journalist

There are 2 posts tagged journalist (this is page 1 of 1).

How to Take your Start-Up to the Next Level What is it about? Aaron Patzer, founder of mint.com, tal

How to Take your Start-Up to the Next Level

How to Take your Start-Up to the Next Level from Carsonified on Vimeo.

What is it about?

Aaron Patzer, founder of mint.com, talks about how he got from an idea to $170 million in just three year.

What can I learn?

Don’t be secretive: Aarons first idea was a goal setting software. Instead of building it in stealth mode, he decided to talk to people. Only about one in eighty of these people found this idea appealing, so he discarded it. Later he hasn’t gone secretive. He showed mint’s UI to lots of people and optimized it over time.

Build a prototype: If you are raising money, looking for customers or hiring people, a prototype is real advantage. People can actually see your idea in action, click around and feel the experience. Would you rather listen to a 10 minutes sales pitch or playing around 10 minutes with a new software?

Leverage your success: If you are once in the news, try to stay there. Mint got a pretty clever idea. They gave away free mint mojitos at the Techcrunch 40 and were eventually elected as people’s choice. Then they talked to other journalists if they won’t want to interview the people’s choice winner. And so on.

(via Carsonified)

#38/111: Riches in Niches

What is it about?

How to thrive at being a niche entrepreneur? Susan Friedmann focuses on service businesses and embraces promotion, promotion and promotion.

Key points?

GEL – Growing, Experience, Love: Consider these three things if you look for a niche. Firstly, the industry should be growing, e.g. elderly care. Secondly, it’s easier to work with your existing knowledge than to learn everything new. Thirdly, choose a niche that you love because it will be hard enough to be motivated the years building your business.

Be an expert: The first step in being a nichepreneur is to build credibility. Learn as much as you can about your niche and share this knowledge. Write a blog, offer webinars, offer seminars or even write a book. This will help your recognition as an expert.

Cultivate your contact with the media: For even greater exposure try to publicize in industry magazines or even regional newspapers. Try to stay in touch with journalists or editors, if you gave them once useful great advice, they will probably contact you in the future.

Conclusion

This book gives a nice view on marketing from an other perspective. I think it works extremely good if you offer your expertise as a service, e.g. coaches, consultants, attorneys, etc. For product companies the most important lesson is to offer free useful information to your customers and prospects.