Thank you Thursday! - (February 27, 2020) Entrepreneur |
- Thank you Thursday! - (February 27, 2020)
- 3 years ago we met on Reddit and started Podchaser, "the IMDb of Podcasts." Now we just raised $1.65M from midwestern VCs and without moving to Silicon Valley. We're here to share what we've learned so far. Ask us anything!
- Do you Google your clients before taking on the job?
- How did you get past your initial fear of starting?
- Don't spin your wheels for years like I did!
- Restaurant owners, need your feeback
- What creates a HUGE amount of value to customers?
- This Company Is Making Children’s Clothes That Actually Grow As The Kid Does
- Is it bad that my employees know more?
- The hidden risks of growth models relying on paid marketing
- A Twitter bot that brings you expert recommended content for learning about Entrepreneurship and Startups!
- SaaS founders, these 2 simple tips will reduce your churn with NO EFFORT
- Approaching FMCG companies
- Free vs paid hosting, resume website and projects
- How to get students excited about entrepreneurship and innovation ?
- Feedback on first draft of website
- Toying with the idea of FBA. looking for tips on getting a successful start.
- Best Business Savings/Money Market Accounts?
- Anyone into CRM implementation? Some questions
- I had a business idea, of buying wholesale types of sweets, buying eco friendly packaging and branding it myself, and reselling on amazon/wherever, is this viable?
- Episode 3 - Tales from a true Disruptor
- I need feedback on the pricing of my subscription service
- What's holding you back from changing careers to create the life you really want?
- Why don't people answer emails these days?
- Why do foreign manufacturers ask for DHL courier account number?
- Name for big data analytics startup
| Thank you Thursday! - (February 27, 2020) Posted: 27 Feb 2020 05:08 AM PST Your opportunity to thank the /r/Entrepreneur community by offering free stuff, contests, discounts, electronic courses, ebooks and the best deals you know of. Please consolidate such offers here! Since this thread can fill up quickly, consider sorting the comments by "new" (instead of "best" or "top") to see the newest posts. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:07 AM PST We are a 100% remote team that has never met in real life. We connected on Reddit to build the "IMDb of podcasts" and just closed $1.65M in funding from Midwest VCs. The Podchaser team is here to answer your questions so Ask Us Anything! The Podchaser journey started with a post on r/podcasts which enabled our American founder to connect with our two Australian co-founders. Three years later, the Australians have never met the Americans in person and this mysterious energy propels us toward success.Last year, we closed a small "pre-seed" round and shared some of our story and answered questions here. We raised these funds using a SAFE with cap and discount. That initial capital allowed us to expand our team, improve our site, and stoke user growth within our platform. The growth of Podchaser and the overall growth of podcasting attracted institutional VC interest and we ended up receiving and accepting a term sheet for a $1.5M seed round. The round consisted of 4 "institutions" and many, many angels. We had a bit more interest than expected and oversubscribed by $150k. We've also brought on advisors with awesome experience from places like IMDb, Cameo, Letterboxd, and SeatGeek. This process was an arduous learning experience. We're here all day to answer your questions about remote work, Podchaser as a platform from a technical and product perspective, the podcast industry, the minutiae of fundraising, and anything else you can think to ask.Feel free to direct your questions to the following people (the Australians will answer when they're awake): Bradley - CEO, Louisville, KY Cole - COO/CPO/C3PO, nomad Dave - Head of Marketing, Raleigh, NC Ben - CTO, Melbourne, Australia Ryan - CDO (Design), Melbourne, Australia UPDATE: The Australians are crawling out of their beds, keep the questions coming! [link] [comments]  |
| Do you Google your clients before taking on the job? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:44 AM PST I have a small web design business which has been going steadily up since I launched it a year ago. So far 4 clients scammed me - they stopped responding when it was the time to pay me money. I won't go into details about what an idiot I was for not demanding 50% payment upfront and for not using contracts. I learned my lesson and turned the way I do business around completely. About 2 weeks ago I decided to google those 4 clients who decided to screw me over, just out of curiosity. I mostly work with small businesses and I never thought that Google will find anything. And boy was I wrong. Why am I writing this? Because it's too damn funny.
A few days ago a prospect called me for a project. I googled him and he's an arsonist. Burned down the building 3 years ago on purpose, 75 families had to be evicted. Got away with probation because "I was stoned". Google is my best friend from now on. [link] [comments]  |
| How did you get past your initial fear of starting? Posted: 26 Feb 2020 07:36 PM PST How did you get past you fear of failure and put the wheels in motion for your business. I know to just do it, but I guess I'm scared of wasting money on something not guaranteed. I grew up well below poverty level and even tho my husband and I are significantly above that income now, pulling the trigger on spending that money is a huge issue for me. I have some certifications that are relevant to the business I want to start, I'm also in school for the degree (accounting with a focus on tax) and looking into licenses (cpa & enrolled agent) as well. I'm in several face book groups for bookkeeping side hustles, a lot of these people barely have an understanding of Quickbooks online but are starting businesses and actually booking clients. [link] [comments]  |
| Don't spin your wheels for years like I did! Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:26 PM PST I made this comment over 3 years ago, the most relevant part being: "I am really struggling with communications. Some of it is overwhelm, but it's not due to high volume, it's more of an odd social anxiety response combined with a brain that kind of short circuits around certain organizational tasks that are pretty simple for most people. Moderate avoidant anxiety, even though most of these communications are positive (people wanting to work with me). As things grow, this is going to hurt me even more than it does now. I'd like to hire someone to help me get a better workflow or help me come up with a technique for organizing my communications (I get emails, form entries from several web sites, text messages from local clients, Facebook messages and comments, instagram, etc.) Anyone else have this issue & found a way to work around it?" Fast forward to late last year. Someone posted about being overwhelmed with all the small details, and a bunch of people here suggested hiring a VA. I finally did & just had the best feeling - 10 minutes ago I saw an email come through with someone asking about how many people are registered for a workshop we are co-hosting, and I felt that sinking feeling - I would need to stop my work flow, go look up registration, write the person back, etc. - plus I have a little negative charge around this person being demanding & my own fears about how well sign - ups are going. All easy stuff & my own BS, but it was like "UGH, I have so much to do, I don't want to deal with this." Two minutes later ( without me asking) my VA cc'd me on a response to the original email, had all the relevant info for the person, was totally pleasant and upbeat and it was such a relief. They've also been scheduling interviews for people who want to take one of my trainings, which is a simple task, but is so, so helpful. I can keep focusing on putting my attention on the things only I can do & delegating other stuff. I wish I could go back in time and not wait 3 years to get the support I needed, I would have saved myself a lot of stress and been even closer to my goals. [link] [comments]  |
| Restaurant owners, need your feeback Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:54 PM PST I'm doing a market research for a web app and your feedback would be appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| What creates a HUGE amount of value to customers? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:01 AM PST For something like shoes, I've noticed that the Allbirds shoes which recently became a billion dollar company has wool that, as wool naturally does, heat up when wet. It also is very unique type of material, and it's eco friendly, and its cool. It seems like it tapped into a lot of different hot topics, and caught steam. Is the key to creating HUGE amounts of value to customers is to be on trend, and have positive features on the product to be valuable? The customer figures out how much value the brand has, and the product has by itself. Then if they consider Allbirds shoes to be worth $140 dollars give or take, they will think it has value at $100. [link] [comments]  |
| This Company Is Making Children’s Clothes That Actually Grow As The Kid Does Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:53 PM PST A regular gripe of parents is the fact their children grow out of their clothes far too quickly. But Ryan Mario Yasin, the 26-year-old CEO and founder of Petit Pli, may have come up with the solution. [link] [comments]  |
| Is it bad that my employees know more? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:09 AM PST Hi all, One of my many business ideas is to start an architecture agency, specialized in parking garages and tunnels. I noticed that many people find parking garages and tunnels scary places, and I can definitely see why. I will put together a team of architects and people with an understanding of interior design who know what makes a place cozy or creepy. We will contact municipalities and places of entertainment such as theaters or shopping centers, proposing to make their parking garage a better place. The problem I have is that in high school I chose not to do physics. Here in Europe that means that I can never follow a formal architect education. Of course I need to know what my employees are doing. I thought about taking multiple courses and reading multiple books about architecture. As much as I can. Steve Jobs couldn't code. Will it be a problem that I have less knowledge of architecture than my employees? Thanks for your help. [link] [comments]  |
| The hidden risks of growth models relying on paid marketing Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:56 PM PST In late 2013, Fab, a fast-growing e-commerce startup that had raised $330 million in funding, realized that it had a serious problem: Its business model wasn't working. The company started on a downward sloped that began with laying off many employees (including its co-founder). In 2015, the company, which had been valued at more than $1bn, was acquired by PCH Innovations for a mere $15 million. What went wrong? Well, like all commercial failures, Fab's story is complicated and unique. But one recurring theme can be seen in the demise of this once-promising startup: over-reliance on paid marketing.In this essay, I'll talk about a growth model based on paid marketing. I will discuss the limitations and the hidden risks of these models, and the consequences of ignoring these risks. I will also discuss how to make the growth model based on paid marketing sustainable and secure. Let's assume you've reached the product/market fit, which means your product generates value for a specific market segment. You've also found the advertising channels where LTV (Lifetime Value) of the acquired users exceeds CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)—you have created effective channels for delivering the product to your target audience. That's great news because few products get this far. The vast majority get eliminated from the race at earlier stages. But it's not yet time to sit back and relax. There are new dangers ahead, especially if the product's growth becomes highly dependent on paid user acquisition channels. The hidden risks of growth models that rely on paid advertising trafficYou've finally found a scalable growth channel through paid ads. The first tests show inspiring results: your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) payback time is eight months, and the predicted LTV (Lifetime Value) exceeds the CAC by a factor of two. The team makes a reasonable decision to focus on getting the most value out of the effective distribution channel they've found, temporarily lowering the priority of other marketing and product activities:
The above steps are quite logical. However, it is very important to be aware of the hidden risks that arise when paid marketing channels become the key growth driver of a product:
But this doesn't mean you should avoid this growth model. By paying due attention to the risks described above during planning time and while raising money, you can build an effective growth model based on paid marketing that will help to achieve your goals. But if you neglect these hidden risks, you might get into trouble. The consequences of neglecting the risks of becoming dependent on paid marketingLet's look at a classic scenario in which the risks we've talked about in this essay can lead to negative consequences:
The scenario described above applies to companies that run on venture capital (VC), which are expected to have high growth rates over a very long period of time. It also demonstrates the most negative form of growth model dependence on paid marketing channels. Usually, it doesn't look this scary. The main goal behind this fictional story is to show what happens when you ignore the risks we discussed above. With proper financial discipline and good planning, paid growth channels are excellent tools for reaching the next stage in your company growth. To do this, you need to be aware that the potential behind the advertising channels is finite (i.e., you must keep on looking for and build some alternative growth channels), calculate the unit economy for the paid ad channels in the right way (it gets more difficult with budget growth), and keep an adequate level of profitability (or loss ratio). When does a growth model based on paid marketing look robust and secure?In a number of situations, the advertising growth model will be less exposed to the risks we explored in this article. An advertising channel is used to launch other more sustainable growth mechanisms Facebook aggressively invested in advertising channels in the early stages of its launch in new markets. Advertising channels served as a launchpad at the start and then switched towards a more supporting function later on. Long-term growth stability was provided by additional growth channels that kicked in at different times, such as word-of-mouth, virality, etc. The network effects provided safeguards that allowed the company to establish a monopoly position in the market. Facebook's competitors had no obvious way to stop it (remember Google+). The paid channel works alongside other sustainable growth channels Wix is a website builder service that is actively investing in paid marketing channels, but is not dependent on it. When users sign up on a free tariff to create websites using Wix, people visiting their website will see a branding message that states it was built using Wix. This is the foundation of the platform's viral growth channel. Canva is a tool that allows people to solve design tasks using templates in an easy-to-use design interface. Canva creates a lot of templates and tools for all the possible problems people face (creating logos, stories, posters, banners, etc.). Further, the team promotes them through paid advertising channels to end users, and also focuses on optimizing templates for getting the SEO traffic. The acquired users make the growth model even more sustainable, being an entry point for further distribution in their teams and companies. An advertising channel will allow you to capture the market and establish a monopoly (or almost exclusive) position In certain situations, capturing the market through aggressive paid marketing may be a reasonable strategy. For example, in situations where the market favors a monopoly, the entry threshold for new players is set very high or you have the opportunity to take over the market first, thereby limiting the growth opportunities of potential competitors. In this case, the goal will be to capture the maximum market share and squeeze out your potential competitors. This will allow you to enjoy a monopoly position on the market in the future. This approach is capital-intensive and risky, but if it is properly implemented, it will yield good results. An example might be Didi's clash with Uber over the Chinese ride sharing market, Uber's exit from China, and Didi's subsequent domination of the market. The defensibility of the market position in this approach is ensured by having the first-mover advantage. If you were the first to occupy a certain market, then the cost of entering the market for future players who won't bring any significant added value increases dramatically. This doesn't mean that no one will try, but the cost of such experiments will be very high. Summing it upGrowing through paid marketing is a great tool to achieve your goals. It is important to have the right expectations, but keep in mind the limitations of this growth channel and be aware of the risks of becoming dependent on it. In this case, you will be the one to benefit from the advertising networks, not the other way around. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:41 AM PST https://twitter.com/streamline_entr This bot was built to help you find high quality and trustworthy resources for learning everything about Entrepreneurship and Startups by leveraging what the experts are sharing on Twitter. If you'd like to give some feedback: What type of content would you like to see shared? Do you think these recommendations are useful? [link] [comments]  |
| SaaS founders, these 2 simple tips will reduce your churn with NO EFFORT Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:16 PM PST Churn is one of the most dreaded words in SaaS. Speak to any investor, any M&A member, any founder, and each will tell you how important it is to keep as low as possible. 2% monthly churn may not sound like much, but with a small number like that, you can expect to lose A FOURTH of your customers in the span of a year. Numbers like this are common in the small business sector, but when you start throwing these numbers around in enterprise or low-volume, high-ticket sales, alarm bells start to sound. Churn ties into other crucial metrics like LTV (life time value), margin, future growth projections, etc. So let's look at 2 zero effort ways to reduce churn in your SaaS business. These 2 strategies are going off my current and own personal experiences while founding a successful SaaS startup with over 2000 active customers and adding 30-40 weekly accounts while only losing a few. Alright, let's get to the tips:
If you have any questions or want to shoot me a PM, I'm happy to help and answer anything that I can! It can be related to this post or anything SaaS related. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:36 AM PST So I have an app (I know...I know...just hear me out), for which I need to approach good old FMCG companies like Proctor and Gamble , Gillette etc to name a few. And through my limited research of (whatever I could find on the internet) I decided to approach the C-level executives of the companies. Now after a lot of pain I was able to get their email addresses. But they don't seem to respond and I can't try out all the variation since the companies are numbered. How should I go about it. [link] [comments]  |
| Free vs paid hosting, resume website and projects Posted: 27 Feb 2020 01:16 PM PST I've recently been trying to get a website running as an online resume and also another website running to practice web dev and admin. I would like help on what's the best way to get a resume website up and running. I already own the domain name i want to use. For the other website i wanted to practice web admin and maybe run like drupal, but the amazon project guide said a drupal website run on AWS would cost $200 a month. So i guess I would only run it on my localhost? Maybe only put a template up on the domain for now. Ideally I would like to make some sort of harm reduction advocacy website. Maybe something with donations or maybe a charity. I'm just brain storming on things I could try and then try to practice building a website for it. I have a quick paper for my internet infrastructure class. I have to discuss paid vs free hosting with 2 sites. The essay is only a 2 pages. I have already decided to use AWS for one of the hosting sites to write about. The other site, i kinda feel overwhelmed by the options. Squarespace, godaddy, wix, wordpress, 000webhost, hostgater, freehosting, I'm not sure which one to pick to discuss for free vs paid hosting. I've already figured that anyone would work for both because you can start free and upgrade to paid. [link] [comments]  |
| How to get students excited about entrepreneurship and innovation ? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 09:15 AM PST I'm the student co ordinator of the entrepreneurship club of my college. Ours is a quite prestigious engineering institution. We have good resources and even got an incubator on campus. But we're not so satisfied with student engagement as most students believe that they may not be good enough or maybe afraid of the risk involved in starting up. We want to organize events, competitions and get students involved as early as in their first, second years of undergrad and shape them into innovative thinkers. We believe that the skills that u develop in the journey, will help you in any other place though you may not really start up after college. Need tips to do this effectively. Any ideas or strategies ? [link] [comments]  |
| Feedback on first draft of website Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:40 PM PST I've created a new web app that aims to solve the problem of job hunting for entry level jobs. If you've got a minute I wouldn't mind if you could take a quick look and let me know what you think of the page and concept? I coded this myself having only just attempted to teach myself how to code 😂 Here's the link (ignore the url) loopjobs.co.uk [link] [comments]  |
| Toying with the idea of FBA. looking for tips on getting a successful start. Posted: 27 Feb 2020 08:34 AM PST The short of it's in the title. I've been looking for things to start me on a road to financial independence and to get me out of the drag of working the grind. I know there's plenty out there in regards to FBA buried inside of a bunch of "get rich quick" packaging, but I know that's not that simple. I've got someone who wants to work with me on any idea as a partner, but we're both still feeling behind the 8-ball on how to successfully start. So I'm reaching out to see if anyone has solid tips on the best way to get traction in this possibility. Just to start, I can throw in $1000 guaranteed as a start (which is small but a start), plus whatever my partner can pull in as well. And to clarify, I'm not looking for a handout product to start with, just good info on the processes to make this have a fighting chance. Thanks for any help you can give. [link] [comments]  |
| Best Business Savings/Money Market Accounts? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:18 PM PST Anyone used Live Oak (1.1%) or First Internet Bank (1.8%)? Rates seem very good [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone into CRM implementation? Some questions Posted: 27 Feb 2020 12:15 PM PST I remember there was a post here a while back with some talk about CRMs. It's something I've been thinking about as a value-add that I can offer to my clients. I've recently started a communication agency. I call it that because I offer a range of solutions to my clients based on their needs. We currently do branding, web design/development, marketing strategy and execution and general design involved in the above. The jobs I seek out and have taken on involve rebranding, rebuilding old and stale websites, and looking at their current marketing efforts to see how they can be improved. What I have been thinking is that many of the businesses could use a CRM to make their lives easier. Many still do things on paper, with the odd Excel spreadsheet thrown in. I want to be of real value to my clients - an investment instead of an expense, and I'm always looking for better ways they can solve their problems. Some might come to me saying they need a new website, when what they really need is better integration of their marketing efforts with the site they already have. In a case like that, I wouldn't take on a web design job because it wouldn't do them any good. So, I am thinking that if I can offer CRM implementation (management?) it would be a service that would help them tremendously. Many of my clients aren't very tech-savvy, but they could certainly benefit from more integrated, and automated business processes that will show up on their bottom line. Anyone here in the business of CRM? Do you think the way I'm thinking about this makes sense? And how do you think I may be able to go about this? What does this business model look like? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 27 Feb 2020 07:50 AM PST I have very little experience here, I just thought it was a good idea, has value as to where people could keep buying if I create a good brand [link] [comments]  |
| Episode 3 - Tales from a true Disruptor Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:25 AM PST Episode 3 | "BIN" There, Done That In the final installment of our 3-part "Roadmap to Scale" series, "the Adams", Adam Castle and Adam Frye talk to WEtech client Randall Schwartzentruber, Co-Founder & CEO of BinSentry about how his innovative Ontario tech startup is disrupting farming worldwide. Music for this episode provided by local artist MZTF. [link] [comments]  |
| I need feedback on the pricing of my subscription service Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:11 AM PST Hey guys, I had an idea a couple of days ago about changing my printable motivational art prints into a subscription model. Here's what I'll be offering - 1 per week email containing:
Here are promotional photos of what they'll look like These prints would be used for:
I looked into what others were doing and it seems there are only fine art prints subscription boxes. I'm wondering how you feel about the number of prints versus price ratio? Anyways that would stop a person from subscribing or unsubscribe after a month or two? If I had to guess it would be free for the first month (so 4 weeks of free emails) and then $15/mo afterward? Any feedback would be most welcomed. [link] [comments]  |
| What's holding you back from changing careers to create the life you really want? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 11:11 AM PST I'm curious, what is holding you back from changing careers to find and build the life you really want? Before I ended up switching careers, I had a limiting belief that I had to be an expert or go back and get a degree if I was going to switch fields/industries/etc. Through some really good coaching I learned to shift that mindset and overcome that limiting belief. What was / is it for you? [link] [comments]  |
| Why don't people answer emails these days? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 02:59 AM PST Unless you write to your direct point of contact or a partner, people seem to just skip your emails or not open them at all. Have you noticed this? It seems like its an increasing trend. [link] [comments]  |
| Why do foreign manufacturers ask for DHL courier account number? Posted: 27 Feb 2020 04:31 AM PST It's nowhere to be found on myDHL. Emailed support; now we wait. [link] [comments]  |
| Name for big data analytics startup Posted: 27 Feb 2020 10:21 AM PST Hey all, I would appreciate some help choosing a name for a big data analytics startup. Which of these names would suit is best? I have a preference and I'm curious if others would choose the same. All of these have the .com available. SmartElm OortData CodeGX Osiry Glintoo Thanks in advance [link] [comments]  |
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