In this beautiful moment, the billionaire Wolfram Alpha founder, one of the world’s leading academics, held an impromptu debate on the essence of our universe outside an insane
@Grimezsz
rave where many of the world’s top founders/VCs danced like its 2021
That’s the
@AllInSummit
A panel recently put me against a CMO over a couple hundred franchises for a debate: “How to grow: centralized control vs franchises”
In prep for that I had a crazy realization: In the long run, a franchise model will never beat centralization in today’s digital channel landscape
It’s still wild to me that you can get to the point where you have one button that you know will make 45 people in Phoenix, Arizona want to quit their current job to work with us instead. Then another button that you know will get hundreds of Phoenix customers to keep them busy.
The only incomplete test I haven’t been able to shake over the last 5 years is the idea of manufacturing fame through channels..
Messed around with it with actresses’ instas but ready to make this a serious side project. Drop me a DM with learnings if you’ve tested this before
Note the following is even outside of the normal roadblocks in growing a franchise model- like finding/training franchisees, the corporate marketing team having to parent/convince hundreds of clueless franchisees in how to spend their budgets, etc..
People like to think they’re all so unique (myself included), yet as a whole our actions, or rather reactions to messaging and placement combinations, are the same as those that have faced the same situation before is - rarely varying more than 10% with significance.
Huge thanks to
#SelfMade2018
for having us to talk growth and national expansion! There’s nothing more inspiring/fun than an audience that’s prepping to scale nationwide and a Q&A that devolves into a lightning round of:
Q: Business model explanation
A: Growth strategies to test
People pay for things that solve a real problem. If you present them a better solution to a real problem, they will purchase - regardless of how you present it to them. Based upon observed falling CPMs, it actially seems advertisers are fleeing rather than users
#PersonalOpinion
Announcement: Shrug Capital will be attending
@ARealityEvent
May 30th
If you fit our thesis ("is this cool?"/see slide) and are looking to partner with
#VerySeriousInvestors
™, reach out to our social media manager: niv@🤷♂️.vc
[end press release]
#AWE2018
One of my favorite footnotes in company history is that when we negotiated the lease on the new, expanded headquarters (which is 5 floors above a small shopping mall), one of the conditions in the lease was that Jack got lifetime access to be in the mall and HQ- only pup allowed
Today is
#NationalPetDay
so naturally we have to give Jack, our resident pet and CCO (Chief Cuteness Officer), some love. His dad, Daniel, is our director of engineering, and Jack has roamed our HQ halls since he was a
#puppy
!
#BellhopsMoving
#dogs
#moving
TLDR of the TLDR: So long as CPAs continue to scale proportionally to CPMs (and any changes to richness of available targeting), we don’t have to question user trust or spending behavior. The data will let us know if it ever shifts.
TLDR: From the data I’ve seen, this is actually the best Facebook environment we’ve seen since ~2009
•Q4 2017 CPM’s averaged $11.17 for US targeting.
•Trailing 7 (blended bw client accounts): $3.07 blended CPM for affluent major US metro users
Millions to be made here
(2/2)
Today I used my go-to virtual assistant (based in the Philippines) to find/interview/contract virtual assistants based in our HQ town for tasks requiring a real-world presence and I feel like I peaked.
Our VA’s have VA’s.
USCIS tells Senate of its plans to stop letting spouses of H-1B visa holders apply for work permits and is working to rescind "International Entrepreneur Rule" (
@mnickelsburg
/ GeekWire)
Focusing solely on a unit-economic basis when discussing channels also makes it hard to appreciate the effects the new landscape is having on the company as a whole. Has to be a mix of unit-economics vs. aggregate in discussions, even if you lean heavily toward u-e in testing
Anyone can get praise when things are going well. I’d much rather be the first person someone calls when everything’s going wrong and no one knows why. Those are the most rewarding days
My 2 favorite questions I discovered during Q1:
In reflection: “If I could start over in this industry what would I do differently? And should we do that now?”
In every 1-on-1 with team members: “If you could change anything about our strategy or team, what would you change?”
The fact that you can change the way hundreds of lives move forward by clicking a button to increase a monthly channel budget still blows my mind weekly.
Ever have one of those days where you have so many funnel entrances that you're afraid to see the channel invoices tomorrow?
It's like ordering an entree that didn't have a price listed and it's so good you're afraid to ask for the check.
Imagine getting a $845,000 918 Spyder to race across a continent in the
@gumball3000
just to have to cover it in ads 😩
Even as a marketer this kills me on the inside
Growth marketing, then, is just creating and perfecting all of the situations you have to put various user segments in to achieve each of the results you need to grow, and benchmarking the possibilities/limitations of each.
“Never slow down. It’s way better to be playing 4 hands ahead and have already found the ace than to be caught holding a pairs of 2’s when you’re already all in” -Wise words of my grandfather
The least expected Slack message I’ve ever received from a team member came today:
“Um so Groupon is paying for AdWords buys for us..”
Working with
@Groupon
has gone from the worst channel experience to the best under their new team. Much credit to them for the turnaround
Interesting issue-
Creating a team on the foundation of testing & iterating in a unit-economic-based, cost per single customer mindset makes it incredibly hard to collectively zoom out after a year & appreciate how 11 acquisition machines can compliment each other in a landscape