Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

The law of large numbers (of customers) says you cant help but make at least some money - your valuation is determined by how well you monetize the tidal wave of growth. Paid - if your product monetizes customers better than your competitors, you have the opportunity to use your lifetime value advantage to drive growth.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is simply buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company. Cost per action (CPA).

Search 225

Search Engineer SEM Widget 225

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

The point isn’t to “build a business on YouTube” but rather to use YouTube as a marketing platform to build a video business that works across many platforms. This kind of spend happens all day long inside startup companies and 100% of the spend on attracting customers is a cost. I think most arguments miss the mark.

SEM 150

SEM Los Angeles Silicon Valley Acquisition 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

Cost per action (CPA). It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. In this more popular model these days, advertisers do not pay for each appearance of the ad, but only when a user clicks on an ad and is redirected to the advertiser website.

Search 226

Search PPC Widget SEO 226

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

One of the investment themes I’ve been focused on in the past 3 years has been Performance-Based Marketing. When I started investing the US advertising market was $300 billion with only 10% of it ($30 billion) of it being online and measurable. I believe that many social networks confused this idea. Early evidence is good.

Advertising 284

Advertising Las Vegas Affiliate RSS 284

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 26, 2008

While most HiPPO's won't yield to your Chinese Torture, they don't have to, there are two things that they will almost always yield to: Customers & Competitors. Senior Managers are biased towards themselves, but they bow to customer data and competitive opportunities. 2: Capture Voice of Customer. Root cause?

Management 68

Management Analytics San Diego Web 68