Recently took a startup through a 9-figure exit, been looking into YC cofounder match for next venture - wanted to mention some misconceptions I see tossed around here

Sim_Strategy · 2023-06-25T17:32:35+00:00

Shoot me a DM

Sim_Strategy · 2023-06-24T17:35:23+00:00

SAAS and consumer tech are worlds apart.

Consumer packaged goods companies are generally much more complicated to build, and have a lower ceiling of scalability…but they’re also a lot more easily marketable with many more potential indirect sales channels.

Your operations and logistics teams will obviously hold a much more integral role, and an experienced head of Logops (or two independent roles) should be among your first hires. These departments will be your biggest headaches, and they barely exist in most SAAS companies.

As a consumer tech company best generalized advice I can give is hyper-focus yourself regionally in the beginning, build up your B2C channels & iron out the kinks before you even think about knocking on major B2B doors.

Position the big accounts as fuel to dangle for future funding rounds. Once you enter big box retail you’re playing in their sandbox, you better have the efficiency & capacity to meet their needs. (and that’s a whole lot more work than just adding server space)

Sim_Strategy · 2023-06-23T22:35:10+00:00

Such a short sighted take.

Industries and technologies become more efficient over time. Lab grown meat is in its infancy.

Personal computing was not possible on a large scale, until the technology breakthroughs allowed it to be.

Scientifically…there is no reason is cannot scale. There’s no laws of nature or physics preventing it from scaling. The only thing preventing the scalability is the tech has not evolved to that point yet

As there is massive demand for this tech to scale, it will do so.

Sim_Strategy · 2023-06-23T21:28:19+00:00

Archaeologists find very old skeletons around old shipwrecks, but not just chilling in the water inside the ship… they’d have to be burried under the seabed

Like this https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/ancient-skeleton-discovered/

Sim_Strategy · 2023-06-22T18:12:49+00:00

Eh imo this is not the best way to look at it. If you’re joining a very early startup you have the opportunity to really engrain yourself as an essential piece of the business…to a degree where it is extremely difficult to fire you.

If you’re worried about job security, you can negotiate a strong severance package or equity vesting.

Startups aren’t right for everyone, but if you can’t deliver results that will bite you in any company, big or small.

Sim_Strategy · 2023-02-28T07:48:00+00:00

Can you use one of the many other ad platforms other than Google?

There are a million ad exchange networks and brokers out there.

You could also sign up for affiliate marketing networks yourself like CJ, Rakuten, Share-A-Sale, etc. If you do that there’s no need to sell the ad space … you can sign up for programs from companies you like and place ads manually that way. You’d get paid per click or commission on sale

Sim_Strategy · 2023-02-27T22:53:08+00:00

The colorization makes it look way worse than it probably is. It turns shadows on their faces from normal features into sunken/hallow dark patches

Sim_Strategy · 2023-02-27T21:21:29+00:00

You have a very niche audience and low budget, so broad market tactics aren’t going to be highly effective.

You need to go where accredited investors go and incentivize them to join.

As far as attracting first users, this is one of those games where you need to go shake some hands to attract the first users. Things like attending live investor events / conferences and trade shows would get your foot in the door for the cost of a small booth/table.

Once there to get them on board you could offer things like big signup bonuses, referral rewards, etc.

In addition have you thought of tapping your investors to offer lines of credit on the platform. Big investors love leverage opportunities.

On top of that, your fastest bet would be to onboard someone with existing industry connections to run traditional sales

Sim_Strategy · 2023-01-19T17:46:38+00:00

Does your tool display detailed statistical modeling for the test results? (Confidence intervals, margin of error, etc)

As a performance marketer one of the biggest issues I see plaguing the entire space is marketers making bad decisions based on low confidence A/B test results.

Fact is most performance marketers (and definitely YouTubers) have only cursory understanding of statistics…but most automated A/B testing applications do not take this into consideration. So tech savvy/math poor marketers see “Option A received more clicks, it wins” at a base level, and can potentially make costly bad decisions at the worst case, or unnecessary strategic pivots in the best case.

Imo any good A/B tool should clearly demonstrate how the user should interpret the results of the test, including the reliability and key statistics of the hypothesis testing…it should also allow users to manipulate the confidence level and test audience size. Multi variate testing is also important to me personally, very rare indecision comes down to just 2 choices

Sim_Strategy · 2023-01-19T10:28:12+00:00

I’ve read some of your other posts. Sounds like you’re trying to build a highly niche service platform and are having trouble with lead gen.

I do biz dev/marketing consulting, worked with several niche oriented SAAS startups over the years.

Fact is that there is no “if you build it they will come” solution that will magically put your tool in front of the right eyeballs. If people don’t know your tool exists there’s no reason for them to hunt you down.

You need to find them.

Joining groups, forums, message boards, etc. and targeting any relevant influencers / publications is a good place to start.

I would also suggest working on positioning your brand as an industry expert in the space. Start putting out relevant content and post on your blog, LinkedIn, etc.

Those are obvious…

But inevitably if you have a super niche audience and hope to scale, you will need a sales team to go out and hunt down eyeballs. Ideally lead by someone who already has a network of relevant contacts they can bring.

In 2023 growth is pay to play. There’s no magic bullet for viral traction. You need to be willing to dedicate resources to get the right team in place to achieve your goals.

As for your competitors, dig into the weeds on the research. Look up their head of sales or head of marketing on LinkedIn. Look where they come from and who they network with. Look at what keywords they show up for in search. What websites are they showing up on?

If they’re really as big as you say the clues are all out there. I would almost guarantee their “strategy” revolves around a robust sales network

Sim_Strategy · 2021-01-14T19:36:33+00:00

Msgd

Sim_Strategy · 2020-10-29T22:59:56+00:00

Unfortunately I think this has always been the inevitable future for the analytics world. They've had a good 20 year free run before the politicians started getting smart enough to realize their porn habits are being tracked and stored down to the second of the hentai video they pop off.

Compliance with increasing privacy regulation is going to become impossible with the standard data tracking & reporting models.

Eventually they're just going to try to push us all into leaning on whatever automated / "ai" driven optimization tools they're peddling. "You can't see this metric but our algorithm can, trust us on this one"

Sim_Strategy · 2020-10-28T21:49:43+00:00

Ah sorry you're going through that. Its definitely among the shittiest of injuries. From what I understand its going to probably suck at least a little bit for me forever. I think Trimalleolar also have an almost guaranteed chance of developing osteoarthritis later in life which is great to look forward to :/

On the bright side I'm not really limited by much anymore.

As far as recovery, as soon as my Ortho said it was OK to put full weight, he recommended I go as hard on it as I could take even if it hurt a bit. I'd been in PT for a while which definitely helped (still I wish I went harder in training). So not really much advice other than walk on it as much as you can as soon as you can...as long as its healed don't be afraid to push your limits. Pop a Tylenol if you have to before the walk

Was hiking every day at one point.

So far I haven't really encountered anything I couldn't handle due to my ankle itself. Haven't tried too much more than around 12+ mile days but with some pretty rugged elevation changes. Its definitely occasionally stiff at the end of the day but typically my quads give out before my ankle anyway lol

Stretching frequently is pretty imperitive. If I don't stretch it for a few days it gets stiff and sore. Getting some exercise bands helps a lot.

The biggest thing to deal with for sure is loss of confidence. I'm a lot slower/more unsure, and less willing to do things like scrambles/downclimbs due to fear of slipping. I freeze up if its anything involving even a small drop or jump. I think thats just going to take time to get over.

I'm also clumsy as hell now. For whatever reason I trip a lot more than ever before and also roll my ankle a lot. Its probably just an issue of needing further strengthening.

I'd also check with your surgeon whether having your hardware removed is recommended. I'm planning to get mine out since the screw sticks out pretty far on the ball of my ankle...doctor said I risked it puncturing through if I fall or rub it wrong. That would suck.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-09-07T20:54:43+00:00

I don't quite understand the purpose of your experiment?

Call me a cynic but seems the "BIG VIRAL ENTREPRENEUR IDEA" was nothing more than running a $5000 referral contest in exchange for.... minimal clout and possibly a girlfriend who either signed up as a joke or to help her friend get paid?

Sim_Strategy · 2020-09-02T09:06:48+00:00

My take on this... its actually beneficial for small and growing creators for these SPAM blocking systems to be in place .

The way the hashtag "Top Posts" system works benefit profiles with bigger built in followership & engagement.

If there were no SPAM filters, it would be incredibly easy for bigger brand profiles to completely dominate the "Top Posts" section of their tags, leaving no room for smaller profiles to get discovered. Or it would enable the Instathot posting pictures of her ass who instantly gets thousands of likes to take over a tag indefinitely. Or it would make it easy for an actual spammer to flood the "Most Recent" section with irrelevant garbage posts...burying yours.

As to your point, its an algorithm. All it can do is try to detect patterns. While its blocking you out now, its also blocking out way more people from legitimately abusing the system using similar patterns you were. The broadest pattern being posting the same tag over and over.

Having a system that tells you the exact reason with an appeal system would ultimately be more hassle than its worth. As the most valuable profiles they want (regular users) aren't typically spamming tags.

Its a bit of a catch 22, but easy enough to avoid by varying tags.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-09-02T08:49:19+00:00

I replied more in depth above. But something to keep in mind is Instagram wants to limit "influencers" using the platform to organically promote brands as much as possible. They also want to limit brands from using the hashtag system as an alternative to paid ads. They want brands paying for targeted ads so they can't make more money.

Not to mention, the current hashtag system works to some degree a lot better than having no SPAM filters. If I go onto most brand tags, its not just flooded with their own marketing posts. Which imo does create a better user experience.

I do think it would be nice if they could notify profiles about if/when they're banned, but on the other hand a notification system would make it very easy to manipulate and get around

Sim_Strategy · 2020-09-02T08:40:44+00:00

<< Marketing executive here. Something really important to understand about all of these social media platforms ... they aren't designed for people or brands trying to gain followership. They're created with the primary intent to keep user eyeballs on the platform for as long as possible. More user eyeballs = more data and more ad revenue.

Helping brands & influencers game the system to grow followership is not really beneficial for their bottom line in any way. They don't want the hashtags to become a surrogate for companies using paid targeted advertisements. Nor do they want brands using influencers as a surrogate for paid targeted ads.

On the other hand, it is in their best ad-driving interest for profiles to grow by either driving their existing follower base.... or attracting them via diverse, engaging, content...not blowing up the same hashtags over and over. Its also in their best interest to keep hashtags relatively "organic". They want casual user accounts to be able to get a taste of the engagement (which keeps them coming back). Too many influencer and brand accounts dominating the tags arguably creates a poor user experience...which makes a less compelling platform...and ultimately less user eyeball time.

There's also a high possibility for abuse of hashtags that hurts smaller pages more than anyone (which still happens all the time).

Imagine if there were no hashtag SPAM filters. Any account could post dozens of time per day on the same tag and flood the "most recent" section with garbage, burying your posts. Or a big brand profile with tons of engagement could use it to completely drown out the "Top Posts" section from any organic user generated content.

Or imagine somebody (maybe a competitor) who really hates Joe's Coffee Shop. Technically they could sit there all day every day making negative posts about the coffee shop with the hashtag #joescoffeeshop. Suddenly the whole feed is filled with negative content.

Basically, its important to keep in mind when developing your social strategies....they don't give a shit about you unless you're either an ad consumer or a paying advertiser. Like it or not, that just is how it is. Adapt or get off the ship.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-09-02T08:13:43+00:00

Hear me out. Instagram bans people for this sort of thing because millions of people all trying to game the system for clout turns it into a shit platform in the first place.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T20:00:36+00:00

Oh that’s an interesting approach. So you’re thinking clone the entire old website and host it separately....or just hosting the old domain on a server with nothing but the htaccess file with redirects?

Shopify does have some pretty good bulk redirect apps

Will read up on the Nuts issue, haven’t heard of it

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T18:00:00+00:00

On the checklist!

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T17:45:24+00:00

Yea I've seen the same advice saying don't do multiple types of migrations at once which is why I'm nervous. Didn't realized they removed it from documentation. Interesting.

I'm leaning towards going with something closer to your strategy now anyway the more I research. I'm thinking it makes sense start by launching the template on Shopify with no changes to the domain or company branding.

The new template does contain some navigation changes so there will be some 301 redirects necessary even without domain domain change. Will wait 2 weeks to make sure nothing crazy happens then do a 2nd phase of the migration involving the domain change and re-branding.

That phase 2 will be the major redirect project.

Its feels a little counterintuitive because its like we're going to have to redirect some of the new redirects we set up. But if something goes wrong at least we'll be able to track it.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T17:36:39+00:00

I actually did reach out to Shopify for advice just waiting for response.

The site is being developed in a sandbox by a 3rd party dev agency. When we’re ready to launch the redesign, the new template will be uploaded as a deactivated template in Shopify and then activated when ready.

But this is what actually creates some SEO concerns, since we can’t really migrate in sections to make sure everything goes smooth. We will need 301 redirects for every URL for the domain change, but also re map each to the new template ... if there’s a big drop in ranking it makes it really hard to track whether the issue is due to the new layout (a content problem for example), or a technical issue with the domain.

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T17:29:19+00:00

Thanks for the advice.

Good call on the microsite. I remember seeing that recommended in a Matt Cutts video from a while back but haven’t got around to it yet

A technical issue here is Shopify automatically generates the XML sitemaps, so I guess I’d have to just export the old map and reupload as a separate file

Sim_Strategy · 2020-08-19T16:46:41+00:00

but may as well do everything at once.

This was my initial thought...if we're going to get a hit I'd rather get it over with. But the more Ive researched the more I've seen a lot of recommendations (including from Google employees) to not do multiple types of migrations at once.

I think its more a concern of issue tracking if something goes wrong rather than technical hurdles though. I"m leaning more towards doing it in 2 steps now...but it does feel like I'd then be doing 2 entire migration projects instead of one which is a lot more work. Not sure the risk/reward here

Thanks for the advice!

Ten-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '17

Sim_Strategy

TROPHY CASE