This weekend’s Roundup #11 from Startup Management is a manual selection from the hundreds of weekly articles being curated. Previous issues are available here. There are 29 links in this edition. Forward to a friend, so they can sign-up and benefit too. Introducing
This weekend’s Roundup #11 from Startup Management is a manual selection from the hundreds of weekly articles being curated. Previous issues are available here. There are 29 links in this edition. Forward to a friend, so they can sign-up and benefit too. Introducing
! If you are on Flipboard, you can read all the articles I’ve curated or written. It is updated in real-time. So far, 544 articles and counting. I add about 10 articles per day. Please subscribe on the web or via the App (iOS or Android) by
. In part, I’m hitting back on claims that growth hacking is the main marketing thing; but more importantly, I’ve laid out a framework you can use to slot your marketing activities, depending on your objective: Awareness, Demand, Experience, or Support.
“Not everybody needs to know marketing, but everybody needs to understand what marketing does.”
, across 6 categories: how they think, how they behave, what they do, who they are, what they want, and what you don’t see. Paul Graham wrote a seminal post on
. He says the current static diploma needs to evolve into what he calls “certification as a platform”, an unbundling of certifications with online badges. This vision won’t happen overnight, but it has merits and deserves a “read”.
Failing
Brett Martin recounts the lessons learned from the rise and fall of Sonar, in
. Some lessons include false negatives from listening to customers, and confusing growth vs. engagement.
“Culture is your cofounder.”
Global Talent
If you are looking to compare average salaries for a graphic designer, web developer, software developer, or web designer from 18 countries, check this infographic,
, with Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Rich Barton, founder of Zillow and Expedia. The money quote is from Rich Barton, as he equates the VC quality to the octane in the fuel:
“Get the highest octane fuel in the tank.”
And here’s another excellent video interview with Jeff Bezos where he
“If you’re going to invent, it means you’re going to experiment, and if you’re going to experiment, you’re going to fail, and if you’re going to fail, you have to think long term.”
And if you’d like to get inspired by a young entrepreneur’s story, read this:
“You can always raise more money if you are doing well on the metrics that matter in your business. So focus on that and runway will take care of itself.”
It’s a good list, but virality isn’t something you can always predict accurately. The proof is in getting it out there with users and seeing real results.
Scaling Up
Yesware is about to scale-up, but they prepared by
(pdf), with details on how Facebook solved their scalability challenges with a tool called Air Traffic Control and other tools. (Note: it's a technical paper)
Customer Relations
If you’re a large startup, and you’re thinking about customer service, Kyle Wong explains
, Boris Wertz reminds us of the fundamental distinction between the two types of enterprise SaaS markets: products that are purchased by the company vs. ones by the individual. The individual decides quickly and pays by credit card, whereas the company needs IT involved. You pick your segment.
is a good read from KISSmetrics. The examples given are practical, and can be put to immediate use. And from Grove, the new content site from Sequoia Capital,
is a peak into how Wordpress is run, written by Scott Berkun who spent a year working for them to “learn their secrets”. And another peak at Wordpress’ globally distributed workforce from Tomasz Tunguz in
, to get the whole picture. And continuing the “working with no pants on” theme, Tracy Dinunzio, founder/CEO of Tradesy talks about how she networked online to grow her company, in
! If you are on Flipboard, you can read all the articles I’ve curated or written. It is updated in real-time. So far, 544 articles and counting. I add about 10 articles per day. Please subscribe on the web or via the App (iOS or Android) by
. In part, I’m hitting back on claims that growth hacking is the main marketing thing; but more importantly, I’ve laid out a framework you can use to slot your marketing activities, depending on your objective: Awareness, Demand, Experience, or Support.
“Not everybody needs to know marketing, but everybody needs to understand what marketing does.”
, across 6 categories: how they think, how they behave, what they do, who they are, what they want, and what you don’t see. Paul Graham wrote a seminal post on
. He says the current static diploma needs to evolve into what he calls “certification as a platform”, an unbundling of certifications with online badges. This vision won’t happen overnight, but it has merits and deserves a “read”.
Failing
Brett Martin recounts the lessons learned from the rise and fall of Sonar, in
. Some lessons include false negatives from listening to customers, and confusing growth vs. engagement.
“Culture is your cofounder.”
Global Talent
If you are looking to compare average salaries for a graphic designer, web developer, software developer, or web designer from 18 countries, check this infographic,
, with Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital and Rich Barton, founder of Zillow and Expedia. The money quote is from Rich Barton, as he equates the VC quality to the octane in the fuel:
“Get the highest octane fuel in the tank.”
And here’s another excellent video interview with Jeff Bezos where he
“If you’re going to invent, it means you’re going to experiment, and if you’re going to experiment, you’re going to fail, and if you’re going to fail, you have to think long term.”
And if you’d like to get inspired by a young entrepreneur’s story, read this:
“You can always raise more money if you are doing well on the metrics that matter in your business. So focus on that and runway will take care of itself.”
It’s a good list, but virality isn’t something you can always predict accurately. The proof is in getting it out there with users and seeing real results.
Scaling Up
Yesware is about to scale-up, but they prepared by
(pdf), with details on how Facebook solved their scalability challenges with a tool called Air Traffic Control and other tools. (Note: it's a technical paper)
Customer Relations
If you’re a large startup, and you’re thinking about customer service, Kyle Wong explains
, Boris Wertz reminds us of the fundamental distinction between the two types of enterprise SaaS markets: products that are purchased by the company vs. ones by the individual. The individual decides quickly and pays by credit card, whereas the company needs IT involved. You pick your segment.
is a good read from KISSmetrics. The examples given are practical, and can be put to immediate use. And from Grove, the new content site from Sequoia Capital,
is a peak into how Wordpress is run, written by Scott Berkun who spent a year working for them to “learn their secrets”. And another peak at Wordpress’ globally distributed workforce from Tomasz Tunguz in
, to get the whole picture. And continuing the “working with no pants on” theme, Tracy Dinunzio, founder/CEO of Tradesy talks about how she networked online to grow her company, in
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