A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

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Darwinian company growth doesn’t always select the best companies

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

That last bit should sound familiar if you follow theories of Startup Laws & Metrics. When “growth rate” becomes the only important metric for company “fitness,” other metrics are left unsolved. “Profitability” is perhaps the most-talked-about example of a metric left unsolved.

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The wrongness of relativism

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

What does it actually mean that metric X is better than average and metric Y is below? the darlings of the news media, and this is not a path to finding good answers. Measuring yourself against the average or median isn’t much better. You’re the captain of this ship , and you’re navigating your own waters.

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The full story of “the one important thing” for startups

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

He said: “ A startup can focus on only one metric. I’ll explain it here using WP Engine as the foil rather than revealing secrets about AppSumo because, although AppSumo internal metrics are both impressive and instructive, it isn’t my place to reveal them. And to do that, you have to focus on only one metric.

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Fermi estimation for startup business models

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Often your best estimate of any metric or market behavior or business model component is at best accurate within a power of ten, for example “expected conversion rate between 0.5% Yet another answer might be developing a digital following through social media, email lists, blog posts, eBooks, and so on.

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Attacking your sucky excuses for not blogging

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

You already know that nowadays you’re invisible without some sort of social media presence. You already know the (alleged) benefits of having a personal or business blog. But you still don’t blog, and for good reason, right? Blogging is work, and ten other things are more important.

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Episode 3b: Smart Bear Live!

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

What I’m challenged with as a small business owner is, I don’t know if it’s the press, or if it’s just the culture in general, but there’s this pressing vanity metric of, How much capital have you raised? And I think you need to disabuse yourself from the on-line media definition of success for a start-up.

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Real Unfair Advantages

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Chris Brogan commands $22,000 for a single day of consulting in an industry (social media marketing) where all the information you need is already online and free. On the surface, it's yet another "marketing metrics" company. For more, here are detailed examples of how this mindset also sets up your sales pitch. Personal authority.