I have a couple of websites that I host using WordPress. Hosting WordPress can be a frustrating experience with crappy shared hosts or super expensive options. However, I’ve found that Trellis together with a few of the other projects (Bedrock and Sage most notably) from the roots.io project make it a much less painful endeavour. … Continued
When you’re learning Ruby, your journey starts off with some simple course such as learning how Strings work, doing some simple multiplication and then writing a method or two. Then, you might do a course such as the Rails Tutorials that introduces you to Rails, Git and such tools. You might do a course on … Continued
Dave McClure of 500 startups popularized the AARRR metrics framework for product managers and online marketing: The Metrics The acronym stands for: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue These steps follow on from each other, making up the funnel from acquiring users to generating revenue. Also, bonus points because you sound like a pirate saying it! … Continued
Gail Goodman coined the concept of the “Long, Slow SaaS Ramp of Death” in a speech given back at the Business of Software in 2013. Her talk is a “must watch” if you’re selling business software to small businesses for $30/month. Spoiler: it’s really tough, takes more time than one would wish and there are … Continued
At some stage, all SaaS businesses will start using AdWords to acquire customers. As of today, if I type in ‘team messaging’ into Google, I see an ad for Slack: Even viral products such as Slack turn to Adwords at some stage. It makes sense that advertising on relevant keywords such as ‘team messaging’ will … Continued
Andrew Chen currently works at Uber on acquiring users, and he organized a workshop in Paris on growth. I went. As a side-note, it was held in the Family HQ in Paris. The Family has a slightly zany cat-meme focused approach to decor and a cult-like feel to it. They have an excellent selection of … Continued
You can grow your SaaS business in three ways: 1. get more customers; 2. get customers to stay longer; or 3. get customers to pay more. I believe that the last one, pricing, is an underrated lever of growth. We tend to focus on acquisition and, to a lesser extent, retention. But get pricing right, … Continued
Facebook has finally opened up lead ads to everyone. What are lead ads, you might ask? They look like this: The core between this ad and most other Facebook ads is that you can enter your contact details right on the ad. You skip the wait between clicking on an ad and arriving at a … Continued
New startups or small bootstrapped companies find marketing excruciating. I’ve talked to founders who’ve built an entire product, but they’re stumped at getting the first 100 paying customers. Jason Lemkin at SaaStr comments that the first 10 unaffiliated paying customers is hardest thing you’ll do with as a software company. The reason is that if you … Continued
Last summer I was living in a tiny, 16-square meter apartment in Paris near Strasbourg-Saint Denis. The weather in July was HOT. I’d stick my chair on the desk and work at a makeshift standing desk with the window open. As inner-city Paris goes, Strasbourg-Saint Denis is pretty damn ghetto, so all sorts of streets … Continued