paulitex
Joined 17 years ago
Karma
965
Submissions
211
Member since
Mar 12
Recent submissions
Comment · 13 years ago
Thanks! Definitely sounds like we need to tighten up the message.
This is great. :)
Comment · 13 years ago
Yes, prospects. Mailing lists, relevant LinkedIn groups, etc.
I generally agree with you, but I think this community has an eye for detail we might not find in other groups.
Comment · 13 years ago
Thanks – that's similar to what cooperadymas was saying.
Who did you mean by "their"? We are soliciting feedback on our more B2B channels too. But I'm posting here because a) it's a startup and HN likes startups and b) I like HN and wanted to share. :)
Comment · 13 years ago
vegetarianism is not the answer. Monsanto is one of the evilest companies on earth and they control most soy production (I say this because many vegetarians eat a lot of tofu).
It's about understanding the source and making good choices. Eat grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef (these two things virtually guarantee you're not supporting the concentrated feedlots) and free range chicken. Eat non-GMO vegetables that are locally grown and in season. It's about supporting the right suppliers, which thankfully exist for all parts of the omnivore spectrum.
Comment · 13 years ago
I just watched "Food, Inc" this weekend, it's a very well made documentary. Much more evidence-based and non-preachy than I expected.
They talk at length about what they call 'veggie libel laws' and other laws introduced by food producer lobbies that limit free speech and surveillance about food productions. There's a long history of this, unfortunately it's nothing new.
If you have amazon prime, you can watch it for free: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc/dp/B002VRZEYM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U...
Comment · 13 years ago
Learndot – Vancouver, BC, Canada or San Francisco, CA, USA
http://www.learndot.com/
Full-time, Intern, or Remote (North America)
Learndot builds beautiful learning centers for organizations. We exist to make the world a smarter place. Learndot is leading a sea change in how learning for organizations is created, comparable to the change from waterfall to agile software development.
We are alumni of the GrowLab accelerator in Vancouver. We sell to many happy businesses that love us (Get Satisfaction, Zirtual among them), make money and are growing very quickly.
Both founders are developers and we care about creating great work environments, providing flexibility and autonomy, and helping everyone continuously become better at their craft. We are currently a team of five fulltime. Core technologies: Client-side Javascript (we use Sproutcore), Scala (all server-side code).
To apply email [email protected] with [HN] in the subject line. Open positions:
1) App and Web Designer. We are looking for a talented visual designer who wants to help us build smart and beautiful applications for web and mobile. Time would be split around 70%/30% between design on our core app and design for our website & marketing pages. You would work closely with our Chief Product Officer to create solutions for user needs, with your end product being photoshop or keynote exports for our dev team.
2) Front-End (JS) or Full Stack Engineer (JS + Scala). We are looking for a great javascript developer who will work directly with our CTO and Designer in building our core application across multiple devices. Learndot is a thick-client JS app using Sproutcore. Our backend API is written in Scala. The ability or desire to work in Scala is a bonus, but our immediate needs are on the JS-side.
Comment · 13 years ago
Worth noting, we actually did that as well. I believe we got 7-8 conversions on launch day from the ML.
Built from ~6 months of email capture on the landing page + 4 months of active customer discovery interviews.
Comment · 13 years ago
Sorry about the confusion. When I say I will pay $60 for a warm lead, that's assuming a number of them will not convert. Our LTV is in the 1000s, but another part of the cost of acquisition is the time on the phone to close the deal.
It's more like this: - We'll pay $300 bucks for 5 warm leads to hand off to sales. - Sales will work the leads to close, spending another $200 of time. One of them will close. - We'll get a customer with a LTV of greater than $2000, for $500. LTV >= 4x total CAC.
In valuing the leads from TechCrunch, it's a mistake to assume they'll all close (in which case their value is beyond $5520), we have to value what they actually are: potential. We have to discount the risk. That value, is about $60, so all 22 are worth $1320.
I like the optimism though. :)
And you're right it's not a great payoff overall. ~$3000 isn't a great ROI for the effort that went into the launch. There were other channels as well beyond HN and TC, but I wanted to keep the story focused on these two.
We've been testing more channels since and there's lot of data there as well and so, so much more to learn. Looking forward to your post!
Comment · 13 years ago
Numbers are always trustworthy if they're accurate. You just need to right context to interpret them in. These numbers are straight from Google Analytics, and you are correct that one was a direct link and the other was via TC. I say this in the article.
This is a real world scenario. Many people ask how much traffic we got from being on TechCrunch. This is just data, take it as you want. I do my best to explain the main caveats, including the one you pointed out. There are many.
Comment · 13 years ago
Thanks, fixed.
[email protected] [email protected]