The Angel VC

DECEMBER 20, 2013

[Update 01/17/2015: There's a new company called ChartMogul ( which we invested in ) which makes it easy to get a real-time dashboard similar to the template below. Check it out! ] [Note: This post first appeared as a guest post on the blog of Totango. In case you don't know Totango, it is a powerful analytics product which gives online services the information they need to increase user engagement, conversion and retention.

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Startup Customer Lifetime Value SaaS Metrics 199

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Bitcoin has captivated the imaginations of many with its quasi-anonymous, hyper cost-efficient payment network. The potential for Bitcoin to change foreign exchange is hard to overstate. In the same vein, the technologies that enable the internet of things (IoT) like Bluetooth Low Energy and Apple’s Beacons and Electric Imp’s infrastructure will transform the way we interact with the physical world to something akin to the mall in Minority Report.

Startup 155

Startup Payment Methods Payment Services Banking 155

Incredo

DECEMBER 30, 2013

There are too many mobile applications now, but in this article we’ve narrowed them down for you to a list of 5 must-have apps. We want you to enjoy your business, without the hassle of going to look for apps in your time, so here they are. 1. Track your calls with LogMyCalls. This mobile marketing app is not only a call tracking web application, it’s so much more.

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Practical Advice on SaaS marketing

DECEMBER 3, 2013

I'll start by apologizing. I know you’re up to your eyeballs already with your 2014 planning, but I’m going to add another chore to your “to do” list. Sorry. Besides working through your budget, marketing programs, headcount, and whatever else you need to have in place when the new year rolls around, I’d suggest you add another item: Review your value proposition and messages.

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For SaaS businesses, improving retention is one of the easiest and most effective ways to drive revenue and profits. With a clear link between failed payments and customer churn, having a robust failed payment recovery solution isn’t optional—it’s essential. Achieving your retention goals starts with the right solution.

Payment Solutions

CloseSaaS

DECEMBER 16, 2013

What did you use before Close? Why did it suck specifically? We used Base. They had a pre-configured workflow that you were supposed to use that just didn’t work for us.

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The Angel VC

DECEMBER 14, 2013

Last night I returned from a 2-day offsite with the Point Nine team (in Schlepzig, of all places). Our (small) full-time team more than doubled in the last six months, and this was the first time for all of us to spend some time together away from the daily bustle. We had a long list of topics that we wanted to discuss, ranging from investment theses to portfolio companies and to a number of projects that we're working on.

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Headcount Startup Communication Investment 141

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Raising money for a startup is expensive. The typical legal fees for a Series A are about 1% of the total money raised: roughly $40k on $4M. Of course, this doesn’t factor in the time for the process and the dilution of the investment. But if your startup is considering an IPO be prepared to pay eight times as much in fees. Across 360 venture backed technology IPOs in the last 10+ years which on average raised $107M, 8.8% of the dollars the startup raises in the initial public offering is

Startup 113

Startup Banking Investment Technology 113

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 31, 2013

Do you accept guest posts? Sorry, I don’t. May I use one of your charts? Yes, if you link back. Thanks! How do you make your charts? With R and ggplot2. There are instructions here. May I advertise on your site? Sorry, I don’t run ads. May I copy your content? Feel free to use the first 2-3 sentences of a post, but please do not copy the entirety.

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Advertising 100

Incredo

DECEMBER 30, 2013

The end of the year is here and what’s better than watching the 13 most shared video ads of 2013? I have some favorites on this list, but I am going to let you decide for yourself! 1. Dove: Real beauty sketches with 4.24 million shares. Dove altered their marketing game plan to a completely different avenue. They decided to focus more on building self-esteem and celebrating REAL women with their advertising.

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Simplify omnichannel payments with a solution that unifies every channel through your platform. By integrating front-end systems like online, mobile, and in-store payments with robust back-end infrastructure, you can deliver a seamless payments experience without the need for heavy engineering. Omnitoken technology enhances security by tokenizing card transactions for reuse, enabling merchants to drive cross-selling opportunities.

Payment Solutions

Incredo

DECEMBER 29, 2013

According to statistics, small business marketers are most likely to outsource TV/radio advertising (40%) and SEO (35%); they are least likely to outsource email newsletter and social media marketing management (less than 5% each). Normal. 0. false. false. false. EN-ZA. X-NONE. X-NONE. Are you interested to outsource your social media? There are many ways for effective social media, but the truth is that it takes time and you might not have that time.

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Incredo

DECEMBER 28, 2013

Agile marketing has had many names over the years, but what exactly is it? The creativity comes from the agile development and its ethics: When following a plan, then answer to change. Big-Bang campaigns=Rapid Iterations. Testing and data over opinions and conventions. S mall experiments over large bets. In teractions over target markets. Collaboration over silos and hierarchy.

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Incredo

DECEMBER 28, 2013

In today’s busy life, few of us have time for the ‘nitty-gritty’ admin tasks, but we put together a list of top apps for serious entrepreneurs and CEO’s. Any.Do. Most of us are masters at forgetting appointments, but with Any.Do those days are gone! This free and simple top app lets you organize your calendar. Scheduling important meetings has never been this easy and it’s at your fingertips.

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Payment Solutions Payment Methods Mobile Payments Travel 100

Incredo

DECEMBER 28, 2013

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes get really irritated when someone comes to knock on my door trying to sell me something that I don’t need. Your question might be, what marketing tips are out there to help you target your neighborhood? And by marketing tips, I don’t mean door-to-door, there are other ways of reaching your neighbors. We’re going to take you through 3 powerful marketing tips to target your neighborhood in the New Year. 1.

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Entertainment Marketing Business Sales 100

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O'Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

Revenue

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 19, 2013

You’re walking down the hallway at work from one meeting to the next. A colleague or report stops you en route, asks for a minute and presents an important problem. It’s easy to respond with “let me think about it” and duck into the meeting. In that half-second, all the responsibility of the decision has been transferred. Unlike a minute ago, you have the monkey on your back.

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Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 16, 2013

One way of measuring the efficiency of a company’s revenue model is to benchmark revenue per employee. Google and Facebook, the two most efficient companies, generate $1M per revenue per employee per year. Setting aside those exceptional cases and focusing instead on SaaS companies, the typical average revenue per employee is about $190k to $210k per year.

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Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 12, 2013

On January 8, 1966, the New Yorker profiled Buckminster Fuller for the first time. During a trip to a Maine island with the journalist Calvin Tomkins, Fuller said something tremendously prescient: Fuller proposed a worldwide technological revolution…[that] would take place quite independently of politics or ideology; it would be carried out by what he calls “comprehensive designers” who would coordinate resources and technology on a world scale for the benefit of all mankind,

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Transportation Innovation Education Technology 100

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 10, 2013

The traditional theoretical price demand curve is often drawn like this. The chart makes two points: there is some relationship between price and demand / revenue opportunity, and customer segments underpin that relationship. Each segment demands different products to satisfy different needs and presents a different revenue/profit opportunity. Even if the details are very hazy, price demand curves are useful tools to inform product strategy and prioritization.

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Pricing Startup SMB Market Research 100

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Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

Enterprise

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 8, 2013

When startups are acquired, there are many considerations in accepting an offer. Does the vision of the acquirer fit the startup? Will the startup operate independently or be integrated? What is the price and structure of the transaction? Most of these questions have to be answered through extensive conversations with suitors. As for the structure of the acquisition, there’s data that can be used for benchmarking.

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Acquisition Startup Government Benchmarks 100

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 4, 2013

Credit: National Geographic. I was lucky enough to spend some time with Monica Adractas, a former McKinsey partner who is now Churn Czar at Box. She and I chatted about the challenges in managing churn and her view on how to handle it. I thought she had some terrific insights and a clear understanding of the methods to reduce churn from her experiences.

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Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 3, 2013

Sam Altman argues in How to Grow Huge that the only way for a startup to grow really large is to create products that people love and promote. As the user base grows, users attract ever larger numbers of users to the product, producing compounding growth. The point is a terrific one and I think it can be generalized. To grow really large, startups have to create proprietary distribution channels.

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Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 2, 2013

A key component in a startup’s formula for success is educating customers about the product and driving sales. The sales and marketing teams of a startup are responsible for this. There are many ways to structure sales and marketing teams. The diagram above outlines a sales and marketing team structure that I’ve observed across many startups.

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Startup Management Marketing Sales 100

Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali

As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.

Trends

Tom Tunguz

DECEMBER 1, 2013

For retailers of any size from startup to Fortune 50, the tablet application has become more important than the mobile application. IBM’s annual Black Friday ecommerce report , which tracks 800 internet retailers proves the point. Tablet users buy at a conversion rate which is 300% greater than mobile phones and despite generating only 60% of smart phone traffic, drive 65% more transactions at 14% larger basket sizes.

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CloseSaaS

DECEMBER 13, 2013

One of the easiest ways to convert more free trial users into paying customers is by using automated (drip) emails.

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CloseSaaS

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Check out the recent interview Steli gave on Mixergy about B2B sales and the entrepreneurial hustle!

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Interviewing B2B Sales 52

CloseSaaS

DECEMBER 5, 2013

We’re excited to announce the launching of “Bulk Email” today! This new feature should save you lots of time if you are a heavy user of email templates in Close! Currently this feature requires the Close Business plan.

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Speaker: Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health and Tony Karrer, CTO at Aggregage

Christophe Louvion, Chief Product & Technology Officer of NRC Health, is here to take us through how he guided his company's recent experience of getting from concept to launch and sales of products within 90 days. In this exclusive webinar, Christophe will cover key aspects of his journey, including: LLM Development & Quick Wins 🤖 Understand how LLMs differ from traditional software, identifying opportunities for rapid development and deployment.

Artificial Intelligence

CloseSaaS

DECEMBER 4, 2013

What do you think is the most important thing when doing sales for a startup?

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Startup Sales 52