If your marketing plan doesn't include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, well, can you really call that a marketing plan?
Video content is key to driving early engagement, which is why development expert Jonathan Martinez (formerly of Postmates, Uber, and Chime) shares four strategies to get you started:
- Take advantage of the Maker Market.
- Create short videos.
- Build strong relationships with creators.
- Please check out your videos.
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“If you enter 2023 without a video content plan for your startup, you are missing out on an important asset to build brand awareness and reach more consumers,” Martinez writes.
For more marketing strategies and growth strategies you can apply yourself, check out his latest series of five articles:
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Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@your protagonist
How to Manage Third-Party Cybersecurity Risks That Are Too Costly to Ignore
Every early-stage startup relies on third-party vendors to manage some aspect of its operations — no one wants to build a shopping cart, credit card processing, or identity verification program from scratch.
But now that third-party data breaches are commonplace, teams need to integrate the management of this risk into their daily operations, writes John Ziegler, co-founder and chief product officer of LogicGate.
"No matter how well you clean up, damage to your organization's reputation will cost you business later," he wrote.
After a record year 2022, 8 investors explain why it's "still early" for the African startup ecosystem
Despite the recession, 2022 was a banner year in Africa, with 1,100 investors investing $6.5 billion in startups in the region, reports Tage Kene-Okafor.
He interviewed eight investors to learn more about "what's driving this volume as the rest of the world moderates its collective enthusiasm for 2021":
- General Partner of Cola Aina, Venture Platform
- Zakaria George, Managing Partner, launches Africa Ventures
- Olumide Soyomba, co-founder of Voltron Capital
- Steven Dann, co-founder and managing partner of DFS Labs
- Karima El Hakim, Country Manager, Plug & Play Egypt
- Iyinaluwa Aboyeji, founding partner, Future Africa
- Maya Horgan Famodu is the founder and partner of Ingressive Capital
- Kayan Kasiri, partner of RallyCap
Dear Sophia! Will my published articles improve my chances of obtaining an O-1A or H-1B visa?
Image credit: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch
Dear Sofia,
I am the founder and CEO of a startup in Istanbul and I heard that articles in publications about an entrepreneur or a startup can be a great advantage when applying for an O-1A or H-1B visa.
It is true? Which publications are valid? Do they have to be level 1 or in English? Thanks for your help!
- You live in Turkey
Pitch Deck Teardown: Spinach.io's $6 Million Pitch Deck
Before the pandemic, engineering teams typically started their days with face-to-face meetings so members could coordinate their efforts and track each other's progress.
Once those sessions were remote, Spinach.io created a service that integrates with project management tools like Jira and Slack, as well as online meeting tools like Google Meet and Zoom.
“What we tried to do here is solve a very specific use case for engineering teams following the Scrum Agile development process,” says Matan Talmi, co-founder and CEO.
Spinach.io raised a $6 million seed round last August; Here is the pitch deck they use:
- cover
- Team slide
- problem slide
- mission slide
- Product slide
- Traction pads
- Customers spin
- Investors slip
- Rolling plan over 18 months
- Thanks Slide
Think about your business model as part of your VC pitch
No one needs an MBA to craft a solid business plan, but if you want to catch an investor's eye, you need to demonstrate a solid understanding of the basics.
Jae Jan Camps shares a framework for developing a deck plan slide that focuses on five aspects:
- Cost of Goods Sold
- Customer acquisition costs
- Lifetime value
- R&D cost
- Price model
“Analyzing these numbers and presenting them correctly can greatly improve how you tell your startup story to investors,” he writes.
