Facebook looks at daily active users. Airbnb.com uses bookings. At Clarity – my previous company – we obsessed over completed calls. These are called North Star Metrics. It’s a clear metric that your growth team focuses on to move the needle. The key is that it captures the value created for your customers, and allows everyone on the team –
What if you could get on a stage in front of an audience filled with your perfect customers and tell them about your software? That’s what webinars are like. In 2010 my buddy Lewis Howes stopped by our office in San Francisco preaching them as a sales tool, and that’s when I first got introduced to the power of leverage.
Have you ever cold emailed the CEO of a public company? When I was 18 I sent out 20. I knew I needed advice to build my company, and figured they might have the answer… … so I found the list of top tech CEO’s at the time, and sent them an email with a simple question: Everyone argues that
Can you build a thriving software business without writing code? Can you generate real revenues without having anything built? The answer is yes, and I personally believe that it’s the only way to do it. A couple weeks ago I was in San Francisco hosting my Sales Pipeline Intensive event for my SaaS Academy clients, and one of the speakers
One of my favourite stories of a bootstrapped founder is Clay Collins. He’s the creator of LeadPages.net, and when I first met him he was doing $100K+ a month in recurring revenue. As someone who came from the online education space, he knew his customers intimately and was an incredible marketer. I still remember our first conversation and the questions
It’s 2011 and I’m pacing back and forth in a parking lot in LA. I’m about to go on This Week in Startups to talk about Flowtown which had just been acquired, but I’m stressing out… I’m on the phone with Sean Ellis – the creator of the Customer Development survey – walking through the customer feedback I’m getting for
Wow, did I ever butcher this joke. “The CEO, CFO, and Marketing Manager walk into the bar…” You can watch the video below to see how I killed my stand-up career before it even started… …but here’s what I was trying to convey. Depending on WHO you are, you probably have a different need for the same outcome (i.e. a
Steve Jobs (Apple) had Steve Wozniak. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) had Dustin Moskovitz. Bill Gates (Microsoft) had Paul Allen. Even though they could all code themselves, the greatest business leaders of our generation, all had a technical co-founder by their side. Why? They knew they’d need help building the actual product as their focus shifted to growing the business. I had
Did you know that at age 13, John D Rockefeller – the richest man in the world – built his family a house?!!! As a teenager I was definitely not a productive member of society. Quite the opposite actually. That being said, I continue to believe that we all underestimate what kids can accomplish at every age. If you have
A few months ago I had lunch with a bunch of highschool aged entrepreneurs to give them feedback on their idea. They were planning on building an energy generating play park for kids. Now, I don’t mean to come off as a direct poo-pooer of dreams… … but after 15 minutes of listening to their pitch I decided to ask
