AGENDA
CROSSING THE POND: FINDING YOUR AMERICAN AUDIENCECourtney Boyd Myers Founder, audience.io & 3460 Miles
INTRODUCTION
‣Working with Fueled, Geckoboard, Makeshift, SHADOW, Transferwise, SecretEscapes, Percolate and Startup Institute ‣Director of Audience Development at General Assembly London ‣Writer at Wired UK, The Daily Beast & The Next Web ‣Adviser at Second Home and Breadcrumbs ‣Mentor at BBC WorldWideLabs, Seedcamp, Ignite100 ‣Community Member of Sandbox, Summit Series & ICE
COURTNEY BOYD MYERS @CBM FOUNDER, AUDIENCE.IO & 3460 MILES, HUSTLE & KALE
AGENDA
‣Startup Landscape ‣Picking Your City ‣Logistics: The Nitty Gritty ‣Funding ‣Brand + Messaging ‣Community ‣Marketing ‣PR + Media ‣ 10 Takeaway Tips for CEOs ‣Q & A
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‣ Mobile Ubiquity ‣ Changing Workforce (Messaging +
Productivity) ‣ Data, Data, Data (+Analytics) ‣ P2P Economy ‣ Gen Y
‣ Hardware ‣ The Intertwingularity
STARTUP LANDSCAPE
Image: Shutterstock
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TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTS FOR TOMORROW, YOU MUST LIVE IN THE FUTURE TODAY.
!
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BEING THE BEST, BEING AUDACIOUS & BEING COURAGEOUS IS A STATE OF MIND.
!
FIND YOUR NICHE & SET YOUR SIGHTS ON BEING A WORLD LEADER.
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BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC CROSSING THE POND
What makes the U.S. a great target market? !•316+ million people •Digital ad spend of $110 billion in 2013 •Greater amounts of venture capital •Bigger exits !
Not bad Europe, but still a ways to go.
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WHICH U.S. CITY IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?CROSSING THE POND
!!Size of startup ecosystem, type of industries represented, access to talent, investors and media are just some of the factors to consider when deciding which city is right for you. !(Also weather, restaurants, nightlife, babes and beach destinations, right?)
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NEW YORK CITY
•“Silicon Alley” !
•Hyphen-Tech: Finance, Advertising, Fashion, Music and Media (sounds like London, ya?) !
•About that Media...
Image: Shutterstock
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AppNexus Artsy BarkBox Bitly Birchbox Etsy Fab Fueled
NEW YORK CITY STARTUPSGeneral Assembly Gilt GroupMe Foursquare Kickstarter MakerBot NewsCred OKCupid !!!
* More extensive list can be found at: http://nytm.org/made-in-nyc
Quirky SailThru SecondMarket Thrillist Tumblr Warby Parker Yipit ZocDoc
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GET INVOLVED: NEW YORK CITY‣New York Tech Meetup — nytm.org ‣We Are NY Tech — wearenytech.com ‣Hack NY — hackny.org ‣ Internet Week — internetweekny.com ‣Social Media Week — socialmediaweek.org ‣3460 Miles — 3460miles.com ‣Raised By Us — raisedby.us ‣NYC Digital — nyc.gov/digital ‣Made In NY — wearemadeinny.com
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SAN FRANCISCO!
• Epi-center, Mecca • Mono-Culture • “The future is made here” • Tech-Tech • About that Money... !
• According to CrunchBase data, the amount of funding raised by start-ups in California in July 2013 was $1.4 billion Image: Shutterstock
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SAN FRANCISCO STARTUPS‣Airbnb ‣AdRoll ‣Asana ‣Band Page ‣Dropbox ‣GitHub ‣Good Eggs ‣Gumroad !
!
‣Lyft ‣Mixpanel ‣NewHive ‣New Relic ‣Optimizely ‣One King’s Lane ‣Path ‣Pinterest
‣Quantcast ‣ Strongloop ‣ Square ‣ Stella & Dot ‣TaskRabbit ‣Tripit ‣ZenDesk ‣ZenPayroll
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GET INVOLVED: SAN FRANCISCOMEETUPS
HACK WEEKENDS
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HAVE YOU CONSIDERED?CROSSING THE POND
!
•Los Angeles •Austin •Boston •Boulder •Las Vegas •Seattle •Washington, D.C.
Image: PandoDaily
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ACCELERATORS + INCUBATORSCROSSING THE POND
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Lyst ConversocialHuddle Trigger.io Songkick One Fine Stay Summly Moo
EUROPEAN STARTUPS IN THE U.S.A.Decoded SoundCloud Unruly Media YPlan MixCloud Hailo Qriously Skype
Spotify SkimLinks 3Beards Mimecast Blippar CampalystNeverbland Prezi
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LOGISTICS: THE NITTY GRITTY!‣Taxes ‣Legal: Contracts, LLC, S Corp,
C Corp ‣Hiring ‣Banking, Payroll, Insurance ‣Healthcare! ‣Procurement Companies ‣MoveGuides ‣Visas... !
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VISAS
1. H1B (for large, established companies) 2. L1 (intra-company transfers) 3. E2 (closest to a startup visa) 4. O1 (alien of extraordinary ability)
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FUNDING• Growing internationally is expensive
• You only get one shot at launching in a new city
• Tip: Raise money from connected angels or VCs in the city you want to launch in
• Get on AngelList
• Or have really thick bootstraps, thick skin and a rich uncle...
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TOP VC FIRMS + U.S. ANGEL INVESTORS
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MESSAGING!
• Moms vs. Mums + a Jumble Sale?
• Jelly vs. Jam: Humor doesn’t always translate!
• Does your startup’s name even translate?
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SEEKING COMMUNITY
‣L
Identify stakeholders:
• Target Demographics (Customers)
• Potential Partners (Marketing, Business, Talent, and Investors)
• Then seek those groups of people at local events, coworking spaces, online (Stalking, YES!) and in the media (read! Do your HW.)
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BUILDING COMMUNITY!
• Send someone senior across the pond
• Hire locally
• Choose reputable local partners
• Seek government support
• Seek big brand support
• Establish ambassador programs and systems that support evangelists
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HIRE LOCALLYHiring a local expert with industry street cred will help you:
• Tap into local insights, contacts and deal opportunities
• Avoid market pitfalls + “no-nos”
• Get your business plugged in faster
• Know the local competition
To hire locally:
• Tap your networks and get personal recommendations
• Use startup built recruiting services like hired.com
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DIGITAL MARKETING• Create a localized website or localize your product
page in the App Store / Google Play
• Paid Advertising: Media, Social + Google AdWords + Retargeting Campaigns (AdRoll)
• Build Virality (also Vitality + Virility!) into your Product (a la Launchrock)
• Social Media Marketing: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr, Foursquare, Instagram, etc.
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MARKETING TRENDS•Crowdfunding as a marketing tool !•Content Marketing !
•Product Marketing !•Promotions !•Company Culture as a marketing tool !•Social Good as a marketing tool !
•Sidenote Marketing
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CONTENT MARKETING• Content marketing is a cost
effective, smart and scalable way to acquire customers
!• Content should include
educational, analytical industry-related blog posts mixed with fun, viral content like infographics
!• Content marketing should be
authentic and show your company’s culture (culture marketing)
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CONTENT MARKETING • Write brilliant blog posts
showcasing your expertise !
• Content marketing can be easily enhanced with social media marketing and content syndication !
• Your content marketing should support your company’s SEO efforts
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PRODUCT AS MARKETING!
• Hotmail’s growth was almost entirely due to a “Get your free email at Hotmail” sentence at the bottom of every email. !
• Airbnb reverse-engineered Craigslist to let users post listings automatically despite no public Craigslist API. !
• Allowing users to embed videos was key to the success of YouTube and Vimeo !• Slideshare included a plain-text link in their embed code, driving traffic back to
their site to get an SEO boost to boot. !• Dropbox incentivized referrals by giving free extra storage space – a strategy they
claim accounted for 60% of their growth.Source
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PROMOTIONS!
• Choose Partners with aligned demographics and big audiences !
• Choose Promotion Channels and promote content on a steady drumbeat
!• Collect email addresses
and social information at every turn
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USING SOCIAL GOOD AS PR
Your actions speak louder than words.
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SIDENOTE MARKETING
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SOCIAL MEDIA: TOOLS OF THE TRADE !
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•Facebook •Twitter •Pinterest •Tumblr •LinkedIn •Foursquare •YouTube •Instagram !•SocialRank •Edgar •Mention •Hootsuite •Buffer
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NOTHING BEATS NETWORKING
“The single most effective way to get an article on any publication is to know
someone at the publication.” - @DavidSpinks
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EVENTS + CONFERENCESCROSSING THE POND
!
•SXSW •CES •TED •TechCrunch Disrupt •The Next Web NYC •AllThingsD •Fortune’s Brainstorm •Big Omaha
!
•Summit Series •Foo Camp •Startup Weekend •Catalyst Week •YxYY •WeWork Summer Camp •Burning Man
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GET SOME PRESS! WAIT, WHY DO YOU NEED PRESS?
1. Users 2. SEO 3. Building Credibility + Trust 4. Raising Money 5. Testing Out a New Idea 6. Recruitment
Source
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I NEED USERS!‣ Common but often misguided ‣ Entrepreneurs tend to set expectations too
high ‣ Viral and WOM marketing are usually more
powerful channels for startups, but press is a great way to get the loop going.
‣ Target: Whatever your perspective customers or users read. A tool for small business might pitch Inc., while a sports app could target ESPN.
Source
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SEO‣ Getting wide press coverage across a variety of press outlets w/ PR 5+ scores is a great way
to boost your SEO
Source‣ Target: Low-hanging fruit; smaller blogs, sometimes the ones no one has heard of! And PR newswires.
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BUILDING CREDIBILITY
Source‣ Target: Go for big names!
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RAISING MONEY‣ This is repeatedly the number
one benefit of getting press that startups mention to me
‣ To aim your story at investors mention impressive usage metrics or key hires
Source‣ Target: TechCrunch, The Next Web, GigaOm and the Wall Street Journal.
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TESTING OUT A NEW IDEA‣ Without more than 100 users, how can
you know if your MVP is right for the market? !
‣ It’s very tempting to use press to test an MVP but if it’s a total flop it will be burned permanently on the Internet
Source
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WAKEFIELD’S PAPER NAPKIN PITCH ‣ The Paper Napkin Pitch started
because TechCrunch said they’d write about one of Wakefield’s events but needed a new angle other than just an event cover.
‣ So the Founders came up with the idea of having attendees write ideas on napkins and win prizes: “The Paper Napkin Pitch”.
‣ While they scrambled to set it up, it’s now their most desirable sponsorship package.
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SLIDEBEAN‣ Scored blog posts on TechCrunch and The Next Web ‣ Took 3 months to plan in advance ‣ Took time to develop relationships ‣ Followed + interacted w/ journalists on social
networks ‣ Took photos personalized for journalist in their
travels around the world ‣ Kept pitch email short + sweet ‣ Submitted through Tips to TechCrunch
Source
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AMPLIFY YOUR PR WITH SOCIAL MEDIA •Improve your inbound !•Make more original content !•ENGAGE!- Like, Share, RT; Answer questions, tweets, comments, etc. !•Be opinionated !•Throw a Party (Get to know people IRL first) !•Make your details public + up to date !
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EXECUTING PR + MEDIA• Hire a PR Firm to reach influencers
and journalists • To help you plan + execute your
“launch story” • For on-going press / mentions in the
media • For events + conferences
!• Or take PR on yourself (not
suggested for introverts + those with anti-social behavior!)
• Host events / Go on a roadshow • Teach!
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PR AGENCY COSTS‣ $3K - $30K per month ‣ Try negotiating a "success-based" PR
package that gives you the security of knowing that you will only pay for PR if certain pre-determined goals for coverage are met.
‣ If those goals are not met, you wont have to pay. If the goals are reached, you will be happy to pay, because you’re paying for actual results.
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WHAT’S THE STORY?•“We’ve launched” •Funding •Trend Stories •We’ve hit X # of users •New features •Acquiring •Major, new hire •Hint at future plans
......But first... Can you name at least 3 tech journalists in the U.S.? !
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AMERICAN MEDIA LANDSCAPEFollow: !@Eldon @Alexia @ChrissyFarr @JennyDeluxe @Hamburger @ADRJeffries @ErinGriffith @HarrisonWeber @LanceUlanoff @GilbertJasonO @KaraSwisher
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ALSO READ...Blogs ‣Fred Wilson (A VC) — http://avc.com ‣Chris Dixon — http://cdixon.org ‣Paul Graham’s Essays — http://paulgraham.com ‣Hacker News — http://news.ycombinator.com ‣http://www.wework.com/magazine !!Newsletters ‣The Fetch http://thefetch.com ‣3460 Miles http://3460miles.com ‣Startup Digest http://startupdigest.com
STARTUP BRANDS TO WATCHCROSSING THE POND
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of How.
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how.
2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY.
3. Get used to doing business fast
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast
4. Read. For the love of god, read.
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1.Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3.Get used to doing business fast 4. Read. For the love of god, read.
5. Hire locally
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast ‘ 4. Read. For the love of god, read. 5. Hire locally
6. Pack Yourself! You need to meet with local partners, customers and make time for meetings with local media.
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast ‘ 4. Read. For the love of god, read. 5. Hire locally 6. Pack Yourself! You need to meet with local partners, customers and make time for meetings with local media.
7. Ask for help, guidance and introductions
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast ‘ 4. Read. For the love of god, read. 5. Hire locally 6. Pack Yourself! You need to meet with local partners, customers and make time for meetings with local media. 7. Ask for help, guidance and introductions
8. Be open-minded to new approaches and new ideas
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, Why and a little bit of how. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast ‘ 4. Read. For the love of god, read. 5. Hire locally 6. Pack Yourself! You need to meet with local partners, customers and make time for meetings with local media. 7. Ask for help, guidance and introductions 8. Be open-minded to new approaches and new ideas
9. Make Friends with Founders, Investors, Journalists, Wannapreneurs, Coworking Space Heads, the Cleaning Ladies and everyone in between!
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10 TIPS FOR CEOSCROSSING THE POND
1. Ask yourself: The What, When and Why. 2. Identify competitive or similar companies that have failed and succeeded before in your target market and make sure you have a deep understanding of WHY. 3. Get used to doing business fast ‘ 4. Read. For the love of god, read. 5. Hire locally 6. Pack Yourself! You need to meet with local partners, customers and make time for meetings with local media. 7. Ask for help, guidance and introductions 8. Be open-minded to new approaches and new ideas 9.Make Friends with Founders, Investors, Journalists, Startup Wannabes, Coworking Space Heads, the Cleaning Ladies and everyone in between
10. Start now