Growth hacking is now a mainstream term in tech circles, particularly those that are consumer-focused. Growth hacking definitions abound, but generally emphasize a data driven, creative and flexibly opportunistic approach to customer acquisition. Many would argue that growth hacking is simply a new term for an old concept – marketing. While the functions, tools and skills require for growth hacking may be essentially the same as “marketing”, the psychology and mission of growth hacking feel totally different to me. When I hear “marketing”, I think soft, fuzzy, ambiguous, and cost center. When I hear “growth hacking”, I think maniacal focus on growth, scrappy, data driven, tech/tool savvy, and…
customer acquisition cost
The economics of on-demand services
A post by Ben Kepes over at CloudAve got me thinking about the economics of on-demand services, so I thought I’d do a quick blog. On-demand services businesses come in all shapes and sizes. This is particularly true today with the emergence of SaaS, where the vendor diversity is staggering. Despite the diversity of services – ranging from traditional communications services (think voice, video and data) to highly verticalized SaaS applications (think point of sale applications for yoga studios) – the fundamental economic building blocks of these businesses are, for the most part, the same.