# Startup Marketing Blog - By Sean Ellis

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Unlocking Startup Growth

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## Posts

- [Archive of old posts](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/): Every six months I rethink the optimal startup go to market approach based on new insights gained at recent startups. Lately I’ve been using a pyramid to represent the process I'm using. Startups require a solid foundation of product/market fit before progressing up the pyramid and scaling the business. Achieving Product/Market Fit Product/market fit has
- [Now writing on Substack (link below)](https://www.startup-marketing.com/now-writing-on-substack-link-below/): Sean Ellis - Blog Please visit my latest writings at https://substack.com/@seanellis Hello, Sean Ellis here, author of Hacking Growth. You've found my old blog where most of the writing is from 2008 - 2012. Please check out my latest writing at https://substack.com/@seanellis.
- [The Startup Pyramid](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-pyramid/): Here is a link to an updated version of this post Every six months I rethink the optimal startup go to market approach based on new insights gained at recent startups. Lately I’ve been using a pyramid to represent the process I'm using. Startups require a solid foundation of product/market fit before progressing up the pyramid and
- [Milestones to Startup Success](https://www.startup-marketing.com/milestones-to-startup-success/): Update added to end of post When your startup accepts outside money (such as venture capital), you are obligated to focus on maximizing long-term shareholder value. For most startups this is directly based on your ability to grow (customers, revenue and eventually profit). Most entrepreneurs understand the importance of growth; the common mistake is trying
- [Bringing a Network Effect Business to Market](https://www.startup-marketing.com/bringing-a-network-effect-business-to-market/): Below are my slides from Lean Startup LA, where I introduced recommendations for bringing a network effect startup to market. There is still plenty to figure out, so I appreciate any feedback (positive and negative). The presentation was also recorded on video here.
- [Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/): Once startups are ready to scale, their biggest challenge is often hiring someone capable of leading the growth charge. A marketer with the right talents and approach can kick some serious ass once product-market fit and an efficient conversion/monetization process have been proven. But the problem is that most startups try to hire for skills
- [Open Source Marketing](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startup-marketers-hoarding-mediocre-ideas/): Why can't marketing be more like the rest of Silicon Valley who have long shared ideas, resources and processes across startups? Engineers have been doing this for decades and the open source movement takes this to a worldwide level. Startup founders are also forming alliances (often facilitated by common VCs or groups like Y Combinator). The startup stories of Apple and other companies show that many great technology companies came out of “clubs” of people that were passionate about technology. But us startup marketers have stayed on the sidelines protecting our mediocre ideas and processes. If we pulled together, we could dramatically improve our contribution to the ...
- [Advisor at Xobni – What Now?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/advisor-at-xobni-–-what-now/): Monday will be my last fulltime day in the interim VP marketing role at Xobni – then I switch to part-time advising. Xobni’s progress is definitely on the highest end of my expectations when I went into the role. I’ll miss my day-to-day interaction with the team, but will be on site a couple of afternoons per week to trade jabs. Many people are asking me “what now?” Through fall I'll be working with a few other startups using a more leveraged approach. I’ll help them set the overall marketing priorities and then provide ongoing assistance refining their go-to-market strategy ...
- [Creating an Unforgettable Name](https://www.startup-marketing.com/creating-an-unforgettable-name/): One of the requirements when we acquired KISSinsights was that we change the name. As much as we loved the KISSinsights' name, a new name would gives us the flexibility to extend beyond collecting insights. Having been through naming exercises several times, I realized it would be an opinionated, emotional process. All startups want a
- [Where Did Your Comments Go?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/where-did-your-comments-go/): Sorry to all that posted comments. My credit card expired and my blog disappeared. I've added a new credit card and renewed hosting for 2 years. Fortunately I have backups of all the entries. It's going to be a fun night reposting the entries...
- [The Risks of Growth Hacking and How to Build Authentic Sustainable Growth](https://www.startup-marketing.com/authentic-growth-hacks/): It has been a couple years since I wrote the first post on growth hacking. The term didn't gain much popularity until Andrew Chen wrote this post back in April of this year. Online Marketing Redefined Some people love the term “growth hacker” and some hate it. The term is not important. What is important
- [Best Marketing Podcasts](https://www.startup-marketing.com/best-marketing-podcasts/): Listening to marketing podcasts is a good way to make a long commute productive. Occasionally they stimulate a great marketing idea, but at the very least they keep me informed about new marketing tools. I've only found one consistently good marketing podcast - Jenerous (formerly Marketing Monger). Eric Mattson interviews several marketing leaders and entrepreneurs. Many of his guests have a unique marketing focus (such as web analytics, branding, etc) so I learn something new from almost every podcast. Unfortunately they don't come out frequently enough to give me a good backlog of podcasts. I'd love to get recommendations from anyone who has found other good marketing webcasts. Please add ...
- [Pushing the Marketing Metrics Envelope](https://www.startup-marketing.com/pushing-the-marketing-metrics-envelope/): I've been working hard to discover effective metrics driven marketing methods used at other companies. Two recently discovered resources have been the emetrics conference in Washington DC and a new books by Rex Briggs called "What Stick".
- [Demand Harvesting - The Easiest Driver for Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/demand-harvesting-the-easiest-driver-for-startups/): I always begin a new startup marketing assignment by looking for any untapped existing demand. Demand harvesting is much easier than demand creation – and it has a faster sales cycle. You don’t have to convince someone they need your category of product, you just need to be easier to find/buy and have a better value proposition than the other guys. The first question to ask is “where would someone seek my product category?” Twenty years ago the most obvious answer would have been the yellow pages, but today it is Google. Beyond Google, I’ve found it is helpful to ...
- [Blockbuster/Circuit City Not That Bad](https://www.startup-marketing.com/blockbustercircuit-city-not-that-bad/): CNet Buzz Outloud jumped on the negative bandwagon about the Blockbuster/Circuit City merger in yesterday's podcast. Rather than a private conversation with my iPod, I figured I'd blog about why I think the merger actually makes sense - at least from a marketing perspective. It boils down to this: Blockbuster = store traffic Circuit City = impulse purchases (when enough foot traffic) A perfect analogy here is movie theaters and malls. Movie theaters pay much lower rent per square foot than retailers in a mall because they add value to all the other tenants. The retailers that receive the bulk of this value are those that sell impulse purchase items. Personally I rarely go ...
- [Fremium Will Squash Premium](https://www.startup-marketing.com/fremium-will-squash-premium/): The biggest threat to an established premium only software business is the arrival of a fremium player. The best way I can think of to demonstrate this is through the following hypothetical scenario: You’ve built a premium subscription software business model. Your sales dwarf competitive premium offers because you have very efficient customer acquisition and a great product with strong customer retention. Your marketing metrics are strong. You have 1 million customers, for which you paid an average of $50 each to acquire. The average projected lifetime value for each customer is $100 with a typical subscription length of three years. ...
- [The Ups and Downs of a Free-to-Premium Marketing Approach](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-ups-and-downs-of-a-free-to-premium-marketing-approach/): We’ve all faced the challenges of trying to break through the flood of advertisements that overwhelm our prospective customers.
- [What is Metrics Driven Marketing?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-is-metrics-driven-marketing/): Good marketing metrics can guide effective marketing decisions and drive outstanding results.
- [My New Blog Address: Startup-Marketing.com](https://www.startup-marketing.com/my-new-blog-address-startup-marketingcom/): In case you missed it in my previous entry, I have launched a new Blog at www.Startup-Marketing.com. I will no longer be updating the MetricsDrivenMarketing.com blog.
- [Xobni Meet LogMeIn](https://www.startup-marketing.com/xobni-meet-logmein/): I was excited to log into Download.com today and see that LogMeIn and Xobni were both featured in "Download News and Updates" (back-to-back). Featured Freeware: LogMeIn Free An Outlook add-on getting big buzz (Xobni Story) I joined Xobni after 4.5 years of running marketing at LogMeIn. I love to see both companies featured on Download.com together!
- [The Science Behind Viral Marketing](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-science-behind-viral-marketing/): Many people don't realize the advances in the science behind viral marketing. Experts often known as "Viral Tuners" are applying a systematic data driven process to creating viral customer acquisition drivers. By testing and optimizing the viral elements of a widget or websites they are often able to push the viral coefficient above 1.0. This essentially means that each
- [Keeping up with Marketing Newbies on Web 2.0](https://www.startup-marketing.com/keeping-up-with-marketing-newbies-on-web-20/): Often the least experienced marketers are the most effective at taking advantage of a new marketing medium. This is difficult for more experienced marketing veterans to swallow. But with experience comes preconceptions about what works and what doesn't work.
- [Startups Need Guys Like Andy Grove (Former CEO of Intel)](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startups-need-guys-like-andy-grove-former-ceo-of-intel/): Adam Smith, co-founder of Xobni, recently posted an excerpt on his blog from Andy Grove's autobiography. http://www.xobni.com/asmith/archives/72 Adam's excerpt gives a glimpse into the determination that drove Andy Grove's success. As I posted in Adam's comments, anything is possible when you want something badly enough.
- [@Calacanis RE: "The business model comes AFTER you get to scale."](https://www.startup-marketing.com/calacanis-re-the-business-model-comes-after-you-get-to-scale/): I stumbled across this old post on Calacanis.com that Jason Calacanis wrote back in January. www.calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-that-make-twitter-a-billion-dollar-bus/ In discussing Twitter, he made some strong statements about when a startup should focus on business models. He recommends spending some time in Silicon Valley where the prevailing wisdom is that you should reach scale before obsessing over a business model. I can see his point... Everyone can name a company like YouTube that was acquired for billions before they ever figured out a viable business model. I agree with Jason that a small profitable business is not what VC-backed startups are all about. It's generally about bringing life-changing technology to ...
- [12in6](https://www.startup-marketing.com/12in6/): Startup-Marketing.com clearly positions me as a startup marketer, but it’s very generic and says little about what I’m trying to do for startups. At recent startup and VC events I’ve walked around with “Startup Marketing” on my badge. That’s only slightly better than the top choice of the unemployed - “consultant”. I’ve been toying with names that would better capture the value I’m offering to startups… In a nutshell this value is “helping startups more quickly achieve traction and efficient growth momentum.” On my drive from Palo Alto to San Francisco today I was pondering how I discovered this need – and the ...
- [Hello world!](https://www.startup-marketing.com/hello-world-2/): Welcome to Wordpress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
- [Huge Newsweek Article for Xobni](https://www.startup-marketing.com/huge-newsweek-article-for-xobni/): Newsweek published an article today that clearly positions Xobni as the leader among companies addressing the ubiquitous issue of "dissatisfaction with swelling inboxes." http://www.newsweek.com/id/117050 Xobni co-founder Matt Brezina has some great quotes throughout the article, but this one is the best "We're at the front of the pack. And we've got a target on our
- [Effective Marketing in the Earliest Stage Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/effective-marketing-in-the-earliest-stage-startups/): Thoughts about how I've gained traction in early stage startups.
- [Great Viral Marketing Post by Andrew Chen](https://www.startup-marketing.com/great-viral-marketing-post-by-andrew-chen/): Here's another great viral marketing post from Andrew Chen: http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2008/03/facebook-viral.html It even includes a downloadable Excel sheet. It's pretty heavy on the math side of viral marketing, but I highly recommended it for anyone looking to develop/polish their viral marketing skills.
- [Chris Anderson "Gets" Freemium Business Model](https://www.startup-marketing.com/chris-anderson-gets-fremium-business-model/): There has been a lot of attention this week on an article called Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business published by Chris Anderson in Wired Magazine. It is an excellent overview of the drivers behind the important trend of companies offering free versions of their products. He plans to release a full book on the subject next year. For those who aren’t familiar with Chris Anderson, he’s the author of The Long Tail, a book that kicked off a frenzy among internet entrepreneurs and VCs a couple of years ago. It highlighted the impact of unlimited ...
- [Why Are There So Few Insider Marketing Blogs?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/why-are-there-so-few-insider-marketing-blogs/): While there is very little to gain for corporate marketing bloggers, there is plenty to lose. So why do we do it?
- [Why I Love Silicon Valley](https://www.startup-marketing.com/why-i-love-silicon-valley/): Silicon Valley has a contagious energy unique from any place I've previously worked. New York City was close, but it wasn't focused on the tech industry. Palo Alto is the epicenter of this energy, but it spreads all the way into San Francisco, where I’ve been living for the last three weeks. While the energy
- [New Kotler Book on Marketing Metrics](https://www.startup-marketing.com/new-kotler-book-on-marketing-metrics/): World's leading expert on strategic marketing publishing book focused entirely on marketing metrics.
- [Check Out Startonomics](https://www.startup-marketing.com/check-out-startonomics/): You may have noticed that the go to market process I use is heavy on identifying and using the right metrics to build your startup marketing engine. So it's not surprising that a conference called Startonomics caught my attention. The organizers describe it as the following:"Startonomics is a one-day workshop designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs on how to create simple, actionable metrics for internet startups, and use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth and success." I was even more excited when I was asked to speak at the conference. A whole conference ...
- [Xobni Launch In New York Times](https://www.startup-marketing.com/xobni-launch-in-new-york-times/): It's a very exciting night over at Xobni. We just pulled the trigger on the Xobni public beta launch. This coincided with a great article hitting NYTimes.com announcing the Xobni launch: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/technology/05xobni.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Of course the Microsoft Yahoo fallout is stealing some of our thunder, but it's still amazing for a 14-person company to get our launch covered in the New York Times.
- [The Ideal Startup Marketing Leader](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-ideal-startup-marketing-leader/): In the last couple weeks I’ve met with CEOs at nearly a dozen well-funded startups desperately in need of a marketing leader. Many of these companies have expressed a strong desire to work with me on their go to market execution, but one of my key requirements is that they have a marketing leader in place. This ensures strong knowledge transfer and reduces the need for a long-term engagement with me. The challenge many of these startups have faced with their hiring is that they were seeking a seasoned marketing leader. Having led marketing in both early stage ventures and in ...
- [Software Marketing – The Channel Has Changed](https://www.startup-marketing.com/software-marketing-–-the-channel-has-changed/): Egghead, Software Etc, Comdex - all gone! How are software companies marketing and selling software today?
- [Hiring Unproven Talent for your Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/hiring-unproven-talent-for-your-startup/): Building the right team is critical to the success of any startup. You can pay a significant premium for proven talent, or take a risk and get a deal on unproven talent. My best hires have usually been relatively unproven when they joined the team. But how do you gauge the potential of these people? I may have figured out a critical interview question to ask when hiring unproven talent (and maybe proven talent too). The question is: “How would you react if you felt like you were underpaid in your position?” I came up with this question based on a conversation with my younger ...
- [Startup2Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startup2startup/): Dave McClure organized an excellent gathering at the first Startup2Startup dinner tonight. The evening started with a great presentation called "Speed: the ultimate startup weapon" by serial entrepreneur Mike Cassidy. Then each table had an organized round table discussion on critical startup topics. The guests at each table were prearranged to ensure a good mix of veteran
- [Three Key Lessons From The Slide/rockyou Facebook App Fallout](https://www.startup-marketing.com/three-key-lessons-from-the-sliderockyou-facebook-app-fallout/): Well it was only a matter of time before Slide and rockyou pushed things too far. Facebook’s crackdown on aggressive viral tactics has exposed a key vulnerability of these businesses. Facebook has banned some apps and shut down two of the three most important viral channels for others (invites and newsfeeds). And according to this TechCrunch article the growth of these apps has been dramatically squeezed as a result. Despite their mistakes, both rockyou and Slide should be recognized for their pioneering role in advancing viral marketing. Through metrics and iteration both companies have achieved unprecedented user growth rates. This rockyou presentation from April '08 ...
- [More Freemium and Startup Marketing Thoughts](https://www.startup-marketing.com/more-freemium-and-startup-marketing-thoughts/): Same excuses for a lack of meaningful blog posts recently... But the good news is I'm nearing the end of my immersive interim VP marketing role, and will soon transition to a part time advising role. This should free me up to spend more time with the blog. Until then, here are three very raw startup marketing thoughts that have been running through my head lately...
- [More Customer Development Cycles](https://www.startup-marketing.com/more-customer-development-cycles/): I kicked off this quarter’s two new customer development projects earlier this week. It seems like I just started with Dropbox and Eventbrite, but we’ve actually completed the full six months with Eventbrite and we’re in the last few weeks with Dropbox. Eventbrite and Dropbox were really the “Beta” customers for my six-month customer development
- [OnStartups Article: Big Bang Vs Darwin Marketing for Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/onstartups-article-big-bang-vs-darwin-marketing-for-startups/): Here is an excellent blog post from OnStartups that compares a Darwinian evolutionary marketing approach to a Big Bang approach. It’s from way back in July, but I found both the article and comments to be insightful: http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/2014/default.aspx I agree with the article that a Darwinian evolutionary approach is right way to get a startup
- [Measuring Social Media's Impact on Loyalty](https://www.startup-marketing.com/measuring-social-medias-impact-on-loyalty/): Today I listened to a podcast interview with Jake McGee of Big in Japan on the Marketing Monger Podcast. His firm specializes in helping companies tap the benefits of social media such as Blogs and message boards. While he praises social media as an important loyalty builder, he claims that the ROI is not very measurable. Since customer loyalty is a key goal (particularly in my company where we sell subscription based software) – I began thinking about how social media might be measurable.
- [Pursuit of Marketing Perfection](https://www.startup-marketing.com/pursuit-of-marketing-perfection/): Given the immensity of the range of potential skills and knowledge in marketing, you are always fairly low on the learning curve. Looking up that learning curve can be both daunting and exciting. Marketers at every level are challenged (or delusional).
- [Startup Hopping: Road to Ruin or Riches?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startup-hopping-road-to-ruin-or-riches/): The typical stats would suggest startup hoppers hit big one in ten times. Those odds aren’t very appealing, especially when you consider the other risks and costs of a startup. Still, startups attract great talent.
- [Why We Use Marketing Acronyms (And Why We Should Stop)](https://www.startup-marketing.com/why-we-use-marketing-acronyms-and-why-we-should-stop/): We use acronyms to confuse the busybody marketing novices - to keep them out of our hair. But we shouldn't. These guys can be a key source of the fresh ideas that fuel metrics driven marketing success.
- [What Makes an Effective Startup Marketer?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-makes-an-effective-startup-marketer/): Should startups seek a seasoned large company marketing executive to give them credibility with VCs and drive their company to greatness? Not necessarily. Startup marketing leaders must be hands-on and dynamic. A marketing executive from a large company is likely accustomed to relying on functional experts from across a big marketing department. Their role is
- [Are Marketers Now Required to be Engineers Too?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/empowering-marketing-tools/): As much as I hate to admit it, online marketers with engineering backgrounds often have a significant advantage over non-engineering marketers. They are simply much more capable of "getting stuff done." The rest of us waste a lot of time and creative energy figuring how to get the obvious stuff done. Not only are engineering
- [Where is the Online Advertising Innovation?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/where-is-the-online-advertising-innovation/): Online advertising models are far from optimal. Improvements would benefit everyone - from online media properties, to advertisers and even website visitors. Improvements can only be achieved with the commitment of leading web properties and advertisers to work together to continuously test innovative new online advertising models. Unfortunately the same standards groups that drove the
- [More on CEO's Role in Driving Growth](https://www.startup-marketing.com/more-on-ceos-role-in-driving-growth/): I just wanted to highlight a reply to a comment on my post Founders Make the Best Startup Marketing Leaders : "In hindsight, probably one of the most important points of the blog post is that CEOs must take an active role in driving customer growth whether or not they have an interest in marketing. Nearly
- [Great Startup Marketing Post By Entrepreneur-Turned-VC](https://www.startup-marketing.com/great-startup-marketing-post-by-entrepreneur-turned-vc/): Check out this excellent post on marketing a startup by Josh Kopelman, Founder and Managing Partner at First Round Capital (one of the VCs behind Xobni). http://redeye.firstround.com/2008/01/after-the-techc.html His key point is that a single event (such as TechCrunch) sprinkled with viral growth should NOT define a startup’s marketing strategy. He then goes on to explain what
- [Launch Your Startup with a Trickle](https://www.startup-marketing.com/launch-your-startup-with-a-trickle/): Every startup wants to get a fast start out of the gates. But starting too fast can be a mistake. You only get one blank slate on which to build a reputation, so you better do it right the first time. Pacing yourself at the start will allow you to offer excellent customer support as
- [Intuition First - Then Analysis](https://www.startup-marketing.com/intuition-first-then-analysis/): Seth Godin wrote an interesting piece on the tradeoff between intuition and analysis. While it was insightful, I view things slightly differently. I don't think there is a tradeoff between intuition and analysis as he claims. I think intuition drives the ideas that should be implemented and then after implementation the results must be analyzed.
- [Surviving The Financial Meltdown - Three Tips for Early Stage Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/surviving-the-financial-meltdown-three-tips-for-early-stage-startups/): For months we’ve heard that startups should prepare for a recession that is looming in the future. But it always appeared to be around some distant corner. Well, it seems we’ve arrived. Giga Om is reporting that Sequoia (considered by many to be the top VC) held an emergency meeting yesterday warning their portfolio companies to buckle down. B rounds are already a wasteland – at least that’s the sentiment of the VC with whom I had coffee yesterday. He claimed that money is still rolling into A round startups and that companies needing a C round often have ...
- [Awareness Building is a Waste of Startup Resources](https://www.startup-marketing.com/awareness-building-is-a-waste-of-startup-resources/): It's surprising how many CEO/Founders of startups tell me that they want to hire a VP Marketing to "build awareness." Consider this: according to Inc Magazine , the average US consumer sees about 3,000 advertisements per day. Can a startup really spend enough money to break through that clutter and build awareness? For at least the first year or two, online consumer/prosumer/smb targeted startups should focus 100% of their non-PR media budget on acquiring customers. Rather than buying a microsecond of awareness, you can actually use your limited funds to engage users in a real brand experience. Even for users that don't ...
- [Chasing Problems?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/chasing-problems/): The best startups generally begin by trying to address a really important problem worth solving. If they can nail the solution to this important problem, they have a great chance of building a successful startup. How Solving Problems Can Lead to Failure Surprisingly, founders’ instincts to solve problems can also cause us to fail. Many
- [Accidental Selling in Foreign Markets](https://www.startup-marketing.com/accidental-selling-in-foreign-markets/): "Going international" is no longer the huge endeavor that it once was. With online advertising, ecommerce and a good product, it is almost impossible not to go international.
- [Startups - Gaining Initial Customer Traction](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startups-gaining-initial-customer-traction/): Gaining initial customer traction is a major challenge for most startup marketers. Fortunatley there are some proven methods to get the ball rolling.
- [Discovering Effective Marketing Tactics for Your Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/discovering-effective-marketing-tactics-for-your-startup/): Great marketers make great resource allocation decisions. We are all faced with the temptation to gravitate toward marketing tactics that have worked in previous companies. Unfortunately, an old marketing mix is almost never a perfect fit for a new marketing situation. For example, when I ran marketing at Uproar.com we relied heavily on banner advertising, even running the most viewed banner on the entire Internet for a period of time. We also had a large affiliate program with over 30,000 partners. Leveraging these key elements of the ...
- [Career Advice: Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses](https://www.startup-marketing.com/career-advice-know-your-strengths-and-weaknesses/): Through years of building marketing teams, I've been surprised at how few people really understand their unique talents and weaknesses. Understanding and leveraging unique talents can propel your career forward faster than anything. But watch out. You may get promoted into a role that relies on your weaknesses. Taking the time to understanding both is
- [My New Role as Interim VP Marketing at Xobni](https://www.startup-marketing.com/my-new-role-as-interim-vp-marketing-at-xobni/): My first week as interim VP marketing at Xobni was incredible. In earlier startups we had to work a lot harder to get the customer acquisition engine cranking. Naturally, I did a lot of due diligence on Xobni before deciding to join. I discovered that Xobni has all the elements of a startup with enormous potential for marketing
- [The 2 Most Important Questions to Ask Before Launching a Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-2-most-important-questions-to-ask-before-launching-a-startup/): “Can this startup be marketed profitably?” “Can the profitable marketing scale?” Of course you can't definitively answer these questions until you try marketing the product. But, if you aren’t pretty confident that the answer to these questions is yes, you shouldn’t launch the business. Too many people start trying to build a product and believe they'll figure out the
- [Why So Long Since My Last Blog Post?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/why-so-long-since-my-last-blog-post/): It has been hard finding time to make blog posts recently. As anyone who has been through a startup knows - there are never enough hours in the day. To make things even more challenging for me, I moved up to San Francisco to join Xobni while my wife and kids stayed down in Southern
- [Many Roads To Success - But Few Safer than Metrics Driven Marketing](https://www.startup-marketing.com/many-roads-to-success-but-few-safer-than-metrics-driven-marketing/): A few bad marketing decisions in an early stage startup can easily cause a company to fold (most startups eventually do fail). While there are many roads to success, Metrics Driven Marketing is generally the safest.
- [Potential](https://www.startup-marketing.com/potential/): “Potential” is the most important concept in startup marketing. Startups are all about creating and then realizing potential. It is our "true north." So what is “potential?” One definition is “capable of being but not yet in existence.” From a startup marketing perspective, I define potential as the combination of the size of the market and the intensity of the need for your product as it exists today. A startup’s potential begins with the vision of the founders. Generally there is some tweaking of the vision based on research around the actual needs of potential customers and the competitive ...
- [Find my old blog at MetricsDrivenMarketing.com](https://www.startup-marketing.com/find-my-old-blog-at-metricsdrivenmarketingcom/): Most of Metrics Driven Marketing was written after my previous startup already had strong market traction. I'm now focused on early stage startups so changed the name of my blog to reflect this... Metrics Driven Marketing
- [Bill Gates Demos Xobni in this Morning's Keynote](https://www.startup-marketing.com/bill-gates-demos-xobni-in-this-mornings-keynote/): We've had an exciting morning at Xobni. Bill Gates demoed Xobni at the Microsoft Office Developers Conference, calling it the next generation of social networking. A more practical comment was that he credited Xobni as helping you understand the richness of different types of relationships so that you can manage those relationships. Below is a
- [First Startonomics a Big Hit](https://www.startup-marketing.com/first-startonomics-a-big-hit/): The first Startonomics conference was held in San Francisco last week and was packed with useful information for startups. The goal of the conference was to highlight simple actionable metrics for each of the core areas of launching a startup Videos of every presentation are online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/startonomics-2008 . I’ll personally be watching the presentations a few
- [Are Sales Targets a Marketing Responsibility?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/are-sales-targets-a-marketing-responsibility/): Practitioners of metrics driven marketing understand that short-term bookings goals are a key element in the model that is used for measuring the efficacy of our outbound marketing budgets.
- [When is the Right Time for Startups to Hire the First Marketer?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/when-is-the-right-time-for-startups-to-hire-the-first-marketer/): I love the fast pace of working at a startup in a marketing role. There is always so much to do - particularly around customer acquisition. Turn new campaigns on, scale highly effective campaigns, cut the bad ones… Other campaigns can be optimized by testing new messaging and user flows to improve conversion rates, etc, etc… On the web it’s all very iterative and there is always something that can be done to improve efficiency and scale acquisition drivers. It is the dream job for any ADD powered entrepreneur. But that’s post launch. Before that you have to lay a ...
- [Reading "Once You're Lucky. Twice You're Good."](https://www.startup-marketing.com/reading-once-youre-lucky-twice-youre-good/): I've been reading "Once You're Lucky. Twice You're Good." by Sarah Lacy for the last few days and I'm really enjoying it. It gives a useful overview of the whole Web 2.0 scene, but mostly I just find it an entertaining read. It's amazing how many influential Web 2.0 companies were connected to PayPal alums. Slide, YouTube and Yelp were all directly connected, and Facebook has early investors that were alums. The book highlights the value of the Silicon Valley ecosystem for starting new companies. Without the help of startup vets, the book suggests that many talented founders would likely have been ousted ...
- [The Difference Between Word-of-Mouth and Viral Marketing](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-difference-between-word-of-mouth-and-viral-marketing/): I often hear knowledgeable people say "that's not viral marketing, it's word of mouth." Rarely do they go on to try to explain the difference or why the difference is important. I'm not sure why it's particularly important, but I've tried to decipher the difference below. The confusion probably stems from their shared potential for driving exponential growth rates by leveraging existing users. Based on the two sources I've found that tried to answer this question (pasted below) and my own experience, I’ve reached the following conclusion. The primary difference is that strong word of mouth is primarily based on a compelling ...
- [Yankee Group gets it right (mostly) about SMB online marketing](https://www.startup-marketing.com/yankee-group-gets-it-right-mostly-about-smb-online-marketing/): You may have noticed the recent release from Yankee Group regarding SMB online marketing. The release suggests that SMBs are “accelerating adoption of e-commerce and online marketing.” Overall I agree with the findings. It’s a natural next step for SMBs who’ve created a web presence to begin promoting that presence. However...
- [Startup and Online Marketing Secrets Exposed](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startup-and-online-marketing-secrets-exposed/): This presentation by Dave McClure is the best concentration of online marketing information I have ever seen. It is a direct contradiction to my recent rant that startup marketers are too protective of their ideas. Dave is definitely open to sharing his very valuable online marketing insights. Almost everything you need to know about online marketing is included in the
- [Fast Company Article on Outsourcing Cool](https://www.startup-marketing.com/fast-company-article-on-outsourcing-cool/): Is cool really important? Absolutely. A cool brand gives you loyal customers who become product evangelizers. Part of their identity becomes association with using a cool product. Why wouldn’t they talk about something that in a transitive way makes them cool?
- [What is Metrics Driven Marketing?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-is-metrics-driven-marketing-2/): Metrics Driven Marketing is the marketing process that applies detailed metrics to every facet of marketing. The goal of Metrics Driven Marketing is to better predict returns on marketing investments and thus drive superior overall marketing results.
- [VP Marketing Compensation at Tech Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/vp-marketing-compensation-at-tech-startup/): While working on recruiting the next marketing head at Xobni (either VP or director level), I stumbled across a great blog post on the typical compensation packages for VPs of Marketing at Tech Startups: http://www.mikevolpe.com/bid/3858/. I haven’t downloaded the actual report which may provide more data (you can see it here https://www.compstudy.com/). Percentile Cash Compensation Stock Option %
- [A Lean Start is Smart](https://www.startup-marketing.com/a-lean-start-is-smart/): Lean Vs Fat Startups When I read Ben Horowitz’s article “The Case For The Fat Startup” http://bhorowitz.com/2010/03/17/the-case-for-the-fat-startup/ I expected to be in violent disagreement with most of it. However, I was surprised to find myself mostly nodding in agreement. Many of the moves he describes that led to the survival and success of Opsware/Loudcloud were
- [My Presentation at Lean Startup Circle in SF](https://www.startup-marketing.com/my-presentation-at-lean-startup-circle-in-sf/): Sean Ellis at Lean Startup Circle Meeting from David Binetti on Vimeo.
- [Sneak Preview: KISSmetrics](https://www.startup-marketing.com/sneak-preview-kissmetrics/): I'm really looking forward to the Startup Lessons Learned Conference this Friday. If you haven't bought your ticket yet, use the code SEANELLIS and save 20%
- [Optimization Mistakes that Kill Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/optimization-mistakes-that-kill-startups/): I once believed optimization was the secret weapon that could make almost any startup successful. It was certainly a critical part of reaching millions of users in each of my first five startup marketing roles. At a couple of startups we saw a tripling of conversion rates from a single experiment. When we tripled conversion
- [Early Detection is Key](https://www.startup-marketing.com/early-detection-is-key/): Following the Startup Lessons Learned conference, I had the Founder/CEO of a startup tell me that she finally ran the Survey.io customer development survey. She was thrilled to discover that more than 40% of her users considered her product to be a “must have.” She had avoided running the survey earlier for fear of a
- [Steve Blank's SLL Keynote - It's a "Must Watch"](https://www.startup-marketing.com/steve-blanks-sll-keynote-its-a-must-watch/): Watch live video from Startup Lessons Learned on Justin.tv Some of my favorite quote are: Role of the Entrepreneur Your job as an entrepreneur in a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. When you find it, your job is to build a company around that business model. Search for a business model
- [Key Elements of a Massively Scalable Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/key-elements-of-a-massively-scalable-startup/): VC backed startups generally aspire to valuations in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, but very few really consider all of the elements they’ll need to make it happen. After analyzing several startups I’ve worked with that have reached or are approaching these valuations I’ve boiled it down to four interdependent commonalities
- [Figuring Out Your Way to Startup Success](https://www.startup-marketing.com/figuring-out-your-way-to-startup-success/): “Team.” It’s the cliché response from VCs when asked about the most important factor in deciding to fund a new startup. But what separates great teams from weak teams? I believe it’s the team’s ability to “figure stuff out.” Founders figure out potential customer problems that are worth solving. Engineers figure out how to build
- [When Should a Startup Start Charging?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/when-should-a-startup-start-charging/): I've recently changed my long held belief that all startups should charge immediately upon the release of a new product. I now believe that non-enterprise targeted startups should only charge once you have achieved product/market fit. As explained in this earlier post, I define product/market fit as at least 40% of your active users saying they
- [Bringing Your Product to Market ](https://www.startup-marketing.com/bringing-your-product-to-market-audio-interview/): I've just completed a hectic week of marketing workshops with startups in the UK and Ireland. There were insightful contributions from most of the attendees - the collective marketing discoveries of startups that conduct metrics driven experiments is amazing. In Ireland we went deep in an all day session that included war stories from the
- [The Startup Team](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-team/): I completely agree with everything Paul Graham says in this short interview... I'd want to invest in this type of team if they were using a lean startup approach.
- [My Mixergy Interview](https://www.startup-marketing.com/mixergy-interview/): The video from yesterday's interview with Andrew Warner is now live on Mixergy.com (see embed below). While Andrew initially characterized me as the "secret weapon behind start-ups that have had incredible growth" I explained that a lot of their growth was based on the pre-existence of great products that met important user needs. I helped
- [I'm Founding a Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/im-founding-a-startup/): In case you missed my Tweet on Aug 13th "Burn the boats - I've reached the point of no return and finally admitting I'm founding a new startup. Details soon." I didn’t really intend to become a founder, but was hit with an epiphany of a huge opportunity that I was perfectly suited to execute.
- [Launched CatchFree at TechCrunch Disrupt](https://www.startup-marketing.com/launched-catchfree-at-techcrunch-disrupt/): The startup I founded last fall, CatchFree, officially launched at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday of this week. Only a TechCrunch event could offer this: within 24 hour we were contacted by Corp Dev at two of the biggest Internet companies in the world. Of course it's way too early to have any substantive conversations, but
- [Dropbox - The Power of a “Value Based” Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/dropbox-the-model-“value-based”-startup/): Drew Houston, CEO/Founder of Dropbox, gave an amazingly forthcoming presentation at the Startup Lessons Learned Conference chronicling his team's path from idea to their current position as one of today’s hottest startups. Because of the importance of protecting user data, they modified the “launch early, launch often” mantra to “learn early, learn often.” And they
- [Founders Make the Best Startup Marketing Leaders](https://www.startup-marketing.com/founders-make-the-best-startup-marketing-leaders/): CEOs often ask for my advice on the ideal candidate profile to lead their ongoing customer growth efforts once we've completed the key steps to unlocking growth. You would think that after running marketing at two startups through IPO filings that I could easily answer that question. But I’ve struggled to define the ideal profile
- [Ideal Ratio of Product Vs Marketing Spend for a Consumer Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/ideal-ratio-of-product-vs-marketing-spend-in-consumer-startup/): Below is an answer I recently put on Quora... Since I haven't posted on my blog for so long, I figured some people not on Quora might find it useful. Your marketing spend should be very minimal until you validate that you have created a product that people want or need (an important exception is
- [Jack Trout Challenges "The Long Tail" Author Chris Anderson](https://www.startup-marketing.com/jack-trout-challenges-the-long-tail-author-chris-anderson/): Two important marketing thinkers get together to discuss marketing strategy in the long tail economy.
- [Two Great Books for Driving Today's Marketing Strategy](https://www.startup-marketing.com/two-great-books-for-driving-todays-marketing-strategy/): I am now deep in two fantastic marketing books (one an audio book for my commute and the other a printed book for home). Marketing Warfare is a classic book for defining an effective marketing strategy, while The Long Tail provides an important situation analysis of today's changing economic landscape. Both have my mind racing 1000 mile per hour.
- [Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Source Code for Individual Success](https://www.startup-marketing.com/malcolm-gladwell’s-outliers-the-source-code-for-individual-success/): Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers, attempts to reverse engineer the world’s most successful people. He dispels the popular notion that successful people are simply more gifted than the rest of us. Instead he attributes their success to a combination of luck, hard work and time. Ultimately, he concludes that mastery of most things happens at around 10,000 hours of focused practice. Being the first to reach 10,000 hours of practice is an enormous advantage and often comes down to luck. For example, most professional hockey players were born between January and March. This gives them a significant advantage ...
- [10,000 Hours of Go To Market Experience: Who Will Get There First?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/10000-hours-of-go-to-market-experience-who-will-get-there-first/): Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers has come up in most of my meetings with entrepreneurs and VCs over the last few days. The big question we ponder is “how does Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory relate to startups – specifically executing the go to market process?” If you are not familiar with his 10,000 hour theory, Gladwell asserts that mastery of any field requires about 10,000 hours of focused practice (see my previous blog post for more details). The key to becoming the “foremost expert” in a field is to be the first to reach 10,000 hours of practice. ...
- [Key to Sustaining Rapid Growth](https://www.startup-marketing.com/musthavescore-com/): After helping to bring several startups to market including Dropbox, LogMeIn and Lookout, I found that the key to sustaining rapid growth is understanding your “must have” experience and then aligning the entire business around that experience. This includes aligning the product roadmap, funnel optimization, and messaging. Process for Uncovering Your Must Have Experience
- [Vision Synching in a Lean Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/vision-synching-in-a-lean-startup/): In the age of the lean startup, we often forget about the importance of vision. A big audacious vision is critical for attracting venture capital and for getting the early team to “take the leap.” It also stimulates the emotion/passion needed to fuel your team’s persistence to blast through inevitable hurdles. Vision Needs Traction Achieving
- [The Cult of “Great Product”](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-cult-of-great-product/): Many of the most successful founders, CEOs and VCs in Silicon Valley belong to the cult of great product. They understand that a great product is critical to the success of a startup. News around the life of Steve Jobs has galvanized even more people to jump on the "great product" bandwagon. Generally this is
- [Great Guidance on Pricing from Zoosk CEO](https://www.startup-marketing.com/great-guidance-on-pricing-from-zoosk-ceo/): There is a way to think about that. The model that I have in mind is a graph where the X-axis is the price and the Y-axis is the revenue. At a price point of zero, you make zero money. A ridiculous price or a very high price point, again you make zero money because
- [Don’t Hire a Marketer before Product/Market Fit](https://www.startup-marketing.com/dont-hire-a-marketer-for-your-early-stage-startup/): This must seem like heresy coming from a guy who had the title VP Marketing for 10 years and writes a blog called Startup-Marketing.com. But the fact is marketing is not appropriate for startups in the initial stages of customer development. A newer model is emerging originally sparked by Steve Blank, author of Four Steps
- [Picking the Right Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/picking-the-right-startups/): Each new startup I help take to market offers many potential rewards but there are risks too. The most obvious reward is the financial upside of equity in a successful company. But there are less tangible benefits like the thrill of being part of a team realizing the potential of their vision. Probably the most important long-term reward is that each startup success enhances my reputation and opens doors to additional startups with strong potential – while improving the skills I need to maximize these opportunities. This allows me to continue doing the most enjoyable “job” of my life.But the ...
- [Laura Reis (Marketing Guru) Responds to Brand Extension Question](https://www.startup-marketing.com/laura-reis-marketing-guru-responds-to-brand-extension-question/): The laws of branding are simple, but applying them is not always easy...
- [Great Marketing Monger Podcast on Branding](https://www.startup-marketing.com/great-marketing-monger-podcast-on-branding/): I highly recommend listening to the latest Marketing Monger podcast. I was previously unfamiliar with today's branding expert Tom Asacker, but I found myself constantly agreeing with him and learned quite a bit about branding. He might finally help me articulate a viewpoint on branding that better gels with metrics driven marketing.
- [The Startup Marketing Launch Process is Broken](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-startup-marketing-launch-process-is-broken/): The majority of VC funded startups fail and a large part of the blame should fall on marketing. Specifically, executing a flawed marketing process during the startup’s critical customer traction stage. Through running marketing at two startups for the full cycle from launch to IPO filing, I’ve discovered that success at various stages requires very different marketing skills. It also become clear that early stage marketing execution was the most critical to long-term success. Yet it is nearly impossible to get good at this critical marketing stage. Why? Because effective marketers don't get enough repetition in the early stage to master it. ...
- [Brand Like Starbucks (for Startup Marketing Success)](https://www.startup-marketing.com/brand-like-starbucks-for-startup-marketing-success/): Like millions of other people, I'm working at a Starbucks today (on my PC, not behind the counter). Despite some recent financial hiccups, Starbucks has built an amazing brand over the last 20 years and rocketed the category of high end coffee shops into mainstream existence. Starbuck's process of building their brand is a great example for any startup. There was
- [Quick thoughts from TC 50: ToonsTunes ](https://www.startup-marketing.com/quick-thoughts-from-tc-50-toonstunes/): I'm at TC50 and plan to write quick thoughts about demos that catch my attention. This is very "on the fly" so it will be pretty rough. I'll try to clean it up later. Videos of the demos will be posted online, so I'll add links when they are available. ToonsTunes is my first... Who needs it/why?(They claim
- [Using Web 2.0 Marketing Tactics to Thrive in an Economic Downturn](https://www.startup-marketing.com/using-web-20-marketing-tactics-to-thrive-in-an-economic-downturn/): After seeing behemoth financial firms struggling to stay afloat, a startup seems like a relatively safe bet. But don’t be fooled – new businesses are still the most fragile part of the economy. The situation for startups is only more precarious given the mistakes of these once renowned financial institutions. We must quickly shift our focus from market domination to survival. This economic crisis is going to result in a ton of startup road kill. The eventual survivors will be in a great position to dominate their markets – if they continue to attract users and build great products while ...
- [Eric Ries on The Four Steps to the Epiphany](https://www.startup-marketing.com/eric-reis-on-the-four-steps-to-the-epiphany/): I often recommend The Four Steps to the Epiphany as the best book available on taking a new startup to market. However I’ve never captured the essence of the book as well as Eric Reis did in his blog post this weekend. In addition to a great summary, he also relates the book back to his own experiences and provides practical guidance for applying the books lessons. If you don’t have time to read the book, at least read Eric’s post. ...
- [Exploratory Project - Best Approach for Both Sides](https://www.startup-marketing.com/new-exploratory-project-best-approach-for-both-sides/): I keep waiting for startup activity to slow down, but it remains strong. Several new VC intros to portfolio companies continue to roll in every week. Still the best new source of interesting startup introductions is from the CEOs of the companies I've helped take to market.Given the breadth of opportunities, I’m very focused on trying to pick winners. Beyond the obvious benefits of more valuable equity, the other rationale is that I’ll get a bit more credit than I deserve for each success – but suffer more blame than I deserve for the failures. Of course if I ...
- [Y Combinator Hatches Brilliant Entrepreneurs](https://www.startup-marketing.com/y-combinator-hatches-brilliant-entrepreneurs/): Y Combinator may be the most important driver of high tech entrepreneurism ever. While smart software engineers have historically dreamed of becoming successful entrepreneurs, insurmountable hurdles often stood in the way. The biggest hurdle was fear: “Am I really good enough to do this?” Getting accepted into the Y Combinator program is enough to push many aspiring entrepreneurs off the fence. The second major hurdle is execution. Y Combinator entrepreneurs are “hackers,” which is another name for scrappy software engineers. Engineers typically thrive on the challenge of “can it be done?” Before Y Combinator, this challenge spawned many useless companies. ...
- [Is "Go To Market" Mastery Really Possible?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/is-go-to-market-mastery-really-possible/): I had an interesting comment from John Gillett yesterday in response to my 10,000 hour post. As I understand it, the essence of his question is really: is it possible to master the go to market process for startups? In other words, are there enough similarities between startups for a universal approach to be relevant? And
- [My Favorite Online Marketing Tactic - Doesn’t Work](https://www.startup-marketing.com/my-favorite-online-marketing-tactic-doesn’t-work/): That’s a pretty safe prediction for two years from now. I’ve seen many hot online marketing tactics lose their effectiveness over the last decade.The key cause: Online tracking makes it easier for marketers to quickly figure out what works. As a result we start piling into the most effective tactics. Eventually equilibrium is reached where most of the big profit potential is lost. SEM (Google Adwords) is the best example of this. A few years ago I was able to spend 7 figures per month on SEM with a tracked payback of three months. Today very few keyword categories offer ...
- [Y Combinator is Dead?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/y-combinator-is-dead/): This post by Jamie Siminoff (CEO of PhoneTag) claiming "Y Combinator is Dead," offers a good alternative view to my earlier post praising the Y Combinator model. In my experience with both Xobni and Dropbox, I stand by my earlier claim that "Y Combinator hatches brilliant entrepreneurs." Both have been funded by very reputable VCs and continue to thrive. But both started before the major economic meltdown.Today all startups are having difficulties raising Series A funding - including Y Combinator startups. Jamie offers an interesting alternative model in his post that suggests incubators should provide more/longer ...
- [How to Determine the Optimal Price for Your Web Service](https://www.startup-marketing.com/how-to-determine-the-optimal-price-for-your-web-service/): For the startups I help take to market, one of our most important projects is determining their optimal price. Unlike companies in established categories with high unit costs, optimal pricing for a software startup mostly relates to maximizing revenue. An optimal price allows the startup to grow at the fastest possible rate by maximizing profitable investments in customer acquisition programs and/or offering a free version to drive broad user adoption. Considering most software startups simply guess a price, determining your optimal price can become an enormous competitive advantage. The optimal pricing project is part of the overall “optimization phase” I ...
- [6-Month News Vacation](https://www.startup-marketing.com/6-month-news-vacation/): I’m a news junky and have been since college. Recently I’m finding the damage of paying attention to the news far outweighs the benefits. For the past two weeks I made a concerted effort not to read or watch the news. By this past Friday night I had reached my most optimistic outlook in years. The companies I helped take to market in 2008 are performing beyond my wildest expectations. Earlier in the week Xobni raised a $7 million Series B round and that evening Dropbox had been awarded runner up for best startup in 2008. My H1 2009 workload ...
- [Update to 12in6 Methodology Presentation](https://www.startup-marketing.com/update-to-methodology-presentation-on-slideshare/): I’ve just posted the latest updates to my presentation on Slideshare that gives an overview of my go to market approach. The updates simplify the overall presentation and add context to contrast the 12in6 Methodology to the typical approach taken by startups. Here is a link to the latest presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/seanellis/marketing-plan-for-web-20-startups-presentation For those that are new to the Startup-Marketing.com blog, this is the approach that we’ve used to launch several successful startups including two that have gone on to file for NASDAQ IPOs (Uproar in 2000 and LogMeIn in 2008 - pending). Recent startups using the methodology have ...
- [Recruiting Startup Marketers from Wall Street](https://www.startup-marketing.com/calling-all-mathematicians/): Rather than wasting their time on Wall Street, Mathematicians should be guiding online marketing for startups. For years Wall Street has used brilliant mathematicians to create investment models that they hoped would reduce risk and generate billions of dollars in investment returns. They increasingly leveraged their investments falsely believing that they had eliminated most of the risk
- [What is a Perfect Startup Launch?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-is-a-perfect-startup-launch/): Conventional wisdom says “launch” is a big bang event that happens in a very short period. It includes a press tour, an expensive launch marketing campaign, and if you could shoot balloons out of your homepage, most would think that’s a key element. The hard work is in orchestrating it all, so on the day
- [What Makes A Great Startup?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-makes-a-great-startup/): That's the zillion dollar question. And no one knows the answer definitively. Even the most successful VCs have major duds in their portfolios. But every startup that becomes a large profitable company has the following two elements in common. 1) Product/service people really want or need A "product/service people want" is the starting point for any successful
- [Startup Theory VS Reality ](https://www.startup-marketing.com/startup-theory-vs-reality/): In addition to recently starting two new customer development projects, I've also been busy prepping for my guest lecture in Steve Blank's Customer Development course at Haas (UC Berkeley business school). The lecture was Tuesday night. One of my key objectives was to help the students understand that everything seems intuitive and easy in the classroom, but in
- [Social Media Marketing Strategy for Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/social-media-marketing-strategy-for-startups/): In the last year, Social Media sources (blogs, Digg, Twitter, Facebook, etc) have quickly emerged as the most powerful growth drivers in the startups I’ve helped launch. Despite this, I’d have a hard time writing a ten page book on Social Media Marketing. So on a recent trip to Barnes & Nobel I was surprised
- [Iterating Without Understanding?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/iterating-without-understanding/): It seems there are two camps of “evolved” marketers these days. One group recognizes that it is critical to understand customer needs by engaging them at every opportunity. The other group is completely focused on metrics driven iteration. Until recently, few combined these powerful forces. I started in the camp of online metrics and scorned
- [The Right Business Model for Your Startup](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-right-business-model-for-your-startup/): The right business model is critical to sustainably drive scalable adoption of your startup's product or service. Typical business model choices for software, web services, and online media startups are advertising or direct monetization (licensing, subscription, virtual goods, ecommerce, etc). I generally avoid customer development roles with advertising supported startups because it is very difficult
- [User Growth Vs Revenue (Why "Free Only" May Limit Growth)](https://www.startup-marketing.com/growth-vs-revenue/): Last week I wrote about finding the right business model for your startup. But many startups aren’t convinced they should even have a business model (yet). They claim “our current priority is growth.” In my experience, the right business model not only supports sustainable growth in the long run, it can drive faster growth today.
- [Indifference is Your Real Competitor](https://www.startup-marketing.com/indifference-is-your-real-competitor/): Your Competitors are Clueless (initially) If you are creating a new market (as is often the case for tech startups) your best chance of success is taking the time to figure out how to become relevant to the right people. Most startups spend way too much time obsessing over their clueless competition. If the competition
- [To Pay Or Not To Pay To Acquire Users?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-to-acquire-users/): I recently heard a VC say that startups “should spend the least amount of money possible on marketing.” This is a healthier attitude than the opposite prescription of undisciplined land grab, but a better approach is pure ROI marketing. Marketing opportunities that offer a fast payback with additional profit margin are a key component for
- [Fast Vs Careful Decision Making in Startups](https://www.startup-marketing.com/a-scientific-approach-to-fast-decision-making/): Reversible or Irreversible Decision? Fast decision making is often the mark of a great entrepreneur. But as Steve Blank points out in a recent blog post: decisions have two states: “those that are reversible and those that are irreversible.” Entrepreneurs should take the time to make careful decisions when they are irreversible (such as accepting money
- [The Lean Startup Era?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-lean-startup-era/): Steve Blank and Eric Ries presented their lean startup approach to a very receptive crowd at last night's Startup2Startup dinner in Palo Alto. Here's a link to the must watch video. Highlight's of of the presentation include: Startups fail from lack of customer - not product failures Fail fast and often on the path to success
- [Keys to Unlocking Startup Growth](https://www.startup-marketing.com/keys-to-unlocking-startup-growth/): When a startup takes VC funds, they usually accept the premise that they need to “get big fast”. VCs don’t fund lifestyle businesses. Unfortunately desire for growth causes many startups to make poor choices. There are generally two opposite mindsets that lead to the same mistakes: Overconfidence: “We have lots of money, so let’s move
- [Free Customer Development Help - Survey.io](https://www.startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-surveyio/): I’m excited to announce a project that I’ve been working on with KISSmetrics called Survey.io, which provides startups with a free and easy way to prepare, distribute and analyze an initial customer development survey. It includes the content of the survey I use to verify that a startup is ready for 12in6 to work with them. I
- [Big Picture Customer Development Revisited](https://www.startup-marketing.com/big-picture-customer-development-revisited/): Working with four startups at the same time has steepened my customer development learning curve (and also explains why it has been a month since my last update). To help balance the load, I’ve brought on a conversion designer and a researcher; we’re finally firing on all cylinders. Our customer development goal with every startup
- [Great Resources for Achieving Product/Market Fit](https://www.startup-marketing.com/additional-resources-for-achieving-productmarket-fit/): A few people have asked for more guidance on getting to product/market fit. I updated my previous blog post with another quote from Marc Andreesen, but recommend that you read his full full post via archive.org (it has been removed from his blog). Here is the quote that I added to my previous post: "When you are
- [Quick Thoughts from TC50: SeatGeek](https://www.startup-marketing.com/quick-thoughts-from-tc50-seatgeek/): My favorite startup from the third session at TC50 was SeatGeek. Overall SeatGeek appears to have a strong value proposition – “buy event tickets at the right time and save substantially over the peak price.” It’s very similar to farecast, but for event tickets (sports, concerts, etc.). The product, market and business all seem to
- [Seedcamp in London](https://www.startup-marketing.com/seedcamp-in-london/): Seedcamp is an innovative program that brings experienced entreprenuers together with a batch of several promising new startups from all over Europe for a week of mentoring. The best of these startup receive 50,000 pounds, but the mentoring is worth far more than that... Seedcamp provides a fantastic model for any region trying to replicate the
- [My Slides from Steve Blank's Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Class](https://www.startup-marketing.com/my-slides-from-steve-blanks-berkeley-columbia-executive-mba-class/): I spent a fun evening with Steve Blank’s class. Here are the slides from my guest lecture. There are a few additions to the slides I presented at Seedcamp last month in London. Slide 14 is new and there are major edits to slide 2. Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program (Steve Blank) View more presentations from
- [Audio Interview on Venture Hacks](https://www.startup-marketing.com/audio-interview-on-venture-hacks/): I recently sat down with Nivi from Venture Hacks and discussed what it takes to build a successful startup. The full conversation is available here. There have also been some great thought provoking questions that I've answered in the comments section following the Venture Hacks post. Please jump in and join the conversation over at
- [When PR for Your Startup?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/when-pr-for-your-startup/): This post is by Joe Eckert, the most effective PR executive I know (we worked together at LogMeIn). Joe has played a critical role helping startups generate press coverage as both an inside VP and on the agency side. He is now at Baker Communications Group. Given my limited PR knowledge, I asked Joe to
- [Getting to Product-Market Fit](https://www.startup-marketing.com/getting-to-product-market-fit/): I’m very excited about this guest post and confident that it will be a huge help for anyone struggling to find Product-Market fit. Enjoy! Sean Guest Post By Patrick Vlaskovits Sean asked me to write a guest post to help startups achieve Product-Market Fit since he primarily advises startup after they’ve already reached it (during
- [Deconstructing Startup Growth](https://www.startup-marketing.com/deconstructing-startup-growth/): After product/market fit, driving sustainable growth is probably the most important/difficult part of creating value in a startup. For most of the last 15 years of my startup experience, I’ve been the point person responsible for primarily one thing: driving growth. Even after two IPOs, I didn’t really have a firm grasp of the essential
- [Wasting Time Validating Assumptions?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/wasting-time-validating-assumptions/): Most founders following a lean startup approach understand the importance of documenting and validating assumptions. My team and I have been doing it since day one. But recently I began to realize that validating assumptions can also be a waste of time. In a startup your most precious resource is time and focus. If you
- [The 3 Keys to Success with Freemium](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-3-keys-to-success-with-freemium/): Freemium is a difficult business model to execute but can create a valuable, sustainable company when things go well. I helped to conceive of and execute the freemium business model at LogMeIn, which is now valued at over $800m. Since then I've helped optimize the model at another 14 startups including Dropbox, Xobni, Eventbrite, Lookout, Webs, Wordpress.com,
- [What is the Lean Startup Approach?](https://www.startup-marketing.com/what-is-the-lean-startup-approach/): It took a recession for entrepreneurs to finally start launching startups the right way. But in my experience, a lean startup approach is ideal in any economy. The two key pillars of the lean startup are customer development and agile product development. Both involve a systematic process of learning through feedback and driving improvement through
- [Check Out the Signup Process at TripIt.com](https://www.startup-marketing.com/check-out-the-signup-process-at-tripitcom/): Jamie Siminoff recently suggested I check out the sign up process for TripIt. I highly recommend you go check out the TripIt sign up process if you haven't already. It is absolutely brilliant and highlights how important it is to think about marketing as you are building your product. Here was the comment I posted on Jamie's blog comment: One word - "Smooth!" I'm blown away by the signup process. Very easy, low commitment. After you have received some value, they encourage you to register - to get more value. Also some interesting viral marketing/social networking angles. Just when I thought I wouldn't be tempted ...
- [Quick Thoughts from TC50: ToyBots](https://www.startup-marketing.com/quick-thoughts-from-tc50-toybots/): It's a bit strange that I've picked another "kids targeted" startup from the second batch of startups as my favorite - kids are a notoriously difficult market to acquire online. But in the case of ToyBots, I believe they are targeting a fantastic opportunity. It is likely that connected toys will be the next generation
- [The New Chasm - Flawed First User Experience](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-new-chasm/): The first chasm most startup marketers face is not the well-known chasm originally described way back in 1991 (jumping from early adopter to mainstream users). Instead, it’s the chasm from “click” to “gratification” experienced by website visitors. In my direct experience with six startups and indirect experience with several others, it has become clear that the majority of new people that visit a website receive zero gratification. In other words, they do not experience any benefit from the product or service being offered. Without gratification, it is very unlikely they will generate transactions or positive word of mouth/virality. In fact, ...
- [The Best Way to Get Your Startup to Market](https://www.startup-marketing.com/the-best-way-to-get-your-startup-to-market/): Among all the uncertainties startups face, perhaps none is bigger than trying to figure out their go to market strategy. Should they shell out big bucks and equity to a veteran marketer with domain and startup experience? Should they take a conservative evolutionary approach or hit the market hard with millions in marketing spending? Are there some key tasks to execute before aggressively acquiring the first customers? With all the alternative ways to go to market, it’s no surprise that startups are constantly second guessing their go to market approach and/or their marketing leader.Over the last few weeks I’ve refined my ...

## Pages

- [Sean's Substack](https://www.startup-marketing.com/): Sean Ellis - Blog Please visit my latest writings at https://substack.com/@seanellis Hello, Sean Ellis here, author of Hacking Growth. You've found my old blog where most of the writing is from 2008 - 2012. Please check out my latest writing at https://substack.com/@seanellis. For a full archive of old posts, see the sidebar on left of
- [About](https://www.startup-marketing.com/about/): Sean Ellis - Blog Please visit my latest writings at https://substack.com/@seanellis Hello, Sean Ellis here, author of Hacking Growth. You've found my old blog where most of the writing is from 2008 - 2012. Please check out my latest writing at https://substack.com/@seanellis.

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