Influencer marketing is one of my favorite promotional strategies. Nothing beats a tried and true recommendation from someone you know, like and respect. And that’s what influencers are – at least the ones that don’t whore themselves out to the highest bidder and flaunt any and every product on Instagram… The truth about influencer marketing...
Designing virality and word of mouth marketing into your product When it comes to producing hockey stick growth and exploding valuations, virality and word of mouth are the holy grail. A product that markets itself without spending a dime on customer acquisition (CAC)… That is the stuff of legends that every company strives for, but...
Move fast and break things… that is the traditional (albeit slightly cliche) Facebook/Silicon Valley slogan we’ve heard for years. And for a time, it was incredibly effective. Just look at Big Tech’s domination of the S&P 500. Without question, wildly ambitious founders and wild rides have defined the last two decades of startups, innovation and...
“Do things that don’t scale.” -Paul Graham Worse. Advice. Ever… Depending on the stage and size of your business, this mentality could spell disaster. The further along your business is, the less this applies to you. Yet, it’s something ALL entrepreneurs struggle with. We’re ADD. We focus on the things we like doing, or worse yet,...
So, you need customers. Shocker. And while Facebook and Google ads are great, it’s a rat race of burning cash quicker than the competition. It’s not sustainable, especially as an advantage. Sure, you can get really good at advertising, get your cost of acquisition (CAC) down. But in the end, you’re still paying to acquire...
Designing addictive products Three-to-four-million people buy Starbucks coffee every day. And in the US alone, there are more than 250M cups of coffee (of any brand) purchased on a daily basis. That’s a lot of freaking caffeine. And it doesn’t even include homebrew… But it wasn’t always so. Habits are hard to build and harder...
Nothing sells like a friend’s recommendation. “Man, you gotta see the new Avengers movie.” We trust the folks in our lives, and they trust us. It’s part of the social contract we all subconsciously abide by. In the past, to fit in was to survive. And to offer great advice, what could be more valuable...
Two days ago I had the privilege of moderating a roundtable with some of the smartest futurists and forward thinkers in the industry. Our panelists included Tim O’Reilly, James Allworth, Ben Gilbert and Jeff Morris Jr. It was an interesting experience. They say you are the average of the 5 people in your life and...