Startups LinkedIn is a cringefest but it works for B2B startups - Here's what you need to do to generate leads and get clients |
- LinkedIn is a cringefest but it works for B2B startups - Here's what you need to do to generate leads and get clients
- How does it feel to be one of the first employees of a startup that becomes very successful?
- How do you find cofounders outside of your network?
- Care for your mental health people
- Increasing CAC -> Is it a sign of failure?
- Founders agreement
- Friendly Reminder: Startups are a marathon, not a sprint
- Borrowing employees from one company to form team for prerevenue startup
- How do we effectively recruit beta users?
- Incorporating in Canada vs US
- Advice on recruiting developers
- Company Formation Direction Question
- Questions about tech startups
- React Native and Development starting
- �� Need help setting up company EMAIL
- 409a Valuation Changed in the middle of exercising grant
- Looking for automation solutions that I can offer to my shareholders
- How much machine learning/AI do I actually need to know to found a startup?
- If I have an LLC while maintaining a full-time job can I deduct LLC costs from my full-time job income tax? (USA)
- Just too hard to finance a business
- How do I hire a doctor or nutritionist to consult for my food start up?
- The Startup process as a Solo Founder & Developer, is it a good idea?
| Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:47 AM PDT I recently sold my SaaS company and we got about half of our clients via LinkedIn. This is not a pitch about using a LinkedIn automation service or hiring someone to send templated messages with a bot. I'll provide you with some tips and tactics on how you can use LinkedIn to your benefit to book meetings, drive traffic to your website, and get clients. Like most things, the more work you put into it, the better results you'll see. You may know some of this, some things you may not know are about gaming LinkedIn's algorithm, LinkedIn Pods and how to leverage the Reciprocity Principle.
It's a pain in the ass to post on a regular basis but it's key to building a following. This is hard, I struggled with it for a variety of reasons. Knowing what I know now, I would have dedicated more time to LinkedIn instead of testing other channels because our buyer persona is active on LinkedIn. And I would have created a content calendar and not thought too much about what I posted to ensure I was active most days. This is the hardest part but even if you're not posting 5 days a week, you can still get leads and clients. I had to remove the link to the post ideas :( but try to post on a regular basis. It's key.
Build a personal brand on LinkedIn. It's not complicated. Post about whatever your niche is and what you know well. You should be an expert on something, let the world know. Give away your expertise. And remember, even the basic stuff you know has value. The 101 knowledge may have wider appeal than the more 401 stuff. Don't overestimate your prospects.
Nobody cares about your business. They care about themselves and only themselves. Once you realize that the person on the other end is self-centered when it comes to sales interactions, and rightfully so, this will help you approach things so you benefit them and rejection will sting less.Never connect with someone and immediately pitch them. Ever. It's not effective and it shows you only care about yourself.
LinkedIn cares about "dwell time" on posts in the feed. The longer people spend reading your posts, the more they'll get promoted by LinkedIn. This means writing a post with a hook before the "see more..." button to get people to click "see more..", write the post so it's spaced out line by line, some call this "broetry" but it works, and longer posts usually perform better. Also, if it makes sense, ask a question or have a CTA at the end of the post to drive engagement. Limit the number of links, max of two links, none is ideal. LinkedIn wants people to stay on LinkedIn, add a link in the comments after you post or edit the post after it's posted and include a link in the body. Limit hashtags to 3-5, I prefer to select hashtags with large followings that my buyer persona would follow. Posts that you "share" do not perform well so post the original. Video doesn't perform as well as text posts in my experience. Respond to comments and like the comments. Removed - linkedin talks about this on their blog
Make your profile a landing page more than a resume. Leverage the featured section with your two best items, ideally short demo videos. Your headline should not be your job title, a formula you can use is I help X with Y by Z, with z being what differentiates you. Get a decent profile pic. Most B2B buyers will check out your profile before buying.
Do giveaways related to your expertise or offering. We built a search engine designed for b2b salespeople. What we did was post on LinkedIn an offer for "free research reports" (using our own product) then our buyer persona would message us asking for a free research report. This was a worthwhile giveaway because we gave away something people would pay for. After we sent the report, they would ask us how we did it, if they could get a demo, sign up, refer us to a decision maker, or simply thank us. Some of the people who thanked us ended up becoming unofficial ambassadors, tagging us in posts and recommending us to other customers. What's something you can give away that's related to a problem you solve? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(social_psychology)#The_power_of_reciprocity#The_power_of_reciprocity)
You will post text statuses that do well. You can turn those into mini guides and use them as giveaways in the future. This can also be turned into blog posts, tweets, etc. And you can re-use LinkedIn posts. In fact, two statuses I posted turned into blog posts which ended up ranking in the top 3 on Google. I used a well known Australian company (removed) which is your friend. You can make a guide that people will value in 5-10 minutes. Do not spend a ton of time making it. The content is more important than the design. The design will be good enough.
I prefer not to write messages when adding people because most people will accept based on your profile, not your message. If you can write a quality, personalized message, go for it. The ROI is not there, in my experience. Add people on a regular basis who fit your buyer persona. Additionally, write thoughtful comments on posts by people in your industry who have high engagement. You can also "follow" people and engage with their content. This is a good way to build a genuine connection. Add people who engage with your posts.
Despite what they may say, a lot of the "thought leaders" used LinkedIn pods early on to build a following. They did post consistently but they helped each other out or used random pods. To this day, people who get ridiculous engagement are liking and commenting on each other's posts. You can post your status in a few groups/slack chats that are relevant to your space. They often have channels for this. I wont name names but there are people now who get hundreds, sometimes thousands of likes because they got started this way. Lame content does well. The guy who interviewed the homeless, drug addict who didn't shake their hand during the interview but is now the CEO gets a lot of likes and comments, probably tens of thousands of views. That's good for exposure but not necessarily for your business. Highly engaged niche audiences are more valuable.
The feed is filled with shitty posts and inboxes that are filled with pitch after pitch. NEVER pitch someone after you connect. It's a terrible way to do business. If you want to message someone, personalize it (you'll stand out) or provide them something of value without asking for anything. Play the long term game. (removed) LinkedIn Sales Navigator is worth it for the search functionality. The LSN messages are worth close to zero. They just don't convert. So I wouldn't recommend buying it if you wanted to send more messages.
Make your profile public so you get a touch point when you view someone's profile. There are tools to automate viewing of profiles that violate linkedin's ToS but can be worth it to drive views back to your profile. People will be curious about who is "StartupSalesGuy" when they see I viewed their profile, view my profile, view my featured items, go to my website. LinkedIn was the #1 referral source for our website, btw. Anyway, that's a lot to take in for a post. Happy to answer any questions and if you sell anything in the B2B space and want to get started using LinkedIn, get started today. It's a great platform when used properly. But still a cringefest. [link] [comments]  |
| How does it feel to be one of the first employees of a startup that becomes very successful? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 06:46 PM PDT I'm curious if any of you have been one of the first employees at a startup and put in the blood, sweat and tears to help grow the company to the point where it becomes very successful and/or exits. What does that journey feel like? I imagine it must be quite the ride! Are there any good books/movies/articles about that? Very curious to hear all your inputs. [link] [comments]  |
| How do you find cofounders outside of your network? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:20 PM PDT Here's the thing, I can't find a cofounder to save my life. When it comes down to it, my friends are talented and successful people but not anywhere in the right stage of life to take the risk and found a startup. My professional and engineering network is exactly the same. I've pitched it to them all. Everyone is on board but then radio silence. How do you build a founding tram. [link] [comments]  |
| Care for your mental health people Posted: 29 Apr 2021 12:06 AM PDT TLDR: I've been a founder full-time for over 6mths now, getting decent traction (1b2b paying customer, 2 referrals coming in as prospects, 4LOIs, 1 MOU), my team looks good, got into some government incubator. But I still feel like I want to do more, faster quicker to achieve the success for my startup. It's constantly on my mind and I know I can only work so hard and I'll have to let time do the rest, which is why I am penning this down (hope this works like a support group) and be a reminder to take care of ur mental health. Cheers! [link] [comments]  |
| Increasing CAC -> Is it a sign of failure? Posted: 29 Apr 2021 01:17 AM PDT Hey guys, I have an app startup in the dating field. The numbers look promising so far, around 30k revenue and roughly the same in spendings. But there is an issue: CAC go up every months, and when I pause paid marketing campaigns subscriptions go down. 90% of users come from FB/IG and currently I pay roughly 50 USD for a 15 USD/month subscription. I have no idea if that is good or not. I'm operating in Latin America. So here are some cases that I see possible: A: FAB / many new economy crisis startups Early adopters jump on the project, then realize, that it's not changing their lives on a fundamental basis, and jump to the next product. Late adopters are not really open for the product. This happened to the FAB startup as far as I know. B: Waiting for true believers in my product From the current ~2000 subscribers, only a small percentage are longterm interested. However, they will recommend the product to their friends in the next years. So numbers first will go down, then improve slowly but constantly. Which one is it? Which metrics should I look at and to compare to what? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2021 11:58 PM PDT So, I've been looking for a founders agreement template I could use and honestly the things you see online are a exhausting and lengthy, especially if you acknowledge this agreement is going to be replaced shortly after you raise. Any alternative resources you would recommend? I'm looking for something short and modest. I've seen this - yairudi.com/sfts. Did anyone try / can recommend? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Friendly Reminder: Startups are a marathon, not a sprint Posted: 28 Apr 2021 12:13 PM PDT As much as it might feel otherwise sometimes, your biggest competitor will be driving yourself to exhaustion and not the company working on a similar product/idea. There will be plenty of competitors out there and you might feel like you're constantly behind so you work yourself 24/7 just to feel like you're keeping up. The grass always _seems_ greener, but the reality could be much more bleak and your competitors might be in the same position. It's not worth it. Make sure you get a good night's sleep and make time for family & friends. Your startup won't make or break because you took a vacation or a couple days to yourself! Thanks for reading! [link] [comments]  |
| Borrowing employees from one company to form team for prerevenue startup Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:22 PM PDT This is kind of long, and I'm a little lost, so bear with me. I am 5 years in as a C level employee of a slowly growing and profitable bootstrapped company, that only has one owner and has never taken funding or a loan. The company is 6 years old, and brings in about 10MM in revenue annually (if that matters). In my role at this company, I led the product direction and built a platform and lots of proprietary process to make sure the company could scale. I have a small amount of equity in the company, and a good salary, but i have never had true cofounder status...the company was never intended to grow this big as it is. We could easily scale much bigger than 10MM but the Owner values his work life balance and our very relaxed company culture way more than revenue, so we purposely move very very slowly under his direction. The owner and I would like to replicate this company and process again, but this time optimize for growth instead of lifestyle. The owner would like to fund the New Company with the current company's staff time and profit - ie move the whole development team and sales team to this New Company b2b model - but not until after the New Company model has some clients. I would move to the New Company as (somewhat) non technical cofounder, and we have a technical cofounder as well. This would allow me to pursue the vision I have for the product I built and gain equity, without hurting the Owner of Company's work/life balance or putting his current working business at risk (which he is very emotionally attached to, for good reason). Owner is estimating this would take 18 months, and in the meantime would like me to remain c level employee at the helm of the current company.... I'm really confused as to how all of this would work. Can an investor invest his staff instead of cash? How would that be viewed for future funding rounds? Is it ridiculous to think I could start this venture while still in a very busy role? This all feels very non conventional to me, but I am excited and determined to find a way to make it work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| How do we effectively recruit beta users? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 07:56 PM PDT Hey guys! So we recently launched our beta for our new platform. We have learned how challenging it is to recruit beta users, although we can't say we didn't anticipate this. Our goal is to reach 5k users within 120 days. We have reached out to family & friends, other subreddits, instagram pages, and are going to start on TikTok very soon. We wanted to see if you guys had any input or advice for us, anything is greatly appreciated. Would also love to hear anyone else's experience with similar endeavors. Thanks guys, and hope you have a great night. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2021 03:47 PM PDT What should I consider when incorporating in Canada federally, vs a Delaware-C. My long term strategy is leaning more towards Delaware-C due to it's preference among American VC's. Moreover, I've heard that American VC's undergo their due diligence and deploy funds faster than Canadian VC's. What I may be missing out on in terms of incorporating in Canada are the tax incentives. Through my research, I've learned that incorporation in Canada reflect similarly to Delaware laws for the sake of cross border financing. Looking for some deep insight into this, will be incorporating soon to receive some funding. [link] [comments]  |
| Advice on recruiting developers Posted: 28 Apr 2021 01:32 PM PDT Hello again all, So looks like we will be needing 3 developers For our insurance app needs to be real time to show different companies prices based on customer info we currently have a business plan and Adobe Xd interactive mock up 1 front end web developer - ReactJS 1 back end developer - not sure on language but needs to work with react 1 app developer - React Native Does anybody have any advice on building a team like this? Has anyone successfully done it with Fiverr/ upwork? If not any suggestions on 1 stop shops? Do all these people need to be retained throughout the app for bugs and updates? We would like them to be able to work together. Any and all tips would be appreciated Edit: might be worth noting we would like to go a cost friendly route for our first year just to prove interest & then seek investors in year 2 with a proper salaried team lead by a CTO [link] [comments]  |
| Company Formation Direction Question Posted: 28 Apr 2021 04:27 PM PDT We are planning on forming a company shortly. I spoke to a boutique startup lawyer who is willing to defer the formation costs until we raise our first round. If we never raise, there will be no cost to us. The lawyer is a one man shop who had several years of big law startup experience before founding his firm. One thing to note is that we plan on bringing someone on board within a few weeks after formation and the cost of issuing new shares will not be deferred. Prior to speaking to the lawyer, I was planning on using Clerky or Stripe. Any thoughts on which direction I should go? I'm enticed by working with a professional and the initial cost deferment vs doing the work on my own. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2021 03:46 PM PDT For the past 5 or 6 years now I've had an idea for a tech startup in Ecommerce. I started out by creating it on Wordpress using a free theme. At the time I had no idea how to code, but over 2 years I learned PHP and all the frontend languages just by doing it (JS, HTML, CSS). I was never really satisfied with Wordpress, and the marketplace I had made didn't have all of the features I wanted in my site / web app. For the next 4 years I basically moved my idea to the back burner, but I still genuinely believe it could be a game changer in Ecommerce. 2 months ago I started learning react, and developing the application from scratch using the MERN stack. Everything is going well, but I'm using redux and it's starting to make me realize that I'm essentially developing an enterprise level application by myself. I haven't even made it past the first 2 pages and it's already huge. This now has me considering Wordpress again, and thats where my need for experience and guidance comes in:
I know these are all loaded questions, but I really want to just get some solid direction with this thing. My background is in marketing and business development, so coding is not my strongest suit, but I'm pretty good at it. I could probably build the bare bones application in 2-3 months on react if necessary. [link] [comments]  |
| React Native and Development starting Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:41 AM PDT Hello Again, Background: we are wanting to to build an app to allow users to shop for insurance in 1 place. (We are not creating plans just pulling from different carriers) Main focus on app but with a website as well just to give people a place if they need to. We currently have an AdobeXD mock up So as far as technicals WE HAVE NO TECHNICAL BACKGROUND: I have heard good things about "React Native" can we build the app & website using someone who knows React Native? Or does react native not work for websites? How do you get front end and back end developers to work together? How many developers would we need? Thought process is 1 front end for UI of app and website and 1 back end to run the back end programming. Please correct me if there is better way. Can we engage them both at the same time or better to engage front end first? As far as backend will this all be built by the backend developer and is there database languages to keep in mind? As far as actually submitting the customer info to respective companies and storing it in our databases. TLDR: Can we engage a React Native developer(s) to build both website & app? Which comes first? Is there such thing as database languages and what should we keep in mind with it? [link] [comments]  |
| �� Need help setting up company EMAIL Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:36 AM PDT I brought a domain and going to use it as my company email (example@mycompany.com) But the problem I have is what should I do to my custom emails , how many custom emails should I create I've seen some from other companies like support@mycompany.com, John@mycompany.com Here are my needs, 👉🏾 One to email customers 👉🏾 one to log in to company bank accounts , Password managers , and the general stuff 👉🏾 on as a company email 👉🏾 another one for me or if I hire an employee for him / her Little confused what to put before the @mark Please help and would be really appriated if you can mention couple of examples 👍🏾 Thanks 🙏🏾 [link] [comments]  |
| 409a Valuation Changed in the middle of exercising grant Posted: 28 Apr 2021 01:07 PM PDT I exercised an option grant on the 1st of the month, at the current given FMV shown in Carta. I was emailed days later saying that the company was in the middle of updating our FMV and 409a valuation, and it goes into effect on the 1st. If I continue to exercise that grant, it will be at the new (higher) FMV. This obviously has a tax effect on my income taxed and options spread. May as well cancel it at this point and wait. Is this allowed? I exercised at the FMV given to us. Any insights appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for automation solutions that I can offer to my shareholders Posted: 28 Apr 2021 12:33 PM PDT Could you please advise? My startup has already gathered two rounds of investment, and our stakeholders are asking me to prepare a plan of tools that I can use to automate processes. I know there are chatbots, automated emails, other generic stuff. Is there anything specific that you can definitely recommend automating? If yes, do you have experience with any of the tools that can help with that? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| How much machine learning/AI do I actually need to know to found a startup? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 05:54 AM PDT I'm a medical student, and I've some ideas to help reduce wait times in hospitals around here. But all the ideas would require programming/using AI. I know enough about the hospital system to know that my idea would probably work, but I've no way of implementing it due to my lack of technical knowledge. If I were to pair up with a CTO, would they really be in charge of all of that? Seems like a tall task... [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Apr 2021 10:55 AM PDT Hi everyone, I'm thinking about starting an LLC but I know most startups tend to lose money in the beginning. If I spend money hosting and advertising a website for my LLC that doesn't generate any revenue can I deduct these costs from my full-time job's income taxes? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Just too hard to finance a business Posted: 28 Apr 2021 06:36 AM PDT "The world is not fair" aside. Wonder how many businesses have not started that could have changed the world because they couldn't get a loan to start a business. Those who are already in a company or have a lot of money have such advantage it is unbelievable. Start up really is 80% finance. How did you solve your finance situation? [link] [comments]  |
| How do I hire a doctor or nutritionist to consult for my food start up? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 08:17 AM PDT Hello! I am working on a product for a food start up and would like to hire a doctor or nutritionist to refine my concept. I don't necessarily want the doctor to be my business partner and have equity, but as I launch more products I can work with him or her on the formulations. What is the process for this? Would I simply go to a doctor or nutritionist with my request, ask them what their rate is for consulting, then draft up a contract? Or is it a bit more involved? Thank you in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| The Startup process as a Solo Founder & Developer, is it a good idea? Posted: 28 Apr 2021 01:47 AM PDT Hi everyone, I am a software developer and I have finally decided to develop a startup idea I had a while ago that in my opinion has a lot of potential and of course it's a web based idea. My plan is to develop it in my own and my spare time (no problem with my current company) until I have a MVP ready. So far so good. I am and I will be a solo developer and founder. I don't know anyone I can trust and is able to join me at a very early stage, so I will go to angel investors/Series A alone. Could this be a problem to receive funding? If I receive funding what the best way to deal with all the extra work required to actually set up a company with employees and everything else? Can I easily find reliable consultants to hire? Can you please give a rough description of how it could work? I have looked at a checklist of all things to do from legal to HR not even including the tech part and it's a lot, I would definitely need at least 2 people from day 1. I am UK based so any UK specific answer is welcomed. Should I go with a Ltd right? Thank you. [link] [comments]  |
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