our startup journey - path to 500,000 customers
TRANSCRIPT
Our Startup Journey: Path to 500,000 customers
Presented for UTS on 26 September 2015
Matthew Ho
● Deloitte -> Next Digital -> Airbnb -> Native Tongue -> Tapmint● Worked in digital for 7 years● Twitter: @inspiredworlds
Head of Product Development at Tapmint
Tapmint● Consulting on innovation & rapid
experimentation for web/mobile● 1st winning team in Startup Weekend
Aus with Native Tongue● 4 language game apps● 500,000 downloads● Twitter: @tapmint
● We won Startup Weekend Melbourne in May 2011
● 5 months later - launched Mandarin Madness, our first mobile app on Android, then iOS
● We were starting to get press
●
● $1k in our first week● #2 top paid education iOS app
● Let’s do more apps!● 5 apps x $1k per week x 52 = $260k● Our second app came out a month later● Botched the second launch● Spread too thin
○ Chinese, Spanish, English○ Platforms - iOS, Android, Amazon
● 500,000 downloads ● Played 2.5 million times.● Used in a number of schools around
the world● Bumpy ride in 1.5 years. ● Launched LP Strategy, a word game
cheat app in 2 weeks
● We could build innovative apps fast and iterate
● Started a new business Tapmint to provide consulting services on innovative mobile apps/web apps
● Leveraging our startup experience & skills building products
● Worked on 14 products
● Get product to market sooner. ● Stay focused on a single product with a
narrow set of features● Faster iterations with smaller updates.
Lessons Learnt
● Lean startup● Moves together● Higher throughput● Learn faster
Conversion Funnel
Conversion Funnel
Conversion Funnel
Marketing activities
● PR - Language & Education ● App review websites - not effective● Blogs● Social Media● Reaching out on Twitter● ASO - Organic search
Marketing activities
● Mobile advertising experiments● Education app stores● Kids tablet - nabi ● Direct sales to schools - long sales cycle● iTunes education volume purchase● Marketing via the product
The path to customers
● Talk & listen to customers● Experiment with different channels ● Double down on what works● Focus on 1 free + 1 paid channel● 1 person focuses on customers & distribution
● Email: [email protected] ● Website: http://tapmint.com● Twitter.com: @inspiredworlds ● Personal blog: http://inspiredworlds.com
Contact Me