Startups are scary. Exciting, sure. But scary nonetheless. Ask any founder who’s been up all night, obsessing over bugs, competition, funding, cashflow, or growth. Medium’s filled with their tales of woe. When we launched Snipcart in 2013, I remember being scared: “You’re going against Shopify. Or WooCommerce.…
I almost didn't publish this post. I went through with it because: 1) I've promised myself and a friend I'd eventually grow the balls to publicly discuss my anxiety. It's Bell Let's Talk day in Canada, so I couldn't wish for a better occasion. 2) I'm tired of only seeing…
I'm sitting in the Seattle-Tacoma airport, laptop on my thighs. My flight for Victoria BC is just about to leave. But a big BOOK NOW on my screen is absorbing all of my attention. "This is the final boarding call for flight 2364. All remaining passengers for this flight…
May 2016. I'm on a startup panel, standing in front of a crowd of business students. A few youngsters have that magnetic ambition in their eyes so common among 19-year-old business majors. The rest sport the more conservative "who the heck is this guy and when is he going to…
After running our SaaS, Snipcart, for two years, it was pricing that disrupted our small team’s harmony. It was pricing that triggered our first real argument. Our product manager had just come up with the suggestion to add a minimal fee to our percentage-based commission. And our lead engineer…
The last four posts I've written here were strictly about content marketing. In-depth, evergreen, and actionable articles. I just re-read them all, as a matter of fact. And I'm proud of the work I've done structuring my knowledge and experience into useful resources. I still regularly send these posts to…
Getting clients can be a tough hustle for freelancers, especially when you're starting out. Building your reputation and authority doesn't come easy. Of course, there are lots of ways to find new contracts. But I believe freelancers should strongly consider experimenting with two underrated business development activities: content marketing &…
One of our biggest challenges when producing client work is communicating technical information effectively with clients. Many developers in our community face similar obstacles. Selling and shipping technical solutions to clients always comes with important communication challenges. So recently, we brought together ten experienced developers to discuss this issue. Our…
In the first part of this guide, I discussed the what and the why of content marketing. I gave a straightforward definition of content and four compelling reasons to use it to grow a business: Boost in search engine rankings Amplification of business relationships Brand image improvement Leads & revenue…
Free bonus: A full content marketing plan template is available at the end of this post. When I was hired to handle marketing at our startup, I was lost at first. I had a few ideas, but no experience, and an unhealthy dose of self-doubt. But I also had some…