Saba Says | Startups, Growth & Marketing

Please pardon the audio quality as it was recorded live on Twitter Spaces. This is a conversation between myself, Saba Karim, and Adam Soccolich (twitter.com/BestLiveAudio) on growth and marketing. At first, we riff on what marketing channels we like the best, how to reach out to people - and then bring up founders from the audience to tell us about their current growth plans as we offer them ideas on how to get their next customers.

What is the ultimate combination that you need?

A. Explain what you do now - easy B. Explain what your grand vision is - a little harder C. Explain how you'll get from A to B - the hardest part. Fine-tune your C.

On this episode: Three things to avoid when reaching out for help And how to craft the perfect email: Connection Identification Admiration Question Introduction Reiteration Appreciation:

Listen how, a marketer by trade, not a software engineer, got this done.

Ali Tamaseb recently wrote Super Founders, a book that uses a data-driven approach to understand what really differentiates billion-dollar startups from the rest—revealing that nearly everything we thought was true about them is false. Ali spent thousands of hours manually amassing what may be the largest dataset ever collected on startups, comparing billion-dollar startups with those that failed to become one—30,000 data points on nearly every factor: number of competitors, market size, the founder's age, his or her university's ranking, quality of investors, fundraising time, and many, many more.

A discussion on ideation, validation and passion – with Andrew Hutton, CEO and Co-founder of Day One, and Heather Hartnett, CEO and Founding Partner of Human Ventures.

Naval gets asked questions from the audience and covers an array of topics like: Happiness and life, Curiosity and education, Life's most important decisions, Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, blockchain, decentralized systems, NFT's, Building communities, social media, and media, Investing in Clubhouse, Work, leisure and entertainment, Simulations, Pineapples on pizza, and much more. Read the full recap here: https://www.sabakarim.com/blog/2021/4/27/recap-of-naval-ravikant-on-clubhouse

clearpitch42.com INTRO [__________], is my Xth startup. I have [_____] co-founders and/or [_____] people on the team. The HQ is in [__________], and we were founded [_____] months ago. OVERVIEW We're focused on [____________________] (target audience), that helps/solves  [____________________] (problem), by offering a  [____________________] (solution). CLOSING To date, we've had [____________________] (traction) ie. revenue > funds raised > users > PoC's > LOI's > signups > surveys My ask is [____________________]. *SITUATIONAL If you have time left or if you think it's very relevant, two common additions are: We are different/better than [__________] because of [__________] (competition) The time is now because [__________] (market). Note: If you're in the early-stages of building and don't have any traction, replace with: My past experience/expertise is in [__________] which is why we'll win. (relation)

CORE Lean Canvas - Business Plan – leanstack.com/leancanvas. Pitch-Deck - Template Guide – sabakarim.com/pitchdeck. Crunchbase - Company Insights Platform – crunchbase.com. FounderSuite – Investor CRM – foundersuite.com. Paperstreet - Investor Updates – paperstreet.vc. EXTRAS Investor pipeline workshop – toolkit.techstars.com/build-your-investor-pipeline. Venture Deals – venturedeals.com. SAFE Notes – upcounsel.com/safe-notes. FAST Agreements – fi.co/fast. Carta – carta.com.

Free your mind from worries. You've all heard the saying.  Time block to do things.  Surround yourself with mentors.  Say thank you.  If you're not having fun, stop.

Exit strategy Trillion dollar market Company valuation We don't have any competition We know everything The first company that buys into our platform will dominate their industry We are going to be the next “Facebook” This is revolutionary We plan to be the Theranos of X industry Not telling, because the best founders know what to leave out.

8 suggestions to keep in mind to run a great event.

Pro-tips to ensure you look good and can be found

Don't just promote. Also: educate inspire connect provide insight entertain show you're human throwback engage + one more type of post that made me go viral over the weekend.

So what do you know better than anyone else. Write about that.

Come Up With An Idea →  Prototype → Build MVP → Closed Beta → Launch → Launch Again

Mistakes to avoid when getting on an investor call.

You can't just create an event, tweet it out and expect people to come. You've gotta go through the paces and make as many touch-points as you can.

No market need Ran out of cash The team

How to set up your email drip campaign sequences.

When someone gives you a hand, you have to show gratitude. Every. Single. Time. Whether it's some advice, an introduction to someone else, or giving the best gesture they can, of using your creation (ie. your product), you've got to appreciate it. As a startup, you're effectively saying I want you to trust me, someone you may not have ever met, with solving your problem. And so when they do it, you owe it to them for giving it a shot.

WTF is LTV, CAC, CPA, ROI? Read this. What about TAM SAM and SOM? Here you go.

In my opinion, the number one growth marketing book of all time. Listen to the quick review and then go ahead and order online.

The best marketing is a good product - don't overthink, over analyze and try to over optimize your marketing. Sometimes you just need to launch when the timing feels right and the iron is hot.

Marketing is a three dimensional function. Certainly more than just running ads, handing out flyers or doing cold outbound emails. On this episode I am going to cover one of the core areas of market research - which is customer interviews. Because, before you can do marketing execution, you need to know who the customer is, and then understand how they speak about the problem.

A little story about my experience in buying a scooter over the weekend.

Learn, learn learn, test, test test, fail, fail fail, win, win, win.

A founder called me the other day and asked me "how can I best spend $500 to get myself customers?". In providing him my solutions, I realized a lot of the things you can do actually won't even cost you anything. So, here they are - alongside some things to avoid.

Leadership and Vision

For your startup messaging, your user or buyer is the #HERO in the narrative – not you. What I mean by this is that when you're launching a product, service, startup, business, anything, really. You have to ensure the narrative is about the end-audience.

Don't just reply "ME", take your time to show enthusiasm, interest, availability, your expertise and make it easier for them to reach out to you.

The length of the email is not as important as the subject line and the ask.

1. You have to do research to find out the WHO 2. Plan and strategize to figure out best HOW 3. Then execute to motivate the YES 4. Check the data, figure out WHAT happened

Why are you building this? Who is your target audience? Have you spoken to some people in your target audience? Do they say they need this? How many of them? When do you launch? What else will it do? Who are your competitors? Why are you better? Who's working on this with you? What else have they built?

Good mailing lists are like face-to-face conversations. Don't send your users or leads crap they don't want.

Start with an interesting hook/fact Have a nice design Have a different deck for different audiences Make me laugh Make it less than 15 slides Make it easy to access

What is the problem you are solving? Talk about the team Solution/demo Vision Traction Projections Business Model Market Opportunity More on the team Go to market strategy / Marketing The ask

Know your customer, experiment with various marketing channels, learn to vapor test, don't make your website vague, tell a story - don't just sell, and have a clear ask

Your business is made up of numbers. You have to know them back to front, otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure.

What to do when you're asked a question, didn't understand the question, don't know the answer, or are asked "what questions do you have for us?"

Why you should keep your introduction pitch short and simple.