions around it. Here’s a place I could help a lot in a short amount of time, and there was a reason he was asking me.

Internet 270

Internet Email Engineer Web 270

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 14, 2013

At the instant of this writing, we’re the #3 spot on AdWords and the #3 organic spot for “WordPress Hosting” which is one of our most important keywords, and #1 for “Managed WordPress Hosting” which is perhaps our most accurate keyword. However, that’s not the case for us at WP Engine.

Affiliate 282

Affiliate Marketing Campaign Channel 282

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 2, 2013

If it matters that your hosted product works 24/7, then you’re a slave to uptime. This might sound like I’m advocating for a terrible customer experience, but consider that many products that people love and use daily are accompanied by zero tech support (GMail, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine). Nothing real-time.

Cofounder 312

Cofounder Startup Founder Engineer 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 22, 2012

WP Engine is a perfect example of this.

Marketing 235

Marketing RSS Employee Software 235

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 26, 2010

You can tell yourself a whole host of stories about why that happened but ultimately the client decided that you did not offer what your competitor did. I don't think it takes a lot of data. Let's take losing a client or losing a bid to win a client. It is that simple.

Matching 215

Matching Audience Customer Distribution 215

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 6, 2013

That’s low for the hosting sector. Furthermore, unless you haven’t yet reached product/market fit, cancellation rate is often hard to shift compared to reducing CAC (smarter campaigns, optimized landing pages, self-serve sales/on-boarding) or increasing average MRR (different pricing tiers, add-ons for new product or service).

Metrics 270

Metrics Business Model .Net Revenue 270