Before joining the fbFund Rev 2009, the phrases “I think users would love” or “I bet users want” were commonly heard around the NutshellMail office. We were building a product in the way we thought was best, based on our assumptions for what we, and therefore our users, would want. We had a clear vision for our product and were excited to bring it to the world. In early February, we launched our integration with Twitter and Facebook and were ready for a huge influx of traffic. When the anticipated user growth did not materialize as fast as we would have liked, we burned a copy of Field of Dreams and wrote a mean letter to Kevin Costner. “If you build it, they will come” is a crock! We knew we were doing something wrong, but did not know what it was.

It only took a few days at the fbFund to realize that we didn’t know what we didn’t know. However, Dave McClure and the fbFund advisors showed us the way through their mantra of “Metrics, Metrics, Metrics.” The number one lesson from the fbFund is that you have little chance for success without solid metrics. Startups need to be agile, they must iterate quickly to find what works and then replicate. But how can you iterate if you don’t even know what your actual problem is? To be a “metrics-driven business” you must measures everything and then iterate quickly based on quantitative results.

For NutshellMail, this meant changing the way we think and make decisions. We learned that by methodically measuring user behavior, we could quickly understand what our users truly liked, hated or simply did not understand. Instead of making assumptions on what our users wanted, we looked at the stats. The precious information that came from instrumenting metrics across each and every user action allowed us to see exactly how users utilized our features and helped us to measure the effectiveness of any change we made.

But what about simply asking your users what they want? Relying on surveys alone can yield misleading assumptions as there is often a disconnect between what customers say they want and how they actually behave. I am not suggesting that directly surveying users is ineffective. In fact, one of my favorite tools is UserVoice, a customer feedback tool that allows users to request and comment on features. However, metrics take the human factors out of the equation and often provide deeper insights than a survey possibly could. An additional benefit of statistically analyzing user behavior is that the results are more accurate and quantifiable compared to simply asking users what they want through surveys.

So what tools do we use at NutshellMail? First and foremost, Google Analytics is a must to understand traffic patterns, and it is free. I strongly recommend using this in combination with split testing different layouts using Google Website Optimizer. We also use CrazyEgg to analyze what page elements users are clicking on; this is a must if you are testing different page layouts and registration funnels.  Of course, we have also layered in a significant amount of customized metrics into our emails and website so that we can identify problem areas quickly. However, if you don’t have the resources or the time to internally instrument your website, a solution like KissMetrics may work great for you.

There are many tools available to you so there is no excuse not to measure. After all, when you assume you not only make an ass of yourself but you significantly reduce your chance of success. Not sure where to start…Check out Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates, and you will be well on your way.

Posted by Nirav Batavia and Mark Schmulen of NutshellMail.com, a free service that lets users organize, manage and interact with all their social networks through their favorite email inbox.

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Now that the 2009 fbFund REV social incubator program has wrapped up, i thought i’d post some slides from a talk i’ve been doing recently. The talk is about our experience at fbFund REV, and about incubator programs in general, as well as some lessons learned from what worked (& what didn’t).

We were very fortunate to have people speak at fbFund REV who’ve been involved in other successful incubators Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator, and Brad Feld who works with David Cohen at TechStars. Along with our other mentors, i’d like to thank them personally for their leadership & guidance in helping us come up with best practices for REV that i believe led to our greater success.  And best of luck to both YC & TechStars companies as well as fbFund REV!

At the end of the presentation i’ve also included some info on StartupVisa.com, and how important i think immigration is to the success of silicon valley (and the US, and the entire world). We had several fbFund companies with people from outside the US, including the “Greek geeks” at Gameyola, folks from Kenya at Samasource, South Koreans at Funji, an Iraqi at Networked Blogs, and the Swiss/New Zealander team at WildFireApp.  We also had invited a company called Cmune in Beijing to join our fbFund program, but unfortunately they weren’t able to attend.  (i’m sure i’m forgetting several more too!)

Techcrunch Trends recently did a post about how startups are correlated with [legal] immigration, and i recently had the opportunity to spend time on our GeeksOnaPlane tour with Eric Diep, a young entrepreneur from Toronto who was the creator of the original Quizzes Facebook app.  Eric is a Canadian citizen who’s faced a number of challenges in trying to get a visa to come to the US to run his startup business. At the end of the slides i appended a video interview of Eric Diep and Eric Ries, another successful tech entrepreneur.  I believe they both make a compelling case for improving US policy on entrepreneur immigration, and i hope you’ll support our efforts by tweeting your support at 2Gov.org/visa.

With no further ado, here’s the presentation:

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Of course! I can name many successful tech companies that started outside of Silicon Valley.  However, after spending 12 weeks working out of the fbFund Rev incubator program in Palo Alto, it was clear that NutshellMail needed to maintain a presence in the Silicon Valley Geek-o-system.  You have to ask, “Why did Facebook relocate from Cambridge to Palo Alto and how did the move factor in their incredible success?” This was the very question we asked ourselves before deciding to leave our homes, family, friends and most importantly our significant others in Houston to move to the Bay Area.

Let me start off by saying that Houston, TX will always be home to me and is an incredible place to start a business. With its corporate-friendly tax laws, low cost of living and concentration of educated people and Fortune 500 companies, it should be no surprise that many companies are relocating from California to Texas.  In addition, Houston has a vibrant tech scene that is supported by the Houston Technology Center, the Houston Angel Network and many individuals who have made it their mission to help young technology companies succeed. Let’s not forget that Houston is home to BMC Software and Compaq (eventually acquired by HP). For the bloggers among us, the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, got his start in Houston as well.

We still believe that Houston is a great place to start a tech company; however, after working out of fbFund offices in Palo Alto this summer, our decision to relocate to California was clear. It is well known, that the Bay Area has the largest concentration of venture capital, tech companies, journalist and online media buyers. Silicon Valley has become the mecca for technologist and entrepreneurs looking to make it big on the Internet.  For consumer-facing startups, there is no better place to be. This is where the money flows, the business development opportunities begin and the tech talent congregates. Most importantly, Silicon Valley has fostered a community of individuals who are passionate about how technology can enable a better life and really know how to nurture early-stage companies into the likes of Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

At the end of the day, there were two key reasons we decided to relocate to the Valley: Community and Serendipity.  No where else in the world can you walk into any bar, café or store and find people talking about website conversions, SEO, CPM rates, the latest news from TechCrunch or Mashable. Just the other day, standing in an elevator we landed a meeting with the founder of billion-dollar software company who has invited us to come to his office to discuss a potential business development deal. Technology is not just an economic driver in the Valley, it is a way of life. To be honest, most of the people here know more about launching a successful startup than we do; but they are more than happy to lend us a helping hand. Our friends from the fbFund have gone out of their way to share their experiences, reach out to their contacts and suggest ways we can improve our service and reach more customers. We have immersed ourselves in the community, going to hackathons, tweetups, tech conferences and lunch at Facebook. It is invigorating to be surrounded by so many like-minded individuals who are so willing to help out new friends.

So back to the original question – can web-based startups succeed outside of the Valley?  Yes, but I would suggest to any aspiring entrepreneur to come spend a few weeks in the Valley to see what it is like. Silicon Valley has created an environment that greatly improves the chances of success.  If that was not the case, Facebook may still be headquartered in Boston.

Nirav Batavia
VP of Interactive Marketing
NutshellMail.com

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REV was a big commitment for GroupCard. It meant moving our development team from Milwaukee to Palo Alto, subletting a small two-bedroom house for the team (at thirty-three freaking hundred dollars a month), and saying farewell to friends and family for the summer.

So was it worth it? Without a doubt I say yes. But you already knew that, or else they wouldn’t let me post this, right? You’re no dummy.

What’s more interesting and instructive is why. Why was it worth it? There were a lot of reasons, but I’ll focus on the biggest one: Access.

Of course REV gave us better access to people at facebook. If you need help with the api or need to report a bug (God forbid), there’s nothing like making that request from the old facebook campus.

But that’s nothing like making real friends and finding mentors inside facebook, like Kristin, Cat, Julia, Josh, Randi, and others (forgive omissions, trying to be pithy). You can’t overestimate the importance of spending time with these people, who can say “Why aren’t you doing this? It’s working for other people.” Or “Hey, we just launched this new feature, you need to start using it.” Or “You want me to put your link on this page with kajillions of visitors? Sure!” Their perspective is second to none. They run the biggest site in time and space for cripes sake.

Then of course there are all the speakers. Dave and team lined up some spectacular people to visit us — all A-list luminaries with expertise in their respective fields; venture capital, metrics, virality, payments, mobile-web, and generally how to run a startup.

Many of these people generously share their knowledge through blog posts and articles. But that’s not the same as meeting them in person. There’s no substitute for asking BJ Fogg his thoughts on our product, revenue strategy, and funding prospects. Or asking Eric Ries “What are we doing wrong?” and having him answer and help redesign our testing methodology. Or trading cards with VCs, press, and top brass from the biggest internet companies.

And last, REV gave us access to people like us — small hungry companies rapidly iterating through ideas to push their company forward. And everyone was generous with their ideas and time. “This worked for us, you should try it.” “Does this look right to you?” “Did you get much return from this?” “Hey, so-and-so, meet my friend, who happens to be awesome.”

So there you have it, we had a great time and met a lot of great people. It’s a good gig if you can get it.

—

Bob Ralian is the Co-Founder and CTO at www.GroupCard.com. Also check out our facebook app and our new product, cash.io.

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Announcement highlights

• Thread.com (formerly Frintro) raised a $1.2M seed round of financing. The seed financing included participation from fbFund and was led by First Round Capital. Others included:
  • Sequoia Capital (Roelof Botha, Partner)
  • Founders Fund (Dave McClure, Investor)
  • Ron Conway (Founding General Partner at SV Angel)
  • David Sacks (CEO at Yammer and Geni)
  • Auren Hoffman (CEO at Rapleaf)
  • Pedro Miguel Martins (Sr. Dir. Corporate Strategy at SAP)
  • Reid Hoffman (Chairman at LinkedIn)
  • Joe Greenstein and Saran Chari (CEO and CTO at Flixster)
  • Shervin Pishevar (CEO at Social Gaming Network)

  Thread.com uses Facebook Connect to create a site for social dating via friendly intros. You can learn more about Thread on the Facebook blog.

• Nutshell Mail raised over $500k in funding. Nutshell Mail uses email to help you manage your social network activity.
• RentMineOnline raised over $300k in funding have been profitable for the past 4-5 months. They combine the success of resident referral programs with the power of your friends on Facebook.
• Sociable raised over $150k in funding. Breakeven by Q4/09, Sociable is building a comprehensive solution for online retailers to drive sales via the power of online friendships.
• WildFire Apps achieved profitability over the summer. Their product lets you create Facebook and social media and promotion campaigns for businesses. They have multiple brand-name customers (Pepsi, Redbull, Zappos to name a few).
• Zimride signed 25-30 academic and corporate customers across the country and formed an exclusive partnership with ZipCar. They are projecting break-even by Q4/09. Zimride helps classmates and coworkers share the ride.
• Two other companies, GroupCard and NetworkedBlogs, will achieve profitability or break-even by end of 2009.

republished from developers.facebook.com

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UPDATE: Higher quality videos are available below.

This video is Part 1 of 3 featuring:
00:00:00 – Cat Lee Intro
00:01:55 – Sheryl Sandberg
00:06:35 – Dave McClure
00:12:39 – Thread.com
00:20:58 – Funji
00:27:23 – Sociable
00:34:52 – GeckoGo
00:41:36 – DropPlay
00:45:36 – Photos I Love
00:50:58 – Vittana
00:57:09 – Workstir

This video is Part 2 of 3 featuring:
00:00:00 – Backlight
00:08:18 – NetworkedBlogs
00:14:56 – Wildfire
00:23:26 – NutshellMail
00:31:33 – Cash.io
00:37:25 – Gameyola
00:43:25 – RunMyErrand
00:50:47 – samasource

This video is Part 3 of 3 featuring:
00:00:00 – MyChurch
00:04:39 – RunThere
00:11:25 – Zimride
00:17:14 – Sortuv
00:22:48 – Life360
00:29:00 – RentMineOnline
00:34:46 – Enrique Outro
00:38:45 – Dave Outro

| Get your Presentation Pack

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If you’re like me, you can end up killing a lot of time on the web. This holds especially true when I visit Facebook, and it’s often that “killing time” means playing some sort of casual game. Fortunately for our business, I’m not alone.

The Social Gaming Revolution
Across the globe, hundreds of millions of people play casual games every month, and this gameplay is increasingly taking place on Facebook and other social networks. In fact, the gaming vertical has established itself as by far the most successful vertical on the Facebook platform to date. Companies like Zynga and Playfish have been rumored to be making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars annually by creating games that have two qualities: 1) they acquire users through “viral” growth because players are incentivized to invite their friends to play, and 2) they make money by selling virtual goods in the game.

The Problem
Unfortunately, there’s a whole genre of games that has been left out of this social gaming revolution: widely distributed casual Flash games. One can find these games on portals across the web like Kongregate or Armor Games.  Casual Flash games have a large audience, but developers of these games typically don’t make much money. They are not well funded. They often create these games as a hobby, and they almost never have the technical expertise and desire to create from scratch the social and monetization features of successful social gaming companies.

The Gameyola Solution
Gameyola solves the monetization problems of Flash game developers by bringing to them the same magic that powers companies like Zynga and Playfish: viral distribution and monetization via virtual goods. Similar to other portals, Gameyola is a place where developers can host their games and players can come to play them. However, we are different for two reasons. First, we help developers acquire more players because our site is social—players are naturally encouraged to invite friends to play with them. Second, we help developers sell items in their games such as power-ups and extra life. We provide the social glue around Flash games to help them succeed.

Let’s Play!
Looking to kill some valuable time? Check out our Facebook app. If you get hooked, you can become a fan on our app page. And always feel free to shoot us feedback at info@gameyola.com.

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What do you love about travel?

For me, it’s the anticipation of the adventures to come, the cool, new experiences, the GOOD FOOD and the awesome people you meet.

Traveling is the fun part.

The process that leads up to the moment that you finally have that boarding pass in hand, waiting to hop on that plane though, is not.

How many of you have been frustrated planning a trip?

I reached the height of traveler search fatigue syndrome planning my first trip to Africa. Figuring out when I should go, what I needed to know, and what to do triggered my first grey hair. I eventually half-cheated and booked a group package for part of my trip just to be done, but not without going nuts a few times first.

Then, I realized something. I wasn’t alone.

In the latest Forrester report, close to 70% of travelers are frustrated with travel websites. So much so, that they are going back offline to traditional brick and mortar agents.

Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? The Internet is making nearly everything else easier, yet it’s done the opposite for travel.

So what do we do about it at GeckoGo?

We believe that the Best Travel Planning Experience in the World is not about having all the information in the world dumped on your lap; it’s about having the right information.

So we’ve set out to create “travel snapshots” — summary and recommendation snapshots about any place you’re interested in.

The basic premise is this: you come onto our Facebook app, Travel Brain, create a profile and log your travels.

You can also share your experiences with friends and fellow travelers in the form of reviews and tips.

We make this process fun with game mechanics, a points system and insights about you versus your friends.

As you give us feedback, we’re able to suggest new and cool places to inspire your next trip.

At the same time, we take your preferences and aggregate them with thousands of other travelers (660,000 and counting) to create destination summaries. This way, when you’re ready to plan that trip, you can dream up a destination, and check it out.

• What are the top must sees?
• Which of your friends have been there?
• What’s a rough estimate of how much it costs to fly there?
• When should you go?

As surprising as it sounds, “travel snapshots” that answer these questions aren’t out there (just try to look yourself!) We want to change that.

Our vision is to get you the right type of information, so that when you travel, you’re getting the best experience possible — without the grey hair.

Our website: GeckoGo
Our Facebook application: Travel Brain
Follow us on Twitter
Read our blog

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