Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2018

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. For new product startups, search engine marketing (SEM) is still one of the most cost-effective and scalable lead-generation approaches. One of these experts, David T. Social-media advertising.

Social Media 55

Social Media SEM Startup Advertising 55

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2009

Fantastic post by Christian Gammill - Startup Delta Force… From a competitive perspective (e.g. all the other folks out there that will try to enter the same market) the barriers have been dropping over the last few years.

Startup 150

Startup SEM IP SEO 150

socalTECH

MARCH 13, 2020

Dmitri Leonov: We built a distribution business for equipment for the spa industry, and have had 10,000 client over that time, but in the last few years, we've really focused on talking to spa customers about their needs in the market. Essentially, the customer wants natural and organic ingredients. Our average retention is 70 percent.

Template 124

Template Beverly Hills Startup SEM 124

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2014

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. For new product startups, search engine marketing (SEM) is still one of the most cost-effective and scalable lead-generation approaches. One of these experts, David T. Social-media advertising.

Startup 99

Startup Social Media SEM Advertising 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

The reason one would accept losses is when they are investments in fueling faster growth. Perhaps the most misused terms I see these days from entrepreneurs involve CAC (customer acquisition costs) and LTV (life time value) and a lack of understanding these critical components is driving many companies to premature failure.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

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). Let me not bury the lede. I wanted them to have a market lead before others could try and build what Ethan was working on. So there you have it.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is sometimes called “buying your way into search results.” For most, it sounds like a magical process or a scam, with the experts spewing so many acronyms.

SEM 90

SEM Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization 90

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

4 times / 100 means if a customer uses your app frequently (say 10-20 times / day) then they are crashing nearly every day. Customer Acquisition. At the highest level you’ll obviously want to track how many customers your adding every month (and for some businesses that have hit scale this is measured on a daily basis).

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

SEO / SEM are promotional techniques for marketing through the Google distribution channel, which have yielded huge benefits to many companies – Yelp being a prime example. The fees generated from speaking engagements and consulting can be worth several times the investment of getting your book on a best seller list.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2012

Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Now you can get a product built in China almost overnight with minimal up-front cost, with delayed payment based on first-customer order commitments. Skip the IT consultants and build an entry website yourself to save $50K. Sales and marketing costs.

Startup 102

Startup Search Engine Optimization SEM Social Network 102

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).

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Now you can get a product built in China almost overnight with minimal up-front cost, with delayed payment based on first-customer order commitments. Skip the IT consultants and build an entry website yourself to save $50K. Sales and marketing costs.

Entrepreneur 94

Entrepreneur Startup Search Engine Optimization SEM 94

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

Do basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) yourself. Now you can get a product built in China almost overnight with minimal up-front cost, with delayed payment based on first-customer order commitments. Skip the IT consultants and build an entry website yourself to save $50K. Sales and marketing costs.

Startup 50

Startup High Tech Search Engine Optimization SEM 50

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

We bat about 800 in terms of people buying off on the idea, who understand the bigger reach we have on the Internet, and the more SEO/SEM we do, which delivers business to them that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The automated part, is a customer fills out a form and buys the product through their shopping cart.

Activity 164

Activity Startup Sites Web 164

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. Other PPC experts will track your campaign from click to transaction, providing you with detailed reports on and return on investment (ROI). Cost per action (CPA).

Paid Search 90

Paid Search PPC Organization SEO 90

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! He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350