I found a couple of articles with some stats http://www.cmo.com/content/cmo-com/home/articles/2013/11/4/15_Stats_LinkedIn.html and http://www.slideshare.net/punchmedia/linkedin-statistics-2013 BUT nothing specifically comparing landing page results with Linked In. FWIW my view on all social media advertising and marketing is that its purpose is to present your brand to folks inside that walled garden. I judge success by how many viewers move off the social page and onto our clients' website [this could be a landing page]. We wrote an e book about how to do this from Facebook. This has been very successful in gaining subscribers to our client Rowperfect.co.uk email newsletter while continuing to extend reach and likers inside FB. http://www.amazon.com/Move-Visitors-Wordpress-Website-Facebook-ebook/dp/B00GZBXVN6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391029909&sr=8-1&keywords=jonathan+malcolm+lewis Let me know if I can help further.

Perhaps. You have to consider how your product is used and how the users will sensorially interact with it. If you have a website, for example, you could probably assume similar US and UK usability -- but now consider layout for Semitic languages which are read right-to-left -- or consider ideographic languages where the ideographs could interact with other graphical elements in a way wholly irrelevant with the languages you're familiar with. If you have a physical product, the question is conceptually the same, but the actions are different. You have to consider how users in a given culture use and interact with products of that sort. Different cultural memes, ways of learning and expectations can effect usability. There are some simple ways to do these things if you have a small budget. You could easily go to craigslist and recruit 10-15 natives of a given country or region. Give them the product or have them use the website (for 60-90 minutes), video it (with their permission of course and for reasonable compensation), and you'll get a potentially useful indicator of usability. If you're P&G or Microsoft, you've got the budget to test against statistically valid sample sizes pretty much everywhere in the world. You don't have that, so you need to use some heuristics. Good luck to you. Should you have any questions, I'd be happy to discuss.

I need more information if possible? What kind of vouchers are you offering?

Clarity has dozen's of experts in this area - some are list here: https://clarity.fm/browse/industries/marketplaces and here: https://clarity.fm/topics/marketplaces-10183 https://clarity.fm/topics/online-marketplace-12395 My favorites are - Micha Kaufman (Founder/CEO @ Fiverr.com) https://clarity.fm/micha - John Ramey (Founder/CEO of isocket.com) https://clarity.fm/johnramey - Josh Brelinger (VC, previously #5 @ oDesk.com) https://clarity.fm/jbreinlinger - Dinesh Thiru (VP of Marketing @ Udemy.com) https://clarity.fm/dinesht - Fergus Dyer-Smith (Founder/CEO @ Wooshii.com https://clarity.fm/fergusdyer-smith + many more.

Q) What info would a buyer need in order to make an offer? Unsolicited offers rarely start out as offers. They start as conversations. Cold inbounds from potential acquirers are usually done to establish some facts and also willingness to entertain an offer. They need to have enough information to form a rationale (i.e. explanation as to why it makes sense to the acquiring company) and enough confidence that there is interest by the seller. Q) Would that info need to be verified or can an offer be made on the condition of verifying later (if the conversation gets serious)? A) Offers are always conditional. There is a delicate balance between knowing how much to disclose and when to disclose information, versus trying to force more commitment on the part of the potential acquirer. Q) What is a general rule of thumb (formula?) for how to valuate a SaaS business? A) Depends on the size and business of the acquirer. The smaller the acquirer (especially where its valuation is $100m or less), the more it becomes a relative valuation argument (what do we have and what do you have), but the larger the acquirer it is typically a talent acquisition model where the business dynamics are less important to what the team has demonstrated it can do and the perceived value that that team can make internally. This is even more true when the target (you) is generating less than $5m ARR on a trailing basis. Finally, you phrased this question as "how would one go about entertaining an offer to buy my company?" so let me speak to a few general rules. 1) If you're willing to sell, be polite, efficient and courteous to any potential interest. 2) Quickly qualify who you are dealing with and their ability to make a decision (are they junior and just doing research or are they VP Corp Dev?) 3) Quickly establish mutual interest in a desire to dive deep, and get them to explain their process including other decision-makers etc. 4) Ensure that you have competent legal counsel who has significant experience in M&A, ideally with the buyer you're talking to. 5) *GET A TERM SHEET*. You have nothing until you have a term sheet and even then, you don't have a deal. 6) As soon as you have a term sheet, begin aggressively marketing your Company to other potential acquirers. 7) Try and put the impact of the financial outcome aside for a moment (very hard to do) and begin evaluating your suitors based on who you really want to work for over the next 3+ years. Do your due diligence on this question as much as possible. 8) Don't take your eye off the business or celebrate the deal until it's done. I've seen too many friends celebrate prematurely only to see the deal die or radically change at the last minute. Happy to talk through this in a call with you in more detail.

I don't know any plugins with that specific feature, but I did want to mention this after reading your description. You can target specific pages/posts with CSS, so you can limit text wrap to your about page. You just need to know the page ID. WordPress includes a page specific class in the body tag. It looks like this page-id-123. 123 would be your page ID. See screenshot - http://i.imgur.com/zFldy2T.png So you can simply do something like this: .page-id-123 .slideshow-class { ... } This will limit your CSS changes to the slideshow on this particular page.

I'll provide a generalized answer to the question with the caveat that there is somewhat of an exception with Israeli companies but even there, it's more of an exception than a normative behaviour. Angel investors are likely to invest anywhere in the world wherever there is an amazing company with great traction. There are however, many reasons why this is highly unlikely: Corporate Structure: While US angel investors occasionally invest in companies that are not US corporations, it adds undesirable complexity to the investment consideration given unknown tax implications and governance laws in other countries. Competitive Realities: There are so many great companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley alone, never mind the entire United States, that the likelihood of an American angel investor choosing to invest overseas when there is so much closer to home is low. Unknown Talent: Angel investors are often investing primarily or largely because of the founder and/or team. There just aren't as many success stories that have made their way to American angel investors' understandings of the Middle Eastern tech industry to be able to make most angel investors trust that access to great talent is easy or even possible. So for the above reasons, it's highly unlikely that this is likely to occur on a frequent enough basis. I just did a Clarity call this morning with an exec of a Middle Eastern fund and would be happy to introduce if I thought the fit was appropriate and if that executive was amenable. Message me more details if you'd like me to consider that. It seems to me that there is an increasing amount of capital that is geographically bounded to Middle Eastern wealth that might be more accessible to Middle Eastern entrepreneurs.

It really all depends on - if your putting in any money - How much your salary will be (market rate or lower)? - existing investors - if they're revenue generating - how long the companies be around Essentially it's the risk profile of the company that you're coming into. If it's an idea and your coming in at the ground level and not taking a salary the 50/50. If it's been around for a while, no investors and some traction or revenue, you'll be paid below market rate, then maybe 3-10% If it's making money, raised some capital and your a "normal" developer (not a super star) then 1% The key is that you ask for the Cap Table to truly understand what % of the company the type + amount of shares they're inferring equates to. 10,000 shares doesn't mean much if they have 100M outstanding. Also, all equity should be vested over 4 years, 1 year cliff.

It's really ill-advised to solicit your vision from anyone. In my 20 years of building, investing and supporting tech companies, I don't know of a single success story that has it's origins in someone with your approach. Running a tech startup is incredibly hard. It demands sacrifices few are truly able to make and come with it tremendous risks that most people are unwilling to take. It sounds to me as if you want the startup life because you have an impression of what it's about but haven't yet experienced it first-hand. I'd encourage you to first join an early-stage startup. Developers are incredibly in-demand. Find an entrepreneur who has some experience, funding and a compelling vision that you believe in and get to know what the journey is really like.

I wrote an answer to a similar question today which you can find here: https://clarity.fm/a/2877 The one flaw to your current process is this premise: "Whereas, if I focused on a good idea the whole process of driving success would be easier." This - from my experience - is simply not the case. I'm working on what I believe to be the best idea I've ever had and it has been absolutely the most challenging time I've ever had in a career full of product challenges. So a "good idea" does not make the process any easier. As I privately advised the person who asked the other similar question: I'd encourage you to define all your own pain points in your life and filter by most pain and also least addressed by existing solutions. Building what you know and what you're excited about building is the best that any of us can hope for. There's no path to greatness that isn't full of challenges ahead. Happy to do a call to discuss further.

I think it's important to understand your business goals before jumping into app development. Have you created a Lean Canvas or something like that? Do you know who the customer is and what they want? Has the developer built anything that they can show, even a mock-up or prototype? It's tempting to jump straight to building your idea, but I would caution you to think very carefully about the product/market fit first, doing some customer development, before you build too much. And, if you're on board with that approach, it's a great way to start the conversation with the developer, in terms of their willingness to also validate your assumptions before writing too much code.

Facebook is a good start, but you might find iAds a little pricey when just starting since I assume you don't have all your metrics down yet, like LTV, ARPU, etc. These are very important since you'll know what you can afford to spend to acquire each user. As next steps there are many networks I could suggest, depending on what your app is, including InMobi, Millennial, Ad Colony, Aarki, Greystripe, etc.

Like anything to do with a startup, it's about proactive outreach. AngelList is a great way to research what people have done before. You want to optimize for relevant experience. AngelList however is very ineffective for making cold connections. Instead, I use LinkedIn and ensure to always write a personalized introduction with my connection request explaining why my company is something they would be interested in. After the connection is accepted, I then follow-up with a personalized email thanking them for accepting the request and then asking to buy them a coffee or schedule a meeting. I have built a great network of both formal and informal advisors and investors through this process. Formal advisors really should be limited to just a few. In these cases, granting options to purchase equity between 0.5 - 1% is standard for great advisors. But reimbursing expenses is far less standard. I'll always offer to pick-up the tab as a sign of respect for their time, but other than that, advisors (myself included) are generally happy to pay out-of-pocket unless for travel. Just like any relationship, be sure that you want to make a long-term commitment in equity before formalizing the relationship. Often, good advisors where there is a mutual chemistry will be happy to do many meetings without anything committed. Lastly, I would caution you to be wary of people who approach you to act as an advisor and/or people who are actively operational and also on many advisory boards. I limit myself to a handful of formal advisory relationships at a time and it's usually owing to a longstanding friendship that I am an advisor. You want your advisors that you're paying equity to to really be engaged. Happy to talk any of this with you in a call.

If the team has aspirations to build a venture backeable business (i.e. Raise money for equity), then of course you should ask. Ask the CEO if he has a ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan), and if it's part of the compensation package. You're allowed to ask. As for the right person on Clarity, pretty much anyone in this list https://clarity.fm/browse/raising-capital/venture-capital Tom seems to be fast to respond.

I have created numerous educational videos, sales videos and hosted hundreds of webinars. I would recommend checking out the National Speakers Association, of which I am a member, at NSASpeaker.org. If you are on a shoestring budget, you could try fiverr.com - but approach cautiously as it is mostly amateur talent. If you would like to discuss this further, or get some personal referrals, give me a call. I offer a free, 30 minute call to first time clients. Use the link below. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

Strategic clarity is the ability to clearly define, quickly adapt, effectively communicate and properly implement the company's business strategies. It is the opposite of strategic ambiguity. Strategic clarity as a modern term or phrase most likely arises from a very real problem. That is, many businesses do not have a clear strategy or, the strategy they have is ambiguous. Frankly, I would bet that strategic clarity as a new term was probably coined by a business consultant or consultancy firm as a marketing ploy to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The term is catching on. Any business that does not have a clearly defined, adaptable, effectively communicated and properly implemented strategy is at best operating below its true potential, and at worst is in serious jepoardy. I offer free 30 minute consultations using the link below. Feel free to schedule a free call if you would like to discuss this further. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult All the best, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

You have asked the golden question. As a business banker, we all struggle with getting deposits. Going after key industries (escrow companies, property management, HOA's, etc) will help in this. However, there are many options to help get deposits. I'd be happy to hop on a call and talk about this. I just signed up with Clarity yesterday. So I'm still learning the platform.

I'd highly recommend that you read http://saastr.quora.com/. Jason has written extensively on this subject and knows of what he speaks.

Let's start with the premise that an investor is willing to invest "subject to mobile." Unless there is a term sheet that states this, what is far more likely is that an investor was pitched and declined to invest citing that they don't have a mobile offering. The entrepreneur likely said something along the lines of "well can we come back to you when we have a mobile offering?" and said "sure." In this scenario, there is no actual commitment or even high probability of closing an investment. So you want to start by clarifying what the actual commitment is - if any - since entrepreneurs can often misinterpret investor sentiment. Although startup to startup mergers do occur, they have a high point of failure (failure to actually close the deal) because it's very difficult to value the two companies and without real resolve from both teams, it's difficult to establish which is worth what percentage of the merged entity. All of this being said, it's really about what you want. Do you want to go it alone and build a big business behind your app, or would you prefer to be part of a team? Can you recruit a better team on your own than the one they already have? If you are unsure of your desire to go it alone, and unsure of your ability to recruit a better team for your own startup, then you may wish to consider their offer, but I would caution you not to actually close the merger until after the money had been raised. Otherwise, you are at risk of assigning your work to this combined company and if it can't raise you're then stuck. The good news is that it doesn't sound as though you have investors in your company so that actually reduces the complexity of the sale. You should really focus first on whether you love these people. Do you want to work with them everyday for the next 5-7 years? Get there first, and then consider everything else I've said. I'm happy to discuss this in more detail with you in a call. Best of luck!

First I'm lot a tax attorney or even know anything about Malaysian tax law. I'm however a person that has moved around a lot and have encounter this situation before. You will must likely have to declare your US income in your home country. However some local tax laws allow for a deduction of foreign tax paid at source. I have not found a US tax treaty between US and Malysia but you should contact a local tax attorney or the tax agency there and ask if they allow deductions or exemptions for foreign tax paid at source. If they do, you would declare your income and deduct the amount of tax already paid to the US. You may or may not still be liable for additional tax on that income. Again it depends on local tax rates and policies. It's never a good idea to hide income from your tax agency though.

I would suggest launching in a foreign app store only (ex: Canada). That will allow you to get more organic users to continue iterating without a big push. I got this idea from Matt Brezina (Founder of Sincerely, previously Xobni) https://clarity.fm/brezina - he's the man when it comes to testing & iterating mobile apps.

Assuming this is a search campaign, you should be able to see if any new competitors are regularly showing for your keywords. I would also investigate if CPCs have changed (or just conversion rate), how your impression share has changed, and how your average position has changed. If their campaigns are profitable, they will probably continue to run them. Your best bet in the meantime is to optimize your CPC, CTR (helps with CPCs), and conversion rate. You have the history and experience, which should be to your advantage against a new competitor.

The best answer depends largely on your product and the available market. I have been a Value-Added Reseller and have sold products and services through VAR's. I helped one of my current clients set up their reseller and affiliate program. If your product can, in fact, be sold to your target market for $100. And, if your COG's before commissions is $25, that leaves you $75 for operating revenue. Let's break that down. A reseller will need to be paid commensurate with the amount of work involved in selling your product. If the product needs to be purchased in advance and, therefore, stored by the reseller, that also is a factor. If your product can be sold by more of an affiliate marketer without inventory and with little effort except to drive traffic to their site, that is a different situation. There is no easy answer with such little information. But, as a general rule of thumb, a reseller may want 35-50% of the retail sale. That amount also is included in your top line COG. Let's say that you settle for 50% commission to your sales channel. At $100 retail, that leaves you $25 operating revenue after deducting your above mentioned $25 COG. Can you run your company on a gross operating revenue of $25? Sounds like a slim budget. I'd love to know more about your product so I can give you more accurate and specific advice. The first phone call is free. Give me a call using this free call link... https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.com

I have built two software companies by hiring out the development work. I sold one for a decent sum during the dot com era (circa 1999). I remain a shareholder in the other one. I currently work with amazing development company on behalf of one of my clients. Here are some things to consider. 1. Do you really want to give up equity? If not outsource. 2. How fast do you want to get to market? If sooner than later, outsource. 3. How capitalized are you? If undercapitalized, either outsource offshore (which runs about 20% of US rates), or bring on an equity development partner. I offer a free call to first time clients. Let's chat and I'll give you some great advice from three decades of experience. Just use this link to schedule the free call: https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult Best regards, Kevin McCarthy Www.kevinmccarthy.com

No, I think outsourcing this is at worst dangerous and at best lazy. Furthermore, unless this is highly focused on a type of user, I wouldn't trust that you could build user panels that were really of my potential customers. And therein lies the rub. Without real customers, it's impact and value is low.