Discussion
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
Hi! I'm Hiten Shah, I co-founded three SaaS companies, Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics and my latest is Quick Sprout. I've also invested in and advised over 80 companies including Automattic/WordPress, Buffer and SlideShare/LinkedIn. I've also helped and advised hundreds of startups, teams and founders so I've got an opinion on startups and entrepreneurship. Ask me any question you'd like, I'd love to help you with my answer so make it about what you're dealing with right now!
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Hiten! Thanks for joining. You're known for being very generous with your time, meeting with young (and more experienced) people in startups, including me ~4 years ago. 😊
Most successful/busy entrepreneurs don't do this, or at least help others infrequently in this way. Why do you do it?
Shivani Bhargava
@shivzb · CEO and Founder of TheRightMargin
Hiten, big fan. KISSmetrics changed the game big time. I've been driving my team to move users across the pirate funnel. And we finally did it--we got our first batch of paid users! What's next? What's your advice to an early stage (first time) founder at this stage? Struggling to find the next big metric to have my team focus around..
Shivani Bhargava
@shivzb · CEO and Founder of TheRightMargin
@rrhoover gah sorry, somehow my upvote made me reply to your post instead of asking a sep question. My bad!
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@rrhoover It has a lot to do with knowing what gives you energy and what doesn't. Many folks don't get energy by interacting with others, instead their focused on themselves and whatever they are doing - that's totally cool and I have many friends who are like that. I tend to be energized by helping other humans, any way that I can from a simple act of kindness for a stranger to helping founders grow their businesses. I also was exposed to this while growing up because of my father's generosity and habit of always giving his time / energy to others.
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@shivzb great question. Steli and I have talked about this quite a bit on our podcast, The Startup Chat. A few episodes you'll find useful:
http://thestartupchat.com/ep030/
http://thestartupchat.com/ep048/
Andrew Ettinger
@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)
What are the top things to consider before joining an early stage startup?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@andrewett The most important thing is the team / people you'll be working with. You should make sure that these are people who make you better every day and create a healthy atmosphere to work in.
Grant Mombach
@gsmombach
Hey Hiten, would love some advice. I’m currently considering offers between a post-revenue company with ~750 employees that raised an F in ’14 and a startup (recently raised a seed, would be employee 20).
Pay is similar, roles are similar, which do you think is a better opportunity for me and why?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@gsmombach If you want a faster learning curve and value that, the smaller company will give you more chaos and opportunities to learn, in most cases. Company culture does impact this and there are large(ish) companies that can also provide a similar atmosphere. Focus on figuring out where you'll have the most learnings and you won't go wrong.
Hong
@quan · Mechanic, Karmic Bikes
.@hnshah @gsmombach Was hoping you'd say what an F-round stands for. ;)
Grant Mombach
@gsmombach
@hnshah Thanks for the advice! Just wanted to let you know that I chose the smaller company. I'm excited for the chaos and learning opportunities!
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@gsmombach great to hear!
COSTAS ANDRIOPOULOS
@candriopoulos · https://medium.com/strictly-curious
Hello Hiteh, and thank you for taking our questions today.
1. What kind of tools/websites do you use or consult to identify experts to help you with your ventures/investments? 2.Where do you look for startups in nascent industries (e.g. press/academic journals, events, websites, etc.)?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@candriopoulos
1. I like to use Angel List, Crunchbase, and Mattermark. Twitter is also useful because people have their expertise in their bios and you can search for what every one is tweeting as well as look through lists from investors, VC firms, etc...
2. I usually use Google extensively to find whatever I need.
COSTAS ANDRIOPOULOS
@candriopoulos · https://medium.com/strictly-curious
@hnshah Thank you Hiteh for your answer. I appreciate it.
Emily Hodgins
@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt
Hi Hiten thanks for being here! What's the number one piece of advice you often find yourself giving to new founders?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@ems_hodge "The only way to do more is do more."
Josh Barkin
@joshbarkin · Co-founder @ Janis
Hi Hiten - excluding your own products/companies, if you were to shortlist just 3 products on the market that are absolutely essential for the growth of an SaaS business what would they be?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@joshbarkin I tend to focus on frameworks and process instead of tools. The tools that have helped scale growth in my experience are:
Trello http://trello.com
Growth Hackers Projects https://growthhackers.com/start-...
Your favorite documenting product, Quip, Google Docs, Notion, etc...
Stefan Ritter
@stefanritter · building @ruumapp
@hnshah @joshbarkin which frameworks and processes do you use?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@stefanritter @joshbarkin You'll find a bunch from some things I've shared in the past:
Every thing Brian Balfour writes about: http://coelevate.com
http://www.slideshare.net/hiten1...
http://www.slideshare.net/hiten1...
https://hitenism.com/5-habits-be...
Vanessa Castañeda
@ohmyafly · metaverse settler
Hi Hiten, When it comes to spreading the word about startups on social media channels, which platform do you think has the highest ROI? For example, if you were working with a b2b software company in the fintech space that is focused on acquiring new customers, where would you allocate your dollars?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@ohmyafly SEO beats most channels and also takes the most time. I'm also a fan of using content marketing + social to increase search traffic.
Vanessa Castañeda
@ohmyafly · metaverse settler
@hnshah Right on. Thanks for validating my positions on content marketing & SEO. Sounds like social channels outside of walled gardens like Twitter & Insta are the best routes to take. Thoughts?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@ohmyafly I like to use social channels to get initial traffic and test ideas for content. I'm pretty open and really like to match social platforms with the potential they have for reaching the audience I'm trying to reach. The most interesting opportunities come from using non-obvious social platforms.
JASON CAVNESS
@jasoncavnesshr · CEO/Founder of cavnessHR
Hiten, Thank you for answering our questions and letting us learn from you. I am really learning a lot from The Startup Chat. If you and Steli are ever in the Seattle are let me know and I will pick you up from the airport, buy you a beer, take you around or whatever else you need.
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@jasoncavnesshr Appreciate the offer! I'll take you up on it the next time I head to Seattle =)
stephentbiz
@stephentbiz · Founder & CEO @Flipmass
Hey Hiten! 👋
What is your take on influencer marketing?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@stephentbiz It can be a really impactful if there is alignment with the influencer(s) and your business in a way that gets you ROI and makes them happy (usually has to do with engaging their audience or them getting new audiences or of course getting paid)
stephentbiz
@stephentbiz · Founder & CEO @Flipmass
@hnshah do you think this is sustainable or more faddish?
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Hiten Shah
@hnshah · Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics & Quick Sprout
@stephentbiz I think it's sustainable just because of the amount of new influencers that social platforms (and YouTube) have enabled.
Andy Rosenberg
@andythegiant · Head of Marketing, Roostr
@stephentbiz @hnshah as long as there are both good ROI and budgets, it will be sustainable.