12 Lessons Learned

Building SEOmozRand Fishkin, CEO

Download at http://bit.ly/mozlessons2012

$450K+ in personal debt sucks… a lot.

On track for $20mm+ this year

#1: Establish Core Values

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfee-tenets

#2: Stick to Your Values, (Especially When It’s

Hard)“The core values embodied in our credo might be a

competitive advantage, but that is not why we have

them. We have them because they define for us what

we stand for, and we would hold them even if they

became a competitive disadvantage.”

- Ralph S. Larsen, CEO of Johnson & Johnson

http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

#3: Build a Team that Matches Your Values

http://blog.eladgil.com/2012/04/never-ever-compromise-hiring-for.html

#4: Marketing Matters as Much as Product

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/i-disagree-with-fred-marketing-is-for-companies-that-have-great-products

#5: Make Customer Acquisition Cost a Competitive

AdvantagePaid Channels

Inbound

Only 15% of Moz’s customers come via paid channels; hence our cost to acquire customers is ~$73 and payback period is 0.7 months! This meant we could grow and invest, even when we couldn’t raise outside funding.

#6: Don’t Be Afraid of Letting People Go

#7: You Are Not the Customer.

#8: Don’t Let Outliers Become a Yardstick or a

Trend

AKA: You are not these five companies

#9: Humility is the Most Overlooked, Undervalued Trait

in Startupland

#10: The Price of Success is Failure After Failure After

Failure.This is when Geraldine started

her blog

#10: The Price of Success is Failure After Failure After

Failure.

This is where people usually

give up.

#10: The Price of Success is Failure After Failure After

Failure.Past 3 months are averaging 3.5K

visits/day

#11: Best Way to Get Startup Experience –

Join a Startup

#12: Don’t Go It Alone

Download this deck:http://bit.ly/mozlessons2012