A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 7, 2017

, but informally I’ve observed the following things, which follow a pattern that can be identified and counteracted: The initial marketing channel quickly saturated , so growth stalled at a non-zero but unsustainably-low rate. The initial marketing channel was sustainable for a while , but got wiped away due to external forces.

Software Review 294

Software Review Channel Revenue Non-Compete 294

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model. Budget time and dollars for each.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution. Nail the go-to-market strategy.

Angel Investor 359

Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator Business Model 359

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

” He advocates for people who test all channels, use quantitative methods and commit to growth as one’s “true north.” I tell people that they need to blog about their industry to drive customers and not blog to their egos to drive their peer group to their blogs. I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.”

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. Activities define the unique expertise your company needs to deliver the value proposition, customers, channels, customer relationships and/or revenue. (If

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 14, 2020

Customer experience (CX) is defined by a person’s feelings and emotions, experienced at any stage with a brand. Great CX means happy, loyal customers who not only trust your brand, but are active advocates of it. . CX is an integral part of the wider Customer Relationship Management (CRM) concept.

Customer 162

Customer Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Retention 162

Steve Blank

JUNE 27, 2017

Its employees and investors don’t depend on an existing revenue stream. If they select a business model that targets industry incumbents, they don’t have to worry about upsetting existing customers, partners or distribution channels. Every Airbnb rental is a lost night of revenue for hotels that hate it.

Startup 306

Startup New York City Valuation Distribution 306

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 8, 2021

That’s why Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is such a critical metric. CAC can be calculated with the following formula: Total Spend on Acquiring Customers / No. of Customers Acquired. But “Total spend on acquiring customers” can be ambiguous. This way, you won’t have to segment new customers. The key takeaway?

Acquisition 135

Acquisition Churn Rate Cost Customer 135

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

This is partly due to the efforts made by apparel companies in recent years to improve the buying experience and place the customer at the center of their retail apparel marketing strategy. Customer experience management is essential for all fashion companies since it delivers significant insights into each brand engagement and touchpoint.

Sales 158

Sales Customer eCommerce Social Media 158

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck , and what could be the real customer issue or fix. Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand. Customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit.

Product 354

Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

buy out an entire company for its revenue and profits. A business model is all the parts of a strategy necessary to deliver a product to a customer and make money from it. If they acquire later stage companies who already have users/customers and/or a predictable revenue stream, they are acquiring companies which are executing.

Acquisition 334

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 334

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) How much money will your business generate from each converted customer? Apply costs to each channel.

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 260

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. Once upon a time every great organization was a scrappy startup willing to take risks – new ideas, new methods, new customers, targets, and mission. Companies Run on Process. The result is process theater.

Government 322

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 322

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 16, 2022

There’s more to ecommerce customer acquisition than increasing checkout conversion rates. For long-term, sustainable success, you must attract the right customers. In this article, you’ll learn how to gauge the effectiveness of any customer acquisition strategy. What makes customer acquisition different from marketing?

Acquisition 129

Acquisition eCommerce Customer Churn Rate 129

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Most business professionals I know have been conditioned to think of inflation as highly negative, driving up their costs, and reducing customer buying. I see it as an opportunity to find new ways to attract customers , make long-needed changes to improve productivity, and lower your own costs of doing business.

Technical Review 239

Technical Review Revenue Social Media Cost 239

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 29, 2020

Email marketing is one of the most popular channels of communication and information exchange. From sending out instant trigger emails and following up via email to notifying customers of new promotions and capturing customer preferences through forms, it helps you do it all seamlessly. Accelerates revenue.

Email 167

Email Campaign Revenue HTML 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2019

Steve Blank via Flickr by jdlasica I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. Great businesses begin with a customer problem that has a big and monetizable pain point. Nail the solution.

Startup 245

Startup Angel Investor Technical Review Incubator 245

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. Typically, this caliber of bankers wouldn’t talk to you unless your company had five profitable quarters of increasing revenue. The founders.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Consider investing in these four software categories to improve business performance and bring in more revenue. Attracting new customers and nurturing them along through the sales pipeline is what every business tries to do effectively and efficiently. Customers seek information from businesses when and where they want it.

Small Business 173

Small Business Agile Software Software Development 173

ConversionXL

JULY 21, 2022

When researching a new product, buyers use 10 or more channels to interact with companies. Each channel presents a chance to make a good impression. Optimize each channel, and you’ll win new customers, enjoy higher order rates , and retain customers. Get them wrong, and you risk damaging brand perception and trust.

Customer 118

Customer Marketing Channel Audience 118

ConversionXL

JUNE 16, 2022

Stacked Marketer turned a free newsletter into a six-figure revenue generator by staying actionable, convenient, and entertaining. A marketing playbook helps you achieve brand consistency across channels and campaigns. They map out a repeatable process to avoid chaos and confusion in your team and with customers.

Campaign 149

Campaign CTO Marketing Social Media 149

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

Gather customer data across various channels and devices to have a more comprehensive profile. In fact, marketing automation platforms provide you with the ability to learn about your customers on a much deeper level and improve your personalization efforts. It’s all done by gathering and analyzing customer data.

Marketing 179

Marketing SMS Campaign Channel 179

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Your customers will no longer be your customers. Your revenue plans are no longer valid. What’s your monthly cash burn at your new low revenue level? Your customers start buying. Ask yourself: Are there now new customers, new services and new channels to pursue? How many months of cash do you have?

South Korea 334

South Korea Salary Business Model China 334

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 26, 2021

There are so many businesses around us, and to stay in the game, you need to think of ways to improve your small business revenue. As a small business owner, you need to do some research on industry practices for growing small business revenue. Work on your relationship with customers. Today’s world is all about competition.

Small Business 179

Small Business Mobile Revenue Social Media 179

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

As a long-time advisor to entrepreneurs and business owners, I rarely find someone who doesn’t proclaim that the business world is changing rapidly, with new technology, new customer expectations, and new cultures. Others still routinely have phone hold queues for customer contact that can last up to an hour, with no alternative options.

Technical Review 211

Technical Review Channel Social Media Metrics 211

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 7, 2022

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is an important metric for any ecommerce business. It tells you how much you need to earn per customer to run a profitable company. Put simply, you need a healthy customer acquisition cost for your business to succeed. Table of contents What is ecommerce customer acquisition cost?

Acquisition 22

Acquisition eCommerce Cost Customer 22

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 4, 2017

On the other hand, while the small company loses 9 months to the loss of a key employee, or even implodes, the big company is the steady turtle that adds thousands of customer per month like clockwork and wins the race. If Google launches a new product that generates $10,000,000/year in revenue, is that good? Predictability.

Government 223

Government Startup Cofounder Technical Support 223

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Then they increased their revenue from $2M to $6M in six months. This value-based model bringing all the right customers to their yard is called demand generation. In this article, you’ll learn how to build a demand generation funnel that fuels the pipeline, shortens the sale cycle, and generates revenue.

Demand 124

Demand B2B Distribution Channel 124

VC Cafe

MARCH 16, 2025

In addition to search, shopping and customer support are changing too. Conversational commerce is rising with AI chatbots and voice assistants becoming integral to customer journeys. Few free growth channels remain, and incumbents often own or clog the major avenues. Personalisation is increasing across the board.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review B2C Generative AI IPO 78

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 5, 2024

Optimize Facility Operations Efficient facility operations are crucial for a successful self-storage business, directly influencing customer satisfaction and profitability. Leveraging data analytics provides operators with valuable insights into customer behavior, demand patterns, and occupancy rates.

Security 147

Security Technical Review Operations Revenue 147

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

The challenge is to increase response rates and propagate a single view of the customer, by integrating customer data from multiple Web and social media interactions. Then companies can determine promotional effectiveness by narrowly defined customer segments, by location, or by delivery channel. Movie recommendations.

Analytics 248

Analytics Retention Social Media Startup 248

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2018

According to most investors I know, traction is some clear evidence that the “dogs are eating the dog food” – usually meaning that you have at least one customer paying full price for your solution. Another term often mentioned is “momentum,” or growing visibility and advocacy within your customer set.

Advisory Board 199

Advisory Board Technical Review Metrics Business Model 199

YoungUpstarts

JULY 15, 2020

Let’s see what iGMS has to offer: Handy Channel Manager. iGMS incorporates a handy channel manager enabling you to look after day-to-day activities related to your rental business. First-rate customer service is key and iGMS appreciates the importance of communication. Smart Guest Communication.

Software Review 234

Software Review Software Hosting Portfolio 234

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 25, 2023

Growing Your Audience (And Your Revenue) With A Book written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Marketing Podcast with Matt Briel In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Matt Briel. Questions I ask Matt Briel: [1:29] Could you tell us about the origin story of Lulu and how did it come to be? [2:25]

Audience 98

Audience Revenue Distribution Differentiation 98

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Neil Patel is an outstanding, globally revered marketer who can teach you plenty about content marketing, PPC, SEO, and other digital marketing channels to help your business thrive. NP Digital receives consistently positive reviews from its customers. There are few better choices than Neil Patel. Pay It Forward.

Software Review 212

Software Review Marketing PPC Hosting 212

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

The possibilities are truly endless here, and it allows your business to tap into new markets as well as customer segments that were previously not reachable. As the digital marketing world opens the doors to new customer segments and revenue streams, social media platforms are coming to the forefront.

Marketing 166

Marketing Social Media Reputation Audience 166