July 2012 - SparkToro

Startups July 31, 2012

The Big Picture Conversation

I feel like a broken record. Lately, I’ve been sitting down with founder friends of mine and having a discussion about how their business is going. Inevitably, I get a sense that even those with a lot of tactical successes or growth seem to be missing a larger purpose. Inevitably, we end up in a discussion about “the big picture.”…

Hiring Startups July 30, 2012

Belief in the Mythical, “10X” Hire Hurts Your Team

By Rand Fishkin

There’s a long-running meme in the tech & startup ecosystems that goes something like this: The top 10% in any given professional field are the only ones good enough to work at a startup. And even among these, the 90th-99th percentile only contribute 1/10th as much as the amazing, top-tier 1%. A great team can only be built by recruiting…

Marketing Startups July 27, 2012

Events Can Be Both Wonderful & Dangerous Places to Launch

By Rand Fishkin

This week at Mozcon brought some big launches of new products and projects – the Google Algorithm weather forecast project, Mozcast, the new job board on Inbound.org, this blog, Rich Baxter’s OSE for Excel, and more. Over the years, I’ve done several big product announcements tied to events and plenty independent of them. Weirdly, in spite of pros and cons…

Hiring Startups July 25, 2012

Hacking the Character Litmus Test

By Rand Fishkin

I had coffee with SEOmoz’s new recruiter, Sierra, recently. She’s amazing, and she has to be. The people who make up our team over the next 3 years will determine whether we can become a truly remarkable company, or just a mediocre one. In terms of which current Mozzers will impact that most intensely, Sierra’s pretty close to the top.…

Marketing Startups July 25, 2012

A Philosophy for Startup Success: Choose Short Men

By Rand Fishkin

One of the not-so-surprising facts about online dating is that short men and tall women tend to do poorly in comparison to their peers. If you’re a woman using an online dating sites, you can vastly increase the odds of finding a mate who matches all your criteria AND has many of the intangible qualities (humility, self-reliance, intelligence, humor, caring,…

Month: July 2012

The Big Picture Conversation

Belief in the Mythical, “10X” Hire Hurts Your Team

Events Can Be Both Wonderful & Dangerous Places to Launch

Hacking the Character Litmus Test

A Philosophy for Startup Success: Choose Short Men

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