1) Make phone calls to the competition, pretend to be a customer, listen to their sales pitch, and see if there is anything your company can gain from the experience.
2) Have the geeks setup a CMS and designate yourself the webmaster. You get a job title with master in the name which is kind of cool. Use some of your time to maintain your companies presence and give it a voice.
3) Become the social media guy for your company, someone needs to be manning the Twitter, Facebook, Frappr, Blfousajf, and whatever else folks use now. This is very time consuming but if you have time, do it. (at least I perceive it as time consuming)
4) Read the Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing and start doing that stuff.
5) Network--become the networking guy. Search for events in your area on meetup.com and other places. Get involved. Find out about different opportunities to get more free cash, chase these opportunities.
This is my wishlist of stuff I'd have someone do if I had them.
It's all about finding your niche based on what's missing. I wouldn't expect the cofounders to always be the one throwing tasks at you. They're stuck in the weeds doing the product.
Maybe take some time, read books, and try to become the big picture guy related to what you're doing and look for small ways to move that forward.
Networking is the number one task as far as I'm concerned. You need to be reading every site in the world about your field, looking for competitors, partners, and customers. Find language learning blogs, forums, training companies, and let them know about you. This is a full-time job in itself, and geeks hate doing that stuff.
These are good points, thanks a lot for spending the time to generate them.
Nick was actually monitoring this thread, and read me aloud your comment about "Facebook, Frappr, Blfousajf" and I thought he was kidding around, nice one.
I actually just got done reading "Made to Stick," "Landing Page Optimization," "Supercrunchers," "Word of Mouth Advertising," and "Call to Action." Generally my favorite was Made to Stick, but I'll pick up a copy of that Guide to Guerrilla Marketing you mentioned and read through it. All the books I've picked up so far have been YC recommendations, so it can't be that bad!
Regarding the networking, there are some things in the area I can look into, mostly tech entrepreneurs that get together and talk shop.
Again, thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them.
Regarding the networking, there are some things in the area I can look into, mostly tech entrepreneurs that get together and talk shop.
Tech entrepreneurs are one thing, but find people interested in learning Chinese. Find people who teach Chinese, and give them a free membership. Ask them to "beta test" your product. Learn every thing that you can about your customers and potential customers.
Comments
Here are some ideas:
1) Make phone calls to the competition, pretend to be a customer, listen to their sales pitch, and see if there is anything your company can gain from the experience.
2) Have the geeks setup a CMS and designate yourself the webmaster. You get a job title with master in the name which is kind of cool. Use some of your time to maintain your companies presence and give it a voice.
3) Become the social media guy for your company, someone needs to be manning the Twitter, Facebook, Frappr, Blfousajf, and whatever else folks use now. This is very time consuming but if you have time, do it. (at least I perceive it as time consuming)
4) Read the Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing and start doing that stuff.
5) Network--become the networking guy. Search for events in your area on meetup.com and other places. Get involved. Find out about different opportunities to get more free cash, chase these opportunities.
This is my wishlist of stuff I'd have someone do if I had them.
It's all about finding your niche based on what's missing. I wouldn't expect the cofounders to always be the one throwing tasks at you. They're stuck in the weeds doing the product.
Maybe take some time, read books, and try to become the big picture guy related to what you're doing and look for small ways to move that forward.
Networking is the number one task as far as I'm concerned. You need to be reading every site in the world about your field, looking for competitors, partners, and customers. Find language learning blogs, forums, training companies, and let them know about you. This is a full-time job in itself, and geeks hate doing that stuff.
Not all of us do.
These are good points, thanks a lot for spending the time to generate them.
Nick was actually monitoring this thread, and read me aloud your comment about "Facebook, Frappr, Blfousajf" and I thought he was kidding around, nice one.
I actually just got done reading "Made to Stick," "Landing Page Optimization," "Supercrunchers," "Word of Mouth Advertising," and "Call to Action." Generally my favorite was Made to Stick, but I'll pick up a copy of that Guide to Guerrilla Marketing you mentioned and read through it. All the books I've picked up so far have been YC recommendations, so it can't be that bad!
Regarding the networking, there are some things in the area I can look into, mostly tech entrepreneurs that get together and talk shop.
Again, thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them.
Regarding the networking, there are some things in the area I can look into, mostly tech entrepreneurs that get together and talk shop.
Tech entrepreneurs are one thing, but find people interested in learning Chinese. Find people who teach Chinese, and give them a free membership. Ask them to "beta test" your product. Learn every thing that you can about your customers and potential customers.
Good distinction. Thanks for that.