Date post: | 11-Aug-2014 |
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Business |
Upload: | matt-brezina |
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No one cared about my stupid little startup
(and they don’t care about yours either)
Matt BrezinaCo-founder, Xobni
[email protected]: @brezina
Xobni’s Path To 3 Million Downloads(a 3.5 year journey)
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
Stealth
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
1.5 years
50users
• Only 50 users• Very boring website: No screenshots, product descriptions• Traffic from blogging – problems with email & entrepreneurship• Personal relationships with press and demo under embargo(ask for help before you need it)
Private Beta
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
2 months
10kusers
• Launched at TechCrunch50• “Too much demand”• Added 10k users in 1 day – everyone else sign-up
Nerd Scarcity
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
3 months
12kusers
• Leveraged excited early adopters• Badge program
• Added users from beta list when we needed lab rats
Invite Beta
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
3 months
50kusers
• Users could invite 5 friends• Maintained forgiveness of beta users• Nearly 100% conversion on clicked invites (users were self selecting people who’d want xobni)
Iteration
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
3 months
60kusers
• Needed product/market fit before exiting exclusivity• Wanted to accelerate WOM & virality for upcoming pop• 100k user beta list• Focused on performance, user ed & virality
Public Beta
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
1 year
1.5Musers
• Hired PR firm 6 weeks before launch • Officially launched Xobni open beta in NYT• 95k web visitors on day 1• 70k visitors on day 2!!
• Used demand for private beta as proxy for need of a solution to info overload and the value of a people focused inbox
Exit Beta
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
3 months
2Musers
• Reliable product• With product/market fit• That encapsulated our vision
Resulting in:• Strong WOM• Official adoption in enterprises• The ability to start charging
Paid Drivers
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
6months
3Musers
• Companies need a Z-combinator• PR & virality aren’t predictably scalable• Ain’t nothing wrong with spending money to make money• Need business model to make the sausage machine work
When we got PR help
PaidDriversStealth Nerd
ScarcityInviteBeta
Public Beta
IterationPrivate Beta
GA
Me
PR Contractor(but mostly me)
PR Firm
In-house&
PR Firm
No one cares about your stupid little startup
6 tips to make them care
Tip 1.
Tie yourself to a bigger trend– The web inside your inbox– Facebook crossing into the business world– Email is the oldest online social network– Enterprise software is now going bottoms up– Email overload is drowning the information
worker– Microsoft sucks
Case Study: Email Me Instead
I had 10k users and new blog/press relationships, before Xobni was even in public beta
Tip 2
Take every opportunity to meet a journalist in person
• Get product feedback• Social events• Make introductions• Base your company where the media is
Case Study: WSJ
Tip 3.
Engage heavily with users – positive WOM is even better than press coverage
Case Study: Xobni
• Our 5th employee was customer support• Elite Alpha forum of 500 users • Phone call (and blog) with one user per week• Special twitter handle for customer support• Engineers do tech phone calls with users• We send out a lot of tshirts
Tip 4.
Journalists are lazy. Help them be lazy
Case Study: Xobni.com
Tip 5.
Be a source of data
Case Studies: Tivo, Trulia, Facebook
Now, 3 million people know about – and care about - my stupid little startup
Matt BrezinaCo-founder, Xobni
[email protected]: @brezina