Craigslist founder Craig Newmark plans to donate $100 million to further strengthen U.S. cybersecurity, addressing what he sees as a growing threat from

Craig Newmark pledges $100M to fight hacking by foreign governments | TechCrunch

Craigslist founder says the U.S. is in the midst of a cyberwar and "the fight is on our own shores."

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark makes $100 million cybersecurity pledge - CBS News

The latest Cybersecurity news and analysis coverage including national security, hacking and privacy.

Exclusive | Craigslist Founder Pledges $100 Million to Boost U.S. 
Cybersecurity

Hey there, job seekers! If you're cruising Craigslist for remote job opportunities, you're in the right place to uncover some great prospects. But, as with any online platform, there's a mixed bag of genuine opportunities and some sneaky scams. Here are ...

Searching For Remote Jobs On Craigslist? Here's How You Dodge the Scams.

James Harnden had been a longtime activist for cannabis legalization, especially after he was charged with a low-level felony for possession of an ounce of weed, which cost him his job and other opportunities - a situation that convicted felons often encounter.

Craigslist Alert: Cannabis Licensing Hopefuls Targeted By Scams, NAACP & Lawmakers Want Probe

State Sen. Karla May, a St. Louis Democrat, wrote a letter to the Missouri Division of Cannabis Regulation, following a report last week about a company that recruited social equity license applicants on Craigslist.

Missouri lawmaker from St. Louis calls for investigation into ‘fraudulent activities’ in cannabis program

After Craigslist founder Craig Newmark stepped down as CEO of the classified ads website in 2000, he began turning his attention to the nonprofit world. Two decades later, he is one of the top Jewish philanthropists in the United States. Jo Ellen Green ...

Q&A: Craig Newmark likes to put his money where his mouth is — and then keep it shut

It is disheartening to see bad actors attempt to exploit the system for personal gain, undermining the very opportunities we sought to create.” By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent A St. Louis lawmaker is demanding that Missouri regulators investigate what she called an “egregious exploitation” of social cannabis equity licenses,

Missouri Lawmaker Urges Investigation Into ‘Egregious Exploitation’ In Marijuana Social Equity Licensing Process

Craigslist

craigslist

Every great empire in the history of mankind eventually disintegrated and fragmented into smaller states. Some of those states became empires of their own, sometimes larger than the predecessors. This is equally true in the business world. Airbnb is a well-known Silicon Valley unicorn and it makes $2.9B in revenue. It's most famous for turning the hotel industry upside down as it opened up an entirely new class of accommodation previously unavailable on the market. But few people know that Airbnb is an example of a much larger and more significant process: unbundling of online platforms. Airbnb is an offspring of Craigslist,  often dubbed "the most universal answer to all problems of humanity". Craigslist has been unbundled in many platforms (Airbnb being one of them, as an unbundler of the short-term rental market), whose combined revenue is now almost 20 times bigger than Craigslist itself. These challenger platforms, however, are no way secured from being unbundled themselves. One of them, , captures 80% of the revenue, while Airbnb commission is only 6%, which makes it particularly interesting. Another one, , targets long-term stays, which makes its business streams more stable and predictable. Le Bijou Sonder Will the grandchildren of Craigslist, Airbnb rebellious offspring grow even bigger than the last disruptor? Why you should care about unbundling Investors who understand the process of unbundling well, like , taught themselves to spot promising ventures at a very early stage, long before their merits become widely recognized. Such a skill gives those investors a competitive edge. Imagine what wealth would you amass if you recognized the unbundling of Craigslist early on and managed to invest at least 100K into Airbnb, Uber, Zillow or Indeed in the first year of their existence, becoming a major shareholder. Andreessen Horowitz So what is Unbundling? Unbundling describes the process of fragmentation of an existing market into many smaller and independent components. The main dominant market player is thus under assault from an inflow of newcomers who specialise in sometimes completely new sub-segments. The key to entry and success is often technological in nature. The newspaper industry is a good example. Before the advent of personal computers (and more specifically tablets and smartphones), the newspaper was the primary medium for information exchange. But the sudden emergence of the Internet completely changed everything. The newspaper’s role as an information exchange terminal was completely replaced by a variety of different and specialised tools (see below). As a result, many papers were shut and the surviving ones had to compete for a much smaller audience. The industry as a whole remains on a trajectory of decline. In almost all cases of unbundling, technology has played a prominent role. The reason why newspapers enjoyed such a long era of dominance is due to the high barrier of entry, erected by the high professional network (a pool of journalists and reporters covering a multitude of topics across the world) and distribution (getting the paper into as many households as possible across the country) costs. The Internet completely changed this by dramatically lowering the cost of both. Many journalists, including foreign reporters, work as freelancers and can be recruited easily on a per-project basis without having to be employed full-time. More importantly, the cost of distributing content in front of viewers has practically fallen to zero as news (and, in its broader form, social media information) is now accessed via smart devices. Unbundling of newspaper industry [ ] 1 The lesson of the story is that unbundling can happen to any player in any industry, so companies and investors need to be constantly alert for emerging threats to their market (which incidentally usually comes from out of the market). The new class of hospitality business Airbnb massively disrupted a stuffy, conservative hotel industry that had not changed in decades. Their software lets users of vacant properties (or rooms) with travelers who need one. It essentially brings two related issues together and solves them in a single stroke: The supply of hotel rooms in any given city is limited and travelers are forced to pay a premium on short-stay accommodation Many existing property owners have spare rooms/properties that are under-utilized and under-monetized. This is a classic case of matching demand with supply and taking a commission from each transaction. Airbnb is now the go-to platform for short-term travelers with a huge market value of $35 billion. How is Airbnb being unbundled? Of course Airbnb is not immune to unbundling, in fact it began quite some time ago already.  So the real question is how do you unbundle a multibillion-dollar unicorn? Just like most of the blue-chip juggernauts of the past, Airbnb was always going to be ripe for unbundling.  It typically takes place when a dominant company overlooks an emerging market segment (usually inadvertently due to their sizes or deliberately as a result of their strategies) which is then served by a new enterprise that quickly satisfies pent-up demand. Here are three growing market segments Airbnb isn’t catering for. Challengers in the luxury short-term rentals segment Airbnb dominates the mass market for short-term rentals and its target audience is the budget-conscious traveler. However, it is unable to cater for the high-end luxury travel segment because it lacks qualitative value in three core areas: security, brand, and service. Firstly, Airbnb is a technology platform rather than an accommodation provider. It relies on the owner of properties (hosts) to complete the final-mile service delivery. As a result, it has very little direct influence on the quality of service. There have been numerous incidents where guests’ financial and even physical securities were compromised by disreputable hosts. This is clearly a no-go for the luxury segment. Secondly, due to the mass-market nature of Airbnb, the brand is considered generic and rather low-end. To mention one is staying in an Airbnb property is like admitting that you fly with Ryanair. This is a particular turn-off for the luxury market. Lastly, most Airbnb hosts simply offer accommodation and do not provide any bespoke services (e.g. concierge, gourmet meals). Consequently, Airbnb is never going to penetrate this meaty new market of high-net-worth travelers who demand elegance and luxury in private apartment-style accommodation, without sacrificing any of the high-end services and features they could previously only find in 5-star hotels. Here are a few of the challenger brands in the ultra-high-end travel accommodation market that are looking to unbundle Airbnb. Website: HQ: United States 1. Sonder link Sonder is a Silicon Valley company that takes on multi-year leases on prime properties in many of the major cities of the developed world. It converts them according to their own unique specification and provides travelers with high-end hotel-style services. Remote customer support is available 24/7 and amenities are freely available to ensure the comfort of guests. "Given that there was such a movement from traditional hospitality to alternative hospitality, we saw that there would be an opportunity at a really massive scale to provide a customer experience that essentially resolves the two problems of consistency for the sharing economy and authenticity and uniqueness that is lacked in the traditional hotel model," Davidson, Sonder’s CEO. The investors . says valued the company at $1B Website: HQ: Switzerland 2. Le Bijou link Le Bijou is a Swiss property technology business with a valuation north of $900M that disrupts the travel industry. By taking on long-term leases on luxury properties across major Swiss cities and refurbishing them according to its precise specification, it controls the end-to-end customer experience. It uses cutting-edge technology (e.g. virtual assistant James, a combination of artificial intelligence and human-powered assistance) and ensures the security and privacy of the guests with zero human contact, something that Airbnb misses out on. According to Moonshot, a Hong Kong-based investment firm, “Le Bijou, with its perfect product-market fit and a powerful entry barrier (scale, brand, and technology), is well-positioned to reap high profitability and deliver a significant return for investors.” No wonder it has a large fan base that Steve Wozniak, John Sculley, a couple of royal families and even Jordan Belfort. Unlike most early-stage companies, it is open for private investors. reportedly includes Website: HQ: United States 3. Luxuryretreats link Luxuryretreats is a market leader in the global ultra-luxury travel sector. By matching some of the world’s most stunning villas with high-end travelers, it solves the property under-utilization problem for homeowners and provides high-end property accessibility for travelers. With a 24/7 concierge service, it is hard to go wrong. It is therefore hardly a surprise that Airbnb decided to acquire this company for over $200 million back in 2017. Challengers in the camping segment Long gone are the days when the only camping adventures you could have involved lugging around tons of heavy gear. Welcome to the new era of glamorous camping. Every year millions of people go on camping holidays where they can relax and enjoy getting immersed with nature again. Yet the Airbnb platform is ill-suited for the needs of campers (due to its property-centric business model). Fear not, there are now many superior alternatives ready to fill its place. Website: HQ: France 1. Gamping link A Paris-based company started by a group of friends who love camping. It is a platform that matches landowners with campers (and thus taking a commission in the middle). It operates predominantly in Western Europe and aims to provide a seamless, private and yet intimate experience for campers to enjoy nature whilst taking the hassle out of camping. Website: HQ: United States 2. Hipcamp link If Gamping is the entry-level land-matching service, then Hipcamp is the premium offering that brings campers close to nature without compromising on comfort. A predominantly US-based platform, it contains thousands of luxury camping accommodations (huts, yurts, tents, RVs) in some of the most stunning locations in the world. A true getaway portal to immerse yourself deep in nature and find inner peace. Website: HQ: United Kingdom 3. Camptoo link A highly specialized niche for matching mobile camping van (e.g. RVs, caravans) owners with renters. It provides a useful portal for road trippers who do not wish to fork out on expensive equipment whilst still enjoying the freedom of being on the road. Challengers in the medium to long-term rentals segment The rental market is ripe for disruption. Millions of tenancies globally still take over a month to sign, with tons of paperwork and even the need to witness signatures, even though almost all of these tasks can be performed digitally. Airbnb, being a short-term property sharing platform, therefore won’t be of much assistance. But these contenders might help. Website: HQ: United States 1. Rentberry link A platform that covers most large cities in the US and Europe, it provides a digital experience for tenants who wish to apply for tenancy. Instead of preparing tons of paperwork to prove identity and income, this process can now all be done digitally (including signature) in the comfort of one’s home. This saves time and cost for both landlords and tenants. Website: HQ: Netherlands 2. HousingAnywhere link Predominantly a European operation (however there are a few selected cities in the US), HousingAnywhere markets itself as having a premium pool of prospective tenants. As well as automating the tenancy application and payment process, it taps into a market ill-addressed by many players, namely mid-term renting (i.e. between 1 and 11 months). Website: HQ: Germany 3. Nestpick link Nestpick is a property amalgamation platform that aggregates listings on major property platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Spotahome) and presents users with a uniform view. It has a global reach and directs users to the relevant platform once selected. It does not hold any listing inventories by itself. The narrow opportunity window Unbundling is a natural course of action as a company expands and the industry mature. It is perhaps ironic that Airbnb itself started off as a result of unbundling and now it is subject to the same onslaught from challengers in areas it neglected. Consequently, smart investors are always on the lookout for assets that have proven profitability and delivers excellent ROI, as well as being future proof. The challenge is to enter the market just at the right time - when you already can recognize the future market-makers, but before it appears on the radar of big venture firms and spoiled with cheap money. In a world where , entering the market before it’s too late becomes harder and harder. the cash is trash Sources Andreessen Horowitz fund - Crypto is financial unbundling - https://a16z.com/ https://haseebq.com/crypto-is-financial-unbundling/

Unbundling New Markets: Who is Doing What Airbnb Did to Craigslist?

Finding an rental in any city is a pain. Step in to a major city and your problems are astronomically more difficult. If you have experience with the latter, chances are you’ve shown up to an open house only to find 15 techies all vying to seal the deal. They make more money in a month than you do in a year. Their credit score makes yours look like a decrepit bum with a heroin addiction. apartment You need to approach for an apartment rental in a way that others aren’t. You need to be creative and, quite literally, . Your focus cannot be the most desirable part of town, the cheapest rent, or the prettiest building. Your focus — — is the person renting the apartment. When you exploit the latter, the former quickly falls in line. hunting treat it like hunting your prey The following 3 apartment rental tips helped me land amazing apartments in San Francisco (Lower Haight, 2013) and Sacramento (Midtown, 2015). At the time, both markets were extremely competitive and I was making $13 & $20 an hour, respectively. No one should have (logically) rented to me, but I ended up with great places to live and impressive value. Rentals with No Photos This may seem like a wild tip but take a moment to consider how you’ve been searching for apartments. In the digital age, we have become conditioned to expect photos for everything. You want to see your future digs before putting in the work to get it. I don’t blame you — everyone wants that. When you find a Craigslist apartment rental that has no photos, you will encounter: Less competition Bargaining power (less people viewing, the greater your odds to negotiate a deal) Quicker decisions In my case, both landlords were older and simply did not know how to get photos from their phone to a computer. Additionally, I was offered both apartments upon first visit (pending a credit check, of course). Not because I was the only one applying, but because I played the part. Play the Part It takes roughly for someone to look at you and make a judgment. What’s worse, trustworthiness tops that list of lousy judgment. You must counter this fact. 1/10 of a second When you show up for your apartment rental appointment you should be: Dressed professionally Tattoos covered Stupid facial piercings removed Well-manicured and not a junkie in nice clothes (even if that’s exactly what you are) One of my first and most valuable business lessons came when I was a carpet cleaner in nice hotels across the Bay Area. I took forever to finish rooms in the beginning because I wanted them to be clean, as if I had to sleep in them. That is until my boss taught me a lesson — . perception is everything When you clean carpets, you’re left with beautiful “V” shaped patterns in the carpet. Without fail, the carpet could be filthy (within reason) and the moment a hotel manager saw that pattern, they were thoroughly satisfied. They saw that pattern and cleanliness. Needless to say, I got quicker at cleaning rooms. perceived Come Prepared Remember, this is an apartment . Your sole mission is to exploit human nature and unavoidable perceptions. This does not mean be unethical or a scumbag. It simply means . hunt it’s okay to bluff a little Bring these items with you to every single appointment in your apartment rental hunt: — You’re entitled to one free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies. This won’t get you out of having to hand over $35 to the landlord for a credit check. Likewise, you are on your own if you have bad credit. Credit report — To be honest, these are less common if you’re dealing with someone who can’t upload photos. Call ahead of time and ask to be emailed a digital copy. A pre-filled application — If you like the rental, pull out your checkbook and a pen at the end of the walkthrough. Look the landlord in the eyes and ask how much the deposit and first month’s rent are. The reaction you get is comical, yet insignificant. This bluff is merely that will assert your dominance, intent and trustworthiness. While you should be fully prepared to write the check, no sane landlord is going to rent to someone without proper vetting. But you already knew that, Beast. Checkbook an animalistic display of bravado Conclusion Craigslist apartment rental hunting is cutthroat. You are battling a bunch of wolves for number one of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: shelter. At every step, you must . You must understand how humans think and make those perceptions work against them. identify what your competition is lacking and pounce on it I write other stuff like this @ . Nerdy Minutes

Hack Your Competition: Craigslist Apartment Rentals

Disruption eruption In the tech sector, the idea of disruption is a kind of golden calf. If your company can achieve disruption in an industry that hasn’t already been overrun with startups, you will have a significant advantage over the competition and may even come to be associated with forward-thinking methods. But as the startup era enters its middle years, the gold rush has already taken place, for the most part. The likes of , , and have revolutionized their specific industries, and as a result, the paradigm has shifted in their favor. Uber Amazon Instacart Despite our many advances over the last ten years or so, there are still many industries in desperate need of modernization. Specifically, real estate is woefully archaic, still relying heavily on word-of-mouth and often allowing for mild to moderate deception of buyers and renters in the . hopes of making a profit Unlike more specialized industries, we all have to interact with at some point in our lives. Renters, in particular, have to interact with the machinations of real estate more often than most, scrambling for new housing when their current residence experiences rent hikes. real estate is an industry In need of repair In preparation for this article, I spoke with some friends about experiences they’ve had when searching for a new apartment or home. Despite my expectations, their stories actually shocked me. One friend told the tale of finding a beautiful apartment online, only to visit the building and find that the photos on the website were actually for a different unit. The apartment up for grabs was smaller, had an outdated bathroom, and featured a view of a nearby brick wall. An old school chum explained her experience of signing a lease on a lovely one bedroom in a nice neighborhood, only to find two months later that the building had long been struggling to combat a major pest problem. She regularly encountered mice and cockroaches in her apartment, sometimes in her food. When she complained, a maintenance worker laid down a few glue traps and called it a day. Leading real estate websites have certainly improved in recent years, but there’s minimal oversight.These sites are crowd-sourced, and that means inaccuracies and even outright falsehoods can slip through the cracks. Don’t believe me? Just spend a few minutes on and observe the number of apartments listed for $1. Craigslist Despite technological advancements that have allowed for innovation in other industries, apartment- and house-hunting remains difficult for many people who don’t have the benefit of personal connections with agents who are in-the-know. The road to redemption So what’s the solution here? One larger element of the battle would be to make sure that there’s plenty of affordable housing to go around, protecting individuals of modest incomes from spending nearly all of their earnings on rent. But this will require legislative action as well as grassroots support. In the meantime, a select few entrepreneurs have decided to focus on streamlining the process of finding appropriate housing and requiring management companies and real estate agents to be completely honest and transparent with their property postings. In New York, the belly of the beast when it comes to difficult (and astronomically expensive) real estate markets, startup has pioneered a strict new model that emphasizes responsible listings and open lines of communication. Replay Listings Basically, anyone who wants to post a property on the platform needs to be verified as a licensed real estate professional, and all media for that posting, whether it be photos or videos, needs to show the exact property-- no model apartments or similar units allowed. The result is a platform, maybe even a community, where individuals can be confident that what they see online or in the app is what they’ll actually get. “So far the response has been extremely positive for both agents and renters. Renters love it because it makes their search easier by allowing them to browse unedited videos of rental apartments. Agents love it because they’re able to instantly create and distribute content in a safe way. They often end up physically showing fewer apartments and closing more deals.” These are the words of Rodolfo Delgado, co-founder of Replay Listings. A former real estate agent himself, the idea for Replay Listings came from first-hand interactions with individuals who’d been shell-shocked by their previous experiences in the world of apartment hunting in the Big Apple. “I would meet clients at my office and show them pictures and floorplans of every available apartment that met their needs. More often than not, however, they expressed mistrust in the pictures and shared experiences they’d had in the past in which the pictures looked nothing like the actual apartment.” As you might have guessed, this atmosphere of mistrust and skepticism doesn’t make for safe and satisfying interactions. Replay Listings has chosen to combat this problem head-on, and judging by customer feedback, so far the company is winning the fight. Tech shines a light For Delgado, recent advances in technology offered a clear path to innovation and disruption. Just ten years ago, built-in phone cameras were cheap and unreliable. Even worse, the phones they were attached to often lacked sufficient internal storage to save more than a minute or so of video. Similarly, internet connections were still relatively slow and every three seconds to buffer. Even then, the video quality would often take a hit, making it look like security camera footage from the 1980s. struggled to stream video content without pausing Here in 2019, it’s a very different story. It’s not only possible to stream high-quality video from an app, but in fact, most of us expect it to happen without a hitch. Given the current state of tech, there’s really no excuse for anyone to be posting inaccurate information online, especially when it comes to real estate, as Delgado noted. “Thanks to technology, consumers have access to more and more accurate information that allows them to make informed decisions. We need the real estate industry to become even more transparent and honest, as it directly affects the well-being of everyone that’s looking for a new home.” Replay Listings has made a name for itself by featuring unedited videos of apartments and homes, most of them simple, unadorned walkthroughs. This feature alone requires robust technology solutions. Delgado explained that Replay Listings utilizes . data storage solutions offered by Amazon and Google Knowing little about data storage solutions myself, I reached out to data storage expert Rohit Gupta (who has multiple patents and more than ten years of experience in data storage to his credit) for an explanation of the advantages offered by public cloud storage options like these, and how they allow young companies like Replay Listings to host large amounts of media and data. “Public cloud storage is a good IT infrastructure choice for small to medium-sized companies for whom IT infrastructure is not their core competency. These companies can take advantage of cost, ecosystem, and performance. The public cloud ecosystem also gives companies ease of use and availability of any software or services such as machine learning algorithms, analytics, databases, streaming, microservices, containers, security, and digital payments, etc.” These public cloud storage ecosystems aren’t necessarily the be-all-end-all of data storage for businesses, but for Replay Listings and other companies like it, these services guarantee that users can access media reliably and safely. For Delgado and his team, improving the platform and keeping promises to users remains the top priority, and it’s thanks to public tech solutions like these that Replay Listings can continue to focus on its central mission. The wave of the future Despite our rapid advancement in many different industries, tech leaders need to remember that stagnation is the enemy of progress. Disruption is great, but every disruptive tech company has its honeymoon period, and every honeymoon has to end sometime. We’re seeing this more and more with the biggest names in tech, enormous corporations who swallow up smaller companies and then fail to push those brands toward further innovation. Among smaller startups, it’s more common to find an attitude that doesn’t really allow for rest and relaxation. Even a great product can stand to be improved. When I spoke with Delgado, he was eager to point out that Replay Listings has extensive plans for expansion and further updates to the platform. In addition to planned trial runs in other major American cities including Boston, Los Angeles, and Chicago, he mentioned that there’s also room to implement AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) into the platform. “I’m excited to see how we can make a dent by contributing to the virtual reality and augmented reality industry as well. We’re experimenting with some features that are very promising in terms of allowing our users to experience the inside of an available apartment in new ways.” If nothing else, this serves as a reminder that cross-pollination and cooperation between individuals, between companies, and between industries is not only positive but necessary for building trust with customers and increasing transparency on a massive scale. Increased profits are a byproduct, albeit an important byproduct, of improving the world we live in.

The Fight for Honesty in Real Estate

Not only did they completely revolutionize and redefine travel as we know it, but Airbnb was also one of the first-ever true “ ”, achieving a billion-dollar-plus evaluation. Unicorns They definitely haven’t slowed down over the years, surpassing over 1b in quarterly revenue, with an evaluation of over . They are nothing short of impressive. 35b It's not a surprise that startups are emulating and unpacking their business model to try to replicate their success. Let’s break down some of the main components that helped them achieve their massive success. Humble Beginnings Airbnb started out in 2008 when founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia realized there was a business idea in renting our air mattresses to travelers in their living room when hotel space for a large conference in San Francisco was sold out. The idea then evolved into a website. Other people used the website to do the same thing. Boom. Airbnb. Do Things That Don’t Scale Instead of investing in paid ads, or social media, they started manually reaching out to people who would be the perfect client for their website/platform. Every time someone posted on Craigslist that they offered their home up for a bed and breakfast or for short-term lodging. They emailed them — asking them if they wanted to list their platform. This was manual, and this was tedious, but this worked. It was low-cost, and it worked. To quote Paul Graham, “Do things that don’t scale”. The Results? After initial success, they coded up an automated tool that reached out to new Craigslist postings automatically. They refined the copy, made the onboarding and sign-up simpler and more user-friendly. This led to viral growth and was the start of the incredible story of a category redefining company. Scaling & Growth Airbnb is a masterclass in startup strategy, marketing strategy, and sales strategy. They failed multiple times before they achieved any measure of success, and the early-stage lessons, that they used to achieve their initial momentum, as well as many scaling and growth strategies they used on their way to Unicorn status we’re equally impressive (and far too numerous to properly cover in a newsletter). When researching this case study, I stumbled across a 230+ page case study that goes into post-Craigslist, Airbnb growth strategies, and insights, so if you want to read more about some impressive, innovative things that Airbnb did to scale, check out these links. The Product The Website Paid Search Email Marketing SEO Social Media Content Marketing Referral Marketing Community Offline Lessons Learnt There are a few lessons we can learn from Airbnb’s Craigslist strategy. Growth doesn’t have to be sexy. Airbnb realized that startup growth could be using very traditional, boring, and simple methods to achieve initial growth. The Craigslist strategy was essentially an outbound sales strategy for a SaaS project. I know enough developers that just want to set up an inbound machine and never type an email or chat with a customer, and just drive traffic and optimize conversions. Do boring things that work. You don’t need paid ads, fancy funnels, graphic design. You need to write a few sentences and focus on getting customers wherever they’re at. Meet customers where they’re at. Airbnb didn’t focus on targeting, retargeting, and spreading a wide net. They just met their customers where they were at. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Silicon Valley thinking they wanted to spend their time on a platform as “unsexy” as Craigslist. But they realized that their customers were there — so they just spent time meeting the customers on the platform/medium they preferred. Be unconventional. Keep it simple, don’t overcomplicate a customer acquisition process. Just because your strategy isn’t in line with the strategy used by a CMO chatting about the latest high tech demand generation schemes on a popular marketing podcast, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Being unconventional is a good thing. Do things that don’t scale. To build out a process that will let you scale your business, it’s not going to be scalable on day 1. It won’t be automated; it won’t be available en masse. It will be slow and painful. A common trap that founders or marketers fall into is that they assume that if they build it, customers will come. This is the most dangerous mindset trap to fall into. Almost all successful businesses or strategies work because someone made it work. Figured out how to optimize it manually. This took a painstakingly long time to figure it out, and only then, once they proved that it was successful, figured out ways to scale it and automated it. Recruit users & land customers manually, and then scale that process, only once you’ve figured out that it works. Also published on . https://newsletter.roioverload.com/p/hacking-craigslist-for-viral-growth

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AI disruptobloat: qanday qilib ortiqcha ishlab chiqarish qiymatni kamaytiradi, lekin innovatsiyalarni tezlashtiradi

人工智能颠覆性膨胀：生产过剩如何稀释价值但加速创新

The internet has ushered in an era where individuals can invest like never before. A vast amount of information and trading tools are readily available online, empowering them to make informed decisions. Additionally, individual investor communities like r/WallStreetBets have utilized social media to create significant buzz around certain stocks, thereby influencing their prices. In short, the internet has radically empowered individual investors. Now, a puzzling question arises. Despite the enthusiastic adoption and utilization of the internet so far, why aren't people embracing Web3 yet? Ironically, Web3 represents the next iteration of the internet, defined as "the Internet of Money." The Web3 Adoption Gap: Users vs. Investors Despite 580 million people holding cryptocurrency by the end of 2023, the daily average of Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with Web3 or dApps remained modest at 4.2 million. Since the emergence of Web3, active users have comprised less than 1% of the global population. Two primary factors typically impede the adoption of new technologies: lack of product-market fit and ineffective marketing and communication strategies. Given the sizable number of investors, it can be inferred that they are aware of the potential of Web3. Therefore, we may need to revisit the current Web3 marketing approaches. Airdrop marketing, where projects distribute free tokens for specific actions, is often associated with crypto marketing. This method has the remarkable ability to transform a project from obscurity to achieving significant Key Performance Indicators. By immediately enlivening a project, airdrops attract users, generate transactions, create liquidity, and boost brand awareness. Recipients view airdrops as potential windfalls requiring no initial investment, making them highly desirable. While both projects and users favor airdrops for the excitement they generate around Web3, it's crucial to evaluate their actual effectiveness in driving meaningful adoption and engagement. Web2 Marketing: Leveraging Rewards for Network Effects Offering rewards to attract customers is nothing new, with origins dating back to the early 1700s. Initially used to foster customer loyalty, businesses provided discounts, points, coupons, and cashbacks to encourage repeat purchases. This approach evolved to directly incentivize customer acquisition with the rise of the Internet, particularly during the Web2 era characterized by the concept of ‘the web as a platform’. PayPal's phenomenal marketing strategy, which attracted over 100,000 users within a month, set a benchmark for many startups. Elon Musk explained it in an interview, stating: “We started off first by offering people $20 if they opened an account. And $20 if they referred anyone. And then we dropped it to $10. And we dropped it to $5. As the network got bigger and bigger, the value of the network itself exceeded any sort of carrot that we could offer.”  The more users a platform has, the more valuable it becomes - this network effect has been the hallmark of web2. Traditional marketing focused on maximizing revenue and profit by targeting specific customer segments who could afford their products. However, the internet era shifted the focus to user acquisition. In particular, startups aiming for rapid scale-up coined the term 'growth hacking' for marketing strategies solely focused on recruiting the maximum number of users in the shortest time. This made the role of a growth hacker the most sought-after position in marketing. Online vs. On-chain: Calibrating Marketing for Divergent Users Based on indicators alone, it appears that a record-breaking successful growth hacking is occurring in Web3. Last February, Starknet announced the STRK token distribution worth $2 billion, the largest airdrop in crypto history, to 1.3 million eligible wallets. Blast has not launched its mainnet yet, but secured $1.1 billion worth of liquidity by promising an airdrop in May 2024. This substantial amount of deposits was collected on a network that is not even operational. As a result, there is a growing perception that the hallmark of Web3 is a pyramid scheme. Observations suggest that user engagement and liquidity sharply decline immediately following the airdrop events. In contrast, PayPal reportedly invested around $60 million in rewards marketing and ceased the program upon reaching 100 million users. Yet it has sustained its growth, currently serving over 400 million users. This raises the question: what is amiss with Web3's marketing that prevents it from fostering sustainable growth? An important distinction to make is that Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. As a result, the audiences they target are bound to diverge as well. 1. Platform vs.  Protocol: Network Effects in Infrastructure Web2 platform companies can only sustain growth by locking users into their platforms and monopolizing the market. However, Web3 represents a ‘protocol network’ characterized by ‘interoperability’ and ‘composability.’ For instance, you may have heard of Airbnb's famous growth hacking story, where Airbnb reverse engineered Craigslist's high-traffic website to acquire early users. In contrast, Web3 projects operate within a decentralized system owned by their communities and based on open source principles. These projects can seamlessly integrate with others, either by building their dApps on existing platforms or interacting with other dApps. They do not need permission from other projects to collaborate or access their users. From the perspective of integrated projects, as more projects combine with its protocol, the ecosystem expands and the token value increases, nurturing a virtuous cycle that attracts even more users and projects to join. This phenomenon, particularly prominent in DeFi, is referred to as ‘money legos,’ where each DeFi dApp serves as a building block, continuously delivering new and diverse products. In the Web2 era, the 'network effect' was synonymous with acquiring a large number of users. However, in the Web3 era, the power dynamics have shifted. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. Marketing strategies that solely distribute airdrops to secure early users may overlook the essence of Web3. 2. Platform vs. Community: Users vs. Owners The most common definition of Web3 is the "internet of value," allowing value to be exchanged peer-to-peer without intermediaries. From a marketer's perspective, this definition only explains the features of blockchain technology and is not enough to explain user benefits. The true innovation lies in (a) that anyone can issue their own currency (b) that activities on the network establish economies, and (c) The token price can increase through the joint efforts of the community, so the community members collaborate with the common goal of growing the project. As a result, while the Web2 network is owned by the company, the Web3 network serves as a public infrastructure where users collectively own the protocol and have a vested interest in its success. To sum it up in one word, it is a community, more precisely, an economic community. While traditional marketing viewed customers as ‘consumers’ focused on purchasing products, the Web2 era redefined them as ‘users’ expected to interact with the network through actions like following, liking, and sharing. In Web3, however, customers take on a new role as ‘community members’ who actively contribute by investing in project tokens, participating in governance, and proposing and promoting initiatives. This represents a shift from the Web2 approach, where marketing efforts aimed at increasing passive user interactions. Web3 marketing should focus on engaging users to foster a sense of belonging and loyalty, encouraging their active participation in the project's development and adoption. Although the Web3 network operates as an open public infrastructure, it is not a product for everyone. To cultivate a robust community, targeting individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 is essential. Therefore, marketing that focuses on accelerated scale-up in the early stages does not align with Web3. Conclusion If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect. In this new era, the path to growth lies not in mere user acquisition but in curating a dedicated community of quality members. Marketing efforts must be tailored to identify and invite individuals who can actively engage and contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion. Empowering these invested members with avenues for continuous collaboration and value creation is the key to unlocking the true potential of Web3 projects and propelling them toward long-term sustainability and impact. The internet has ushered in an era where individuals can invest like never before. A vast amount of information and trading tools are readily available online, empowering them to make informed decisions. Additionally, individual investor communities like r/WallStreetBets have utilized social media to create significant buzz around certain stocks, thereby influencing their prices. In short, the internet has radically empowered individual investors. Now, a puzzling question arises. Despite the enthusiastic adoption and utilization of the internet so far, why aren't people embracing Web3 yet? Ironically, Web3 represents the next iteration of the internet, defined as "the Internet of Money." The Web3 Adoption Gap: Users vs. Investors Despite 580 million people holding cryptocurrency by the end of 2023, the daily average of Unique Active Wallets (UAW) interacting with Web3 or dApps remained modest at 4.2 million. Since the emergence of Web3, active users have comprised less than 1% of the global population. Two primary factors typically impede the adoption of new technologies: lack of product-market fit and ineffective marketing and communication strategies. Given the sizable number of investors, it can be inferred that they are aware of the potential of Web3. Therefore, we may need to revisit the current Web3 marketing approaches. Airdrop marketing, where projects distribute free tokens for specific actions, is often associated with crypto marketing. This method has the remarkable ability to transform a project from obscurity to achieving significant Key Performance Indicators. By immediately enlivening a project, airdrops attract users, generate transactions, create liquidity, and boost brand awareness. Recipients view airdrops as potential windfalls requiring no initial investment, making them highly desirable. While both projects and users favor airdrops for the excitement they generate around Web3, it's crucial to evaluate their actual effectiveness in driving meaningful adoption and engagement. Web2 Marketing: Leveraging Rewards for Network Effects Offering rewards to attract customers is nothing new, with origins dating back to the early 1700s. Initially used to foster customer loyalty, businesses provided discounts, points, coupons, and cashbacks to encourage repeat purchases. This approach evolved to directly incentivize customer acquisition with the rise of the Internet, particularly during the Web2 era characterized by the concept of ‘the web as a platform’. PayPal's phenomenal marketing strategy, which attracted over 100,000 users within a month, set a benchmark for many startups. Elon Musk explained it in an interview, stating: “We started off first by offering people $20 if they opened an account. And $20 if they referred anyone. And then we dropped it to $10. And we dropped it to $5. As the network got bigger and bigger, the value of the network itself exceeded any sort of carrot that we could offer.”  The more users a platform has, the more valuable it becomes - this network effect has been the hallmark of web2. Traditional marketing focused on maximizing revenue and profit by targeting specific customer segments who could afford their products. However, the internet era shifted the focus to user acquisition. In particular, startups aiming for rapid scale-up coined the term 'growth hacking' for marketing strategies solely focused on recruiting the maximum number of users in the shortest time. This made the role of a growth hacker the most sought-after position in marketing. Online vs. On-chain: Calibrating Marketing for Divergent Users Based on indicators alone, it appears that a record-breaking successful growth hacking is occurring in Web3. Last February, Starknet announced the STRK token distribution worth $2 billion, the largest airdrop in crypto history, to 1.3 million eligible wallets. Blast has not launched its mainnet yet, but secured $1.1 billion worth of liquidity by promising an airdrop in May 2024. This substantial amount of deposits was collected on a network that is not even operational. As a result, there is a growing perception that the hallmark of Web3 is a pyramid scheme. Observations suggest that user engagement and liquidity sharply decline immediately following the airdrop events. In contrast, PayPal reportedly invested around $60 million in rewards marketing and ceased the program upon reaching 100 million users. Yet it has sustained its growth, currently serving over 400 million users. This raises the question: what is amiss with Web3's marketing that prevents it from fostering sustainable growth? An important distinction to make is that Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. As a result, the audiences they target are bound to diverge as well. Web2 online platforms and Web3 on-chain networks differ fundamentally in their nature. 1. Platform vs.  Protocol: Network Effects in Infrastructure Web2 platform companies can only sustain growth by locking users into their platforms and monopolizing the market. However, Web3 represents a ‘protocol network’ characterized by ‘interoperability’ and ‘composability.’ For instance, you may have heard of Airbnb's famous growth hacking story, where Airbnb reverse engineered Craigslist's high-traffic website to acquire early users. In contrast, Web3 projects operate within a decentralized system owned by their communities and based on open source principles. These projects can seamlessly integrate with others, either by building their dApps on existing platforms or interacting with other dApps. They do not need permission from other projects to collaborate or access their users. From the perspective of integrated projects, as more projects combine with its protocol, the ecosystem expands and the token value increases, nurturing a virtuous cycle that attracts even more users and projects to join. This phenomenon, particularly prominent in DeFi, is referred to as ‘money legos,’ where each DeFi dApp serves as a building block, continuously delivering new and diverse products. In the Web2 era, the 'network effect' was synonymous with acquiring a large number of users. However, in the Web3 era, the power dynamics have shifted. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. Marketing strategies that solely distribute airdrops to secure early users may overlook the essence of Web3. A large user base no longer holds the same influence, as users are more interchangeable. Instead, the network effect at the infrastructure stage is more crucial. 2. Platform vs. Community: Users vs. Owners The most common definition of Web3 is the "internet of value," allowing value to be exchanged peer-to-peer without intermediaries. From a marketer's perspective, this definition only explains the features of blockchain technology and is not enough to explain user benefits. The true innovation lies in (a) that anyone can issue their own currency (b) that activities on the network establish economies, and (c) The token price can increase through the joint efforts of the community, so the community members collaborate with the common goal of growing the project. As a result, while the Web2 network is owned by the company, the Web3 network serves as a public infrastructure where users collectively own the protocol and have a vested interest in its success. To sum it up in one word, it is a community, more precisely, an economic community. While traditional marketing viewed customers as ‘consumers’ focused on purchasing products, the Web2 era redefined them as ‘users’ expected to interact with the network through actions like following, liking, and sharing. In Web3, however, customers take on a new role as ‘community members’ who actively contribute by investing in project tokens, participating in governance, and proposing and promoting initiatives. This represents a shift from the Web2 approach, where marketing efforts aimed at increasing passive user interactions. Web3 marketing should focus on engaging users to foster a sense of belonging and loyalty, encouraging their active participation in the project's development and adoption. Although the Web3 network operates as an open public infrastructure, it is not a product for everyone. To cultivate a robust community, targeting individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 is essential. Therefore, marketing that focuses on accelerated scale-up in the early stages does not align with Web3. individuals with the financial means to invest, the time to dedicate, intelligence, interest in technology and the economy, and a passion for economic empowerment provided by Web3 Conclusion If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect. In this new era, the path to growth lies not in mere user acquisition but in curating a dedicated community of quality members. Marketing efforts must be tailored to identify and invite individuals who can actively engage and contribute their expertise, ideas, and passion. Empowering these invested members with avenues for continuous collaboration and value creation is the key to unlocking the true potential of Web3 projects and propelling them toward long-term sustainability and impact. If the network effect was the driving force behind Web2 growth, Web3 is defined by the powerful community effect.

Web3 Marketing is not about the Network Effect

'Multimodal is the most unappreciated AI breakthrough' says DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder

DoNotPayCEO জোশুয়া ব্রাউডার বলেছেন 'মাল্টিমোডাল হল সবচেয়ে অপ্রশংসিত এআই ব্রেকথ্রু'

„Multimodal ist der am wenigsten gewürdigte KI-Durchbruch“, sagt DoNotPayCEO Joshua Browder

"El multimodal es el avance de la IA menos apreciado", dice el director ejecutivo de DoNotPay, Joshua Browder

« Le multimodal est la percée la plus méconnue de l'IA », déclare Joshua Browder, PDG de DoNotPay

DoNotPay के सीईओ जोशुआ ब्राउडर कहते हैं, 'मल्टीमॉडल सबसे कम सराहना प्राप्त AI सफलता है'

「マルチモーダルは最も評価されていないAIのブレークスルーだ」とDoNotPayのCEOジョシュア・ブラウダー氏は語る

DoNotPayCEO Joshua Browder는 '멀티모달은 가장 인정받지 못한 AI 혁신'이라고 말했습니다.

‘Multimodal é o avanço de IA menos apreciado’, diz Joshua Browder, CEO da DoNotPay

«Мультимодальные перевозки — это самый недооцененный прорыв в области искусственного интеллекта», — говорит генеральный директор DoNotPay Джошуа Браудер.

DoNotPayCEO'su Joshua Browder "Multimodal, en takdir edilmemiş yapay zeka atılımıdır" diyor

'Đa phương thức là bước đột phá về AI không được đánh giá cao nhất', Joshua Browder, CEO của DoNotPay, nói

DoNotPay 首席执行官 Joshua Browder 表示，“多模式是最未被重视的人工智能突破”

I was first exposed to "growth hacking" by Sean Ellis in 2010. This was about a decade after the dotcom dotbomb recession. Sean was working with several Silicon Valley startups. But traditional marketing methods like paid advertising and PR were becoming less effective. These businesses wanted to grow their user bases. The goal? Explode user acquisition, fuel engagement and lock in long-term loyalty. All at warp speed and without burning out. Sean’s success led him to coin the term growth hacking. Underdog Revolution Slaying Goliaths In the high-stakes game of business giants overshadow the ingenuity of smaller players. Growth hacking is a secret weapon for leveling the playing field. The focus is on rapid experimentation across various channels. We examine the business and identify the most effective and efficient ways to grow. This revolutionary approach transcends traditional marketing strategies. Growth hacking is not only about cutting costs or taking shortcuts. It's about embracing a mindset that values creativity over budget size. Favors agility over rigid planning. Pushes boundaries and explores new horizons in pursuit of explosive growth. Underdogs— are the startups, small businesses and web3 companies battling against well-entrenched competitors. Embracing growth hacking is essential. Look, we're in an environment where ambition is high but resources are scarce. Underdogs need strategies that can yield outsized results without outsized investments. Optimize their offers with pinpoint precision. Build build loyal customer bases through innovative engagement methods. They need tactics that allow them to pivot in response to market feedback. The quest for efficiency and effectiveness at scale makes growth hacking essential. Any entity yearning not only to survive but thrive among titans needs to pay close attention. It's a blueprint for disruption. Prepare yourself for insights that could very well redefine how you conceive strategies. This post is more than a summary of growth hacking techniques. Harnessing the Power of Niche Markets In the world of growth hacking, one size does not fit all. This method requires tailoring your approach to a specific demographic. This strategy is particularly beneficial for underdogs who struggle in more saturated markets. Finding a niche is like uncovering a secret tunnel straight to your ideal customers. Startups with fewer resources can laser-focus their marketing on specific groups. These targeted campaigns are more effective. This ensures higher engagement ratees and builds brand loyalty from go. The creative resonates with a particular audience segment. Pinpoint your niche, then get laser-focused! Creating a buyer persona helps you target the right people with the right message. Envision your ideal customer. What are their interests, challenges, behaviors, and decision-making processes? Researching this allows you to humanize your marketing efforts and product offerings. Don't gloss it over. Delving into this practice opens avenues for personalized communications. Imagine creating bespoke solutions that meet the specific needs of your target audience. What impact would this have on your lead generation? Too often I see clients trying to mass market. Mass appeal messaging is obsolete against tailored conversations. Your marketing should speak to individuals or defined groups. Remember, in today’s digital age personalization reigns supreme. The Art of Guerrilla Marketing and Social Media Impact Modern consumers juggle attention across a dizzying array of platforms. This makes it hard to capture their focus. Guerrilla marketing emerges as an invaluable tool for underdogs. It helps capture that fleeting attention. This unorthodox approach relies on creativity and surprise rather than a hefty budget. It levels the playing field for smaller businesses against their goliath competitors. Imagine transforming a mundane city sidewalk into an interactive installation overnight. Your campaign becomes the talk of the town. The message goes viral on social media without costing you a fortune. These tactics create memorable experiences linked to your brand. They foster both online and offline buzz. Combine guerrilla marketing with social media expertise to compete with larger players. Want to know the key? Harness the power of storytelling and community-building. The trojan horse for social selling is engaging content. If your content resonates with your target audience followers become advocates. I've seen this tactic skyrocket reach. Algorithms respond when you increase shares and interaction. Nobody comes to social media to buy products. Try focusing on dedicated communities within social media. It might be insightful content around blockchain technology. You can provide exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming launches. The aim is to build trust and loyalty with potential customers long before they make their first buy. Web3 companies and startups short on funds can win big. Provide value upfront. Go Lean to Maximize Product Development Embracing a lean method for product development is essential. This approach creates a continuous process of learning and refining. The essence of going lean is about making intelligent, calculated decisions. It prioritizes functionality and market fit over extravagance or complexity. This empowers brands to deliver products without draining limited financial pools. Simpler versions of your idea that still solve the core problem for your target audience. Mastering product development on a budget requires developing minimal viable products (MVPs). By focusing on building an MVP, startups can enter the market sooner than anticipated. It enables gathering invaluable customer feedback without committing extensive time. More capital is available for full-scale development. This is the iterative cycle. Designing, launching small-scale models, learning from real user experiences and tweaking. It reveals what matters most to your users. This strategy enables underdogs to pivot based on feedback or emerging trends. It adds layers of agility larger companies struggle to emulate. Adopting scalable tactics opens doors to experiment with various facets of product design. For example, utilizing open-source tools instead of depleting funds on expensive software. Consider for cross-promotion opportunities. The benefit includes broadening exposure while minimizing costs. forging strategic partnerships with other startups or influencers The journey through lean methodologies requires creativity. The compound effect of these strategies can fuel monumental success against the odds. Every dollar saved helps amplify efforts that enrich user satisfaction and faster growth. Leveraging Community for Explosive Growth Today the concept of community has transformed. It's a now a potent tool for customer acquisition without burning through budgets. Startups can harness this by building relationships rooted in genuine interaction. This is next level for transactional encounters. Engaging with potential customers on platforms where they congregate sparks organic growth. It allows brands to tap into pre-existing communities. The main rule is the tribe aligns with the product, service and brand story. These include niche forums, social media groups, or collaborative projects. Crafting an within these spaces requires more than promotional posts. It demands valuable contributions that enrich conversations. Think sharing insights. Offering solutions to common problems faced by community members. Initiating discussions or AMAs on emerging industry trends. authentic connection This engagement elevates brand visibility. It increases trust and loyalty among potential customers. Some will see the business as one of their own. These guys get it. They understand our needs and speaks our language. I want to do business with them. This is the sense of belonging and shared purpose that turns ordinary users into raving fans. It creates passionate advocates and loyal customers. Adopting user-generated content within these communities can amplify reach. It adds a layer of credibility few marketing campaigns can match. Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences and engage within these community networks. This paves the way for authentic testimonials. Like-minded individuals value peer recommendations. Here's a pro-tip. Underdog businesses can create a powerful online community. You will create a vibrant ecosystem around your brand that feeds off mutual growth. This is another way that resourcefulness combined with authentic interaction wins. It beats big budget traditional advertising every time. Begin to host events, ask questions and connect with your target audience. Navigating Success Through Metrics and Adaptation Growing your business is exciting, but don't get lost in the maze. Choose smart paths that lead to real results. Small businesses, make every step count. Choose growth strategies that align with your goals and fuel your success. This is where the art of measuring success and iterating strategies comes into play. These tools are like a compass guiding you through uncharted waters. Pinpoint relevant metrics. Essential data includes user acquisition costs and lifetime value. You must track engagement rates and conversion percentages. Analytics provides valuable insights into what resonates with your audience. But this growth hacking journey requires more than tracking numbers. Think of your strategy as a living organism. It adapts and evolves based on the ecosystem it inhabits. It demands a mindset geared towards continuous improvement fueled by data-driven decision-making. Embrace experimentation. Test different approaches. Analyze outcomes. Iterate. And do it all while maintaining an unwavering focus on growth objectives. This process transforms obstacles into stepping stones. So-called failures become lessons propelling you closer to your ultimate goal. Success Stories from the Underdog Arena We're in a world where giants often dominate headlines. But there is an untold narrative of underdogs who have thrived against all odds. This is often a result of groundbreaking innovation and unparalleled determination. These companies started as specks in the vast business cosmos. But they managed to carve out empires. Their growth hacking techniques reveal the essence of ingenuity at its finest. Let’s take a look at how these Davids turned their slingshots into catalysts for huge success. It started as a small startup facing off against tech titans like Google Drive and OneDrive. They didn't drain their limited resources on expensive marketing campaigns. It was a hard pass on traditional sales tactics. One remarkable success story is Dropbox. Dropbox implemented a simple referral program. They incentivized existing customers to spread the word. We'll give you extra storage space for every referral, they said. This feature was valuable to users but cost-effective. It led to multiplying their user base without conventional advertising strategies. Dropbox harnessed the power of word-of-mouth at scale. Their use of social proof and direct rewards is legend. Understanding and optimizing customer behavior can lead underdogs to outpace industry behemoths. That's how underdogs win - with bold, creative moves! Forget playing it safe. Airbnb's Craigslist "hack" shows how unconventional approaches can be game-changers. It allowed hosts to list their offerings on both platforms at the same time. Remember scrappy startup Airbnb using Craigslist? Nobody knew about this fledgling company competing with established hotel chains globally. It was essential for their survival and scalability. They sidestepped colossal costs associated with building traffic from scratch. Tapping into Craigslist’s massive user base provided Airbnb a lifeline. Airbnb was able to confirm their value proposition. This niche wanted customized experiences instead of generic hotel stays. Only true innovators could see the ripe opportunities inside of the massive challenges. They reached a target market segment hungry for personalized accomodations. Established players like Constant Contact and iContact boasted more features, resources and experience. These solutions were expensive for companies with limited budgets. Small businesses saw email marketing as a technical and complicated process. Mailchimp started as a small email marketing service in 2001. Lacking significant investor funding made marketing, development and team building tough. Mailchimp bootstrapped. **As a new player they needed to build brand awareness and establish themselves.
\ Mailchimp decided to focus on specific user needs. They launched a freemium model catered to small businesses. This made email marketing affordable for anyone. It attracted a large user base while providing a revenue stream through upsells. Today Mailchimp is a dominant provider email marketing. Beyond email they offer social media marketing tools. Ecommerce and marketing automation is available. The platform provides . Satisfied free users often recommended the platform to others. AI-powered insights and analytics These stories show more than grit. They reveal how smart startups used online tools to grow their business. Instead of throwing money around, these innovators used digital tools. Their focus was offering real value to users. So to any entrepreneur feeling scared by a big market, remember these examples. With growth hacking they turned limitations into launching pads. Today they are global successes. Conclusion Growth hacking is not about shady tricks. It's about finding creative, low-cost and data-driven ways to achieve exponential growth. Entrepreneurs must take action and iterate. It is important to apply the right strategies to pave the way for long-term success. Ready to stop dreaming and start hacking your way to growth? This post has given you the tools and knowledge to start hacking your way to success. But the climb doesn't stop there! Navigating through the trenches can be tricky. That's where I come in! I'm offering you a to tailor a growth hacking strategy. We'll discuss your unique goals, target audience and current challenges. You'll leave with personalized recommendations to supercharge your growth. free consultation

Attract More Customers, Boost Growth Hacking for Underdogs: How to Win with Less Money and Resources

USA v. eBay Court Filing, retrieved on January 11, 2024, is part of . You can jump to any part in this filing . This is part 7 of 12. HackerNoon’s Legal PDF Series here Actions in Furtherance of the Harassment and Intimidation Campaign 45. From on or about August 5, 2019 through at least September 6, 2019, the Individual Defendants took the following steps, among others, as part of the harassment and intimidation campaign: a. On or about August 6, 2019, Baugh, Gilbert, Cooke, and Popp met at eBay headquarters to plan the White Knight Strategy. b. On or about August 6, 2019, Baugh, Popp, Stockwell, Zea, and other members of the GIC met at eBay headqua1ters to plan the delivery to the Steiners' home of unwanted and disturbing items to distract the Steiners from publishing the Newsletter. c. On or about August 6, 2019, Stockwell purchased a laptop computer at a Best Buy store in San Jose, California for use in the harassment and intimidation campaign. d. On or about August 6, 2019, Popp created a Twitter account in the name of "@Tui_ Elei" that used a picture of a skeleton mask as a profile picture. e. On or about August 7, 2019, Popp sent the following DMs from the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: • "[Ina Steiner's First Name] ...whats your problem w/ebay? You know that's how we pay rent." • "HELLO!!!!!!! g. On or about August 9, 2019, Popp sent the following DMs from the@Tui_Elei Twitter account to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: • "WTF ...whats it goin to take for u to answer me??" • "I guess im goin to have to get ur attention another way bitch ..." • "U don't have the balls to talk to me?? Stop hiding behind ur computer screen u fuckin cunt!!!" h. On or about August 9, 2019, Stockwell used an anonymous email account to order live spiders and fly larvae for delivery to the Steiners' home. i. On or about August 9, 2019, one or more of the individual Defendants ordered a subscription for pornographic magazines in the name of David Steiner to be sent to the Steiners' neighbors. J. On or about August 9, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants attempted to order a pig fetus for delivery to the Steiners' home. k. On or about August 10, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants ordered a Halloween Pig Mask for delivery to the Steiners' home. I. On or about August 10, 2019, Popp sent the following DM from the@Tui_Elei Twitter account to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: • "DO I HAVE UR ATTENTION NOW????" m. On or about August 10, 2019, Popp sent the following DMs from the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: • "Ur fat fuck pussy husband [David Steiner's first name] needs to put u in Iine cunt." • "after he takes the plugs out of his asshole ...fuckin pussies!!!" n. On or about August 11, 2019, Baugh directed Harville to travel with him to Boston for an "op" targeting Ina Steiner and her website (i.e., EcommerceBytes). o. On or about August 11, 2019, Baugh sent Harville the following text message: "I won't send the bosses texts, but I've been ordered to find and destroy." Harville replied, "Copy. Totally black[.] I'm deleting this now." p. On or about August 12, 2019, Baugh sent Popp, Stockwell, Zea, and other GIC analysts the following WhatsApp message: "Starting now through Tuesday night double our effort on everything. Spam, house deliveries, etc. I don't want anything delivered on Thursday, so the cutoff should be Wednesday night - wake them up with a limo driver or something and then everything goes cold Thursday morning.... Take down all Craigslist posts late Wednesday night. Stop spam late Wednesday night, etc." q. On or about August 12, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants sent a book titled "Grief Diaries: Surviving Loss of a Spouse" to the Steiners' home. r. On or about August 12, 2019, Popp used the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to post publicly to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: "[Ina Steiner] ...wats ur problem with ebay??" s. On or about August 12, 2019, Popp used the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to post publicly to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: "many familys including mine make money 2 pay 4 food cloths and rent by selling on ebay...UR stupid idkiot comments r pushin buyers away from ebay and hurtin familys! ! ! STOP IT NOW!!" t. On or about August 13, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants used a prepaid debit card to order a funeral wreath for delivery to the Steiners' home. u. On or about August 14, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants ordered live cockroaches for delivery to the Steiners' home. v. On or about August 14, 2019, Popp used the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to post a public message to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: "[First name of Ina Steiner] wen u hutt our bizness u huit our familiys ...Pp! will do ANYTHING 2 protect family!!!!" w. On or about August 14, 2019, Baugh, Harville, Zea, Gilbert, and Popp met to discuss a trip to Natick, Massachusetts to install a GPS tracking device on the Steiners' car and to surveil the Steiners. At the meeting, Baugh instructed Zea to stop harassing deliveries that would interfere with the surveillance operation. x. On or about August 14, 2019, Zea attempted to register herself and Harville for a software development conference in Boston as false cover for the surveillance trip. y. On or about August 15, 2019, Harville used his eBay-issued phone to visit a website that could be used to monitor the "Natick Police and Fire Live Audio Feed." z. On or about August 15, 2019, Baugh, Harville, and Zea flew from California to Boston, Massachusetts. aa. On or about August 15, 2019, Stockwell sent a text message to Harville providing the license plate numbers for the Steiners' cars. bb. On or about August 15, 2019, Baugh, Harvi Ile, and Zea drove to the Steiners' home in Natick and attempted unsuccessfully to install a GPS tracking device on the Steiners' car, which was locked in the Steiners' garage. cc. On or about August 15, 2019, Baugh, Harville, Popp, and Zea dialed in to a conference line to communicate during the surveillance operation and to monitor the NPD dispatch. dd. On or about August 15, 2019, Baugh directed Stockwell by WhatsApp message to prepare an eBay "Person of lnterest" report ("POI Report") that listed the Steiners as eBay's top POis. Baugh wrote, "In the narrative I need you to write that they have made direct threats to ebay, [eBay's CEO], and our employees (make it up)." ee. On or about August 16, 2019, Harville purchased tools at a Boston hardware store for the purpose of breaking into the Steiners' locked garage. ff. On or about August 16, 2019, Baugh, Harville, and Zea returned to Natick in a rented Dodge Caravan to surveil the Steiners, and drove past their home repeatedly. gg. On or about August 16, 2019, Harville dialed in to the surveillance team's conference line. hh. On or about August 16, 20I 9, Baugh, Harville, and Zea followed David Steiner as he drove around Natick. ii. On or about August 16, 2019, believing that David Steiner had spotted the surveillance, Baugh returned the Dodge Caravan to the rental car agency. jj. On or about August 16, 2019, after the failed surveillance, Baugh directed that harassing deliveries to the Steiners resume. kk. On or about August 17, 2019, at 3:08 a.m. (EDT), Stockwell researched Bostonarea 24-hour drain repair services on the internet for the purpose of sending a repairman to the Steiners' home in the middle of the night. II. On or about August 17, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants ordered pizza to be delivered to the Steiners' home at 4:30 a.m., for payment upon delivery. mm. On or about August 17, 2019, Harville returned to California, and Popp traveled to Boston to replace him on the surveillance team. nn. On or about August 18, 2019, Popp replied to a public tweet on Ina Steiner's Twitter account using the @Tui_Elei account and stated: "Dis ur address???" The message was followed by information about Ina Steiner, accurately stating her name, age, address, and telephone number. oo. On or about August 18, 2019, Popp sent the following DM from the @Tui_Elei Twitter account to Ina Steiner's Twitter account: "U get my gifts cunt!!??" pp. On or about August 18, 2019, one or more of the Individual Defendants posted an advertisement on Craigslist claiming to be a married couple seeking a sexual partner or partners, and providing the Steiners' home address. qq. On or about August 18, 2019, Baugh, Popp, and Zea followed David Steiner as he drove in Natick. rr. On or about August 20, 2019, Baugh sent a text message to Popp, Gilbert, and Cooke that the Individual Defendants had "burned" two surveillance cars and that either the Steiners or the NPD were "seeing ghosts right now." ss. On or about August 20, 2019, Baugh forwarded to Gilbert the POI Report falsely indicating that the Steiners were security threats to eBay. In a WhatsApp message to Gilbert, Cooke, and Popp, Baugh stated: "Just sent poi doc with [the Steiners] included. I had GIC send this to me last week in case we got stopped .. that way would at least have something to show to PD." tt. On or about August 20, 2019, after Twitter suspended the @Tui_Elei account for posting the Steiners' home address, Popp created a new Twitter account, @Elei_ Tui, for use in harassing the Steiners. uu. On or about August 20, 2019, Popp also created two other Twitter accounts, including one that used the name ofa prominent eBay seller. vv. On or about August 21, 2019, Zea and Baugh made false statements to an NPD detective who came to the surveillance team's hotel to investigate Zea and Harville's connection to the cyberstalking campaign. ww. On or about August 21, 2019, at approximately 9:36 a.m. (EDT), Baugh sent the following text message to Popp, Gilbe1t, and Cooke: "Natick detective is in lobby looking for [Zea]. I've taken her away from hotel headed to airport...Detective called her cell. I answered just now as her husband and played dumb." xx. On or about August 21, 2019, at approximately 9:39 a.m. (EDT), Gilbert proposed to Baugh, Cooke, and Popp bringing "dossiers" on the Steiners to the NPD: "Definitely want to make them look crazy." yy. On or about August 21, 2019, between approximately 10:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. (EDT), Popp sent more threatening tweets to and about Ina Steiner and the Newsletter ("the Concerning Tweets"). Popp used the three Twitter accounts that she had created the night before to have a public "conversation" on Twitter, asking over one account what Ina Steiner's address was, and responding from the other "guest I hav to pay Ina a visit." zz. On or about August 21, 2019, minutes after writing the Concerning Tweets, Popp forwarded images of the Concerning Tweets to Baugh and Gilbert, writing falsely that Ina Steiner was "really bringing out some angry Twitter users." aaa. On or about August 21, 2019, at approximately 12:34 p.m. (EDT), Baugh forwarded the Concerning Tweets to Harville. bbb. On or about August 21, 2019, at approximately 2:30 p.m. (EDT), executing the White Knight Strategy, Gilbert called the Steiners, identified himself as an eBay employee, and offered eBay's assistance. ccc. After the call, Gilbert messaged Baugh, Popp, and Cooke that the Steiners were "totally rattled." ddd. Thereafter, still on August 21, 2019, Gilbert spoke, text messaged, and emailed with an NPD detective who was handling the investigation into the harassment of the Steiners. Gilbert falsely claimed not to know Zea or Harville and falsely stated that he had to travel to Toronto and New York but would instead attempt to come to Boston to meet with the NPD. eee. On or about August 21, 2019, after learning that the NPD was investigating the use of a prepaid debit card to purchase pizzas for delivery to the Steiners, Baugh and Popp directed Stockwell to prepare a list of eBay "Persons of lnterest" in the San Francisco Bay Area that could be used (as part of Gilbert's "dossier") to deflect attention from Zea. fff. On or about August 21, 2019, Stockwell created the document that Baugh requested-"Bay Area POis_August 2019.docx"- and emailed it to Popp and Baugh, who forwarded it to Gilbert for use in the NPD meeting. ggg. On or about August 22, 2019, Gilbert and another eBay employee met with three NPD officers at the NPD. During the meeting, Gilbert falsely stated that: • Zea and Harville had come to Boston to attend a conference; • Popp was Zea's supervisor; and • Popp had assigned Zea to a Person of Interest investigation regarding the Steiners, and that Zea had driven to Natick "on her own." hhh. On or about August 22, 2019, after the NPD meeting, Popp used one of the new Twitter accounts to post "@[Newsletter] 20 yrs of lies n distroin familys ... dunt b proud of dat u wurthless BITCH!!! i will distroy ur family n bizness 2… C how u like it…\n\n@Elei_Tui wen r we goin 2 visit her in natik???” jjj. On or about August 23, 20I 9, Baugh falsely told eBay investigators his team was not responsible for harassing messages or deliveries and that his team had been in Natick to investigate threats to the Steiners. kkk. On August 23, 2019, at 5:15 p.m. (PDT), Baugh messaged Executive 2 as follows: Hi [Executive 2] - this is Jim Baugh's personal cell. My team ran an Op on our friend in Boston. Nothing illegal occurred and we were actually intending to team up with her and get her on our side in a positive manner. However, small town police got a couple of rental car plates and tracked it back to my people and the hotel the were staying at. They sent a note to ebay investigations GAP team who then passed it to legal and they are conducting an internal investigation on us. We are cooperating, but I know they realize something is off. We will continue to cooperate, but not sure how much longer we can keep this up. If there is any way to get some top cover that would be great. If not, I just wanted you to have a heads up because they are aware that multiple members of the ELT are not a fan of that website to include [redacted] and his wife. Again, no crime was committed and local police don't have a case. I don't want our legal team to give them one. Let me know if you want to discuss this weekend. lll. On or about August 26, 2019, Harville falsely told eBay investigators that he didn't know whether Zea had gone to Natick and that he had not worked on a matter involving the Steiners. mmm. On or after August 26, 2019, Baugh, Harville, Popp, Zea, Gilbett, and others deleted and attempted to delete data from their mobile phones that evidenced the conspiracy, including WhatsApp messages. nnn. On or about August 27, 2019, Harville falsely told eBay investigators that he had attended a conference in Boston with Zea. ooo. On or about August 28, 2019, Baugh falsely told eBay investigators that his team was not responsible for the deliveries or harassing communications. ppp. On or about August 30, 2019, Baugh directed an eBay employee to retrieve computers from the GIC and to bring them to his house. qqq. On or about August 30, 2019, after receiving an email from an eBay investigator directing him to preserve relevant information and to turn in his eBay-issued cell phone, Harville messaged Baugh, Gilbert, and Popp, "Want me to wipe it." rrr. On or about August 30, 2019, Harville turned in his eBay-issued cell phone from which significant data related to his trip to Natick had been deleted. sss. On or about September 6, 2019, Popp posted five new Tweets to one ofthe Twitter accounts that the Individual Defendants had used to harass the Steiners, to suggest that those responsible for harassing the Steiners were still at large. Continue Reading . Here About HackerNoon Legal PDF Series: We bring you the most important technical and insightful public domain court case filings. This court case retrieved on January 11, 2024, from is part of the public domain. The court-created documents are works of the federal government, and under copyright law, are automatically placed in the public domain and may be shared without legal restriction. ecommercebytes.com

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