Prototyping Mattermark

Danielle Morrill CO-FOUNDER + CEO, MATTERMARK

How we landed our first customers

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

How I got to Mattermark

Dropped out of college Joined logistics shipping company

‘03-’04

Seattle 2.0 Contributor Created Seattle Startup Index

Moved to SF 1st employee at Twilio Head of Marketing

Shutdown Referly Not in love with affiliate marketing

2009 2009 2012

Quit Twilio Joined YC & started Referly

Feb. 2013

NOW WHAT!? “TechCrunch-killer”?

March 2013

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

“If you’re shutting down Referly why not start over with something completely different? If you want to kill TechCrunch, then do that.”

Paul Graham, Y Combinator

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

Idea

Could a “TechCrunch-killer” media business get traction?

30 “tech media” posts in 30 days

#hustlecon @DanielleMorrill

WHY? •  Validate that we could grow an

audience

90 POSTS LATER… •  Hundreds of newsletter subscribers •  135,000+ monthly pageviews in 2

months

Detecting startup buzz wins

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THE DATA-DRIVEN POSTS STOOD OUT •  Startup Rankings Index •  “Zombie VCs”

CREATED BUZZ IN STARTUP INDUSTRY

“Thanks Danielle! We should do this ourselves :-)” - Marc Andreessen

People wanted our data!

#hustlecon @DanielleMorrill

•  Published our spreadsheet research •  Readers accessed data behind form –

generated dozens of leads

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Lightbulb moment!

Finding and analyzing data is hard. OUR PROBLEM

Let’s build an online database to make it easier!

SO…

Cursive v1

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•  We compiled all our spreadsheets into a database •  Wired it up to a super-simple javascript table plugin

Productizing our data process

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ANDY SPARKS (COO) •  Manually collected raw

data •  Identified pain-points in

process

KEVIN MORRILL (CTO) •  Turned raw data into

online database •  Automated Andy’s painful

process

June 1, 2013: The moment of clarity

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Leena Rao’s post on TechCrunch described data-driven investing…

We coded furiously for 48 hours to productize what we built

48 hours later, Mattermark launched (free)

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Investors wanted to access our data…

So we rebranded & launched Mattermark.com in June 2013

June 4, 2013: We were on TechCrunch

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Free access = Valuable insight

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Investment funds signed up and gave us game-changing feedback

Free access = Valuable insight

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Led to $50,000 contract to build new functionality, proved valuable for future customers

ROY BAHAT

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

Off to the races signing up VCs!

Over the next 3 weeks, we talked to everyone on Sand Hill Road

Show VCs what we made and teach them how to use it THE GOAL

Hundreds of pages of notes with feedback RESULT

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

Armed with validation from customer development…

JULY 2013 Launched Mattermark Pro at $499/month

@DanielleMorrill #hustlecon

Money in the bank!

We made $4,491 in the first month!

3 years later

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$3+ million ARR & over 600 customers

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Mattermark.co

Danielle Morrill CO-FOUNDER + CEO

#hustlecon

@Mattermark

@DanielleMorrill