At WP Engine, everything in marketing and sales is included in CAC. Salaries, commissions, coupons, direct advert spend (which you're saying you don't yet have), fees, travel and other costs associated with conferences, etc.. My advice is to err on the side of putting too much in CAC, because that helps you honestly understand the costs. Ignoring some costs just because they don't scale with company size or marginal new customers doesn't make sense to me, it simply means that certain components of your CAC you expect to get more efficient over time. Indeed, they had better! So measure it, instead of ignoring it. You also might find that some of those direct-spend channels are not as inefficient as they seem compared to things like SEO efforts. Or the reverse! All good things to explore of course. I'll also note that at $19/mo in the crowded space of CMS offerings you will find that very few channels will be efficient compared to the revenue you're generating. It sounds like you know that, and are dealing with it with "scalable" efforts like content marketing, however again you should be ruthless in understanding how those costs are really translating into orders and whether that's a financially sensible total strategy.

I own / operate physical therapy clinics in the Denver Metro area and have been effectively generating leads and generating new patients online for the last 3 years. And the cost of acquisition is surprisingly low (from as little as $0 if you do some of the things in-house to less than $100 for the cost of acquisition). Though I can't say what your results might be - I have had no success with Facebook (ads or landing page) regarding new client acquisition. If you are interested to learn what works for my business, give me a call to discuss.

They've kept it simple, you don't need to fill up sign up forms and remember your user name. Your GSM SIM card is your identity. Secondly, they tightly focused on SMS market. Didn't go for multi party video conferencing, screen sharing, and other seemingly cool stuff.

In short, someone was willing to pay $16bn, therefore it's worth $16bn. Trying to tie intrinsic value to private companies is tough, and doesn't follow a logical path. If you look at Facebook's angle, it becomes pretty clear: When you have 1 billion users, but still want to grow, you have to pay for it. FB looked at the WhatsApp acquisition purely from a user acquisition perspective, they paid $45 per user, which is a justifiable fee on their end. What makes it crazy is there were a lot of users involved. Because Facebook has become a mobile app company, and WhatsApp adds to the company portfolio, it makes long-term sense. Additionally, much of WhatsApps user base was international, which is a huge untapped chunk of the world for Facebook. Acquiring WhatsApp allowed FB to make a big international splash in no time.

Yes if you have a site that has traffic these can be great streams of revenue. If you google my name and check or Adsense check you will see me holding a check and what can be possible :)

As Ken suggested, there is a wide breadth of mobile offerings and although there are some great "mobile only" funds, each investor / fund has their own thesis that makes them interested in some but disinterested in others. Also, if your revenue generating, you should seriously consider bootstrapping further. Revenue is treated very strangely in early-stage investing and *might* work against you. AngelList is a great way to research investors but not effective in actually connecting with them. Find investors who you are confident will be passionate about what you're doing based on prior job experience or what you know they are investing in. Happy to talk in a call to help explain this further if you need more clarity.

UX research companies are your best bet for creating personae. They understand a lot about your users from you and your team, then go on the field and talk to a certain number of users (online or face-to-face), they will finally create rich personae for you. If you want to conduct conceptual testing of your product or service, UX research companies will help you find right people and run formative or validation research.

Hi Rebecca, I would love to connect you with one of my contacts that brings medtech inventions like yours to market. There are an R&D wing of a healthcare provider and have brought some cool products to market already. Please send me a quick message and I'll get you my email address and set you up with my contact.

I recently went trough this with https://www.3dagogo.com and previously with http://www.artgonia.com Find a channel that already carries one side and, find out if you can 'borrow' their content or access to people. For example you can scrape yellow pages listings for car dealerships ( filling up the seller side ) and make posts of thier pages in your site on Craigslist (getting some buyers to know about you). Make sure your listings have top notch SEO built-in and don't worry too much about the little traffic that Google brings initially, it'll grow. Make it super easy to share the one action that sets you apart with their friends. All the while start marketing heavily to the sellers side. Do manual, non scalable work here, it doesn't matter at this point. Promise that you'd post to Craigslist for then, run Facebook ads of the pages in your marketplace, etc. Baby this new customers, learn from them, become their friend. In my experience it's always easier to find 'brave' sellers willing to try something new. If your product is truly differentiated and you provide the necessary social tools and feedback loops, users will slowly find he site, have great experiences and start talking to about them with their friends and one day... You get critical mass and ball stars rolling on its own. Good luck. Give me a call if you'd like to brainstorm more.

NOT Wordpress! Facebook uses PHP among other languages, if that tells you anything. Every programmer will be bias toward what they like and what they are used to coding with. The bigger question for you is, have you completed your due diligence? Is there a real need for another crowd funding platform? Why would yours be so different that it would stand out among the others? Who is you target market? What is your unique selling proposition? How big is your potential market? Should you go vertical or horizontal? You may have already answered these and the two dozen other questions every entrepreneur must ask before they waste valuable time and money to become another business start up statistic. Assuming you have a strong grasp of where you are heading and a solid strategic blueprint to be able to predict your growth, the last thing I will leave you with is this. The programing language is not nearly as important as your database structure and IT infrastructure for the purpose of scale. Not to say the language is not important - all three components work together. Spend time on the other two and work backwards. If you would like to discuss this further at no charge, use the link below. I provide a free 30 minute consultation to first time callers. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

Depending on your individual circumstances, your spouse may be entitled to as much as 50 percent of your business in a divorce. Since it is probably safe to assume that you will not want your ex-spouse to remain in your life as a business partner, what can you do to protect your business? Although there are differences from state to state, in general, separate property includes: a. Property that was owned prior to the marriage b. An inheritance received by one spouse solely c. A gift received by one spouse solely from a third party (not from the other spouse) d. The pain and suffering portion of a personal injury judgment Separate property can lose its that status if it is mixed or commingled with marital property or vice versa. For example, if you re-title your separately owned condo by adding your spouse as a co-owner or if you deposit the inheritance from your parents into a joint bank account with your spouse, then that property will most likely now be considered marital property. All other property that is acquired during the marriage is considered marital property regardless of which spouse owns the property or how it is titled. Marital property consists of all income and assets acquired by either spouse during the marriage including, but not limited to: Pension plans; 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement plans; deferred compensation; stock options; restricted stocks and other equity; bonuses; commissions; country club memberships; annuities; life insurance (especially those with cash values); brokerage accounts – mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc; bank accounts – checking, savings, CDs, etc; closely-held businesses; professional practices and licenses; real estate; limited partnerships; cars, boats, etc; art, antiques; tax refunds. In many jurisdictions, if your separately owned property increases in value during the marriage, that increase is also considered marital property. It is also especially important for you to know if you reside in a Community Property State or an Equitable Division State. There are nine Community Property States: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. These states consider both spouses as equal owners of all marital property (a 50-50 split is the rule). The remaining 41 states are Equitable-Distribution States, which consider factors such as the length of marriage and the spouse's earning power and involvement in building the business when determining a settlement. Settlements in Equitable Distribution States do not need to be equal, but they should be fair (equitable). You should fully understand this especially important distinction between separate and marital property so that you do not inadvertently do anything that might cause your separate property to be construed as marital property. So, what is a prenuptial agreement? A prenuptial agreement (prenup) is a contract signed by both parties before their wedding that details what their property rights and expectations (including alimony) would be upon divorce. A well-drafted prenup can 'override' both Community Property and Equitable Distribution State laws and the courts will usually respect such agreements, making them an immensely powerful tool in protecting your business. Having said that, prenups can be rather tricky, so it is important that they are well drafted. To strengthen them, each to-be spouse should be represented by their own attorney. In most jurisdictions prenups should contain the following vital elements: 1) The agreement must be in writing (No oral prenups) 2) It must be executed voluntarily and without coercion (having your fiancé sign a prenup the day before the wedding is a good way to invalidate that prenup) 3) There must be full disclosure (no hiding of assets) - this is another way to invalidate a prenup 4) The agreement cannot be unconscionable (this is also another way to invalidate a prenup). For example, if you are making millions, do not expect to get away with only giving up the silverware in the divorce, even if that's what's in the prenup. 5) It must be executed by both parties, preferably in front of witnesses (or a notary) Some attorneys even recommend having a judge witness the signing to make sure that no party was coerced. By using a prenuptial agreement, the parties can decide in advanced what property will be considered separate property and what property will be considered marital property and how that marital property should be divided. A prenup is probably one of the best and least expensive ways of protecting your business against a future divorce. But if you do not get a prenup put in place, a postnuptial agreement may be an option. It is like a prenuptial agreement except that it is, as the name implies, entered, and signed after marriage. To be valid, a postnups should contain the same vital elements as a prenup. Having said that, several states still do not recognize postnups and even when they do, postnups are challenged and invalidated much more frequently than prenups. Before marriage, the parties are entering into an agreement much like two businesspeople entering a contract and neither party has any legal family law rights on the other. Theoretically, if they do not like the contract, either party can walk away. However, after marriage, the situation is quite different. The married couple now have very well-defined legal rights regarding support and property division, and they are in a fiduciary relationship with each other, meaning each party has to act in the best interests of the other party. Therefore, any transactions between them will be viewed with caution by the courts. By negotiating a postnuptial agreement, one party will typically be giving up some of these rights and that's why postnups will usually be held to a higher standard of fairness than prenups (on the theory that individuals have less bargaining power once married). Nevertheless, if you do not have a prenup, try to get a postnup. It is better than nothing. Just understand that a postnup is not nearly as ironclad as a prenup and you never know how the courts will act if one spouse decides not to abide by the terms of the postnup. Partnership, shareholder and/or operating agreements should include various provisions that would protect the interests of the other owners if one of the owners gets divorced, including: a. A requirement that unmarried shareholders provide the company with a prenup agreement prior to marriage along with a waiver by the owner's spouse-to-be of his or her future interest in the business. b. A prohibition against the transfer of shares without the approval of the other partners or shareholders and the right, but not the obligation, of the partners or shareholders to purchase the shares or interest of one or both of the divorcing parties so that the other owners can maintain their control of the business. This point is often overlooked. If you don't pay yourself a competitive salary and instead reinvest everything back into the business, your soon to be ex-spouse might claim that he or she is entitled to more money or a larger percentage of your business because he or she did not derive any benefit and all your money went back into the business instead of the household. If your spouse was employed by you or your company, helped run the company in any way or even contributed business ideas during your marriage, then he or she may be entitled to a substantial percentage of your business. The more involved in your business your spouse was, the bigger that percentage would be. If you have partners in your business, then your spouse would own a percentage of your share. If for whatever reason you were not able to adequately protect your business and now your spouse is entitled to an ownership interest, here are some ways to pay him or her off (I'm assuming you don't want to be business partners after the divorce): a. Use your share of other marital assets including cash, stocks, real estate, retirement funds, etc. b. Property Settlement Note – this is a long-term payout (with interest) of the amount you owe your ex-spouse for the value of her share of the business. c. Sell the business and divide the sales price. This is obviously the least preferred method, but all too common. When the business represents many of all assets, there just may be no other way to pay-off the other spouse. Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath

The best answers to this question are Content and Social Sharing. Having the right content with the right length, talking about the right things, to the right people all while being great! Social Sharing consists of creating great unique shareable content that is done in the context of the platform. When you do these things well, Google and other search engines take notice and move you up the rankings.

Hello Tricia, unfortunate first thought is that contracts available on the web for free are typically not sufficient to protect yourself and your partners from any future challenges problems or litigations. 1-The contract between you and your client depending on the product or service that your offering may be drawn up by yourself without too much challenges if it is not a complicated contract i.e. I agree to sell you X for Y price, and a description of your delivery time, payment terms, and the purchaser's responsibility. 2-A contract with the factory might be different especially if it is with your Chinese factories. Definitely this contract must be written by a lawyer that knows about international law. The Chinese are a very difficult group of people to deal with and you must protect everything and I state everything in this contract. The more I think about your question more would really recommend you to meet with a lawyer. I understand that there are expenses to meeting with lawyers but unfortunately these expenses are necessary if you're dealing with the Chinese government, factories, for people..

I know of a marketing executive at an online university. I will ask him your question and let you know what I find out. Cheers, Frank

My solution has always been. 1) Leverage your network but be specific in the ask "Do you know a programmer that's $20-$40 hour (likely from eastern Europe) that you've worked with and like?" 2) There so many new marketplaces jumping up focused on niches that may be worth trying (ex: http://elto.com & others). The only other solution (if you want to spend avg. ~$100/hour) is to call a local dev shop and try and get a "bro deal" / that may work great if you live in a small town and they have capacity. Hope that helps.

Hi, I currently work at Idealab and the body of knowledge and level of support for entrepreneurs is outstanding. I worked at 3 start-ups prior to joining Idealab and feel like I've learned as much in the past year here as I did at any of the start-ups. Plus the people here truly want to help and are good people. The Idealab model is unusual in that 70% of our companies are ones that we spin up from internal ideas. But the other 30% are companies we invest in during a seed round. Please contact me at grant@idealab.com if you'd like to know more about what we do. Best, Grant

I'd definitely go with something like LaunchRock. It will let you set up this page in minutes. You'll want to test your core hypothesis, namely that the value you think the app will provide is actually needed. As far as how long you wait, I think the general purpose of a landing page like this is to gauge interest. You'll have to drive people to the page somehow. You can do this with ad words and social media relatively cheaply. You'll want to track how many people land on the page, how many people sign up for the waiting list, and how many people engage with you on social media about the app/idea. You can usually tell pretty quickly if the idea has legs or not. If you are getting some interest and traction, then go ahead and invest in building the app. I wouldn't worry AT ALL about how long people are on the waiting list. The focus should be determining whether or not there is a market. If you are solving a problem for them, you'll still be solving it in six months when the app launches.

Have a look here: http://www.launchbit.com.

Hello! First some questions. Are you working in a specific local market? What have you done to attract clients in the past? How did it work? Do you have a client base now? Have you tried any referral marketing at all? What are you teaching?

I can tell you that this proposed structure will significantly reduce NewCo's ability to raise additional capital. The idea too that the startup's valuation can jump from less than $200,000 to $10m just through the creation of an MVP in a relatively short period of time is also unrealistic. If the investors actually want their investment to succeed, the absolute maximum they should be getting for a $100,000 would be 15%. If there is a tangible asset (not just an idea but a patent, a customer list, whatever), this could also be worth some equity but generally not more than 5%. If they believe that this NewCo is worth investing $100,000, they should want to invest this $100,000 in the best possible way as to attract further outside capital, not structure it such that the deal is immediately toxic to new investors, day one. Happy to talk through this in a call.

My 2 favourite are: - www.uxpin.com - www.flinto.com Flinto is by far my favorite for mobile. I also us www.balsamiq.com for anything wireframe. Sometimes I jump into Sketch http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ for more high fidelity mockups using their Mirror feature http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/mirror/ Hope that helps. P.S. There's a tonne of Mobile UX experts on Clarity, many $1/min - call them, you'll learn so much. my2cents.

Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.

Great question, I've dealt with this exact same issue. I've found the best way to look at this problem is by analyzing the problem you are solving for this "lighthouse." Is this something they would build anyway? If so, how much would it cost? Anything less than that is probably a win for them. Is this a nice to have, or a need to have for them? Are they price sensitive? How do they usually pay for this type of product/service? If you are able to answer these questions it should help you figure out the best pricing model (up front cost + hosting, monthly service, per user/group etc..). It sounds like you have something pretty valuable that they want. I think pricing it based on "modification" is selling yourself short. If you solve a big business pain for them, they should be willing to pay you something non-trivial. My hunch modification pricing would be trivial for you. Sounds like a great opportunity for you and your company, don't sell yourself short. You'll never get a price that you don't ask for.

It's certainly been an effective tactic and I'd caution you that I don't think the examples you use are counting these people as customers per se but more as trying to solve issues related to two-sided marketplaces. These businesses are trying to prove their worth as effective lead-gen tools for the practitioners. The service providers are more likely to be responsive/pay-attention to an email or inbound message that says "We have someone interested in booking with you" than "Hi, I'm calling from Company X, would you please-sign up and maybe we'll get you some customers?" There's no implied endorsement and the data is really "directory" type content, so it would be unusual to find someone unhappy that their business profile is being published. So it's absolutely a valid tactic but it's also a case of "devil is in the details." Happy to talk through the specifics of your inquiry and what you're looking to do in a call with you.

Well there are tons of courses online everwhere, point is how would you know which one works best, i suggest you do online coaching program, i give 1:1 to millennials who need to start their business, my quali in accounting and exp in business helps them get clarity on step by step guidance on how to move forward, connect with me if this interest you or wish to know more.