“Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!” by Dave McClure

What is it: A very THOROUGH framework for marketing a consumer internet product
Who needs it: Founders of consumer internet products
When you’re going to need this: Writing your business plan and executing your marketing strategy (that means, you need this to plan, and you’re going to need to revisit it to execute)

Great advice for internet startups on how to use metrics to make REAL decisions.

I rarely think of entrepreneurs as inventors, which is a shift in perception compared to just 20 years ago. I suppose it has something to do with how much innovation today comes from a semi-intangible realm - the realm of software, the internet, and information - compared to the more tangible realm of lightbulbs and bifocals. Edison and Franklin were thought of as inventors first and entrepreneurs second, if they were thought of entrepreneurs at all.

Furthermore, Society’s prototypical inventor is the person who assembled the product that ended up in the hands of customers. No one thinks of the “business” person behind the scenes who established the company, set up the team, raised the capital, etc as an inventor.

Here’s a test for you - Have you ever thought of Sam Walton, Ted Turner, or Mary Kay Ash as inventors? I didn’t think so.

Let’s change our vocabulary for a minute. Look at it this way -

Sam Walton is an inventor. He invented the big retail company.

Ted Turner is an inventor. He invented the modern media company.

Mary Kay Ash is an inventor. She invented a new kind of direct sales company.

Why is changing the language such a big deal? Because we’re more willing to accept failure as part of the inventor’s path to success than we are the entrepreneur’s.

Oh I know everyone talks about how most startups fail and you have to be willing to accept failing over and over again, but there is a huge psychological gap in the subtlety of looking at what you’re building as a new invention vs. a new business.

Edison’s famous quote which by now has become a cliche - “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - sums up how we perceive inventors. On the other hand, if Mary Kay Cosmetics hadn’t worked, would we have painted Ash as succeeding in finding one way to sell cosmetics that won’t work?

No. We would have just said she failed.

The reason this mental exercise has become important to me is because Pocket Tales hasn’t progressed as planned. Our actual path hasn’t even resembled Plan B, Plan C, or even Plan D. Additionally, the “failures” aren’t coming from likely places. It’s not that we’ve put a product out into the world and it got rejected. We haven’t gotten that far yet. If we had, it’d be easy to see the parallels between building a lightbulb that “failed” and needing to take it back to the shop and try again, or “iterate.” That type of failure is perfectly understandable and socially acceptable.

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Memorable quotes from the interview:

“One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyone’s name on one of the sheets, and I said, “By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.” And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me.”

“I keep my eye out for someone who has achieved a lot, so they’ve been a great athlete or on a great team, but then something didn’t go quite right, and they’re still very hungry and want to be C.E.O. of something. I like to bet on people, especially those who have taken risks and failed in some way, because they have more real-world experience. And they’re humble.”

We have a new name, a new website, and a new meetup.

Don’t worry, the mission is staying the same - to bring together Indianapolis’ startup community.

Our next meetup is Monday, February 1 at the Upper Room (located upstairs at Broad Ripple Steak House). Click through to join the group and RSVP

The Indianpolis-based mobile answer service ChaCha and I have had a tumultuous relationship.

It started out great, like most relationships do. I’m talking about Autumn 2007 through Winter 2008. I loved ChaCha and I used it often for serious reasons (What’s the address of the Broad Ripple Brew Pub?), for curiosity’s reasons (What does the Pope’s brother do?), and for laughs (NSFW).

I showed ChaCha off to all my friends. They loved it and used it to.

Then something happened. I’m not sure what and I couldn’t tell you exactly when, but in ChaCha’s quest for a sustainable business model, their service completely fell off a cliff. I stopped getting responses to my questions, or if I did, it would come 30 minutes later. Sometimes I was told I was out of questions (see below). Sometimes they would ask me multiple tedious questions about what phone I was using, and after I answered they would then tell me I was out of questions (to this I would scream outloud “But I haven’t asked a question in 4 months!)

I stopped using ChaCha then, which should have ended the drama, but there was another event that would really add to it…

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Provides a great outline in short order. Also see Part I of this series: Elevator Pitch