Twitter rules! Why? Because I had the opportunity to respond to @danmartell twitter invite to chat for 30 minutes in @namesake chat room. I was one of the lucky 24 people that were able to grab the wonderful gift of time!
Knowledge is to be shared so with @danmartell permission to post this, here is the full transcript of our chat. Huge thank you to Dan for sharing his time, knowledge and especially for being candid.
Chat transcript in raw format so you have to bear with it, don’t have time to edit. I have to go outside to talk to random people 
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1 hour ago • Mention Evan • +1
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I’ve never hosted .. so bear with me. -
Who’s here?
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present. -
Everyone that has a green by it -
Hey Rick -
on the right
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Howdy -
Hi there!~ -
So how does this work exactly ? -
How do I make this a public / private convo? Private (invite only) but public for everyone to see?
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why not just post the transcript of it after the fact? or do you want it to be live?
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@Rick Fillion can you do that? if so, then that works.
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Where is @Brian Norgard when you need him.
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Hey all. Steve with murfie.com here. Excited to hear Dan drop some knowledge. -
If you haven’t seen this .. it’s going to help shape the conversation – I want to focus on Startup Marketinghttp://udemy.com…startups
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lol… i dunno… I’ve never used namesake, but I figure a copy/paste can’t be too hard.
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hola! -
What’s up guys
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thanks for the time, Dan
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Sounds great.
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@Dan Martell what are the top level buckets/ways a startup can use to get users? -
Brian Norgard (Founder of Namesake) is a friend and a Flowtown investor .. so wanted to use his cool tech – it’s pretty awesome!
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I’m a web apps guy, and this web app is solid.
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Very cool – glad to be here – feel like a cool kid;)
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@Ethan Bloch (who’s my co-founder – great question. I like to start by asking your friends – after you’ve explained to them what you do – for referals.
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“Live comment scrolling” is causing my window to jump up and down – I’m in the latest version of GOOG Chrome, argh. “Error: Unable to load /conversation/private/11a87e6-11e0-9def-12313f014066/comment status:0″But looking forward to the convo
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Once you have a solid based of customers (ask for $1 or more – then focus on building renewable marketing channels like social media accounts, blogs, and “press”.
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@Dan Martell How do you leverage celebrities that are already using your service to gain more early adopters.
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@Dan Martell Normally Brian or Andrew would simply create a conversation then make it invite only, so the world can still view it. Now we are in a private – invite only convo, so only we can see it Still fun though!
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@Ethan Sopenski ideally you reach out to them when they sign up for the app, thank them for their time and ask for any thoughts / feedback / etc … try and get them on the phone. Once you listen to them, implement or fix something, then reach back out and ask for a testimonial.
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@Dan Martell so names/users you got for free (asking for an email address on download, for ex), not as useful?
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Awesome
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@Nick Frost ah, got it .. will need to talk to them about the convo settings. I’d like to make it public but invite only to pariticipate.
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@Dan Martell How have you leveraged YouTube, if at all, as a a marketing tool? -
2@Rick Fillion free users don’t teach you anything .. asking for a $1 seperates the real entrepreneurs from the rest.
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1@Dan Martell any advice on reaching out to customers (for interviews) where the solution is a reactive purchase (e.g. computer repair)
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@danmarell I’d argue that that depends on what hte business model is.
but yeah, i see your point.
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@Dan Martell Hey Dan, I saw on your website that you specialize in tech start ups. I have an idea that I ran by with Rick and I think it has some potential. What are my next steps to help validate my idea?
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@Rogtung I’ve helped my brother leverage YouTube http://youtube.c…ellhomes (local Home Builder). Marketing is all about: Know, Like, Trust, Buy and hopefully Refer. Youtube gets you from 1 to 3 really fast.
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There’s a whole marketing aspect to my idea and I think you’d be the expert in this.
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@Evan Morgan start with a guess as to who your customer might be, make a list of 20 people, then pick up the phone .. seriously, it’s that simple and something you can validate in a day. Ask @Ethan Bloch we do this all the time.
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Hi everyone, glad to be on the chat -
@Dan Martell Does the Dropbox method of launching grassroot through Hacker New, Digg, Reddit still work?Minna Van 51 minutes ago • Delete Comment -
@Rick Fillion maybe, but most first time Entrepreneurs don’t know why they do what they do .. so I always suggest getting $1 first, then adjust.
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@Dan Martell How do you keep tract of all your connections, what tools do you use to keep track of your network?
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Anyone working on mobile apps and have tips for standing out amongst 500,000 other offerings?
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@Minna Van it’s not as potent as it once was .. but it can be done. I think Zaarly did a good job at that (although you need to insure your product rocks when you do open it up).
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Oh, and it’s zuluMe (my app) and I do charge;)
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@Dan Martell back to what you told @Evan Morgan . What if your idea is for the business (entrepreneur) community, are you not concerned about someone taking your idea and running with it?
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@Ethan Sopenski I use Evernote and create lists for different cities and categories .. mainly just keep first name, email and info about them. Super old school. The key is not how I store them, but leveraging them. I focus more on outcomes than process.
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@Dan Martell Is hackernews still one of the best way to get feedback on projects? Any other channels you would suggest to get solid feedback?Minna Van 48 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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WTF is up with Tim O
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@Eric Strait nope, you do more harm than good keeping your idea to yourself. Trust me, tell as many people as will listen, and see if it sticks. If it doesn’t, consider adjusting.
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1@Eric Strait If someone is more concerned about your idea than their own, then how can they be a credible entrepreneur?
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@Dan Martell How would I go about pitching my idea to an angel investor ?
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2@Minna Van hackernews is for geeks .. every app I’ve built is for people – I go to where they are. Usually in the streets, malls or sitting in a restaurant/coffee shop. I really think entrepreneurs should stop hiding behind a keyboard and talk to real people face to face.
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Dan, given your comment that “the pitch is your URL”, do you have a preference on how to build landing pages? I’m partial to Unbounce.
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@Dan Martell if you’re working on something that’s for consumer: any tactics on how to start a conversation and not come off as a weirdo? E.g. I could sit in a park or mall, and start asking people “hey, do you have a computer problem”, but that might come off sleazy
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@Brian Hayashi I’m an angel investor in Unbounce, so thank you . I meant a working prototype. Startups are not about Landing Pages. It’s too easy to build something – if you don’t have a prototype then you’re not serious.
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@Dan Martell Thanks, that takes the biggest relief off me ever It makes me fill better that I’m not about to waste $15,000 of my own money for a “who wants this” product.
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I might be in a unique situation here… 2 years down the road, several hundred k $ invested… when do I know “enough is enough” and it’s time to jump to my next idea?
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@Nick Frost nice point Nick.
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1@Jay Liew your assuming customers don’t do preventative repairs on their computers. You might want to partner with a local repair shop and pay them for leads to route through your site to test.
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1@Dan Gould Martell Is there any way I could talk with you about my idea? I am looking for an angel investor.
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@Dan Martell Thank you! Will slowly crawl outside to talk to people :pMinna Van 43 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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@Dan Martell** Is there any way I could talk with you about my idea? I am looking for an angel investor.
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@Rick Fillion the customers will usually tell you. At the end of the day, Entrepreneurship is an Art. There’s no one answer for that.
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@Minna Van it’s awesome … you’ll have fun. Just stop people and ask them for 3 seconds to give advice on a new company “Your friend is working on” (so that the feedback isn’t filtered).
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@Dan Martell I agree prototypes trump landing pages — but what about using landing pages to triangulate interest and determine pivot points?
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@Evan Morgan I only review investments made from close friends I trust .. if you can get through that then I’ll review what you’ve got.
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@Dan Martell Any analytics tools you highly recommend when first launching a web service?Minna Van 40 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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2@Brian Hayashi FUCK LANDING PAGES . Talk to people. Pick up the phone, go outside, email someone. When did doing a tech startup become about landing pages? I could spend 1 hour learning more about my market by picking up the phone then you will configuring a landing page.
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@Dan Martell LOL
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@Minna Van Google Analytics is pretty awesome if you configure it properly with events and goals.http://kissmetrics.com rocks and I’ve been playing with http://totango.com
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I have found that my targeted market is people in college, or just finishing college, would you suggest that I go to campuses and ask if they like it?
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@Ethan Sopenski absolutely .. if you can print of wireframes or have some mockups on an iPad/laptop – that’ll help as well.
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1Dan – this past weekend at LSM you said something to me that stuck really well “If you want to become a real entrepreneur, you must do all the things that the wannabe entrepreneurs are afraid of doing”
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@Ethan Sopenski and bring pizza. Or food in general. I’ve done hour long studies for a few slices (in college). -
@Dan Martell ** the site keeps changing the name, who can I talk to?
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@Evan Morgan if you can’t figure that out – then you probably will have a hard time with your startup. Just saying .. I live a very public life, with my friends tweeting at me, list on Facebook / LinkedIn, etc.
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Twitter, facebook, linkedin, youtube,- Rank the order of importance to you as a startup marketing tool
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that was for @Dan Martell
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@Garrett Dunham great suggestion .. best way to have them come to you – #food
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I’m a bike mechanic, do you think if I put up a sign free bike maintenance at a campus I would get people to come over ?
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Facebook Ads (I run stuff everyday for $5), LinkedIn cost 2x per lead but very relevant .. the other stuff is more for inbound marketing.
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@Ethan Sopenski I have worked with college students for a while and have configured teams in dorms for almost nothing, so let me know if you need any help (and no I don’t want any money)
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1@Ethan Sopenski what about scheduling a bike ride/meetup and asking your target market while getting some exercise?
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@Ethan Sopenski just stop people as they walk by .. yes, I know it’ll be scary at first – but trust me, doing a startup can be way more intense .. so start getting use to it =)
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@Dan Martell what are your thoughts on leveraging text (sms) marketing for industries like golf clubs, resorts, etc? -
@Greg HIckman I’ve never ran sms marketing campaigns .. so can’t say.
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@Dan Martell Would the Hubspot approach to inbound marketing (i.e. getting ppl’s email addresses to send them relevant content) necessarily work for B2C startups? Instead would it better to have the content available to them without an email address but drive them to our website? -
Thanks everyone, i’m copying and pasting it all
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@Yoseph West inbound marketing is great .. but takes a while to build up a presence, traffic, etc … if you’re a startup – it’s best to leverage your network to get early users, then build some kind of social invite flow to amplify those users. B2C should be more about product then inbound marketing.
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@Yoseph West Good question
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@Dan Martell You’ve advised calling once a week to talk someone in the Valley to get advices if your meetup is elsewhere but at what point is it necessary to move to the valley?Minna Van 32 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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@Dan Martell you’re running facebook ads for $5? I’ll have to look into this more. What kind of tests are you running? (Or is it straight marketing?)
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@Dan Martell Ooops I meant businessMinna Van 31 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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@Minna Van it’s not necessary to be in the valley – but it may be 2-3x harder to get funded or hire a certain level or engineer. I personally believe great entrepreneurs can do it from wherever … problems are problems and you’ll still need to solve them here or there. If you build something awesome outside of the valley, that usually means you’d be a weapon if you moved here!
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@Garrett Dunham I’m running ad copy test .. to see what benefit statements work best (by looking at the CTR’s and CPC’s).
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@Dan Martell what has been your most effective marketing strategy so far?
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@Dan Martell any good books you recommend for startup marketing, or just anythign startup?
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or blogs
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@Dan Martell I’m sure that works for mass consumer apps that don’t require a high level of trust. We’re a finance app and building trust with consumers is priority #1 to ensure we’re successful. Any ideas of how else we can do this? We’re kind of avoiding press until we hit p/m fit
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@Nick Frost Thanks
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@Garrett Dunham for us, our blog and Facebook
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@Rogtung I would highly recommend spending $100 bucks and run ads on every platform you can to learn what’s available. Then I read Inbound Marketing by @Dharmesh Shah – he’s a genius. Doing is better than reading.
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@Rogtung Steve Blank’s: The Four Step’s to the Epiphany, Patrick Vlaskovits’: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development, and Alexander Osterwalder: Business Model Canvas. Get those to start.
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@Dan Martell what are your recommendations for bootstrapped startups that are trying to get the business off the ground while having a full-time job?
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@Yoseph West I would argue the trust is almost on the same level .. what’s the difference between read only access to a bank account vs. full on access to someones Facebook account?
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@Greg HIckman Work hard.
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2@Greg HIckman set a small revenue goal that’s 3 months out in the future – then post it to your Facebook wall and tell everyone you plan on hitting it. Then report weekly how you’re doing.
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1I love how many people have joined .. just wanted to say thanks to everyone!
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@Dan Martell Umm, fair point. But, we’re actually recommending / valuing stocks. Surely that requires more trust than worrying about an app spamming your facebook wall?
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@Dan Martell awesome. that is good advice! thanks for doing this! great stuff!
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@Dan Martell Thank YOU for taking the time to answer our questions!Minna Van 23 minutes ago • Delete Comment
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@Dan Martell Whoa, that’ll be accountability! I think that most folks would be afraid to validate their revenue goals via Facebook updates.
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@Dan Martell same here! thanks Dan for putting this together
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Thanks @Dan Martell for setting this up, it was fun to see all these questions.
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@Dan Martell Thanks a million Dan! I love how candid you are!
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Good luck with the new venture! I think it’s a winner!
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Haha too bad I couldn’t be at lean startup machine this weekend – would have liked meeting Dan and everyone.
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@Nick Frost Freaking A, I would love to see that! LOL!
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We should all let namesake know how cool this was
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Me too! Great discussion – thanks Dan
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4I might do another one of these in the future .. good luck with everyone’s startups. If you’re an Entrepreneur – take a bow. You’re a special person .. don’t ever forget that. Most never start.
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Just wondering, is this convo logged forever? we can comeback and read this?
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@Dan Martell thanks again let us know if you’re going to do more!
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thanks Dan!
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Thanks for your time @Dan Martell
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@Nick Frost By the way, the BetaCandy shirts are ready and look freaking awesome!
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@Rogtung Yep, forever.
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Thanks!
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@Eric Strait Thanks! And just so you know everyone, BetaCandy.com is kick-ass.
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@Dan Martell Any chance I can get my last question answered? “Umm, fair point. But, we’re actually recommending / valuing stocks. Surely that requires more trust than worrying about an app spamming your facebook wall?”
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@Dan Martell Thanks for your time Dan! See ya at the next LSM, hopefully in LA
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How do you get your startup on betacandy?
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@Ethan Sopenski Ask me, but message me privately please, we don’t wanna dilute this convo on Startup Marketing.
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What are some projects some of you are working on?
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@Nick Frost ok cool, sorry
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Mike, I was thinking about that last night while watching Paul Graham’s Office Hours from Disrupt. Seems like if you get 1 big company on board, others will follow suit. -
Blake that’s my impression as well
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@Mike Caprio You can try one of Bill Rancic’s moves and send some kind of gift to the company and see if you can connect somehow that way.
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