Max Mednik
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Readings and musings

Notes on Noah Kagan at LeanLA

1/5/2012

3 Comments

 
Watch live streaming video from leanla at livestream.com
Noah Kagan is the founder of AppSumo and has worked on marketing for 4-Hour Workweek, Facebook, and Mint. Noah’s blog, OkDork.com, focuses on the topics of marketing, entrepreneurship, and engagement with online communities.

You can watch the video above, and the main things I learned are below. He's a funny, straightforward, and brutally honest speaker, and it was cool to hear about many of the specific tactics he used to get AppSumo off the ground in a lean fashion. He even included a couple deep life lessons in here as a bonus.
  • Started AppSumo ("Groupon for software") with just a landing page
  • Only had registration system at first
  • Paid an outsourced developer in Middle East $50 for PayPal payment system
  • Needed a deal, so sent an email to head of imgur (main site for images for Reddit)
  • "The most valuable resource is your time."
  • Just use email to solve your problems.
  • Learn how to do things with just email lists.
  • Took out guy from Reddit for breakfast and got free exposure on their site
  • Do something nice and unique for someone.
  • Sent running shoes, running magazine to someone who runs
  • When someone sees something you give them everyday, they remember you and will listen to you.
  • Send cookies to people
  • Initially had ugly designs, just trying to validate as quickly as possible
  • He emailed every single person manually their discount code by hand.
  • After the business was validated, they started building the back end and then getting deals.
  • "There's no way to optimize shit; it's still shit."
  • Before you get 1000 unique's per day, you can't AB test.
  • Focused on emails initially to get users
  • "There's only 1 metric and 1 goal of your business."
  • At Facebook, the only metric that mattered was growth.
  • Only 1 metric at AppSumo is "# of emails"
  • They have a daily goal and a monthly goal.
  • This month's goal: 550,000
  • Each day have a target of # of emails they need to hit
  • Used Google Website Optimizer
  • Hired an engineer whose sole job was AB testing
  • Their view: profit and revenue today is short sighted
  • Just focused on growing emails for later
  • If they asked for email up front before showing deal, people were more likely to buy deal than if didn't ask for email up front.
  • 5% difference in conversion at top of funnel makes huge change.
  • Spent $6K for 4 iterations just on landing page
  • Were bringing 3000 to site
  • Biggest spammer in America: Facebook (recently changed policy)
  • No one talks about them as big spammer
  • People complained about Facebook but it increased retention and engagement.
  • Now that Facebook's big, they turned off emails.
  • "You'll get some backlash from 1% but will grow the 99%."
  • When you travel, you remember just the abnormal stuff; no one remembers the normal stuff that happens everyday.
  • Created AppSumo Golden Ticket ($100 credit for no reason whatsoever)
  • Golden Ticket just emailed by a customer service girl daily
  • If you're average, customers will never remember.
  • Think Zappos customer service.
  • Unsubscribe email sends sad photo that's just something different, memorable.
  • At Facebook and AppSumo, they put Easter eggs everywhere, fun stuff people will remember.
  • They have 3 developers.
  • If they don't need to build something, they don't.
  • Instead of building a 404 page, they used a Google Doc.
  • Do minimal work and if result worth it, do it nicely later.
  • Did first educational video to actually teach how to use the tools they were selling.
  • Did it ghetto with minimal editing
  • "Your business should look like shit in the beginning."
  • Now have full time content and video people
3 Comments
Patrick Foley link
1/5/2012 11:17:11 pm

Nice summary - did you make those bullets as you were watching the presentation, or did you do it later? It's quite an awesome summarizing style, and I'm wondering what the overhead is for doing it. Does it reduce (increase?) your enjoyment of the presentation? Do you do it all the time (is it a a habit)

Oh, and Noah rocks :)

Reply
Max
1/6/2012 08:37:45 am

Thanks, man.

Yeah, I take notes as I watch the talk. This one I wasn't able to make physically, so I watched the video.

The overhead isn't too bad; usually there's enough "filler" or other conversation or Q&A happening that gives me enough time to take notes in real time.

I think it increases my enjoyment because I pay attention constantly for distinct learning points and pay attention to the organization of the talk. It also allows me quick reference for going back to something I saw before. I try to do it whenever I can.

True 'dat.

Reply
Patrick Foley link
1/9/2012 08:11:17 am

Well, you've inspired me. I'm going to start trying to adopt that approach.

I'm also going to try to do it the next time I edit my podcast - I think it would make it a lot easier for listeners to decide whether the show is useful for them (and it will greatly enhance SEO).

Thanks!

Be well,

P


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