# Objectives, SaaS, Sales, Venture Capital, Conversions, Monetization, Growth, SEO, Mentorship, HR, Weekend Roundup #13 Oct 6 2013

By [William Mougayar's Blog](https://wamougayar.xyz) · 2013-10-06

big-data, business-model, growth, mentoring-2, saas, sales, wr

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Startup Management is a manual selection from the hundreds of weekly articles being curated. Previous [issues are available here.](http://startupmanagement.org/category/wr/) There are 13 links in this edition. Forward to a friend, so they can sign-up and benefit too. **Business Models** To monetize large networks of engaged users with a free product, founders need to create a new product that is different from the free one, leading-up to a [Monetization Dilemma](http://startupmanagement.org/2013/10/05/the-monetization-dilemma-of-large-networks/) they will face. That dilemma emerges when the founder doesn’t get as excited or involved as they were with the original consumer product. I list 8 points for managing this dilemma. **Conversions** Bill Gurley revisits “the most powerful Internet metric of all”, 13 years after he first wrote about it, in [Conversion: The Most Important Internet Metric of All (Revisited)](http://abovethecrowd.com/2013/10/02/conversion-the-most-important-internet-metric-of-all-revisited/). _“Conversion improvements typically are the aggregate gain of 100 tiny improvements, not one silver bullet. Rarely will you find one single change that is going to have a 5% lift in conversion… rather you will find 30 things on a page that all have a tiny impact.”_ This is a must read. **Objectives Management** Andrew Chen has a guest post from Kento KIvestu of Flurry, [How Google and Zynga set and achieve meaningful OKRs](http://andrewchen.co/2013/10/01/how-google-and-zynga-set-achieve-meaningful-okrs-guest-post/). OKRs are “Objectives and Key Results”, and consist of setting an objective, and also a series of measurable results aligned with that objective. This is a key technique that we used while I was at Hewlett-Packard, but under another name. It does an incredible job at aligning strategy with objectives to deliver results, within a focused operational discipline. **SaaS Strategies** Tomasz Tunguz says [The 3 Competitive Defenses of Enduring SaaS Companies](http://tomtunguz.com/saas-barriers-to-entry) are Network Effects, Data Network Effects and Ecosystem Creation. _“Not every SaaS business needs one of these three defensive strategies to succeed.”_ But those who do, create a very defensible business. Think Saleforce.com or AngelList type of defensibility. **Sales Management** In [The $2 Million Dollar Man (/Woman): How to Think About Scaling Your Customer Success Team](http://saastr.com/2013/10/01/the-2-million-dollar-man-woman-how-to-think-about-scaling-your-customer-success-team/), Jason Lemkin argues that you need to hire a Customer Success Manager “ahead” of your $2 Million Annualized Recurring Revenue, and that’s a “_solid model to scale with_.” **Venture Capital** Semil Shah has a long transcript of an [interview with David Sze of Greylock, A Career Of Company Building](http://blog.semilshah.com/2013/10/02/a-career-of-company-building-text-of-my-discussion-with-david-sze/). _“A large percentage of what we do is hugely uncertain.”_ You can say that again. And here’s a fascinating 1.5 hour [PandoMonthly video interview with Marc Andreessen](http://pandodaily.com/2013/10/04/pandomonthly-san-francisco-with-a16zs-marc-andreessen-the-full-interview/). There isn’t a dull moment in it. The Netscape reminiscence moments are priceless. **Big Data** Hiring data scientists is all the rage. [Which of the Five Types of Data Science Does Your Startup Need?](http://tomtunguz.com/data-science-types) is answered by Tomasz Tunguz. At the end of the day, a data scientist touches every department of knowledge work. **Mentorship** Howard Gwin has a short but powerful essay on what it takes to [Raising the bar on advisors](http://howardgwin.tumblr.com/post/62267433038/raising-the-bar-on-advisors). It is targeted at the Canadian startup market, but his message applies to anyone: _“engage world class advisors to help your company grow.”_ **SEO** Rand Fishkin explains how you can [Take Advantage of Google’s Bias Toward Hyper-Fresh Content](http://moz.com/blog/taking-advantage-of-googles-bias-toward-hyperfresh-content-whiteboard-friday), because that’s Google’s preference. **Growth** A great video interview on This Week in Startups (from 2 weeks ago), [with Paul Berberian](http://thisweekinstartups.com/thisweekin-startups/orbotix-sphero-robotic-balls-paul-berberian/) who went from a PowerPoint to shipping the first Orbotix product (the Sphero ball) in 14 months, including closing 2 rounds of finance. **Human Resources** Albert Wenger reveals [The ABC of Startup Recruiting](http://continuations.com/post/62711831620/the-abc-of-startup-recruiting),- a progressively changing list of priorities that depends on the given stage of startup growth. The summary is “_Always Be Collecting Candidates_”. Rand Fishkin explains the dilemma of promoting from within versus hiring externally in [Why “Checking the Boxes” Doesn’t Work for Hiring or Promoting](http://moz.com/rand/why-checking-the-boxes-doesnt-work-for-hiring-promoting/). That SUMs it up! Don’t forget to [share on Twitter](http://clicktotweet.com/arWbe),  [add us to your Feedly](http://cloud.feedly.com/#subscription%2Ffeed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2FStartupManagement), forward to a friend, [follow on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=StartupManage), [read in Flipboard](https://flipboard.com/section/startup-management-boMSor), or just [visit the website](http://startupmanagement.org) often and daily. _William Mougayar_ Founder & Chief Curator [Startup Management](http://startupmanagement.org)\]\]>

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*Originally published on [William Mougayar's Blog](https://wamougayar.xyz/objectives,-saas,-sales,-venture-capital,-conversions,-monetization,-growth,-seo,-mentorship,-hr,-weekend-roundup-13-oct-6-2013)*