A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 10, 2012

If a company spends $30k on marketing, and your tool “saves” them $15k, are they now spending $15k on marketing? But the marketing budget is still $30k. Improve your customers’ marketing campaigns so obviously and drastically that they don’t need a spreadsheet to understand its value.

Software Review 256

Software Review Product Software Developers Software Development 256

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Price is as important as any other feature to determine product/market “fit.” Marketing and sales spend is nil, so there has to be a reason it spreads by word of mouth, ideally virally as a natural result of using the product itself. $10/mo But I disagree. simple enough to be self-service).

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 23, 2010

We've identified a market too small for the large, established players to address, but big enough to build a company. For example, because an 800-pound gorilla like Microsoft is so inefficient at building new software, it can't go after a market unless there's a billion dollars at stake. The rubric.

Software Review 275

Software Review Technical Review Software Advertising 275

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 4, 2013

Aren’t some of the greatest moments of a startup’s life the point where you pick a name , create a logo, write your headline on your new home page, craft your teaser and your bi-line, stamp your personality on every page , and implement your own philosophy on pricing , service , language , and exposition, attaining your own voice and not (..)

Marketing 259

Marketing Early Stage Lean Metrics 259

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

He published revenue figures even when they were still pathetic , he pledged loudly and eagerly to give away lots of free copies to non-profits, and he revealed all his (remarkably effective) marketing strategies (updated here ) even though it meant competitors would learn them too. That's compelling. That's newsworthy. Advertising ??

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Developers 261

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 9, 2010

Steve Blank says "get outside the building," Eric Ries says "seek validated learning," Sean Ellis says "seek product/market fit," Drew Houston says "the only way to learn on a $0 budget is to talk to people.". If the VP of Marketing thinks the target customer is just like him/her, you're doomed." — Cranky Product Manager?

Software Review 312

Software Review Part-Time VPE Houston Cofounder 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 29, 2011

Somehow my version of “lean&# customer discovery involved hour long phone calls, relationship-building networking meetings, vague answers to improperly formulated questions… In the past week of quick phone calls to vendors, I’ve learned more about this market than I did in the past year. First, markets change rapidly.

Lean 269

Lean Software Software Developers Software Development 269

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

So great that people tell their friends or force their colleagues to use it too (defeating the lack of marketing). Successful products deliver on something so fantastic, so game-changing, so important to the customer, that it is sufficient to override the overwhelming deficiencies of the rest of the product and company.

Software Review 133

Software Review Technical Review API Algorithm 133

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 3, 2010

Oh I know 21% of you stopped reading as soon as you saw that "authentic" made the list, and shot down to the comments section to unleash a scathing missive explaining how "authenticity" is the prime mover of modern marketing, honorable salesmanship, and meaningful relationships. The more people honor this new code, the better for us all.

Software Review 279

Software Review Technical Review Security Advertising 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 27, 2012

Intuitively, we tend to see prices as a consequence of a product’s inherent worth , and marketers everywhere want to keep it that way. The first step was doing some basic market research to see how much people were willing to pay. After deciding on the approximate price, the next step was focusing on market segmentation.

Sales 279

Sales Software Review RSS Web 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Online marketing teams are accustomed to throwing creative things at the wall, with new technology and platforms, because that’s the day-to-day reality of their job. Not accustomed to making these kinds of decisions. Decision requires multiple teams who haven’t worked together before.

Engineer 264

Engineer Framework Social Media Acquisition 264

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 13, 2015

Does that 10x the company or create a feature so important that you win your market? Hint: If you’re not already in the scaling phase, well beyond product/market fit, the answer is: No.). Would that effect be larger than the next three features you could implement, or achieving similar excellence in marketing and sales?

Part-Time VPE 120

Part-Time VPE Hiring Retention Revenue 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

You love converting marketing requirements into 960-wide artwork, replete with whitespace, custom fonts. But this also produces a natural weakness , and when I look at what made me a successful entrepreneur — not just a great coder — it’s that I acknowledged and overcame that weakness. The weakness is your love of creation.

Fractional CTO 310

Fractional CTO Coder CTO Hire Design 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 18, 2015

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. This market is willing to pay far more than cost for this product (else profits wouldn’t be generated).

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Valuation Flash Revenue 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 14, 2011

When I started marketing my first webapp almost two years ago, I started the way I imagine most people do: online. I didn’t know much about marketing and I hadn’t prepared for the kind of lead time necessary to be effective. Search Engine Marketing and online ads on the other hand can be set up in minutes.

Campaign 272

Campaign Software Review Brazil Conversion 272

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 12, 2010

A disruptive product causes such a large market shift that entire companies collapse (the ones who don't "get it") and new markets appear. What's wrong with taking a known problem with a known market and just doing it better or with a fresh perspective or with a modern approach? Should you? I'm not so sure.

Technical Review 243

Technical Review Software Review Engineer Search 243

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 24, 2011

If word-of-mouth can replace 90% of your advertising/marketing budget, maybe you can use that money to address the challenges of extra expenses. In our recent hiring spree we found terrific folks willing to work with us at less than market rates because they believe in what we’re doing and what we’re trying to be.

Intellectual Property 242

Intellectual Property Open Source Bandwidth IP 242

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 12, 2010

when Microsoft put 1,000 developers on IE and gave it away for free, destroying the market for web browsers), newly funded companies can spend ludicrous amounts of money to get market share (even if it means taking you down with them), and anyone can implement a "freemium" model.

Intellectual Property 319

Intellectual Property Bootstrapping Software Review Open Source 319

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 12, 2014

Can’t be about marketing prose, that’s molded by A/B testing into market-resonance. If we “go around the world,” changing out every board, what has been conveyed? Can’t be about product features, they change, grow, and die like cells.

Laos 279

Laos Technical Review Startup Engineer 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Either of the following scenarios makes sense for a new startup going after a large-scale enterprise market: You’ve identified a deep pain at a large company. You hit your network and the road, calling twenty people at large companies, all of whom are in your potential market. You land a contract to build them the solution.

Customer 231

Customer Software Review IP Technical Review 231

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

I didn’t want to manage managers or figure out what changes, strategies, hirings, products, marketing, and sales were needed to make $100m/year. I didn’t want to relinquish Eclipse and my ability to check in code. That’s exciting to me. This is my new challenge.

Software Review 295

Software Review Startup Cofounder Search 295

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 8, 2019

I won a fake stock market competition in elementary school. That is, you need a good marketing channel and you need a few killer features and you need great initial employees and you need a healthy market, etc. For example, can you pick a large and growing market? Consider marketing channels. And” is bad!

Affiliate 245

Affiliate Stock Channel Portfolio 245

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

There’s nothing inherently wrong with obsessing over growth; in fact, using the same argument you can point out that in winner-take-all markets, growth is objectively the main objective. ” Many of the market-winners do make the world better. The problem is “growth at all costs.”

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Viral Metrics Salary 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 9, 2011

If this weren’t sufficiently absurd, it turns out these people are affiliate marketers, and what they neglected to mention in the introductory email is that these auto-published articles would furthermore push products for them to monetize. Bullets and numbers in titles guaranteed?!? I’m certainly not the poster child for this.

Affiliate 250

Affiliate RSS Software Review Email 250

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 21, 2009

If you do know the answer, these two sentences should drive your marketing efforts. At the least, these represent the themes that drive your marketing campaigns. If you don't have evidence, it is OK to have a hypothesis but you should be concerned about collecting proof and disproof.

Startup 315

Startup Revenue Cofounder Sales 315

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

So Leon and I have met numerous times, about marketing strategy and the music one is that developed after Chicago became a customer. So that was sort of the direction that we thought about going in and it’s just hard to figure out the marketing strategy around that. Hamid: It’s kind of interesting. Dan: Exactly. Dan: Great.

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

We have never had the caliber of teams we do today, as evidenced by our award-winning 70+ NPS customer service, our historic-low cancellation rates, our security and uptime, our product and engineering initiatives, our global brand leadership, our customer acquisition through both marketing and sales, our hiring and employee experience teams, our finance, (..)

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2016

The single most important SaaS metric is retention , because cancellations indicate lack of product/market fit, no matter the cause (price, features, severity of need, duration of need). If it cannot be fixed, it means the business is a failure even if other metrics are stellar. Once you’re scaling (i.e. Once you’re scaling (i.e.

Metrics 270

Metrics Retention Revenue Equity 270

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 13, 2011

When design is that fundamental to the business — how it acquires and retains customers, garners attention and referrals, and distinguishes itself in the market — obviously design can be the most important thing. Just better design, and not just easily-copyable incremental improvement, but a quantum leap better.

Design 253

Design Lean Database Cofounder 253

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2011

How to “size a market&# when there’s no good data, and some common pitfalls when you try. We transform a company’s trajectory by rephrasing a long, confusing diatribe into a three-word pitch. When should a company should focus on growth only, ignoring the business model and revenue?

Cofounder 226

Cofounder Angel Investor Hosting Software Review 226

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 14, 2010

But unlike the basketball example, the baseball announcer's error runs deeper, and following that thread will bring us to marketing data and the heart of the fallacy. Bringing it home to marketing and sales data? Of course saying he "retired out 5 of 9 batters" doesn't sound as impressive even though it's the same data!

Software Review 254

Software Review Analytics Conversion Metrics 254

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 11, 2014

Your company spends money on sales and marketing to acquire new customers (aka – new logos). CAC – Generally defined as sales and marketing costs divided by the number of new customers acquired over the same period of time (sales + marketing / new customers). Now let’s cover those nuances I mentioned.

Churn Rate 288

Churn Rate .Net Metrics Hosting 288

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 1, 2012

Market size Suppose the total addressable market is small. Except, of course, investors don’t like small markets! In a large market, B isn’t necessarily bad, but A shows far more potential. Perhaps most importantly, A demonstrates that there is a large market at all. So let’s play!

Customer 320

Customer Revenue Acquisition Cofounder 320

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 22, 2011

Don’t vomit out some stupid marketing prose on your website; decide what you believe , then run your company accordingly and publicly and you will be more proud, more fulfilled, and likely more successful. Take it from this workaholic.). So “be yourself,&# yes. You can’t fight every foible, nor should you.

Software Review 250

Software Review RSS Differentiation .Net 250

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 18, 2010

Related posts: Underbelly: What haughty startup bloggers don't tell you How to be the most expensive product on the market The customer is always right? Sometimes getting it off your chest is the best medicine: Leave a comment ! Uncommon Interview: Balsamiq Studios Rude Q&A.

Software Review 335

Software Review Reputation Software Sales 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 12, 2011

Assuming you really are in the market for another pair of hands to screw stuff up worse than you already are, the question is how to acquire resumes, how to pair them down, and how to identify someone who is going to work well in your company.

Hiring 282

Hiring Employee Ruby Java 282

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 14, 2016

SaaS returns in a market are a power law; winner can take 10x the profits of the next. Examples: eBay ≥ 10 x Etsy; Google ≥ 10 x Bing; Facebook ≥ 10 x Twitter; Salesforce ≥ 10 x [rest of market]. Your best marketing channel is often 10x the productivity of the next-best. True of content-marketing also.

Restful 120

Restful Portfolio Channel Business Model 120