A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 18, 2010

It turns out there's a psycho-babble name for this: Impostor Syndrome. Jodie Foster said "I thought it [winning the Oscar] was a fluke. The same way as when I walked on the campus at Yale. I thought everybody would find out, and they'd take the Oscar back.". Ask any small business coach; they'll confirm how prevalent these feelings are.

Software Review 335

Software Review Reputation Software Sales 335

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 23, 2013

All those years of name-calling, ostracized, excluded, and now, with NO NOTICE whatsoever, no “Hey Rudoph, how’s it going, how’s that new Klondike strategy of yours coming along,” and now you NEED me? Ho Rudolph — fog is thick tonight. Can you ride point? For the children. – Why is this email [link] ?

Reputation 224

Reputation Naming Email 224

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 24, 2010

Editor's Note: Incorporating isn't enough because usually lawsuits with small companies name the primary owners as well as the company. If you can't stomache any risk of personal bankruptcy, incorporating your micro-ISV is a must. You also need an umbrella insurance policy for yourself.

Software Review 233

Software Review Technical Review Sales Software 233

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise with a silly company name like Smart Bear. They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise without a human sales force using Salesforce. They told me I couldn’t sell to The Enterprise over GoToMeeting, with a demo and no slides, from a geek with no webinar.

Founder 244

Founder Revenue Sales Naming 244

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 12, 2013

You can’t ask for details, because you’ll get a torrent of nomenclature that’s greek to you (much of which really is Greek, or Latin), body parts you never knew existed, drug names you can’t spell with interactions you’ve never heard of, and references to studies you can’t read.

Software 294

Software Engineer Naming Customer 294

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

What the crazy name “Smart Bear&# taught me about branding. Sign up for AppSumo 's daily deals specifically for web geeks & entrepreneurs. Tweet. -->. If you liked that, you'll probably like these too: Special Edition: Smart Bear Live! Startup Exercise: What can’t be solved with money?

Audio 211

Audio RSS Hosting Austin 211

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 11, 2011

For example, email newsletter systems like Constant Contact or MailChimp let you collect names and send email. There’s more things you should do eventually, like putting your blog behind your own domain name so you can switch blogging platforms later and using Feedburner to track how many people have subscribed to your blog.

Widget 268

Widget Social Media Software RSS 268

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 4, 2013

That’s the culmination of everyone else’s product ideas, a design-by-committee which we all know typically leads to s**t.

Marketing 259

Marketing Early Stage Lean Metrics 259

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 28, 2012

Subject: Announcing new pricing for ${product} This is ${name}, founder of ${company}. It’s just me, ${name}, trying to make a living doing what I love, which is building ${product} for you. ” That’s exactly why it works. I have some news for you which will start out seeming like bad news but end up being good news.

Software Review 240

Software Review Technical Review Email Revenue 240

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 18, 2011

The domain name system is as much a utility as the mind-boggling network of physical wires that link billions of devices around world. The Internet has become another critical infrastructure utility. Screwing with it for pointless so-called innovation is just wasting everyone’s time.

Marketing 261

Marketing America Web Government 261

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 24, 2012

Transcript Automated transcription services provided by: Dan Bowen: My name is Dan Bowen, and I’m up in the wine country in Healdsburg, California north of San Francisco, and the company name is SyncBloc, S-Y-N-C-B-L-O-C. And that’s what your name is. Jason: SyncBloc. Well I know what Sync is, but Bloc.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley Software Review Internet Technical Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

I see the name of Noel’s company. Why don’t you give Jason the name of your company or your URL? We’re an integrate from that company but we had a lot of regret in hindsight when it came with the name that we picked. But we managed to grow a few customers, so that’s good, in spite of the name.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 9, 2012

In response to an innocuous opinion piece about whether new top-level domain names are useful or wasteful , I hoped for and expected counter-arguments. That’s a good one because I’ve got subjective stories and objective data. In the past six months the tenor of the comments and email from strangers has changed.

New York 248

New York Ruby Social Media RSS 248

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

You're trying to land a 500-seat sale with a big-name company. And then you iterate again, and again, and. When will you stop and realize that sometimes incremental iteration isn't enough? The trial has gone on for 9 months.

Cost 273

Cost Reputation Agile Sales 273

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

You’re going to tell Jason and Bob just the name of your URL, nothing else, and see if Jason can figure out what it is. It helps you manage, at first a checking account, is where the name came from, through text messaging. It does a lot more than that now, but that’s where the name came from. Jason: Chext?

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 31, 2011

There’s all the startup marketing ideas you’d expect: Adverts, split-tests, media splashes, networking, pitch-competitions, inside baseball, creative stunts, SxSW launches, you name it. But for every one of those, another founder has the opposite experience.

Customer 279

Customer Software Review SEM Technical Review 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Edwin: Correct, I fully agree and the name MeetingKing already says that my initial focus definitely was on meetings, right? So if I’m looking, MeetingKing’s obviously a brilliant name. But we’re just not going to name them as ideal. It’s kind of already obvious what it does, which is great.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 10, 2010

Their pitch was awesome: "I've got a lead for you; his name is John Doe and he's looking for a 10x20 with air conditioning. When a potential buyer made a search, they grabbed their email or phone number and said "Thanks, we're going to find you a great deal by Thursday." If your rate is competitive, we can do the deal today.

Business Model 310

Business Model Finder SEO Bootstrapping 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 31, 2011

If you’ve done computer graphics you’ve been forced to name colors using these “RGB color values;&# true geeks automatically think “yellow&# when they see #FFFF00. (If If it’s intuitive to you that #A33F17 is burnt orange, you are indeed a God among men.

Green 336

Green Matching Coder America 336

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 25, 2017

Ok to put name if you want. "Worried Suppose that between now and revenue doubling (any timeframe) no new hires are allowed. How would we accomplish that? — Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) July 15, 2017. Anonymous Q&A, or concerns. Google doc for anonymity. "Worried competitor X is better than us," for example.

Software Review 154

Software Review Metrics Hiring Revenue 154

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 20, 2010

Still others insisted that I go after the "big guys" in the market, which means charging at least $1000/mo, offering professional services, or partnering with other consultants who were willing to ditch the name brands for something better — though I was never able to locate a consultant willing to entertain that idea.

Startup 239

Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 25, 2011

I wish I could name all the blogs who turned us down, but I feel it’s a violation of trust, especially for those who have significant relationships with their current providers.). So we’ve given a lot of qualified yeses, and many were rejected. (I

Java 311

Java Software Review Technical Review Salary 311

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

So, what I mean is, especially at the beginning, you want so bad to get that big sale, or get that big customer name on the website, or add some feature, because you only have three customers, and they’re asking for something. It’s the name of the game. But then again, you’re here a year later. How do you judge that?

Cofounder 223

Cofounder New York Conversion Entrepreneur 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

magazine named Walker Telecommunications Corporation one of the nation's fastest-growing companies. From there, the company's growth was extraordinary — with expansion into other markets, including car phones, cell phones, fiber optic networks and other telecommunications equipment, and offices in New York, San Francisco and Toronto.

Entrepreneur 246

Entrepreneur San Francisco North Carolina Cofounder 246

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 28, 2011

See how much more evocative it is to put a name to the evangelists; even if you’ve never heard of those guys, knowing their names makes it tangible. The easiest way to be funny. It’s odd but true that almost any statement can be made funny merely by being specific, and there’s so many ways to do it.

Channel 250

Channel Conversion eCommerce Social Media 250

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 19, 2010

Some examples of a feature being a company's primary advantage are: Apple compromises everything in the name of design. A popular comment on the previous post was that a "Unique Feature" could be a competitive advantage in some circumstances.

Software Review 325

Software Review Technical Review Development Team Review Bolivia 325

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2010

If you visit TweetUp's website you'll find their name is now PostUp, and it's no longer AdSense for Twitter. One day you're an awesome analytics platform like Flurry , the next day Steve Jobs calls you out by name because you're "pissing us off.". Twitter's Terms of Service now explicitly prohibits it. Now what they do is.

Marketing 229

Marketing Ruby SEO Widget 229

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 30, 2010

The deliverable was a Google spreadsheet containing the blog URL, blogger's name and blogger's email. I tasked my VA with finding blogs that deal with startups/microISVs and rank in the top 100k in Technorati. The final spreadsheet contained 28 blogs.

Software Review 284

Software Review Startup Technical Review Hosting 284

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 7, 2016

We can all name companies with spectacular success or failure, employing any of these techniques. So the question is: Which is right for your company, and how will you take advantage of the benefits of your choice?

San Francisco 170

San Francisco Startup Framework Azure 170

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

In this case, fear takes the form of a tiny spreadsheet: I know it's looks silly to name the very day that we run out of money — why not include the hour and minute too? A few months ago I created a fun device at WPEngine to focus everyone's attention the most important thing. If nothing changes, when will you run out of money?

Exit Strategy 247

Exit Strategy Startup Bandwidth Revenue 247

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2010

Or you could use a tool like Google Desktop which lets you instantly find any document by name or content, so it doesn't matter that you suck at filing. If you keep misplacing documents, you could read up on some filing systems and pick one. See, it doesn't matter how you fix the problem, so long as it's not slowing you down any more.

Email 236

Email Cloud Product Technology 236

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

Yes, the email program “Eudora” is named after Welty.) I remember having to write an essay about Eudora Welty’s short story Why I live at the P.O. If you haven’t read it, don’t fret. No one in the class understood what the story meant.

Texas 239

Texas Framework America Finance 239

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 25, 2010

Then, because you collect the card, you have their contact info (their name, company, and address), so you get to follow up later. Because you can use the tradeshow's name in the subject of the email, people will probably read your email blast. Take names instead of pushing brochures. Another reason to pick the booth early.).

Software Review 287

Software Review Sales Email Naming 287

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 8, 2012

Jared: Well, the name of the company is Padseeker.com. … and if you’d like to appear on a future episode of Smart Bear Live, send an email to the Smart Bear Live producer, Patrick.Foley@microsoft.com , to schedule a recording with Jason. So we’re trying to build.

API 220

API Software Review Hosting Technical Review 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 29, 2010

The following chart is a real report from a board meeting I was in years ago (only the names and layout have been altered): Looks fine. It's useful to cut those out of the chart because they're just noise. The trouble starts when "Other" isn't so trivial.

Metrics 257

Metrics Analytics Conversion Ratio Texas 257

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 2, 2010

Every founder struggles to find a great name for her company. It's an exhilarating, scary combination of having to decide who you are — what you do, the persona you expose — combined with the technical issues of being memorable, spell-able, and available as a domain name. All with a silly name and informal sales.

Naming 252

Naming New Hampshire Cofounder Viral 252

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

Sometimes it ends up improving the big company — Whole Foods in particular is known for incorporating good ideas from the stores they purchase, and in fact sometimes don’t change the names and branding of the existing stores. Which makes sense. It’s not necessarily about destruction, it’s about ownership.

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260