You can read about Zaarly, which was a 2-sided reverse Craigslist, and their struggles with pricing and the ultimate impact it had on their decision to change to a storefront only tool. * http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/09/zaarly-shutters-its-reverse-craigslist-marketplace-goes-all-in-on-virtual-...
Groupon made a billion dollar business out of email marketing. I don't think it is underrated by people who are good at growth. Most startups do think email is boring and rather invest in third-party platforms. This is a mistake as email is the true social network and reflects the raw habits an...
We have some success with it, but I recommend you check with Hiten Shah at KISSmetrics. I believe he told me that most of their sales can be tracked back to their content marketing efforts.
1) The whole team is growth focused, but I'm the only who helps guide and lead the strategy but for the most part, we know our core metrics and we have a development process for reviewing / assessing / testing / adjusting, etc. So I guess that's me. 2) We have many tools, and all depends on the...
No. There is no way to build a billion dollar business without a management team. The founding team of a startup is a very significant part of the evaluation of any early-stage investor. Furthermore, regardless of the business of the app, there are critical business decisions and actions requi...
Denial of Service protection is a key component of your perimeter defense along with your firewall, intrusion detection/prevention and continuous monitoring. There are several managed service providers that you can choose from. The first vendor you should contact is your Internet Service Provide...
I hate to be "that guy," but I'm gonna say, "it depends." What I mean by this is it is highly subjective to the market you are in and the target you're going after. However, with that being said, let me share a few of my favorite growth-hacky-type ideas that you might want to consider using to g...
Start experimenting by putting the 2 things in place you say you are missing: 1. create a validated learning model 2. Stop focusing on vanity metrics; replace with user growth, cohort analysis or growth metrics. Do not just read Lean principles; APPLY them. Also, What are you doing to brand yo...
Personally, I think you should be focusing heavily on your current users that are loyal to your brand currently and worry less on trying to buy users and get more brand awareness. To be frank you should be letting your strongest customers do all the promotion for you organically. "K-factor" This ...
Look--there's risk EVERYWHERE. You've already pointed out the hazards of developing a marketing strategy dependent on a single platform. You've also noticed that you need to set your price to buffer against rising short and medium term costs. Startups should test and scale with whatever promot...