Google, Apple, and Amazon Stifle Innovation When They Favor Their Own Products
The SparkToro team got an exciting surprise on Sunday evening: a mention of our research on Last Week Tonight by John Oliver. The full…
Startups
SparkToro’s Mission, Vision, and Values: BELUX
Those skilled in the art of BS detection can tell you that 99% of company mission, vision, and values statements are meaningless. For corporate…
SparkToro’s Year 2 Retrospective: Can Chill Work, Alternative Funding, and an Indie Approach Scale?
Two years ago today, at the nerve-wracking start of a global pandemic, we launched SparkToro. Since then, we’ve learned a lot, and uncovered plenty…
Hustle Culture vs. Chill Work
A few weeks ago, Wil Reynolds and I were on a video call together. I think I joined in a couple minutes after him,…
The Incentives to Publish No Longer Reward the Web’s Creators
It’s been almost two months since my last post here. For those of you who pay attention to the digital marketing world, the infrequency…
SparkToro’s Year One Retrospective
On April 23rd, 2020, at what felt like the worst time to start a new business in a hundred years, SparkToro launched for the…
When Choosing Marketing Channels, Visualize the Curve
Business Owner: “We’re launching a new company/website/campaign and want to buy ads that can get us some customers. Once that’s working, we’ll invest in…
One Customer Feedback Email Changed Our Startup’s Trajectory
Building a new company means constantly managing one’s emotions. The high highs of days when everything’s golden inevitably give way to the low lows…
Marketing Personas Are Almost Always a Boondoggle (but they don’t have to be)
Boss: “We need marketing personas for each of our customer targets.”You: “Got it. What problems are these personas meant to solve?”Boss: “You know, um……
SaaS Churn and Short-Term Customers: The Contrarian View
Ever wonder why so many business software companies make it so darn difficult to start using their products? Or why subscription-focused tools are so…