A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 11, 2010

We're putting a 'Retweet' button inside the product to encourage viral growth.". This is the viral step: Having trialed the tool, the stranger might use it herself, then more people find out about it, and so forth. I know of no companies who have " gone viral " because of buttons. During beta-testing they would be guinea pigs.

Software Review 261

Software Review Technical Review Viral Software Development 261

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Products can find sources of validation with impressive stats along a number of dimensions, such as high engagement, viral coefficient, or long-term retention. Start using some of those customers as guinea pigs for a self-serve version of the product.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

The Startup Toolkit

OCTOBER 28, 2011

If you don’t have either performance data or best practices, then you need to either charge based on performance (which nobody will be happy about, including you) or spend a while as your own guinea pig running a [set of] user-facing campaign[s]. ”) which kill the virality and thus the campaign.

Guinea 28

Guinea Technical Review Startup Widget 28