A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 4, 2018

The next sale isn’t quite as sweet.). The Silicon Valley-oriented technology press outlets don’t cover us because we’re not in San Francisco, even though we’re more successful than most of the startups they cover. I’ve always said nothing beats the high of getting that first customer to sign up.

Engineer 152

Engineer Revenue San Francisco Security 152

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

photos by [link] November 16th, 2009 | Cool News, Links & Reviews Building your startup? Simplicity is mostly a way to avoid looking like you’re releasing a product that lacks features. Adding features without making the product too complex creates real value for your customers and produces revenue for your company.

Software Review 47

Software Review Software San Francisco RSS 47

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 21, 2020

No surprise during an economic crisis, over 81% of business owners are prioritizing cash flow management and are identifying ways to cut back spending and increase sales, namely by moving services online. Cash Flow is Top of Mind. The survey found the top activities are: Increasing marketing efforts (41%). Cutting expenses (36%).

Small Business 147

Small Business Cofounder United States Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Five Easy Pieces – The Marketing Mission After a few months of talking to customers , talking to our channel and working with sales we defined the marketing Mission (our job) was to: Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin. Two paragraphs, Five bullets. It didn’t take more.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 1, 2017

If you’re like many business owners or sales leaders, you may be sweating. Sales tend to slow down in the summer for many businesses and the impact lasts well into the last quarter, and with the holidays fast approaching, that doesn’t leave much time to make an impact. In sales and marketing, words matter.

Revenue 127

Revenue San Diego Technical Review Dividend 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 30, 2014

After all, Gmail wasn’t taken out of beta until 2009 — five years after it was originally released. Increased sales. Improved customer satisfaction often goes hand in hand with increased sales. Google is notorious for this, releasing many of its products in beta form — and sometimes even leaving them in that phase for years.

Customer 231

Customer Development Team Review Cofounder Agile 231

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Market Type affects your spending and sales ramp after you reach product/market fit. Reply Nivi , on November 16, 2009 at 9:47 am Said: Great stuff. Reply steveblank , on November 16, 2009 at 10:59 am Said: Nivi, Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I would love to get your feedback on these thoughts: 1. Great quote.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Closing a VC fund in 2009/10 is a major achievement in and of itself. The “private sale” market phenomenon was started in France by Vente-Privee (literally means “private sale”) and was replicated in Germany by BrandsforFriends. Gilt Group is currently the largest private sale web site in US. Time will tell.

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. The initial hypothesis for Epiphany (from my much smarter partner Ben ) was that as departments in the enterprise (manufacturing, finance, customer support sales) became automated, the marketing department would eventually get its turn.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

In short order they learned how to transition from being customers on the receiving end of a sales pitch to giving one. Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 8:22 am Said: Quick fixed. Reply Chris Ryland , on October 19, 2009 at 2:24 pm Said: Yep, we did exactly that at Multiflow. Context here.)

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 25, 2020

This new shift impacted as much as a 4% improvement in total sales of brands that had made the shift. By 2009, the success of this ecommerce model was more evident. Brands started working towards creating their online portals to push for sales online while continuing their brick and mortar operations. million annual customers.

eCommerce 152

eCommerce Technical Review Social Media Analytics 152

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 22, 2009

Thursday, January 22, 2009. Building Your SaaS Sales Compensation Plan. Compensating the sales force is a difficult task and the key is usually to keep things simple, so that each sales rep knows what he needs to optimize to make more money at the end of the quarter. commision per $1 of MRR For 25%-50% of the quota, $0.5

Software Review 91

Software Review Clawback Sales Salary 91

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. So what’s left? thank You steve blank!! Can You Trust Any VC’s Under 40?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 19, 2020

In 2009, he partnered with Gil Brady to form Relationship Impact, where they now help businesses build a structure for leadership teams to be more productive and effective in how they work together. Why sales and marketing are a long game, and how to know you’re on the right track.

Leadership 86

Leadership Developer Cofounder Technical Review 86

Version One Ventures

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

And selling to institutions requires a long sales cycle. Top Hat adopted a bottoms-up approach to distribution, as covered in the Globe and Mail article: Sales took off after Top Hat ignored advice and flipped its sales strategy. As such, Top Hat can provide key lessons for early-stage companies: 1. They hustle.

Vertical 132

Vertical Technical Review Cofounder Sales Cycle 132

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

Our small training department had been without a manager for months and finding a replacement didn’t seem to be high on the VP of Sales list. I walked into the VP of Sales’ office and with my knees trembling, I politely asked for the job. Reply | SocialStartups.com , on July 27, 2009 at 9:55 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

users; there aren’t 13B humans) or run out of marketing channels for acquisition (GoDaddy’s customer growth rate is 13%/yr since 2009 ; at that rate it will take 18 years for them to 10x, assuming market size and conditions would even allow them to sustain that). At the high end, you hit market size limits (Facebook has 1.3B

Software Review 300

Software Review Technical Review Startup Channel 300

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

We knew from back-of-the-envelope calculations that I would need 3 times the combined marketing and sales budgets of the incumbents for a head-on assault. (I The 3:1 Lanchester Laws said I would need $60M in marketing and sales spending to win. Was SuperMac attempting to introduce radically new products and create a new market ?

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

YoungUpstarts

MAY 8, 2012

Recent months have seen impressive auto sales figures, and that momentum is expected to continue for some time. Although concerns over gas prices might put a damper on car purchases, experts believe that an improvement in unemployment will help make up the difference and keep auto sales strong. economic recovery. Service industries.

Iowa 176

Iowa Technical Review India United States 176

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 17, 2018

A serial entrepreneur, Gudema’s previous venture was the internet marketing company Magic Hour Communications, which he grew to one of the top companies in the national Web SaaS market before selling the agency in 2009. What effect does the sales approach have on growth? What effect does the sales approach have on growth? *

Miami 61

Miami Marketing Software Review Boston 61

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 24, 2014

As a result I didn’t write my first venture capital check until March 2009 – exactly 5 years ago. I spent my first year developing proprietary deal flow and learning the business and then the Sept 2008 / Lehman Bros collapse / financial meltdown happened. 5 years ago.

Los Angeles 387

Los Angeles Intellectual Property LP Venture Capital 387

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

by Keith Johnstone, Head of Marketing of Peak Sales Recruiting. Glassdoor reports that since 2009, interview processes have grown from 3.3 Having helped world-class companies recruit B2B sales executives for decades, here are have 4 ways to build a strong virtual bench: 1. days on average in 2016 which is an increase from 19.3

Artificial Inteligence 113

Artificial Inteligence B2B Reputation Hiring 113

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. Some sales guy who was too busy to take the meeting was probably retired in Maui on the commissions. Your Customers are Not Who You Think For years I thought this “million unit chip sale by accident&# was a “one-off&# funny story.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

This is the time it takes for a bankruptcy or asset sale to occur. But I’ll judge the angel class of 2009/2010 on a 7-10 year time horizon. Instead investors are looking for the next flash sale, private sale, game dynamic, social games that rely on mobile platforms with geo-fenced, location aware offers.

Florida 299

Florida Technical Review San Antonio Los Angeles 299

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. This is worthy of an open and honest discussion with sales up front. And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

When a startup finds a repeatable sales process and steadily increasing revenue, its investors wants to harvest the rewards and build a culture of “execution.” Reply Nathan Furr , on September 24, 2009 at 9:20 am Said: Great post and wise advice. Reply Daily Links #103 | CloudKnow , on September 24, 2009 at 6:45 pm Said: [.]

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 21, 2017

With 15 years of experience in sales and marketing, Leavitt creates targeted and effective marketing strategies for companies of all sizes in the B2B tech space, especially the telecom, IT, and cloud industries. Angela Leavitt is the founder of Mojo Marketing.

San Diego 170

San Diego Product Technical Review B2B 170

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. steve BrianB , on May 30, 2009 at 4:14 am Said: Hi Steve, Thank you for this really great blog.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. But here’s where a truly great sales artist comes in. But all things are never equal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. Blog at WordPress.com.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

David Cohen

AUGUST 22, 2012

It’s interesting that in 2009 there was a peak for our companies in use of the freemium model. It’s interesting that in 2009 there was a peak for our companies in use of the freemium model. Since 2009, people have consistently been pronouncing the model dead. Here’s the data: 2007: 10%.

Vertical 110

Vertical Search Business Model Software Developers 110

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2017

In the summer of 2009, my wife and I caught the entrepreneurial bug and started a company without any prior business experience. Part of our agreement was that if the company ever sold, he’d receive a percentage of the sale. Sales dropped dramatically in a matter of weeks, and still haven’t gone back to their 2014 high.

Startup 119

Startup SEO Montana Argentina 119

David Cohen

SEPTEMBER 19, 2020

1: SendGrid (2009). The three founders (Isaac, Tim, and Jose) were based in the Los Angeles area when they moved the company to Boulder for the Techstars Boulder Accelerator in 2009. 2: Uber (2009). 3: Twilio (2009). Techstars Ventures 2009 invested in the angel debt round in 2011. 6: Outreach (2011).

San Antonio 171

San Antonio New York City Seattle Los Angeles 171

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2020

Back in 2009, a new startup called Sqare used their POS (Point-of-Sale) and retail knowledge to create a popular ultra-mobile card reader and a free app, now in 30 million businesses, that turns their iPhone into a point of sale and control center for business. This step may also lead to a disruptive innovation in the future.

Artificial Inteligence 324

Artificial Inteligence Startup Technology Mobile 324

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 17, 2020

This letter states that the payment is made on a timely basis as the sales are concerned. If the sales are met, then the transaction is made on time. And on the other hand, the dealer will be secure that they are obligated only if the sales are met. It is a commitment made by the bank on behalf of the buyer.

Security 244

Security Stock Sales Audience 244

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 28, 2014

For technologically inclined businesses, Texas has increased its STEM (Science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workforce by 34,000 since 2009. Lewis Robinson is a business consultant specializing in social media marketing, CRM, and sales. The state is geographically huge and boasts a diverse and growing population.

North Carolina 176

North Carolina America Utah Idaho 176