marketing tech businesses: a vc's view

Marketing tech businesses: a VC’s viewRob MoffatPirate Summit 2014

Invest $0.1M - $15M into tech companies

with $B potential

Invest across Europe, help businesses go

international

Have invested in >120 companies over

last 13 years2

ACQ.

$1B

IPO

$2BIPO$2B

ACQ.

$0.7B

Some of our team

3

Me

4

2000

2007

2009

Me

5

VC view on marketing

6

VC view on marketing

7

VC view on marketing

VC view on marketing

8

VC view on marketing

9

Retention ContributionMargin > CPAor

Spend €€€€before

working out:

VC view on marketing

10

Rely only on SEM

VC view on marketing

12

Do ‘black hat’ or ‘grey hat’ SEO

Stick to white hat:• Well structured site*• Quality, relevant content• Quality, relevant links

*As defined by Google

VC view on marketing

14

Total customers

2,000 customers€17 CPA

Use blended CPAs€25 LTV business

New customers

Repeat customers

Paid channels

Free channels

Paid channels

Free channels

1600€20 CPA

Total customers

400€5 CPA

2,000 customers€17 CPA

800€35 CPA

100€35 CPA

800€5 CPA

300€4 CPA

Use blended CPAs€25 LTV business

VC view on marketing

17

Ignore your brand

Not just name: what do you stand for?

Basic marketing value statement

<Your brand>is the

<what you do>that will

<benefit to your user>due to

<proof points>

VC view on marketing

20

Do offline ads too early / without experience

VC view on marketing

22

Put your faith in K-factor (referrals)

K = # of invites sent by each userx % conversion of each invite

Put your faith in K-factor (referrals)

Occasionally >1 for:• Games• Consumer apps• Developer tools

Usually 0.1 or less for: everything else

K = # of invites sent by each userx % conversion of each invite

VC view on marketing

25

Spend time/effort getting into tech press

Helps for:• Hiring• Tech early adopters (sometimes)

Doesn’t help for:• Anything else

VC view on marketing

27

Track hundreds of numbers before you know which are the 3-5 which really matter for you

VC view on marketing

29

Lose people in the funnel(where this is in your control)

Lose people in the funnel(where this is in your control)

Which to focus on:20% drop out while choosing product

30% drop out when asked for credit card

VC view on marketing

32

Depend only on A-B testing

VC view on marketing

34

Use third party tools

35

VC view on marketing

36

Have personality

37

VC view on marketing

38

VC view on marketing

39

Be creative

VC view on marketing

40

VC view on marketing

41

Be bold

Questions?

42

rmoffat@balderton.com

@robmoff

www.robmoff.com