Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before. This means spending more money on search marketing (SEM) to make it look like the buzz is working. In addition, special offers and competition prizes may be required.

Marketing 107

Marketing Invest SEM Startup 107

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x. Rebelling is simply a form of snobbery.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. Let me not bury the lede. Nice sweep!

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

What would it take in investments to acquire and retain traffic to support these businesses? After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value). Competition.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Not because they didn’t want to do Pay-per-click (they are huge buyers of SEM) but because they didn’t want other people to know what they paid for clicks! They would launch quickly and test whether or not there is any demand. Google was clear that they WOULD NOT go into this business.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350