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asmartbear.com
Keyword, buzzword, half-truth, adjective, hey look at me! (founder of two unicorns: http://WPEngine.com, http://SmartBear.com). Writing for 17 years at: https://longform.asmartbear.com
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Posts 24 Comments 26

One of the reason that “marketplace” startups are difficult, is that so many things have to go right: Attracting active buyers 𝘢𝘯𝘥 sellers Valuable at small scale, and large (𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦) In general, “and” means high risk of failure.

submitted 17 minutes ago • 1 comment

When you ask on social media whether things like SEO or AdWords work, remember to filter out the people who sell SEO or AdWords tools or services. They’re not necessarily wrong and definitely not bad people! Just biased on this particular point.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

We’re such a horrible boss… to ourselves. Never forgiving, never forgetting, never good enough. It's part of why we have the drive and high bar, to succeed. And also why we beat ourselves up and have Impostor Syndrome.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Pitch competitions are entertainment only, and typically not even good entertainment. Shark Tank shows that it 𝘤𝘢𝘯 work. Few competitions are that good. In any case, they’re irrelevant, whether you want to raise money or not. (But good practice if you are.)

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

I really liked this simple but powerful system from @johncutle.fish for scheduling multiple teams, some of which have dependencies on each other:

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

A strong founding team improves odds of success, but it’s not just that there are 2-3 people. It’s strongest when they have different skill areas, because then they’re reducing risk in multiple areas, rather than just “doing more work.”

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Affiliates are a power law -- the top few drive nearly all the growth. Therefore, by hand, find the largest, which are often the ones with big newsletters, podcasts, etc.. The long tail comes from joining a major affiliate ecosystem -- they'll find you.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Too much time in the weeds, you might be heading in the wrong direction, even if moving quickly. Too much long-range “strategizing” and you’re not making progress. If you’ve been in one mode for a while, consider popping into the other one.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

Before they were successful, everyone started out unsuccessful. And it was unclear if they would ever achieve it, because it is rare and risky and people who are equally smart, equally deserving, equally privileged and work equally hard often don’t make it. And yet they did. (1/2)

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

Great long piece from Ton Dobbe on how to transform your sales organization from being generic and desperate to listening, telling the right stories, framing the conversations, embodying the product’s strengths: https://valueinspiration.com/saas-sales-process

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

“Recency Bias” can be an advantage for startups, not a fallacy. Quickly reacting to what's in front of you is one way to iterate towards getting things right.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Pricing is paired with the customer segment. Either matching expectations (the rule of "no surprises") or using price as a differentiator (if you can buy differently through you, that's a reason to buy). (Which doesn't necessarily mean "cheaper.")

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘅: 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 You absolutely need to know the details. If a department head doesn't know their numbers, that's a massive red flag--they're not on top of their responsibilities. (1/6)

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Only people who know little, believe they know much.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Wondering why entrepreneurs sell their successful companies? Here’s why I chose to sell Smart Bear. It 𝘪𝘴 about money, and also more than that.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

"Doing stuff" is how to lasso serendipity.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Keep going, even when you’re having an off day and nothing seems to be working. Even in things like practicing an instrument or running. Sometimes, the brain needs that. Also, you keep the habit. But don’t worry about “productivity” during those times.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

Smart, capable, thoughtful people can come up with an explanation for anything, a justification for anything. That’s a problem, as we successfully defend preconceived ideas rather than seeking truth. Whether we’re convincing someone else, or excusing ourselves.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

Dogfooding your own software is critical for finding the obvious UX issues and bugs, and generating good feature ideas. But 20 paying customers doing the same is far better. They will agree** on things that you didn't think of alone. **30% is enough to be significant.

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

100% effort in everything is how you burn out. 100% effort in the very few things that make the biggest difference, and are aligned to your existing strengths, allows you to put less effort into everything else, and still succeed.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Koan #104 “I really needed to hear this today.” “I’m a grad student, but I didn’t understand ___ until now.” “I’d heard that before, but it finally clicked.” “I’ve never heard that before.” Exposition is not less valuable than invention. And the student was enlightened.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

When you follow a process, it feels like you’re making progress, doing the right thing, accomplishing the goal. With a good process, under the right circumstances, that’s true. That’s why we have them. But if you stop evolving and adapting, it becomes wrong.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

How do you create a diversified “luck portfolio?” Meaning: Since good and bad luck is always swirling around, how you have fishing lines, bets, awareness, to parry the bad and take advantage of the good?

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

People budgets and software budgets are totally separate things. That’s why, while ROI sales pitches can work, actual ROI calculators don’t. More:

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments