Recently I found an old leather jacket in the back of a closet. It’s a vintage item in fantastic shape – except for a huge tear in one of the front pockets.
Two clothing donation centers disapproved of it, so I decided to see if it was worth repairing. It was pricey when new, but with some attention and care it might find a second life.
Vine, the shuttered video sharing platform of Twitter that launched three years before TikTok, is a lot like my old jacket: It used to earn compliments, but if I wore it out now, it would just look so crazy.
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In October 2022, incoming Twitter CEO Elon Musk polled his followers: “Bring back Vine?”
Nearly 70% answered yes, meaning Twitter developers are “probably now wondering whether they should try to revive the old codebase or start from scratch,” writes Marcus Merrell, vice president of technology strategy at Sauce Labs.
“Reviving parts of a codebase is like changing the engine of an airplane while it’s in mid-flight,” but rebooting requires an inordinate amount of technical resources.
Merrill draws on his experience as a developer to weigh the costs, benefits, and challenges associated with resuscitating and refactoring old software.
“In either case, you’re wasting time and resources,” he says. “I bet the technology is the least of their problems.”
Thank you very much for reading,
Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, londonbusinessblog.com+
@your protagonist
Teach yourself growth marketing: which metrics really matter?
Image Credits: Rittikrai_PIX (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
In the final article of a five-part series, growth marketing expert Jonathan Martinez shares key metrics he’s tracked at Coinbase and Uber, along with a framework for activating and retaining early adopters who generate revenue.
Tracking KPIs such as lifetime value and customer acquisition costs is obvious, so the article provides a framework for determining which channels and customers are generating the most revenue.
“Find the reasons that make your product or service ‘sticky,’ and you’ll save a lot of time,” Martinez writes.
Optimizing Freemium Products: Challenges and Opportunities
Image Credits: Richard Orry (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Offering a free sample in the hopes that the recipient will become a paying customer is a core tactic at food courts, cosmetic counters, and software startups.
Freemium products are everywhere, but unless companies review and optimize their strategy, there is no effective way to optimize conversions.
“Enabling freemium, especially for established products, can present organizational and operational challenges, even if it adds value to the business,” writes Konstantin Valiotti, product director of growth at PandaDoc.
In this article he presents strategies for optimizing:
- Activation by user
- Conversion paths
- Product changes
- Where to place barriers and restrictions
Dear Sophie: What H-1B and other immigration changes can we expect this year?
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/londonbusinessblog.com
Dear Sophie,
I help several startups with HR. I’ve heard that the application fees for many visas and green cards will increase significantly.
When do those increases take effect? Will there be any other immigration-related changes this year? Any H-1B updates?
— Passionate people person
The team slide is the most important slide in a startup pitch deck
Image Credits: Malta Mueller (Opens in a new window) /Getty Images
Early-stage investors usually know more about the market than the founders they pitch to.
Newbies are stacking pitch decks with data points from Gartner studies, quotes from londonbusinessblog.com articles, and outlandish TAM projections in hopes it will polish their credentials.
None of those are driving factors, but a comprehensive team slide explaining why a particular group of people is qualified to tackle a particular problem is much more compelling, writes Haje Jan Kamps.
Which open source startups skyrocketed in 2022?
Image Credits: Swillklitch/Getty Images
In its annual report ranking the fastest growing commercial open-source startups (COSS), Runa Capital looked at funding trends in the industry.
Using a methodology based in part on the number of stars in each company’s GitHub repository, the report identifies which companies and universities appear to be the most COSS founders, along with their geographic distribution.
“Purists may also object to some of the startups included in Runa Capital’s report,” notes Paul Sawers, “since some have fairly light open source credentials.”
Pitch Deck Teardown: Laoshi’s $570,000 Angel Deck
Image Credits: laoshi (Opens in a new window)
The founders of Laoshi have raised a $570,000 angel round to scale up their app, which helps users learn how to read and write in Chinese.
To help other early stage founders, they shared 15 slides from their deck:
- Cover slide
- Problem slide
- Market slide
- Solution slide
- Competition slide
- Road map slide
- Team slide
- Teacher growth slide
- Teacher retention slide
- Summary slide
- “Contact Us” slide
- Appendices cover slide
- Appendix I: Viral effect slide
- Appendix II: Business Model Slide
- Appendix III: “The Question” slide
Contents
- 1 Teach yourself growth marketing: which metrics really matter?
- 2 Optimizing Freemium Products: Challenges and Opportunities
- 3 Dear Sophie: What H-1B and other immigration changes can we expect this year?
- 4 The team slide is the most important slide in a startup pitch deck
- 5 Which open source startups skyrocketed in 2022?
- 6 Pitch Deck Teardown: Laoshi’s $570,000 Angel Deck