startup hustle

One of the most powerful marketing effects your startup could produce is the viral expansion loop. The theory is simple, the execution is not. A viral expansion loop is exponential growth produced by users and the system was engineered to produce the viral loop (some happen on accident).

Fast Company did an article on Ning (a site that allows anyone to start a social network) and the effects of the viral expansion loop called Ning’s Infinite Ambition. It is a must read for anyone starting or running a business, even if the tactic is not relevant to your current situation.

The best example to understand the viral expansion loop is given in the article. Take a penny and double it every day for 30 days. By the end of 2 weeks you will have $81.92, and by the end of the 30 days you will have a staggering $5.4 million.

Read the rest of this article »

Startups often want to use viral marketing (aka word of mouth) because it is free, the public does most of the work for you and people are more likely to use a product recommended by a friend. My experiences with viral marketing often involves a startup asking me to turn on viral marketing like a light switch. The problem is viral marketing is not like pay per click, there is no “on” button. Viral marketing is closer to search engine optimization (SEO) because it involves multiple factors that have to be in unison.

The major lapse in viral marketing is the product was most likely not built for a viral audience. Viral marketing and word of mouth are just buzz. Business to business products are not generally viral. I’m not saying they can’t be, I’m just saying they are not by nature. Electronics on the other hand have a much better chance of producing viral growth.

Read the rest of this article »

So I came across a site called Venture Capital Wear. They produce humorous (in someones opinion) t-shirts that can only be bought by accredited investors and they cost $100 a piece. Or you can buy the entire company for $100,000, which includes the VC Wear site and 20 of each t-shirt (remember, $100 a piece). I am assuming this is a joke but you really never know with those crazy Valley guys. VC Wear also has their VC Pitch (PDF) on the site. Below are a few of the t-shirts.

UPDATE: The site was not made by crazy Valley guys, it was made by crazy Andrew Hyde in the mountains of Colorado (comment below). Mr. Hyde runs Startup Weekend, which is also a crazy event. I am now interested to see Andrews next project. He is definitely a creative entrepreneur.

Guerrilla marketing is one of the more creative outlets that startups can use to get noticed. One of my business partners, Gabe Shultz of Bored Sketchbooks fame, came up with a great guerrilla marketing idea that involves using his companies lost and found (and I’m suppose to be the marketing mind between the two of us).

When an item is found that is deemed lost, that item is returned to the receptionist. The receptionist will take a picture of the item and email everyone in the company looking for the owner. If you turn in an item with a large URL printed the front of it, you can get that URL in front of many eyeballs, depending on the size of the email list of course. The picture above is from the actually email sent out.

I know what you are already thinking, but my company (or most companies) don’t take pictures of lost and found items. A more typical response is to send a text email letting everyone know an item has been found. If the most recognizable characteristic of that item is a URL (as the example in the picture above), how will the receptionist report it? Most likely by including the URL in the body of the email, which is even better than the picture because it will be easier to put in a browser.

Now that is guerrilla marketing.

Most of my friends growing up were artistic and creative, I was not. The one thing I can bring to the table is internet marketing knowledge. When you put that together with a great designer named Gabe Shultz, you get a sketchbook company called Bored Sketchbooks. The site (and idea) was designed by Gabe and the sketchbooks are products of designers from the East Coast to the Midwest.

Each of the 5 designs were limited to 100 prints and are individually numbered. Once the current sketchbook designs are sold, they will not be reprinted (so if you like what you see, buy one soon). The next series of sketchbooks (which can also be used as a notebook or journal) will be released next year.

The BORED site also has an artist gallery section, free graphics to use for whatever you please, and Gabe’s Blog which is usually a documentation of the humorous events in his life.

Visit the site and let me know what you think.

StumbleUpon (SU) is an addictive web application that I can’t stop using. The idea is you add a tool bar on your internet browser that has a button. That one button will keep you occupied for hours. Every time you click the “Stumble!” button, it sends you to a new website. You vote (with the toolbar) if that site is interesting or not. As sites get more positive votes, the more they appear in the stumble process and traffic that site receives. You can set your interests so that you can Stumble sites that have been tagged with your tastes.

StumbleUpon has never had any real competition. Then a new site call Streakr was brought to my attention and was said to be as additive as SU. I downloaded the Streakr tool bar and went into the zone. Streakr allows you to pick which categories you dislike as well as picking your interest. The best part about Streakr is they are more transparent than SU. When you give a site a positive vote, you get forwarded to Streakr and can see the number of positive and negative votes that a page has received. SU does not show you those type of stats.

Read the rest of this article »

Have you started your 2008 Marketing Plan yet? If you are lucky enough to actually have a marketing budget, you need to plan where to spend it. Most startups do not bother with such nonsense, there are more important tasks to complete. It is nice to have an established (working) plan so you can see the differences as the year progresses. Where should you spend that marketing money?

Read the rest of this article »

TheFunded.com has been a big deal in the startup world. It allows entrepreneurs to write about their experiences meeting with venture capitalist while staying anonymous. TheFunded.com has become such a big deal because no one knew who was behind it. That and most of the reviews were negative, aggravating named VCs. The suspense even reached outside the blogosphere with magazines such as Inc. wondering “Who’s behind TheFunded.com?“.

Last night at an event at Stanford, Aedo Ressi announced he is the founder of TheFunded.com. This is a classic PR mystery move, I couldn’t but see it as a linkbait move as well. Ressi’s site received as much publicity for its unknown founder as it did for its function, reviewing venture firms. Since the story of who ran TheFunded.com has quieted down in past months, Ressi comes out and sets the startup/tech blogs pumping out articles again (like so).

While we see traditional linkbait as writing an article that grabs ones attention (usually in a negative way), Ressi just kept quiet. In the current internet marketing environment, the tactic was brilliant. Ressi didn’t write a scathing article attacking a VC to grab the attention of the Valley, he simply opened a platform that allowed any entrepreneur to do it. At the same time hiding from , instead of bathing in, the publicity that made it even more intriguing.

Thus turning in old PR tactic into a new linkbait tactic. Well Done Mr Ressi.

Earlier this week Facebook announced a set of new advertising options for businesses. With many big corporations already signed up, are these new advertising platforms beneficial for startup companies? The first thing you have to consider is your target market. If you believe that you have an audience on Facebook, please continue reading.

The one product any business can use is the Facebook Pages. It is the equivalent of a facebook profile page for your business. Facebook is now a social network for businesses (convenient since it was already happening).

Read the rest of this article »