Check out the picture above and tell me that’s not awesome. And not just because it’s whimsical and unexpected, but because it taps into a behavior that already exists. I have seen plenty of friends socially post screen shots of their Words With Friends attempts that got shot down.
To be honest, the first 100 wasn’t a huge endeavor. It was relatively easy, though it certainly felt damn good. And had we looked for media attention, I’m sure we would have experienced a significant rise in users. Like these folks, who recounted “what happens when you stay on the front page of Hacker News for 24 hours”.I get asked often by startups about the seminal “launch moment”, like it’s an actual space shuttle getting prepped to blast off into the atmosphere. But there’s a problem with that line of thinking: There’s a precipitous drop in shit-giving immediately following takeoff.
Your market is not TechCrunch readers and Mark Zuckerberg does not want to eat vegetable tempura rolls with you. If you plan for massive scale out of the gate, you will face disappointment and a morale drain that can kill your company. And unlike a lot of other problems that you face in the startup world, learning this lesson the hard way can cost you your startup right at the outset.
Nobody is saying that major press coverage followed by a short burst of hits, clicks, and sign-ups is a bad thing. But, it may not be the best goal for your team right out of the gate. Measuring, engaging customers, smoothing the edges of your tech stack, customer service, methodical scaling — these are of more interest to me than the Big Bang.
Focus and clarity: two aspects of building a company that many entrepreneurs struggle with. There exists a razor thin balance that consistently needs to be addressed between core growth and spoke expansion. Many companies have lost their ways, or worse yet gone under, due to decisions that took them too far from their base offering. (Side note – foursquare has suffered from identity crisis and some are calling for it to just give up.)
Then there’s 37signals, the scrappy software company out of Chicago (though they celebrate a deeply remote staff), who dropped a bomb on us a few days ago. Fifteen years in existence, multiple killer products, well-read books and blogs, and less than 45 employees(!). A prime candidate for rapid expansion, maybe even VC funding or an acqui-hire. But instead, they announced the future of the company will be a hyper-focus on its most popular product, Basecamp. Oh, and the company will henceforth be known as Basecamp, not 37signals. A message from its founder explained that all other products will be stripped away so they can work solely on making Basecamp even better.
This is a rarity in the startup world and it should be celebrated. Slow growth, exerting full control over team size, and pivoting based on customer feedback and revenue potential.
(I’ve been accepted to and am now coworking out of the IFP Media Center in Dumbo, Brooklyn. Very excited about the brand new space, and snapped these pics on my visit there Friday.)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: This is going to be quite a self-promoting post for my startup, Collabo. So, while I still hope you find value here, I’ll be a little more AGGRO SALES GUY today than in most posts. Run now if you choose. I’ll see you next week 🙂
Jerry Seinfeld, the conversion rate optimization expert. My most recent post on Medium may be my favorite. It’s about business insights gathered from Jerry Seinfeld’s approach to writing jokes, specifically his constant measuring and tweaking of every single word in his bits for maximum impact.
Speaking of CRO, here’s a little trick that’s helped grow our email list tremendously. Well, maybe not so much a trick, but I bet some of you haven’t tried it yet. First things first, you can sign up here. We typically send out one email per week with two blog posts focused on productivity, freelance life, startup news and insights, and solopreneur skill development. And we have a thriving private Facebook Group where peers vent, share, and learn in a casual setting. Alright, now onto the “trick”. Below is our customer funnel once a user decides to sign up to Collabo emails.
On the right side of the divider are autoresponder reminder emails set up through MailChimp. If a user signs up but doesn’t click the download link for our Productivity Tips infographic, they receive a reminder email. Once the link is clicked, the Facebook Group invite goes out. Let’s say 24 out of 48 people who signed up didn’t click the original free download link, which means they didn’t get the FB Group invite (which automatically goes out when the download link is clicked). That’s half of our customers who aren’t getting access to our awesome FB Group community. And it would have stayed that way if we didn’t set up the reminder emails. From my last report, I’m showing 65% open rates on the reminder email and 35% click rate on the download link. That means another third (approximately) of that 50% “lost group” was recaptured.
Do we still really believe money motivates users? I’m not sure this post needed to be written, but I suppose it’s always a good reminder into the psychology of customers and users. Lessons 1 and 3 in the article are of particular importance to me, as we build Collabo with a ridiculously close eye on social dynamics, group behavior, and community engagement. Instead of offering money or free products as incentive for our members to participate, we’re choosing to focus on creating an environment where they are given a valuable platform to share and learn, and the cream will naturally rise to the top. Just like, you know, real life.
GoGorilla helped Google promote its new video help service, Helpouts, by plastering gigantic tearaway posters throughout NYC and San Fran over the holidays.
When I took my first Uber ride a few months ago, I unloaded a bunch of questions on the very gracious driver. I didn’t realize this at the time, but along with passengers being able to rate drivers, drivers can rate users as well. What a fantastic behavioral element to add into the experience. First, it offers an additional layer of information for a driver when considering whether to pick up a passenger in the area. Second, it presumably adds in some form of Big Brother is watching type regulation.
But most important, it gives the user something to strive for, gamifying the experience even further. When Allison Williams, famous for her role on HBO’s Girls, tells an audience that her goal “in the near future is to be the highest rated Uber passenger. I would love to get a great Uber rating so that the second I request something a car service shows up. It would be a delight”, your marketing team simply sits back and smiles.
Fresh off the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, local sushi restaurant Hapa Sushi is offering a pairing menu for food and, you guessed it, pot. Is this considered newsjacking??
(I’ve long been a fan of meditation, in any form. Recently I’ve been trying out meditation apps and this one is absolutely fantastic.)
Holy shitballs, this has been the week of post-mortems. I’m hoping this is going to be the new trend; promising startup closes its doors and spends the next few weeks publishing why and how and when and where. If we can find some realness amidst the bullshit, there will be much to learn for a guy like me. Below are some recent shutdown discussions, and a few random reactions from yours truly.
Everpix: I’ve written about the Everpix collapse twice here, but this is a very in depth analysis of the economics behind the financials released by the co-founders on GitHub. As the author states, mirroring an observation seen by others, it appears as if the company’s spending was “reckless”.
Prim: “You’re in this awkward position where you’re competing against your own supplier”, admitted one of the co-founders of the “Uber for dirty clothes” service that only lasted 7 months. This story is a tale of a key piece of biz operations (which falls under partnerships) being a weak link in the chain that simply didn’t make sense to fix.
Outbox: Can’t say I’m surprised here, but I was rooting for this true disruptor. My take: it didn’t solve a strong enough problem for consumers + lack of operational simplicity + governmental agencies standing in the way = failure.
DrawQuest: “We couldn’t quite crack the business side of things”. Similar to Everpix, we have a product with impressive downloads and engagement/retention numbers, but a lack of business acumen from its teams. I’m wondering how VCs let this happen. Is this not partially their faults?
Carwoo: I’m not familiar with the company and its demise was not as public as the others. I did find this prediction post from a couple years ago calling out a few reasons why the model may not be sustainable.
(What’s a Friday night look like for yours truly? Product/market fit with wine stains, just as you may have guessed.)
As they say, there is only one you. Whether an individual or a brand, look no further than the mirror to find your point of differentiation. Lyft has famously carved out a place for itself in an Uber-led world by accentuating its personality as a brand, and the whimsy of its drivers. Take the Lebowski Lyft being offered at Sundance right now. Ever hear of the Jabbawockeez? Would they have been as popular (a friggin standing Vegas show) without the weird name and masks? Possibly. But I doubt it. I just met with a new client that came out of my recent online freelance job site hack, and he described his reaction to my intro video as “Man, this kid is nuts…but in a good way“. I’ll take that to the bank every single day.
Do things that don’t scale. In a recent Fast Co. article, a colleague of Ron Johnson, former head of Apple’s retail ops, recounted that “in the early years, he interviewed every store manager personally because they were the ones delivering the brand“. When I signed up to design and host my website at Strikingly, the founder emailed me with his quest to meet 100 customers for coffee in 2013. And when I jumped on Treatings a while ago to find some kindred spirits for coffee time, its co-founder Hayden started a dialogue with me and we’ve shared caffeine meet-ups in person since then. Paul Graham’s advice can be a great mindset shift, particularly when you’re attempting to find product/market fit vs. rapidly growing.
To promote both its “chase the heat” brand messaging and its 25th anniversary, Hunter’s beer brand unleashed the (poorly named) Refresh-O-Meter at a large club. Here’s how it worked – when a Hunter’s beer was purchased, the partier was given a branded coaster with a QR code to scan at the Refresh-O-Meter. Every scan attributed to a rise in the temperature of the room and when it reached an additional 25 degrees, everyone in the club was poured a free special edition Hunter’s 25th anniversary brew as a thank you.
Dave Marcello 