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Clarity

David Crow

Toronto, Ontario

Currently Director at OMERS Ventures. Previously founder of Influitive. Employee at Microsoft, Reactivity, Trilogy. I am an angel investor in StreetContxt, Send With Us, Upverter, AnalyzeRE, Maintenance Assistant. I am an advisor to GetGifted and others.

I love emerging technology. I love the emergent customer behaviours and business modes that new technologies enable. I focus on early customer acquisition and growth. This manifests with product, marketing, sales, and development.

Focus on marketing, customer segmentation, customer acquisition, product development and metrics. No nonsense advice about corporate structure, product teams, relationship between product, engineering, marketing, sales, etc.

Brutally honest. To a fault.

$1.67/min

David donates to DonorsChoose.org ($126.30)

3 Calls

14 Reviews

27 minutes
Avg. call

Business Development Lean startup Digital Marketing Fundraising Customer Development Marketing Strategy User Experience Marketing Automation Product Development Product Marketing

Answers 11
Reviews 14

Answers

David Crow answered

Does a marketing person always have to start his career with sales?

I have seen great marketers come from product and technology. Completely agree with Jason about the faulty premise of this equation.

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Marketing Strategy

David Crow answered

What are some ways to execute a kick-ass beta phase?

It depends. You do different things for an enterprise product than you do for a consumer product. Beta is not just a flash in the pan moment. You are trying to gather different feedback from users with varying levels of risk and reward. Gathering feedback is key. You need to make sure that you have an engagement and feedback process that is very explicit. Participants might choose to not participate which is ok if you app is well instrumented. But it probably means the CEO/Founder is dialing and smiling to talk to every single user and gather their input.

Basically you need to create a set of different phases:

1. Phase 1 - Friends and Family
You're checking to make sure the code works. Don't let everybody in. Make sure your stuff works. Beyond your nerdy engineering team.

2. Phase 2 - Private, Highly Segmented
Segment the hell out of your audience. You only want people that are part of your primary segment and that are very early adopters. Make sure to slowly invite more people.

3. Phase 3 - Targeted but Open
You may be able to test the virality of you customer acquisition. Most of these users won't provide real feedback. You can test your acquisition, virality, fall out points, messaging, etc.

Check out https://blog.serverdensity.com/running-a-successful-beta-trickle-effect-and-phone-feedback/ for more.

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Entrepreneurship

David Crow answered

How can we reward our top users without money and without appearing too big brotherish?

I like giving them "status" on the site or in the app. This is things like "Mayorships" in Foursquare or "Verified" on Twitter. The goal is to create a simple, exposed way that people can earn status. (This is similar to the "LinkedIn Connections game" that was played back in the day, you have to get to 500 connections but you don't want to be the person with their email address in their Name).

You want to be able to give them "superpower". See Kathy Sierra's Designing for a Badass User http://craftedresonance.quora.com/Kathy-Sierra-on-Designing-for-Badass

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Entrepreneurship

David Crow answered

Hi, It is possible to raise capital from US venture capitals if your startup is funded in Chile not in USA?

It is possible but difficult.

There are some structural issues that are unrelated to your company. Many venture funds have limited partnership agreements that restrict the geographies of their investment. You'll often see that many venture firms create geographic specific funds, ala, Sequoia which has funds in the US, Israel and China see http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/17/sequoia-raises-700m-for-global-growth-fund/ for more details. It does depends on the specifics of the specific fund. There are funds like 500startups that have been looking specifically at Latin America and South America as regions of growth for investment.

Looking towards individual angel investors maybe easier. Using tools like AngelList http://angel.co/ access to both accredited and non-accredited investors that can help you raise funding.

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Raising Venture Capital

David Crow answered

What is the fair % to give to a new CTO/web developer entering in the company after 2 years the company has been incorporated (no revenue) ?

It depends. The length of time a company has been incorporated has very little to do with the value or contribution to value creation. If there has been a third-party valuation event, things change. But if you're still slogging away and this person is a key hire to moving to the next stage, it's probably more.

Back in 2009 I wrote about the compensation for founders versus early employees http://startupnorth.ca/2009/09/10/founders-versus-early-employees/ and http://thinkspace.com/how-to-divide-equity-to-startup-founders-advisors-and-employees/ are great sources.

Both of these articles include distributions of bringing on talent post Series A (raised from an institutional investor). If you've raised this capital, you should be thinking 0.5%-1.5% for a senior developer. If you haven't, it might be higher like 10-15% or more, i.e., are they really a cofounder...

"Equity is like shit. If you pile it up in one place it just smells bad. If you spread it around then lots of good things grow." - @joshbaer
https://twitter.com/joshuabaer/status/360034185156640770

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Equities

David Crow answered

I'm not good at illustrating my ideas and concepts, specifically products and apps. Who should I contact to help shape and refine products?

There are a lot of tools designed to help "sketch" business ideas and business models. You need to be able to define and refine your ideas with a pencil and paper at the best. Other tools like Business Model Generation are great at sketching and documenting business model assumptions. I'm a huge fan of Bill Buxton's Sketching User Experiences and you can find his talks at http://www.billbuxton.com/#talk

For UI work check out:

* http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/09/29/40-brilliant-examples-of-sketched-ui-wireframes-and-mock-ups/
* http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/18-great-examples-of-sketched-ui-wireframes-and-mockups

You goal is to be able to effectively communicate your ideas, your business and the next steps.

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Idea Generation

David Crow answered

What are the best hardware accelerators out there, that also accept international teams? (e.g. PCH Int.)

Hard to determine best, but how about:

* YCombinator - Pebble, Upverter, BufferBox
* Bolt http://bolt.io/
* Highway1 http://highway1.io/
* Lemnos Labs http://lemnoslabs.com/

There are probably others.

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Hardware

David Crow answered

What's the logic in assigning the type of equity shares ( options ?! / standard shares, preferred..) to founders, investors, co-founders, cto...?

Typically for founders and employees you assign options that vest (an option to buy a common share at a given price).

The basics of venture math is described by Brad Feld:

* http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2004/07/venture-capital-deal-algebra.html

The preferences that an investor can put in deal structures change. See http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2004/07/liquidation-preferences.html

You should talk to a lawyer that has experience with share holder agreements, employee stock option plans and the tax implications of the different decisions based on your jurisdiction.

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Equities

David Crow answered

When starting an online market place, do you think you need to make it completely free to get some momentum?

You can read about Zaarly, which was a 2-sided reverse Craigslist, and their struggles with pricing and the ultimate impact it had on their decision to change to a storefront only tool.

* http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/09/zaarly-shutters-its-reverse-craigslist-marketplace-goes-all-in-on-virtual-storefronts-as-co-founder-exits/

A better read is "If You Think 10% Is A Good Transaction Fee For Your Marketplace, Then It Will Struggle" by Sunil Rajaraman

* http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/16/marketplaces-businesses-are-tough-to-build/

"it would be to start your transaction fees higher than 10 percent. I understand that companies start here to deter competition and provide a better deal for suppliers. But imagine having to build a business that completes $1 billion in annual transactions within five years in order to build a $100 million top-line business. Start much higher than 10 percent. You can move down eventually, but you cannot move up"

And Bill Gurley's "All Markets are not created equal - 10 factors to consider when evaluating marketplaces"

* http://abovethecrowd.com/2012/11/13/all-markets-are-not-created-equal-10-factors-to-consider-when-evaluating-digital-marketplaces/

Pricing is key to proving your revenue model.

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Growth Hacking

David Crow answered

When fundraising at the seed / angel level, what factors are important? Eg. proving traction, vision, customer references etc. What is best?

Traction is king.

Your goal is to communicate traction over a period of time. Check out Brendan Baker's quora answers:

* http://www.quora.com/Brendan-Baker/Posts/Startups-How-to-Communicate-Traction-to-Investors
* http://www.slideshare.net/brendanbaker/how-to-communicate-traction-to-investors-with-brendan-baker-and-hiten-shah

"Traction is your story of momentum, communicated through quantified evidence of market demand for your product" Brendan Baker & Hiten Shah.

At different stages of corporate development you can convey different levels of traction. Early, it is about vision and the ability to build a team and early product. But the story needs to evolve. If you are still talking about vision after 4 months, you should go back to the drawing board.

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Fundraising

David Crow answered

What is the average series A funding round at pre revenue valuation for a enterprise start up w/cutting edge tech on verge of our first client.

I'd agree with Jason. Early, aka pre-revenue, it is more a function of the venture math. Generally, it about how much capital does a startup need to prove a thesis. Over time this feels like $500k-$1MM at the seed stage. Using basic venture math from an institutional investor of 25% ownership in the company. That puts the company at $2-4MM pre-money valuation.

It changes post revenue, not post consulting revenue, it needs to be revenue that demonstrates a valid hypothesis about the Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) or the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV). Targeting $50k/month and the valuations starts to go up. But this looks like an Series round with a much higher valuation $8-12MM pre-money (maybe higher - depending on team, market and other factors).

The "enterprise" thing is less important. What I want to know is how well you know your potential customers, how full is the top of your funnel, what are the decisions that a buyer makes at each stage of the funnel, and how many prospects are at the different phases.

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Start-ups

Reviews

David rocks. Period.

Dan Martell Source: Clarity

David does more than just participate in the communities around him -- he builds them. Over time, David has aided me and my company by being a role model, a trusted advisor, a friend, and a critic. He is one of the few people who's opinion really matters. I have great respect for Microsoft Canada because they had the vision to hire someone as amazing as David.

Ali Asaria Source: LinkedIn

David Crow is one of those energetic forces of nature who are always found at the centre of technologies and events the rest of us are only just beginning to wake up to.

Robert Ouellette Source: LinkedIn

David's unique insights into technology and culture are hard currency in this time of upheaval. A 5-minute conversation with him will change how you view your business and relate with your customers.

Eli Singer Source: LinkedIn

It is possible--David Crow could be a better instigator of tech communities--I just can't imagine how.

John Philip Green Source: LinkedIn

David has turned things around here in Toronto and deserves a lot of credit for his passionate and much needed work. I have a feeling government strategies will spend millions trying to do what he has done in the the last 9 months, with none of the success.

Jevon MacDonald Source: LinkedIn

David is a tech business rock star who's ability to provide tireless leadership within a fast-paced startup environment is a testament to his passion for new technologies and innovation. He has a deep understanding of how and why technologies should be implemented, and the ability to develop customer engagement strategies that will achieve business goals.

Working with a leader and innovator like David, who does not shy away from challenging your perspective, is sure way to generate amazing breakthroughs. I have a great respect for David both as a friend and a colleague and working with him has been an absolute pleasure for myself and our entire team.

Daryl Sedgman Source: LinkedIn

David is a jack of all trades and has provided tremendous value in many key areas of our business from corporate strategy and marketing to product. His vast business network is remarkable, and his understanding of all things "web" is second to none. Top that off with a formidable knowledge of fundraising, biz dev and corp governance and you get a massively valuable asset for any organization. Kudos David - From everyone here at Maintenance Assistant - you rock!

Marc Castel Source: LinkedIn

David is a strong advocate for the technical community at-large and has unique experiences and qualifications in the area of user experience.

John Bristowe Source: LinkedIn

David is a passionate, rock star evangelist and tech community leader.

David LEAD and BUILT the grassroots alpha tech geek/innovator community in Toronto into what it is today.

He has contributed more to the Toronto Tech scene though leading and rallying the TorCamp community than virtually anyone I can think of.

When the Crow is on a mission, he is unstoppable.

Fear the Crow.

Albert Lai Source: LinkedIn

David is engaging, strategic and makes stuff happen.... He 'gets' the social innovation - community engagement connection at a visceral level. Gotta let him loose on even bigger challenges. That will be fun to watch!

Tonya Surman Source: LinkedIn

Member since January 2012