twago @ maastricht week of entrepreneurship

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07. Juli 2009 © 2009 twago 0 www.twago.de twago – Teamwork Across Global Offices Workshop: Things we learned @twago Gunnar Berning, Founder and CEO of twago.com Maastricht, May 25 th , 2012

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This presentation is about the lessons learned of twago within the first couple of months after launch. Typical things which many startups face in this or the other way. twago founder and CEO gave a insight into his learnings and views.

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Page 1: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

07. Juli 2009 © 2009 twago 0 www.twago.de

twago – Teamwork Across Global Offices

Workshop: Things we learned @twago Gunnar Berning, Founder and CEO of twago.com

Maastricht, May 25th, 2012

Page 2: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 1 twago.com

All Startups have the same goal in mind

Make the most out of your

existing budget

Page 3: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 2 twago.com

How we started...

• Understand your customers: Master thesis

• Be fast with a good version

• Learn from your customer as early as possible: Observe and ask

• Trial and error

• Start with SEO yesterday

• Create reference cases (e.g. big brands)

• Communication / PR: Easy wins with data mining, adapting to news

• Build your network immediately

• Focus:

• Become #1 in a niche, then expand

• Remember your key levers: optimizing your SEM-CTR from 0.75% to 1,5% lower your customer acquisition cost by 50%

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© 2012 twago 3 twago.com

Building the product – We eat our own food

Product specification:

Spec. Homepage-Design:

Coding:

Translations:

Branding/Name:

Design of Webseite:

Design of Company Logo:

(Internally)

Germany

Russia

Switzerland

USA

Canada

Philipines

twago made use of outsourcing and offshoring:

twago successfully showed the „proof of concept“ – Huge chance for all startups

Which experts to choose depends on

your requirements

expertise

Savings roughly 60%

Page 5: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 4 twago.com

The top 9 rules for Offshoring success

Be honest: Are you an Offshoring-Person?

Choose experts wisely

Basic understanding of different cultures

Increase communication: +50%

Make use of time zones

Use simple project management tools

Neutral code checks to get best quality

Secrets to stay secret: Use NDAs

Don‘t expect wonders 9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

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© 2012 twago 5 twago.com

Raising Capital – Welcome to lemming country

• The right target group – VCs, Angels, Family offices, Strategic investors

• How much? Not 1.0 Mio.!

• If you have one, you have many

• Expect stupid VCs

• Contact them en-block – everybody at the same time, not sequentially

• Don‘t use „[email protected]

• The market is setting your price, not the VC valuation method

• Create and show your BATNA (best alternative to negotiated agreement)

• You can be peer to everybody

• Everything takes longer, expect 6-9 months

• Don’t over optimize the percentages

• It’s over when it’s over

Page 7: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 6 twago.com

This is an interesting question...

Revenues

No revenues

or

Page 8: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 7 twago.com

Teambuilding Hire only team members which make you better, not bigger

• Hire only team members which make you better rather than bigger

• Use the methods of headhunters: LinkedIN and Xing

• Create entrepreneurs – make them responsible

• Enable them to take decisions!

• Keep your risk under control: Use interns and trainees

• Min. duration = 6 months

• Really good people = high salaries, compensate with equity,

• Make a cut if it doesn’t work

• Invest your time: Coaching, coaching, coaching

• Celebrate!

Start Now

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© 2012 twago 8 twago.com

Create a unique company culture Your team must love to work for you

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© 2012 twago 9 twago.com

Have fun

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© 2012 twago 10 twago.com

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© 2012 twago 11 twago.com

Friday lunch all together

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© 2012 twago 12 twago.com

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© 2012 twago 13 twago.com

vs.

Who wins the fight?

Advertising

Page 15: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 14 twago.com

Create landing pages for your customer

750 Landing pages

Page 16: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 15 twago.com

Measure Think

Analyze

Page 17: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 16 twago.com

Analyze, analyze, analyze: Measure – think – change!

Key drivers

Traffic and customer behaviour

Conversion tests (A/B)

Page 18: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 17 twago.com

Few words: Focus „Clean“ Build trust:

Verisign Logo, Phone number, green bulltes

Reduce exit-options

Improvements New Design Old Design

Quelle: twago

Landing Page Test optimized conversion rates and reduces user acquisition costs significantly

Landing Page A/B Test

3%* 20%*

Page 19: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 18 twago.com

Scaling

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© 2012 twago 19 twago.com

Scaling is a mind game

• Manual work kills scale

• Invest in automation and processes (I know, I know)

• Working with templates (SEM landigpages, etc.)

• If you wonna go global, have the option to quickly add different languages

• Avoid local adaptions

and ...

Never lean back

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31

Posted Projects / Month 1

2

3

4

5

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© 2012 twago 20 twago.com

Stay flexible and ...

... adapt to customer needs and learnings

Page 22: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 21 twago.com

We changed major topics

To... From...

Outsourcing Offshoring

Combined Marketplace and Memberships

Marketplace only

Focus on core countries All countries immediately

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© 2012 twago 22 twago.com

International rollout

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© 2012 twago 23 twago.com

We are live in 6 countries, more to come this year

• Solve your problems first, then roll out internationally otherwise you make your problem even bigger

• It‘s more than having a new language (legal, tax, accounting, etc.)

• Go for the quick win countries first

• All teams are based in Berlin, as much as possible centralized

• Native speaker only

• Local phone numbers

• Introduce a face of the country

• Adapt as few as necessary to keep synergies

Page 25: twago @ Maastricht week of entrepreneurship

© 2012 twago 24 twago.com

Don‘t be too much afraid of the US coming to Europe...

... but be careful with you going to the US...

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© 2012 twago 25 twago.com

Expect the unexpected

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© 2012 twago 26 twago.com

Expect the unexpected

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© 2012 twago 27 twago.com

Fight for your dream

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© 2012 twago 28 twago.com

We change the world of working!

Contact: [email protected]

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© 2012 twago 29 twago.com

Thanks and feel free to follow us...

.com - work different

www.facebook.com/twago.com

www.twitter.com/twago_inside

or email me: [email protected]