A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

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If you build it, they won't come, unless.

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

We're going to use an affiliate program so our customers sell it for us.". It sounds simple: The average cost of acquiring a customer is $C (advertising, sales, support, doing demos) and the lifetime revenue you get from that customer is $R, so if C < R you have a business. "A friend of mine knows how to get popular on Twitter.".

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Maybe not so much with the "optimization"

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Many competitors used a different technique I call "boogers," because to me it looks like someone shot snot rockets all over the screen, and also because it's fun to deride competitors, because it feels good to make fun of other people who (appear to) have more revenue than you do. But don't you agree they look like boogers?

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The right way to position against competition

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

After seeing hundreds of startup pitches for this year's Capital Factory program, I can tell you that the two most common errors in positioning a company against competition are, strangely, opposites: Claiming you have no competition. This is Part 4 of the series: 5 lessons from 150 startup pitches.??

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Teeny bit of traction — what next?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Burgeoning Startup Founder writes: After a year of work, my startup is now doing about $6,000/mo in revenue and $3,000/mo in profit. It has to be on getting more revenue. Both short-term bursts and, more interestingly, building systematic ways of growing revenue month over month. What should I do next?

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Not disruptive, and proud of it

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AT&T Bell Labs invented Unix, the C programming language, wireless Ethernet, and the laser, but made no money on the inventions. billion market cap), mid-sized (NetBotz with millions in revenue and funding), and small (sub-$1m operations like us). There were many competitors, both huge (APC with $1.5

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Smart Bear Live 7: More from AZ Disruptors

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

I mean, it’s easy to talk to very little bands and just say I feel like the amount of revenue for you is very little. The core of the business though, the revenue model, so it’s free to join, but then there’s the optional paid membership. Gelie: That’s not the only revenue stream. Gelie: Correct.

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CapitalFactory: Your startup gets $20k cash + 20 mentors for a summer

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

Help me spread the word about this program! I'm a mentor and investor in CapitalFactory , a seed-stage startup mentorship program in Austin, TX. Each year we pick 5 companies to participate in a 10-week summer program which includes: 20 real mentors. No posers, no one who was "there for the ride." 20,000 in cash.