2015 in Review

December 31, 2015

Books Read

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
By Simon Sinek

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success
By William N. Thorndike, Jr.

“These CEOs thought more like investors than like managers.”

Venture Deals
By Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson

“One successful negotiating tactic is to ask VCs up front, before the term sheet shows up, what the three most important terms are in a financing for them. You should know and be prepared to articulate your top three wants as well.”

Viral Loop
By Adam Penenberg
The Long Tail
By Chris Anderson
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
By Nir Eyal with Ryan Hoover
Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending
By Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton

I cited Viral Loop, The Long Tail, Hooked, and Happy Moneyin 9 Ways Behavioral Economics Can Help Increase Conversion, Retention and ROI

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
By John Battelle
Things A Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind
By Biz Stone

“If you take an idea and just hold it in your head, you unconsciously start to do things that advance you toward that goal.”

“(On building the podcast service Odeo) We lacked something that is the key to a successful startup, and it was bigger than sound quality. It was emotional investment. If you don’t love what you’re building, if you’re not an avid user yourself, then you will most likely fail even if you’re doing everything right.”

The 4-Hour Workweek
By Tim Ferris

“Doing the unrealistic is easier than doing the realistic. Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.”

“Excitement is the more practical synonym for happiness, and it is precisely what you should strive to chase. It is the cure-all. When people suggest you follow your ‘passion’ or your ‘bliss,’ I propose that they are, in fact, referring to the same singular concept: excitement.”

The Happiness of Pursuit
By Chris Guillebeau

Chris chronicles his quest of traveling to 193 countries before his 35th birthday.

Crazy is a Compliment: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags
By Linda Rottenberg

Linda is the CEO and Co-Founder of Endeavor, and works with entrepreneurs around the globe to help grow their businesses.

The Way, My Way
By Bill Bennett

Australian filmaker Bill Bennett describes his journey hiking the Camino de Santiago.

Places Visited

1. New Zealand (family hiking trip) — January

2. Lake Tahoe — January

3. Las Vegas (Zumper milestone celebration) — March

4. Singapore (vacation & visiting a college friend) — August

5. South Bend, Indiana (visiting my sister at Notre Dame) — September

6. Stockholm, Sweden (spontaneous 48 hour adventure with Zumper friends because of cheap flights) — December

7. Buenos Aires, Argentina and Patagonia (family hiking trip) — December

Races Ran

1. San Francisco Marathon (2nd Half)

2. Nike Women’s Half Marathon

Career

January: Joined Zumper!

Conferences Attended

YC Female Founders Conference — February

Gregory Koberger and Kim Pham doodled notes of all the talks:

2. LAUNCH Festival — March

1/ If bought any @sequoia co @ IPO+kept until today would have made more then if invested early+sold shares@IPO @roelofbotha #launchfestival
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) March 3, 2015

On Female VCs and founders, @thegothamgal: Women will do whatever it takes to win. If it takes longer, they don’t care. #launchfestival
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) March 4, 2015

3. April: HustleCon — April

.@spudzeee snuck into @calpoly classrooms past 6 pm to staple neon @iCracked fliers 10-12ft high by clock. Too high to take down! #hustlecon
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) April 25, 2015

Most important things to build startup: trust+a network One is worthless w/o the other. -@jjbeshara @tilt convo w/ @loyalelectron #hustlecon
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) April 24, 2015

4. 500 StartUps Weapons of Mass Disruption Growth Conference — May

.@GrowthHackers spent <1 hour moving email collector from bottom to top. Result: 700% increase in collected emails. - @SeanEllis #500DISTRO
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) May 1, 2015

Apple didn't release iPad sales data. So @TheNextCorner used @eBay data to create graphic. #500Distro pic.twitter.com/6agYJfk3li
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) May 1, 2015

5. SEJ Summit — July

40% of @Walgreens prescriptions refilled by scanning on mobile. >40% web print orders from mobile - @JohnJCurtis #SEJSummit @Searchmetrics
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) July 22, 2015

6. ClickZ Conference — August

Former @Burberry CEO @AngelaAhrendts made sure the @Burberry website played the same music as in store. via @clickzlive
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) August 12, 2015

Increase in time spent '13-'14: desktop Internet +1%, mobile web +17%, mobile app +52%. -Matt Idema, @facebook @clickzlive #ClickZLive
— Ina Herlihy (@inaherlihy) August 11, 2015

Published Posts

8 Steps to Optimizing Emails: Analyzing 125 Startup Emails
Live #LikeAGirl: This Girl’s Response
How I Hustled to Get the Perfect Job
How Medium Changed My Life
9 Ways Behavioral Economics Can Help Increase Conversion, Retention and ROI
Favorite Quotes from Medium Posts In 2015: On Personal Development, Hustling, Females in Tech, Startups, Growth Marketing, and Overall Learning

Miscellaneous Activities

Adventures

Bungy jumping

Kawarau Bridge Bungy in Queenstown, New Zealand

Kayaking

Cooking (1st and only time for a group)

Selfies!

Concerts
• Lady Antebellum w/ Hunter Hayes and Sam Hunt
• SummerThing by Alice Radio
• Outside Lands

Shows
• Silicon Valley Fashion Week
• The Book of Mormon
• Riverdance
• Tango (in Buenos Aires)

Sports
• 3 Giants Games

2 Notre Dame football games

Quotes

“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.”
— Frank Wilczek, 2004 Nobel Prize winner in physics

Spotted in Singapore

“I can’t give you a surefire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.”
— Herbert Bayard Swope, American editor and journalist; first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize

8 Things I’ve Learned in 2015:

Travel. It’s a great excuse to take photos, connect with friends and family in another setting, clear your mind, gain a new perspective, and form new ideas. It’s even better when the travel cuts you off from wifi and phone reception!
Reading helps you think of new ideas. Even this post was inspired after reading Tracy Chou’s 2014 Year in Review. (Thanks Tracy!)
Be transparent with your mentors about your future goals. The more you share, the more they can help.
Try to meet new people every week. You never know who may change your life. Having a large network makes hiring easier, and makes going to events more fun when you already know people. Also, it’s rewarding connecting people.
The endorphins from exercise make you happier and help you focus for the rest of the day.
Always follow up. This year was my first time on the other side of the table interviewing people. It’s shocking how most job applicants don’t follow up. Do it and you’ll automatically stand out. But don’t over follow-up like many sales reps!
Give thanks. It’s surprising how many people don’t.
Set goals. Write them down so you’ll be more likely to achieve them. I’ve set specific goals for each of the above categories (plus more) for next year. Stay tuned for my post in December 2016!

9 Ways Behavioral Economics Can Help Increase Conversion, Retention and ROI

November 17, 2015

Behavioral economics postulates the concept that people make “irrational” decisions because they are influenced by social factors. Identifying the resulting emotions helps to understand why people take the actions they do.

Behavioral economics can help us better understand users, along with providing us with insights to make stronger growth and product decisions.

There are many facets to behavioral economics that can make great experiments for start-ups looking to improve their metrics. Here are some frameworks to consider:

1. Limits instill a belief of scarcity.

In Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman discusses two systems of how the mind thinks. One example elaborates on how scarcity increases our desire for objects and how we value them.

A grocery store in Iowa had a 10% off promotion for Campbell’s soup. Some days, a sign next to the cans read “Limit of 12 Per Person”, while other days there was no limit. Customers bought 7 cans on average when the limit was enforced, compared to an average of 3 cans on days with no limit.

The scarcity heuristic biases people, pressuring them into taking action.People associate the availability of a product with its quality. A limit creates the perception that something is scarce. People think it’s more difficult to acquire, so they place more value on it. People fear that they will lose access to the promotion, so imposing a limit often leads more people to redeem a promotion.

Scarcity is also applied through limiting the number of invites to join a community. For example, Product Hunt grants people with access to comment and post 3 invites to give others the same privilege.

The restriction not only helps to screen users, encourage insightful responses, and limit new products, but also instills a tighter community because of the exclusivity.

The scarcity of invites may encourage people to become active in the community by up-voting products to prove they belong — while others may decide to be-friend people with invites left.

People want what they can’t have.

2. Coupon codes with expiration dates tap into user emotions of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

(Tweet)

The paper Procrastination of Enjoyable Experiences by Associate Marketing Professors Suzanne Shu (UCLA) and Ayelet Gneezy (UCSD) shows that only6% of people redeemed a gift certificate that expired in 2 months, while 31% of people redeemed the same voucher with a 3 week expiration.

The core idea that people like to save is not necessarily enough to drive them to make a purchase. By understanding that many people don’t like losing an opportunity to save money, you can tap into their FOMO — in this case, fear of missing out on a deal.

Last year I created a new email account to subscribe to over 125 startup emails for a blog post, 8 Steps to Optimizing Emails. I checked the account again to compare coupon code expiration dates, specifically for first orders.

Some startups like Jet, threadUp, and fitmob/ClassPass first order coupon codes had no expiration date:

Other first order coupon codes from Instacart, DoorDash, Threadflip, Rent the Runway, fitmob/Classpass, and Zendesk included an expiration date:

Many people get excited with “free money” or “savings”, but an expiration date is motivating to take action so the discount isn’t lost.

I hypothesize that a first time offer with an expiration date is able to more effectively drive conversion, but I think it can be taken to the next level.

UberEats has begun pre-loading coupons into user accounts. I hypothesize this eliminates the friction of customers needing to remember or find the code — making it easier to redeem the promotion.

Of course, this could simply be an experiment. But from an outside perspective of someone with a growth mindset, this approach sounds promising. Having no coupon code takes away the friction of having to search your email for the code, or search Google and Twitter for possible codes. You know that you have a code already applied to your account, so you may also skip checking the menus of other food delivery apps.

But a negative to this strategy is attribution. It is difficult to determine if someone made a purchase because of an auto-uploaded coupon code, or if they would have still redeemed a coupon code they had to type it in.

Uber’s promotion with an expiration date removes the friction in redeeming the code.

3. Offer products for a limited time to instill scarcity.

McDonald’s has continuously added and removed the McRib sandwich from its menu for the past 30 years, even though there has been a consistent supply of pork.

McDonald’s actively updates their menu to create excitement among customers when an items returns to the menu. Then when a limited time item is offered again, the artificial sense of scarcity forces consumers to think about ordering their favorite items again soon before they’re gone.

Additionally, creating scarcity for one product incentives people to return to the store or restaurant, where they’ll make additional purchases. Scarcity increases revenue.

Some start-ups release products or services for a limited time, with the goal of increasing users.

Uber launched a carpooling service, UberPool, in Aug. 2014, and on Nov. 5, 2014 they sponsored a cash car to publicize the new service. Only a few cars provided riders the opportunity to win $500 in cash.

When I began using Uber Pool as a beta user when it launched, I was frequently the only passenger. But after the cashPOOL, every ride became a real carpool. The scarcity of the promotion attracted more riders who continued using the service.

The one caveat to the advice above is that limiting options for the long-term is not a strategic decision for e-commerce companies who want to dominate the market.

You may be familiar with the Pareto Principle of the 80/20 rule that attributes roughly 80% of revenue to 20% of users. However, in e-commerce, the 98% rule applies. In The Long Tail (2004), Chris Anderson explains that a majority of demand in e-commerce is for a long tail of niche items — notpopular items. For example, 98% of Amazon’s top 100,000 books are purchased once a quarter and 95% of Netflix’s 25,000 DVDs (now over 42 million) are rented once a quarter.

More e-commerce options increases demand. The more products available, the more the platform caters to niches. E-commerce profit lies in the compounding of niches. If a niche is absent on the platform, consumers will search for another marketplace or service.

Niches are the heart of a company’s growth.

4. Establish high prices to make the product or service be perceived as more valuable or luxurious (if that’s your goal).

Cognitive economics examines what a person is thinking before they make a decision, and what factors are influencing them.

If you believe something is true, often times you can force your brain into thinking it too. (Tweet)

A company’s views can be forced upon others through controlling the company’s profile the press portrays, and establishing a pricing strategy.

In Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal mentions a study of how wine pricing influences the perceived taste.

The experiment participants first tasted $5 wine, and progressed to tasting up to a $90 bottle. The more expensive the wine, apparently the better the wine tasted. In fact, participant brains reflected their voiced opinions, as areas of the brain associated with pleasure showed higher spikes. But in reality, participants were tasting the same wine.

In relation to startups, sometimes it’s important to raise prices to increase brand perception. The Sequoia Guide to Pricing explains how pricing is one of the most important strategic decisions for a company. But unfortunately it’s often an afterthought.

Tesla and Uber have released luxurious products and services before creating a lower price alternative.

Tesla Roadster launched in 2008. Within 3.7 seconds it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph, and it lasts for 245 miles before needing to recharge the lithium ion battery. But all this comes at a price of over $100,000.

Tesla launched an electric sedan, Model S, in 2012. Within 5 seconds it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph, and last 265 miles per charge. Two years later, Elon Musk unveiled a two dual motor all-wheel drive version of the Model S. Within 3.2 seconds, the car accelerates 0 to 60 mph — the fastest of any previous Tesla. The lowest price point is $59,900 (for 40 kWh).

Tesla launched a luxury car, before releasing a more “affordable” model. The exclusivity creates a sense of class. Many people who can’t afford a Tesla view it as a dream car. This sensation will likely last for years. When Tesla eventually launches a cheaper version, consumers will already be hooked.

In March 2009, Uber was founded as UberCab, a black car service. In July 2012, Uber announced UberX, at 35% less expensive than a black car ride. In August 2014, Uber announced UberPool, a carpooling ride that launched at $5, then $7, and now dependent on distance and time of the ride.

Tesla launched as a luxurious car for purchase, and Uber launched as a classy chauffeur. They launched to a niche group with more disposable income, before creating a lower price point alternative to widen its market size.

5. Optimize your site to have key features in the toolbar so the customer isn’t overwhelmed.

I asked the American Apparel Chief Digital Officer about a successful experiment he’s run to increase conversion. Answer: they increased conversion by 12% when they changed their homepage from 9 tabs to 4 tabs.

Many toolbar tab headers complicates site navigation. Websites should have limited homepage toolbar links to be less distracting, and encourage people to click a link.

Here are some startup homepage toolbars that appear to be optimized after deleting previous tabs:

Decreasing links in the toolbar provides a heuristic for making it easier for consumers to decide which link to click. People need focus to help them make a decision.

Less words on the page also makes the site easier to navigate by having a simpler site design and product experience.

6. Establish anchoring to manage people’s expectations.

At Zumper, we release a national rent report every month. It provides people with an anchor price of what to expect when comparing listing prices for every city when they browse the site.

To retain value, we add value. People like to compare prices. (Tweet)

Here’s the November National Rent Report:

https://www.zumper.com/blog/2015/11/zumper-national-rent-report-november-2015/

The Zumper monthly rent report spurs discussion over the latest fluctuation in rental prices. People lament over the seemingly incessantly increasing rental prices. Who knows, maybe the rent report will or has contributed to helping someone select a city or neighborhood to relocate to with cheaper rent.

Zumper is in the business of long-term rentals. So if we do our job well and people find a great home, consumers use us and don’t return until they need their next rental.

7. It is important to get people excited because it drives them to take action.

Companies can spur excitement by helping consumers plan, make waiting less grueling, and creating a platform to reminisce after an event.Essentially, they can instill excitement by reminding people about the event.

It’s beneficial for startups to help customers anticipate an event purchased,because getting people excited bribes them to take action.

Examples of companies who have successfully excited users through anticipation include Virgin Galactic, Birchbox, TripAdvisor, Sprig, and UberEats.

Virgin Galactic charges $250,000 for people to spend six minutes in space.The benefit of the purchase is the anticipation. Virgin Galactic sends the future astronauts frequent updates, and creates a community for the astronauts to communicate with one another.

In another example on creating excitement, Birchbox sends their customers a monthly email when their boxes filled with beauty samples have shipped. The email reinforces the uncertainty of the contents. Readers turn to social media and try to guess the products, creating a buzz around the delivery.

Also, once most people have received their boxes, customers can post photos of their boxes on Twitter or Instagram to potentially be featured on the website.

Additionally, TripAdvisor visitors can view photos, read reviews of hotels, restaurants, events, and sign up for TripWatch emails with the most current updates about their destination city. 20% of TripAdvisor users return to the site after booking to view photos of their destination.

“We really upstream in the planning process, and I believe that people derive as much pleasure from that phase as from the trip itself. It’s the dreaming phase, the fantasizing phase, when they think about how great the tapas and the sangria are going to taste.” — TripAdvisor CMO, Barbara Messin

Startups should focus on how they can increase user excitement through anticipation. Virgin Galactic, Birchbox, and TripAdvisor provide updates that result in consumers messaging others in the community to discuss the mystery — whether it’s what visiting space would be like, what this month’s mystery makeup items are, or what to expect in a new city.

On demand food delivery startups have recently begun to email menus in advance to create anticipation.

Sprig sends daily emails for their dinner menu:

On the other hand, Uber sends daily emails, along with an email at the start of the week with the highlights:

The advanced Sprig and UberEats menus can help people plan their meals in advance. The photography makes almost any meal appetizing, and can convince someone to order one of those meals instead of making their own food, eating at a local restaurant, or purchasing food at a local grocery store hot food bar.

8. How you frame something impacts people’s perception.

In an experiment cited in Happy Money, people who were told that they were going to be seeing a funny cartoon laughed more. Additionally, people told that a politician would perform well in a debate evaluated his performance more highly than those who were told that he was feeling sick.

People are influenced by how events are framed. If people are primed before an event, they will likely be hooked to think that way if they haven’t been persuaded to think any other way.

People can make irrational decisions because they are self-conscious, and care about how they are perceived. People want to be right. If primed to believe a specific view, many people will align their expressed public opinion to match it.

Besides priming people about how to interpret an event, also prime people about that they’re getting a deal.

People have a higher completion rate if they are led to believe that they are getting something free.

Hooked describes the Endowed Progress Effect with an example of punch cards. In an experiment, one group received a blank punch card with eight squares, while the other group received a punch card with ten squares — with two free punches. Although both groups still needed to purchase eight car washes to redeem the free wash, the second group with two free punches had a 82% higher completion rate.

Frame opportunities and deals to incentivize others. People want freebies. Two stamps feels like you received something “free”.

I’ve seen this strategy replicated at a few independent sandwich shops and dry cleaners.

9. Proper timing is crucial to control outcomes.

People are more agreeable after eating.

Thinking, Fast and Slow mentions an experiment cited in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with eight parole judges in Israel. The judges devoted an average of 6 minutes deliberating on each case, and 35% of requests were approved. But after eating, the judge’s approval score increased to 65%. The approval rating steadily dropped the longer the time since eating, to about 0% right before a mealtime.

When people are hungry, it’s more difficult for them to cognitively think about anything else. They’re “hangry”. But after people have eaten, they’re “satisfied”, and much happier.

Thus, people behaviorally elicit different emotions before and after eating.

My advice is to ask people to make a decision after they’ve eaten.

Gilt, the flash sale site, starts most sales at 9 a.m. PST — conveniently after breakfast.

Rue La La, another flash sale site, begins most boutiques at 11 a.m. EST, which is 8 a.m. on the west coast for me.

A challenge with flash e-commerce sites optimizing timing is trying to balance different time zones. Since it’s difficult for them to optimize boutique start times for after meal times, they have optimized their timing for potential work breaks.

A focus on behavioral economics has an impact on bottom line numbers. More and more companies are recruiting behavioral economists, and there’s even a new leader in the C-Suite: Chief Behavioral Economist, as explained in Re/code.

Insights from behavioral economics can influence products to create scarcity, instill FOMO, create a perception of luxury, decrease being overwhelmed, manage expectations, drive people to take action, and influence perception and outcomes.

These are focuses for every company. If you weren’t thinking about your product or service with a behavioral economics mindset before, I hope you are now.

How Medium Changed My Life

August 12, 2015

Exactly one year ago I wrote my first Medium post about How Twitter Changed My Life. After blogging for a year, I’ve reflected on how Medium has impacted me, and the benefits of writing publicly.

Two years ago, Ryan Hoover blogged about how Everyone Has Something to Teach, no matter your level of work experience. I’ve taken the same approach to my writing, from blogging about my career transition and job hustling, Wisdom Shared From 78 Tech Trailblazers, How to Optimize Referral Programs, and 8 Steps to Optimize Emails — amongst others.

Blogging has helped me establish a reputation as a hustler and growth marketer that people can turn to for advice.

When I posted How I Hustled to Get the Perfect Job, I received lots of tweets and emails, for reasons including:

Career advice sometimes from people 20 years older!
Job opportunities from VCs/founders
Request to advise startups on their growth strategy

I wrote the blog post for my immediate circle who asked about my career journey, and encouraged me to publicly share it to inspire others. I’ve been transparent, and have given strangers the opportunity to understand how I think.

In a strange way, writing — beyond tweeting and Facebook status updates — allows you to connect with people on a deeper level.
Tweet

Many people reached out, including my friend Greg Koberger, who I previously helped with growth marketing for his startup ReadMe.io. He made an introduction to some people he thought I should meet.

This intro email led to the usual coffee/tea meeting. I thought it would be like most chats where you get to know someone briefly, connect with them on LinkedIn, then continue through Twitter afterwards.

I was surprised to be connected with two ladies with whom I was able to not only talk endlessly about my career and startups, but also relate to on a personal level. We quickly became close friends over dinners, birthday celebrations, learning Swift together to build an iOS app, and motivating each other to achieve our goals.

I never expected that blogging on Medium would change my life in the way it did. Sharing my story publicly sparked an offline conversation that led to close friendships. It’s these special personal relationships that makes life meaningful.

Medium is not a publishing tool, as Ev Williams describes:

“[Medium is] a network of ideas that build off each other. And people.” Tweet

Take time to blog, and reach out to people whose ideas resonate with you. You never know what may happen next.

Thanks, Medium.

How I Hustled to Get the Perfect Job: From Tradecraft to Zumper

February 25, 2015

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” — Abraham Lincoln Tweet

When I was 14-years-old, candidates for the 2008 presidential election began campaigning in the Bay Area. I was a freshman in high school, a reporter for the school newspaper, and wanted to photograph and interview the candidates alongside the presidential press.

Everyone told me not even all the internationally established press would get credentials. That never stopped me — even without connections.

I sent emails, letters, called, and just showed up! It worked. (presidential campaign photography portfolio)

*Interviewing Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee*

*Meeting Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright*

Then at age 16 I decided I wanted credentials for the presidential election. Just like before, people told me that was crazy and would never happen.

Again, I continued to hustle. It worked.

*My press credentials for the Presidential Inauguration and select other events.*

I was the only high school student in the country with press credentials to the Presidential Inauguration.

This mindset of hustling prepared me for getting a job in tech — without even realizing it.

May 2014

Networking isn’t just about going to an event or a happy hour — it’s a state of mind. Tweet

Exhibit A:

I had tickets to a talk by Sheryl Sandberg at the Commonwealth Club in May. Unfortunately I needed to stay on campus to work on thesis, and couldn’t fly home to San Francisco to attend. I posted the tickets for sale on Craigslist, and searched everyone who emailed me on Linkedln. I sold them to the lady I wanted to meet the most, who leads Business Development for Sosh.

Months later I recommended a new friend for an unposted job at Sosh — where she now works.

June 2014

I made an executive decision to begin my career in tech. I had recently graduated from Scripps College with a degree in economics and Mandarin, and told Nestlé I wasn’t going to Bloomington, Illinois to begin their 3.5 year finance rotation program.

While browsing Twitter I discovered Tradecraft, a three month program preparing people for traction roles (now engineering too) at high-growth startups. I enrolled to learn growth marketing, but discovered the most valuable aspect of Tradecraft is the network — especially for those like myself with no industry experience or connections.

July 2014

The first assignment in week one at Tradecraft was to begin filling our prospective job funnel with companies that interested us. My excel columns:

My list consisted of over 100 companies from seed-stage to late rounds, from only the founder to over 300 employees, and from SF to NYC to London — and many in between.

I read TechCrunch religiously every morning, and throughout the day also checked Gigaom, VentureBeat, Techmeme, and Wired. I wanted to learn about new startups, recent funding, and product developments — for general knowledge and to help augment my career funnel. The great articles I read, I posted (and still post!) on Quibb. I use it as a platform to save past articles I’ve liked, share them with others, and discover new articles from those I’m following.

Mattermark was the most valuable tool for helping me form my list. Filters I used include:

Funding round
Date of last financing
Growth rate
Sector
VC portfolio
Employee count
Location

At Saturday’s YC Female Founders Conference, Mattermark CEO Danielle Morrill mentioned her vision to build the Bloomberg for startup investors. Little did she know Mattermark would quickly have a much broader application! She recently blogged about the discovery.

My company list was very diverse, and I was debating joining a startup as the first marketing hire, or joining a more established startup. I met with folks on both ends of the spectrum to ask questions, and discover where I fit best. I took advantage of time at Tradecraft before morning class, and semi-flexible afternoons to meet people for breakfast/lunch/coffee/fro-yo.

Many evenings I also attended networking events. I used Meetup and Eventbrite as discovery tools to learn about events I’d find interesting. My top 10 favorite events include:

I’ve tried to meet as many new people as I can. Studies show that broad networks are the most beneficial in finding jobs. You never know how people you meet can influence you.

Opportunities aren’t just created, you have to put yourself in the path for an opportunity to arise. Tweet

August 2014

I wrote a blog post, How Twitter Changed My Life, about my decision to enter tech. I treated it like a personal press release of an update on my life, and sent it to several people whom I seek to emulate.

*Ali Pincus, the Co-founder of One Kings Lane*

*Ev Williams, Medium Co-founder and CEO*

*Julia Hartz, Eventbrite Co-founder and President*

*Susan Gregg Koger, Modcloth Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer*

Several mentors visit Tradecraft every week to share their career experiences and insights. I blogged about what Jared Fliesler, General Partner at Matrix Partners, shared at Tradecraft about his career from start-ups to venture capital — before turning 30.

September 2014

Despite having to sell my tickets for an event with Sheryl Sandberg months previously, I was delighted to see her on the Commonwealth Club roster again.

My program at Tradecraft was finishing at the end of September. I’m a workaholic, and always have to be busy. I made it my mission to have a job by my final week, so I could immediately begin my new career.

Targeting Shyp

I initially focused on getting a job at Shyp. I emailed Marketing Director Lauren Sherman in July, and didn’t receive a response. I emailed again in August. We scheduled to meet at the beginning of September — but then she had to cancel last minute due to a trip to NYC to help plan for Shyp’s expansion.

I reached out to Shyp investor Pascal Levy-Garboua, who’s a Tradecraft mentor, to ask questions about the company.

Next, I wrote a four page growth strategy for Shyp, including partnerships they should pursue, and people who I could connect them with to make it happen. I emailed the letter to CEO Kevin Gibbon. No response.

So I decided to ship my letter to him via Shyp! Still no response.

Kevin tweeted about co-founder Joshua Scott speaking at a Designers & Geeks event. So of course I immediately bought a ticket and showed up. Maybe Kevin wouldn’t respond to my email, but he couldn’t ignore me in person!

He said he hadn’t been in the office for the last few weeks, and would forward my email to the Director of Marketing. As I expected after our interaction, I didn’t receive a response. I knew it was time for me to move on.

Conference Networking

I attended the Brit+Co Re:Make Conference, because of the fabulous line-up of speakers including Brit & Co Founder Brit Morin, Eventbrite Co-FounderJulia Hartz, and Cowboy Ventures Founder Aileen Lee. I’m always inspired by these talks, and it’s especially great when women reign on stage.

Source:http://remake.brit.co/2014-san-francisco-photos/lq2ppxoqzf453de73w0o7t91euftxg — *Source:*http://remake.brit.co/2014-san-francisco-photos/lq2ppxoqzf453de73w0o7t91euftxg

Dave Morin, Path co-founder and angel investor, was at the conference the whole day supporting his pregnant wife. Most conference attendees were young women, part of the maker movement, and not deeply involved with the tech scene — so they didn’t recognize him.

During the end of conference happy hour, he rode around Fort Mason on his Boosted Board — until it ran out of battery. Then I took the opportunity to introduce myself and ask a few questions. Because he was waiting for Brit to finish up closing the conference, with a dead Boosted Board in hand, he kept chatting with me for three hours.

He pulled out his phone, commented on each app, and shared insights from companies he has invested in & wished he invested in, investing mistakes, angel investing, specific companies I should target — and even unsolicited dating advice!

Investors have access to private information, and while they don’t explicitly share it, their excitement has been correlated with TechCrunch articles published months later.

While on the job hunt, I’ve found it valuable to be open to any opportunity. At the beginning of my job search, I didn’t quite know what I wanted.

Growth expert Andrew Chen emailed me about potentially helping him launch his 8-week growth lecture series. It seemed like a great opportunity, but I ultimately decided I wanted a more hands on growth job to maximize my education.

In August I began using Weave, “Tinder for Linkedln,” as another networking tool. One day I received a message that piqued my interest, and arranged to meet the co-founder.

I decided to join 1sb on a contract-to-hire basis, after an initial coffee meeting and office visit.

The founders previously founded companies acquired by Skype and Disney, so they had proven success.
The team was about 10 people, and I was excited about the opportunity to work with a small team.
There was one lady who recently joined the team to lead growth. She previously founded her own company, was a VC, and just an overall super smart lady who I want to emulate.
They have a great culture, and everyone is super nice.
Misha Chellam, one of the co-founders of Tradecraft, knew one of their investors. He reached out and received a positive review of the team.

I met with Maya Grinberg, the Director of Marketing at Wealthfront. She was the first person to question my decision to join 1sb.

I finished the growth track at Tradecraft Friday, September 26. I had a ticket for the Women 2.0 Conference the following Tuesday and Wednesday. So I arranged to start at 1sb on Thursday — the week after finishing Tradecraft, which was exactly what I wanted.

My lunch mentor speaker canceled, and I was asked to join another table. I skimmed the conference room, recognized investor Hunter Walk, and sat at his table. Like Dave Morin, Hunter shared insights from his portfolio companies to best startups to launch a career. Interestingly enough, Dave and Hunter both mentioned the same company as their first pick.

October 2014

I compiled some of my favorite nuggets of wisdom gained from coffee meetings during my time at Tradecraft into a blog post: Wisdom Shared From 78 Tech Trailblazers.

Soon after I began at 1sb, I realized it wasn’t a proper fit.

My first day, the Head of Growth was asked to be a Product Manager, and thus my role was more in question.
The company needed to focus on developing their product before having someone dedicated to growth full-time.
I wasn’t learning and being challenged at the fast pace I was expecting.

Although the timing wasn’t right, I met great people. Who knows how our paths may cross again.

Next Steps

Many companies I wanted to work for didn’t have a job posted I explicitly fit. So I created my own projects to prove I could add value with my level of experience.

I targeted Wealthfront. I created and prioritized a list of over 10 ideas to attract customers. I also shared my ideas with Tradecraft Growth Instructor,Graham Hunter, and co-founders Russ and Misha. One of the benefits of Tradecraft is the network to seek advice and guidance.

#1
Wealthfront has a great Post-IPO Stock Sale Simulator, and Hubspot IPO-ed two weeks previously. I searched Hubpost on Linkedln, and emailed every employee listed (besides the CEO and VP of Growth Brian Balfour) — which totaled 730 people. I had my standard Tradecraft email footer, and purchased HubSpot Signals to track the number of people who opened the email and clicked the link. I sent two email versions:

Asked what other information they wished was presented in the chart.
Asked about what strategy they’d consider.

My goal was to be helpful and share a great resource with all Hubspot employees — and also have insights to share with Wealthfront.

I also added utm parameters to the link, so my impact would (hopefully) be reflected in Wealthfront’s Google Analytics:

https://blog.wealthfront.com/strategies-for-selling-stock-post-ipo-wide/?utm_source=agiftfromina&utm_medium=agiftfromina&utm_campaign=agiftfromina&utm_content=agiftfromina

I emailed Wealthfront my spreadsheet of HubSpot outreach:

I didn’t receive a response.

The Commonwealth Club honored Marissa Mayer with their Visionary Award, and I was excited to meet another role model.

November 2014

I returned to Tradecraft and helped Graham lead the growth-project forSprig. During this time I focused on developing more technical skills, and learned more about approaching growth with a strategy and process.

I focused my “free time” on the job hunt.

I created personal business cards for myself, and included my Wealthfront referral code on the back.

I decided to attempt the #2 project on my Wealthfront list. Wealthfront waives the management fees for the first $1 million for 501(c) organizations. My plan was to initially target non-profits in San Francisco. I assumed that many employees would have personal money they could invest once educated about the importance of investing, and the benefits of Wealthfront.

I began each email explaining how I’m a fan of their work:

When I received a response, I passed along the link to https://wealthfront.org, so the charity representatives could apply directly through Wealthfront.

I had a dual step email, so I could keep track of how many people I directed to Wealthfront who applied.

After sending a few dozen emails, I questioned my tactic and the time I was dedicating to it. I ended up abandoning the project, and didn’t share this work with Wealthfront — or anyone else.

December 2014

The next company I decided to create a project for was Nextdoor.

My goal was to refer as many people as possible to Nextdoor. I focused on real estate agents, because I assumed they would be easiest and fastest to convince to sign up. My next planned project was to recruit police officers, firemen (and women), and emergency service people. I knew Sarah Leary, Nextdoor Co-founder and Vice President of Marketing, especially cared about targeting this group to join the platform. I just wanted to first quickly recruit others in bulk, and optimize my emails.

I manually collected a list:

2,641 California real estate agents
40 businesses in the Noe Valley Merchants Association
All 42 San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Aides

In my emails I introduced myself as a supporter of Nextdoor, briefly described the platform and how they could benefit by joining the community. I varied my emails by subject line, length of email, content, and formatting — ultimately sending six different versions.

People weren’t accepting my emails as fast as I expected, so I decided to pivot to another referral idea: Facebook messages.

I sent personalized messages to many of my 1,296 Facebook friends, and tried to reference stories or ask about school/work/life.

The manual and personalized Facebook outreach was very time intensive, but eventually:

I analyzed over 15 start-up referral programs and landing pages, and wrote a blog post: How to Optimize Referral Programs.

I sent the link to companies I cited, other companies I thought would benefit from the insights, and Tweeted the link.

The CEO of Wealthfront, Adam Nash, sent me a direct message Tweet to email him, as they had a position I might find interesting. The CEO of Postmates Tweeted at me, and several other smaller startups emailed me as well.

The post was also featured in the Dec. 17 Mattermark Daily — and Tradecraft mentors and friends forwarded it to me.

The Tradecraft-Sprig project ended mid-December. After I returned home from holidays in New Zealand with my dad and sister, my plan was to interview for jobs full-time.

January 2015

I began browsing AngelList more actively for jobs, instead of company specific job boards. I changed my profile setting to actively searching, and received several inbound messages. One company stood out from the others: Zumper.

One of my lessons after my September job hunt, was I should have spent more time interviewing, and been less focused on getting a job quickly. So this time, I wanted to make sure that I continued speaking with companies, and not commit too soon.

The team at Wealthfront ultimately decided that the best thing for their business was to hire someone with 5–10 years of experience.

Sure, it was a bummer at the time, but I proved myself to Andy Johns, their Director of Growth & Revenue, who mentioned he’d be happy to be a reference for me, and that I was doing all the right things to break into tech.

Andy introduced me to some of his friends in tech, without me asking, with the subject line: “young workhorse.” I met Amy Chang, CEO of relationship management startup Accompani, who previously led Google Analytics from 1% to over 70% of Alexa Top 1 Million sites worldwide. I also met with Accompani Product Manager Evonne Johnson, who had recently completed her Harvard MBA. Joining Accompani seemed liked a great opportunity.

The team at Wealthfront ultimately decided that the best thing for their business was to hire someone with 5–10 years of experience.

Wednesday, January 14

I thought I was just meeting Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann for about 30 minutes for coffee, but my first visit lasted a few hours, as I was also interviewing with the Director of Growth Kristin Schaefer and Product Manager Sara Mauskopf.

I Ubered straight from the Postmates HQ to the Autodesk HQ to interview with Zack Onisko, Head of Growth at Creative Market. I liked the opportunity to work under a growth expert, who could guide me so I could become an expert myself.

Just 30 minutes later, I spoke over the phone with Devin O’Brien, Head of Strategic Marketing at Zumper. I became increasingly more interested in the opportunity, and in Zumper being the best place to launch my career.

I interviewed with the rest of the growth team when I visited the Zumper office. Then when CEO Anthemos Georgiades entered the room, he mentioned he noticed we had a mutual connection, Nick DeWilde, who’s now leading the Tradecraft program expansion while finishing his final semester at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Anth messaged Nick, and his response led Anth to say he didn’t have to ask me any questions. It was my time to interview him.

I was struck by this, and Anth’s overall focus on maximizing my career development — to a greater extent than any other CEO/potential future boss I had met. He said if I wanted to develop management skills, he’d give me interns to manage. If I was interested in venture capital, he’d bring me to his Series B fundraising meetings.

Other appealing factors of joining Zumper:

Series A company with investors including Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, NEA, and CrunchFund.
Great culture. Great people.
The growth team has three others, so I’d have the opportunity to focus. (I chose SEO.)
I would join a small team as employee #17.
Twice over the summer I was considered moving, and Craigslist was the best option I could find. It was truly sub-optimal. None of the people I messaged responded, and several times postings were already rented. I knew the rental industry needed disruption.

Without asking, Anth introduced me to his investor Chi-Hua Chien, co-founder of Goodwater Capital who previously led Zumper’s Series A Round at Kleiner Perkins, so I could learn his motivation for investing. We also spoke about his vision for the company, and other insights from investing over the years.

This conversation cemented in my mind that I wanted to begin my career at Zumper.

Although Accompani raised a $15 million Series B in November while still in Alpha, the team is still focused on developing the product — with no focus on growth for the time-being. Although my conversations with the team didn’t result in a job, I gained supporters — and hopefully rockstar mentors. Amy said she realized she was missing out by not hiring me then, and sent me some treats instead.

Upon evaluating my opportunities, I ultimately decided to withdraw my candidacy at all the startups I was speaking with. I made a decision. I chose Zumper.

My motto in life is that everything happens for a reason. Six months ago I wouldn’t have been able to predict where I’d end-up. By continuous hustling, you can find the perfect job — or in my case, it may find you.