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Dan Kurani

NYC

Digital Entrepreneur w/Strong Product and User Growth Chops
- Founder and CEO of Thumb, a mobile social network that generated over 3 billion opinions and yielded the highest usage time of any mobile app next to Facebook before being acquired by a leading market research company.
- Founder of a Top 100 and award-winning interactive agency that produced numerous success for startups and companies that include Nike and Universal Studios.
- Co-owner of a multi-channel retail chain with 250+ employees that led its category in highest net profit per sq. ft.

$5.00/min

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3 Calls

8

8 Reviews

23 minutes
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Entrepreneurship Fundraising Growth Startups Product Management User Acquisition User Experience Digital Media

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Raised $8MM in seed [$1.2MM], series A [$4.3MM] and debt [$2.5MM] financing from Angels, VCs and top banks for 3 different companies. Specialty in technology startups.

Generated a few million downloads for a mobile app, lowered acquisition costs by 50% for a monthly subscription website and drove the campaign behind the #1 selling DVD. Experienced with viral/organic, paid marketing, distribution (app stores and strategics), social, SEO, PR and analytics.

Digital Product

Concept, market positioning and product/user experience design for numerous digital properties, including a property with the highest usage time on mobile next to Facebook. Have built profitable growing products that have won awards that include a Webby, Davey and mobile FWA for Fortune 500s and as stand-alone startups. Experience positioning and building product that gets product-market fit (fills a market need better than others), accomplishes business goals/KPIs and scales.

End-to-end experience as a founder and CEO from fundraising $8MM and team-building (75 designers/developers) through scaling the user base (millions of users) and sale of the company (2 exits). How get started with little/no cash, how to run your first board meeting, manage a cap table for long-term control, letting go of bad apples, negotiating with co-founders for a win-win, finding strategics for exit, capital or growth, etc.

Answers 1
Reviews 8

Answers

Dan Kurani answered

How to solve a chicken and egg problems for a marketplace like Uber? What is the best way to acquire demand side?

The best way to solve chicken and egg problems for marketplaces is to prove market need on each side independently first with a low-cost MVP-type test. Once you've proven the market on both sides with metrics it is much easier to leg in supply and demand with a strategic or enough funding to match a market on a local or niche level to ensure liquidity. For a deeper analysis, here is a post on medium that I wrote... http://bit.ly/1k2vYbY Also, feel free to schedule a call with me if you'd like to dig deeper.

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Reviews

Dan is without question one of the brightest and most thoughtful interactive media executives I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. His enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and exceptional professional talents lie in his unique ability to balance his keen business intellect with abundant creativity.

His passion for delivering ROI-based interactive marketing solutions is matched only by his drive to deliver equally creative opportunities. Looking beyond today’s trends enables him to develop long-term strategies that often prove to be the cornerstone of any marketing campaign.

He understands the role interactive marketing plays in the broader context of a client’s business and marketing strategy, asks the right questions from the start to ensure the most successful results, and delivers beyond the project scope, consistently looking out for his client’s long-term interests.

Dan and his team take the time to holistically think through the nuances, provide accurate expectations, and recommends realistic strategies and action plans.

Choose to partner with Dan and Kurani Interactive and you won’t be disappointed.

private private Source: LinkedIn

Dan is a pioneer in the interactive industry. He is a straight shooter who knows the industry like no other. He is unique in the fact that he is creative, but also understands business and can put those two aspects together in a campaign or website design that works! I would recommend highly over and over again.

Hillary Bressler Source: LinkedIn

If you are considering hiring Dan and his team of interactive experts, I want you to know about what I experienced working with them.

I was the Director of Product Marketing for Lingo.com and helped champion the launch of the product and website development for this service back in 2004. Kurani Interactive was the company that made it come alive on the web.

Lingo’s partnership began when our overpriced NYC advertising firm failed to produce key deliverables for our website planning and development, leaving us high and dry to do the work ourselves. In the 11th hour, before going into development, we switched to Kurani Interactive. They quickly stepped in and produced a high quality ecommerce and customer support website – Lingo.com - on time and within budget. This was the start of our fantastic partnership.

After the launch, Kurani continued to support Lingo.com in an Interactive capacity including website maintenance, implementing web analytics tools and creating online banners. Memorable campaigns were the Lingo Sutra and Vector International Destination Ads. Furthermore, when the Lingo.com marketing team needed additional support in SEO/SEM and online marketing, Kurani’s team stepped up and expanded their expertise and helped Lingo reach over 125K customers in less than a year at industry low CPA.

Would I work with Dan and his team again in the future? Absolutely. It’s very rare that you find people that get involved in your business and brand the way Kurani did. I attribute much of our success to our partnership and I am thankful for it.

Cathy Peterson Source: LinkedIn

I've had the opportunity to work with Dan and Kurani Interactive over the past few years and am always amazed at the level of knowledge and committment he has to the interactive industry and his client base. Dan is committed to excellence and that shows up in everything he does. He has, and continues to be, a tremendous resource for me and my client base in acheiving key revenue, marketing and strategic goals. I highly recommend Dan and Kurani Interactive as a strong business partner.

Wendy Lieber Source: LinkedIn

Dan Kurani is a both a highly creative, visionary entrepreneur and a pragmatic businessman. He is always thinking about how to bring superior value by solving clients’ business problems. So while the product of his work is very visible and creative, the real impact is on the bottom line.

Tom Sullivan Source: LinkedIn

Dan Kurani is a very special force in the digital world. He is a visionary and practical doer.

As the head of Kurani Interactive he has assembled a superb team and he motivates them to excel. The work of Kurani Interactive in its strategic collaboration with Book of Odds led to the launch of www.bookofodds.com, a site which has won awards and is remarkable for its design, functionality and UX. We selected Dan’s company over many larger ones because of our confidence in his vision, integrity and the surprising breadth of world-class skills his people possess. He and his company delivered what was promised even when at times it took extraordinary efforts.

Dan seems to sense overarching media trends with digital cross-currents and can predict uncannily some of its future course. This intuitive feel along with an entrepreneurial background makes him a great strategist and an invaluable advisor. He is a great strategic partner and ally to any client.

Amram Shapiro Source: LinkedIn

Dan is an innovative and visionary thinker in the internet arena. He also steers the helm with a calm and precise direction encouraging dedicated collaboration from each employee. His style, business approach and fair sense of play are really unique - Kurani Interactive has the corporate culture of an Apple or Google and I enjoyed every minute working there.

Patty Jeffers Source: LinkedIn

Dan was my ideal Client. We helped recruit for Dan and he knew exactly what he was looking for in the talent he was adding to his company. His feedback was always thorough, fair and timely. His professionalism towards me and my staff reflects also in how he treats Candidates, Staff and Clients. Dan is a true pleasure to work with.

Anotei McAtee Source: LinkedIn

Member since January 2014