LinkedIn is the world's best recruiting source. The advanced search fields allow you so much criteria to build a hit list of potential candidates. Making direct outreach will likely result in a 20-30% response rate. I'd look for someone who is less entrepreneurially inclined by targeting people inside similar but much larger companies to the business line you are in. Best of luck!

I can discuss having done indepth research before we select Marin software

I've done a lot of complex analytics installations, usually cross-domain and including AdWords and manual tagging with conversion tracking of ecommerce transactions. The gclid by default will override the manual UTM values in Analytics so that is what you are looking for. If you are just grabbing the manual tags from the URL for your own purpose, this should be OK. However, if you at some point want to import conversions (say) connected to your manual tag, then you would want to enable UTM overriding the gclid: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033981?hl=en. Do you have AdWords and Analytics accounts linked? Where and how are you tracking commerce conversions, if you are? Do you feel you are getting the insights you need from your current custom reporting? Let me know if I can help with a call about those or further optimization of your analytics capture. Best - Michael

It's hard to get a definite answer to this as these companies will not tell us how their algorithms work. Having said that: Based on my experience working with these APIs, it is totally possible to implement a real-time search like "socialmention.com" purely based on the APIs from Google, Twitter, Yahoo, or Facebook. On the other hand, crawling and saving all that data just for the eventuality that a customer might search for it is probably not economically viable and will also violate the Terms of Services of most of these APIs. Bottom line is: They are probably not crawling and caching.

It's absolutely possible to get customers / clients without doing any paid advertising. As you suggested - this can be from word of mouth or from a variety of other sources. Effective marketing plans often utilize a broad spectrum of both inbound and outbound strategies. And some business models lend themselves incredibly well to methods that involve little or no money. Other strategies / techniques / platforms require a bigger investment. (Notice I used the word "investment" not "spending") In my opinion, the key is to create a business model that allows you to maximize your return on investment (ROI) for all of your marketing (and quite frankly just ALL) dollars. For guidance on how to create such a business model - give me a call.

I believe the commission is just 2 percent and not 7 percent. It's been a while since I've been out of the affiliate game but I believe if you can join their program through commission junction as well.

It's not that Canadian VC's are risk adverse as much as they are not well positioned to invest at the seed stage where risk is highest. Canadian VC's used to enjoy a supply/demand imbalance where they could rely on being able to have a high chance to participate in a great Canadian company's round simply because there were so few funds and most entrepreneurs limited their fundraising within Canada. That's changed dramatically where now Canadian entrepreneurs can successfully raise from great US investors at any stage. Canadian VC's have become perceived as "funds of last resort" by many Canadian entrepreneurs I know of. Getting familiar with the landscape of US investors can be daunting for Canadian entrepreneurs. I am happy to help any Canadian thinking about raising from US investors.

Online marketplaces are typically valued by revenue, community engagement and potential. What is the company's current growth, what is the rate of growth, what is the market share potential, how it is the market, and what are the opportunities that the company affords. These all play a part in valuation. What is the reach? How many subscribers, users, etc all play a part

If you're bootstrapping, pay yourself less and re-invest in the company. If you've raised money, then pay yourself average salary as you aren't subsidizing and getting more stock (for the $$) as an investor would - so once you raised, then it's a shared risk - don't make the financial subsidy a thing you take on. I see this happen so many times where venture funded founders pay themselves little (ex: $40K / year) to look good, but the truth is you should be making $75K and instead you don't have the financial resources to a) pay off personal debt, b) hire help to be able to have more time to work, c) enjoy life with your partner/family and in turn burn those relationships. Don't make that mistake if you have financial partners as investors. Be fair, but don't take a financial loss every month to save face.

Hi, Your site is a Q&A so I presume that every time someone create a new Question it will generate a unique URL for that. Indepentend if you have or not an answer you want Google to crawl and index your site as quick as possible to start to analyzing the new page and bring traffic to it. The best way to expedite this "re-crawling" is to use a ping service that you can trigger after your user answer the question. PS: If you site is updated frequently you shouldn't have a problem with crawling, because Google usually identify this type of website really quick. Drop me a call is free for this week. Best,

Trust the opinion of the designer, don't make it a free for all of feedback from everyone and your mother. Thatis how bad logos happen. Work with them to decide the best one based on your business goals. They will appreciate you asking their professional opinion on the design.

More or less correct that in raising seed, that most companies that successfully raise, fall into two camps: either a conceptual raise (with little to no evidence) or a traction-raise. The conceptual raise is almost always easier but puts most emphasis on the founder(s) which means that without a lot of prior success or good predictors for future success, a conceptual raise is simply not possible for many founders. A traction raise can be really tough because the "metrics that matter" are so subjective to each investor and what's already been achieved gets discounted almost to zero and the analysis is on the question of "how much bigger can this be?" which leaves most inexperienced founders unable to articulate a credible vision of how it can become a billion-dollar business (at the very least in enterprise value) What to raise, when to raise, and how to raise are all questions I have helped a lot of Clarity members answer. I encourage you to take a look at the reviews other Clarity members have left about their interactions with me on this subject. If you're serious about understanding your options, I'd be happy to help you in a call.

I've been an entrepreneur for a long time (since 1990) and this subject is there in the highs, the lows ... there are so many times that I've felt this. I can really say I've had two lives, however, the first was when I was alone (Lone Ranger style). Even though I had business partners I had so much time when I felt I was all alone. And now ... where it is very different. I can remember times that were so bad from a cash flow point of view that I would look at pan-handlers with a pot of money in a hat, or cup and think, "wow, they have more cash than I do right now." Life for me changed when I joined a peer group for Entrepreneurs called Entrepreneurs Organization (www.eonetwork.org) ... the impact on me, my business, my family and my ability to contribute to a greater good has been obvious to all that know me. I truly can say that I am a better person accomplishing more than I had thought possible since my journey with EO. That said, you have to have a business of more than $1 Million in USD sales per year to qualify for membership. There is an Accelerator program put on by EO, with many of the same benefits plus instruction to help grow your business - and all the instruction is put on by people who have DONE it before. You can get info about that at http://accelerator.eonetwork.org/Pages/Default.aspx ... But if neither of those things make sense to you ... I have written a number of blog posts on this subject. They are also podcasts so you can listen when you're on your way to and from meetings. They mostly deal with the fact that we can be our own enemies when we're in that low phase ... we need to ask for help from our teams, from our friends and from others. The reality is that we all have baggage - as leaders and entrepreneurs we NEED to find people to help us unpack. Here are some blogs for you to look at: About a Forum of peers: http://wisenapkin.com/2014/01/20/be-vulnerable-mo-fathelbab-founder-and-president-of-forum-resources-network/ Vulnerability/Asking for help: http://wisenapkin.com/2014/01/13/theres-lots-we-cant-control-so-control-this-brad-feld-co-founder-foundry-group-techstars-and-more/ http://wisenapkin.com/2014/01/07/435/ http://wisenapkin.com/2014/01/06/2014-seasons-premiere-with-rob-simons-ceo-of-toolbox-studios/ http://wisenapkin.com/2013/10/30/vulnerable-leaders-are-the-strongest/ http://wisenapkin.com/2013/10/31/got-baggage-i-do-and-erick-says-i-need-your-help/ On riding the emotional roller coaster of being an entrepreneur: http://wisenapkin.com/2013/11/06/when-riding-the-roller-coaster-wave-your-arms-in-the-air-cameron-herold/ I've been there ... just remember you are not alone. Make it a great day! Govindh

Have you looked at InfusionSoft, great CRM and has a task feature that allows you to set automation for tasks to be assigned to your team members.

This is the Billion $ question for which there could be a Billion answers. I can share my personal experiences based on some the mistakes I made during my early startup days (post 911). First, I am concerned that you have built an enterprise software solution without a 'First Customer' or even 'First Few Customers'. I am aware that you or members of your team may have industry insights, but it always helps to work WITH your initial few clients as you design and develop an enterprise application, so that you have the opportunity to interact with the client and make changes and enhance the solution to meet the real needs of the client. Given that you now have an application and a potential client, your key task now is to research the client needs and issues in great depth (not just the industry in general) so that you are ready to pivot your presentation in response to the client needs. However great you think your application is, I can assure you that if it is not tested with several potential clients during the design, development and testing stages- you should ready for some surprises. Coming to the question about concessions, it depends if you are coming from a position of strength or weakness. Needless to say, you are always better off when you have a tested solution that addresses the most critical needs of the client and you are OK walking away from a bad deal. If you do not have a customer and badly need the 1st so that you can showcase them to other prospects, I believe that it is OK to allow them some concessions such as a 30 day free trial, a performance guarantee, some extra licenses, free training or upgrades for 12 months, etc as long as they allow you to use their name in for marketing and publicity. Access to the CEO/Founder is a big deal to the Customer - so offer it if you can. One final advice- instead of a formal sales presentation, tell your story in a way that is emotional and compelling. Talk about the wealth of professional experience of your Founders, show that your firm cares deeply about the customer, how your product can help improve their business. Weave these into one seamless narrative that is authentic and honest. Be confident but also be humble- remember that you are the startup. Start by asking questions and let the client talk about the issues. Let me know if can be of any more help. Good Luck!

I have noticed a 1% conversion rate to the Buy button. This is normal and anything over 1% is icing on the cake sales. That is actually 1 out of 100 sales which we notice with some of the apps we help our clients develop as well as the ecommerce websites we build for businesses. Our highest conversion rate has been 7.3% within the first week, but that was because the client had an established user base for their other apps and they advertised it prior to going live. I hope that helps and can help you with further suggestions on increasing conversion rate. Bruce

My absolute first advice would be not to launch the app at a low price then raise it up later on. That's an absolute No No. There is no real rule to price your app. My suggestion would be to look around the app store of similar apps to get an idea of what they are priced at. Once you launched the app at a certain price you can always have limited time deals. Keep an eye on the downloads and price. By doing this you may be able to find the perfect price that gives you the most sales and can change the price accordingly to that.

Way too many to list. The usual suspects include: Amazon, Westjet Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Apple etc. I'm focused on new(ish) tech companies and their approach to customer service such as: Silvercar, Airbnb, ZenPayroll, Oscar.

If you're talking about an app-store launch, then it's important to have the core mechanics of the product (from a user interaction perspective) figured out such that the majority of your users are doing the things you want them to do in order to drive continual engagement with the app. Design polish can come later and often slows down whomever is implementing the development of the app. I don't think anything should ever be "ugly" but lacking polish is often the right way to go to get speed to market. That said, to be sure of the core interactions, you want to do as much testing and observing real users use your app prior to launch. Happy to talk through any of this in a call with you.

You don't create a business plan in the traditional sense of a business plan. It's a totally inefficient and outdated way to think about how to start, run and grow an app-based business. The best way to pitch investors is with the app itself. That is to say, unless you and your team have relevant prior success such that you could be fundable without a product, the likelihood you will raise prior to your app being launched is very low. The most important questions are *always* around engagement and growth. The questions and metrics vary depending on what kind of app you're building but people want to know that your target audience is hooked on your product and there's some evidence they will continue to be so and that you have either proven a scaleable way to cheaply acquire customers or better, that there is evidence of strong word-of-mouth (only a few apps achieve this) or a quantified viral effect (a viral coefficient of at least .3). Happy to talk to you in a call. I'd encourage you to read my reviews that other Clarity members have left. The intersection of fundraising and product advice is an area I have a lot of experience with.

The best defence is a strong offence. Said another way, the best companies don't spend too much time looking in the rear-view mirror, and instead focusing on the drive ahead. Most web and mobile businesses are not defensible by true I.P but rather speed of execution, great design, responsive and caring customer support and a relentless concern for the customer. In the case of the example you provided, content quality and regular and timely updates are also key competitive differentiators.

Brita's sheer size prevented them from doing anything. They're not in the business of making beautiful, sustainable water pitchers. They're in the business of making mass, plastic, functional water pitchers. They make millions more than Soma (for now) and it may not even be on their radar. Read: Small Is The New Big from Seth Godin or David and Goliath (Malcolm Gladwell's latest) for more on this. Stealth is bullshit. Nobody steals ideas and makes millions anywhere except in the movies. It's about execution.

GREAT QUESTION! I loved doing trade shows and with our strategies we would get 10% of all the people who attended to sign up at our stand which is unprecedented. We did this WITHOUT any need to give leaflets to people who would just walk past and forget all about you. I have taught this strategy to other exhibitors and am happy to walk you through this in a call so that I can customize it to your business more than I could here because you've not given enough information about the event for me to give a fuller answer. Also if you are at an exhibition it's worth realizing that there are MORE ways to be profitable including strategies to sell to others (NOT JUST the attendees) even before the event date you can line things up so that if the exhibition doesn't hit the numbers that they sold you on - you won't end up losing out. Really excited to learn more about your business and help you have a great customer acquisition event there at the event. Depending on your stand size and ancillary budget there are other ways to make the event more profitable too. If you want to speak then just click "Talk to Marsha" below. I can make some time this week to help you.

I guess it will really depend based on your target audience and how you can make yourself stand out. In all cases you can try with the following: 1. PR Focus on getting publicity from blogs and online media sites. This will help you a lot when it comes to user acquisition (your target is already there, otherwise they won't be reading news) 2. You might try Facebook ads to drive traffic to landing pages to generate leads. Offer educational content that requires opt-in. For example: "How to read all the news in less than 30 minutes per day". In the past personally I spent about 1,5 hours per days readying news so if you teach me how to do it faster, you wont me already. Try with downloadable ebooks, webinars, etc. I hope that helps. Feel free to schedule a call if you need more help with that. I'd love to give you my advice on that.

The two answers here are right in a sense to call to your attention what a challenging endeavour it will be, should you decide to pursue this, but neither actually answer your question as you've stated it. You should begin developing this idea by doing customer development with other peers in your industry (outside your own organization) to see if they share your frustration with the current solution and share your enthusiasm for an idea of how it could be made better. Since you're active in this industry already, it should give you a breadth of contacts to reach out to. I'd encourage you not to ask friends or people who you have a very close relationship with as they are more likely to tell you what you want to hear. After you've validated that you're not the only one frustrated by the current solution, I'd look at building a prototype that is able to illustrate your vision in sufficient way to begin speaking with real potential customers. It *sounds* as if there may be some regulatory or practical IT issues that might threaten the simplicity of a prototype, but sufficient to say, this is the next step in the process. If you've been able to demonstrate demand for your solution as illustrated in the prototype, then you're well on your way. Of course, there is a *lot* of complexity in just these two steps alone and I'd be happy to discuss this. To answer the other parts of your question: It's a waste of time to write a business plan. You can look at "Lean Canvass" as a means to inform your thesis and keep track of it's validation and evolution. Established competitors will not move nearly as fast as you and can't "start from scratch." If you're very successful, they will copy you, but it's likely that it won't hurt your business too much if you get to the point where they are wanting to copy you. I run a venture-backed enterprise software company and have helped many Clarity members through questions of this exact nature. I encourage you to read my reviews and book a call if you'd like to talk through these questions in more detail.