Some random Friday musings on why VCs are always on Twitter?? (don't they do any work?)
1) I created my Twitter acct more than a decade ago. But rarely used it. In the last 14 months, I've been more active than ever.
Why?
1) I created my Twitter acct more than a decade ago. But rarely used it. In the last 14 months, I've been more active than ever.
Why?
2) As it turns out, @HustleFundVC gets just shy of 25% of our startup applications from Twitter!
It's the channel that yields the most # of applications. Warm referrals are a really close 2nd. Statistically probably the same.
I suspect this holds true for other VCs.
It's the channel that yields the most # of applications. Warm referrals are a really close 2nd. Statistically probably the same.
I suspect this holds true for other VCs.
3) Ok but what about lower in the funnel? What is the quality of those startups like?
I'll come back to that in a minute.
I'll come back to that in a minute.
4) As it would turn out, warm referrals are the #1 source of deals that get done @HustleFundVC.
We do look at *every* cold pitch. But warm referrals still yield 80-90% of all done deals (depending on timing).
We do look at *every* cold pitch. But warm referrals still yield 80-90% of all done deals (depending on timing).
5) If this is true for others, I suspect this is a reason some VCs don't deal with cold pitches. From a marketing analytics perspective, the #s show that it's not worth the effort to look at cold pitches.
So why bother with cold pitches at all?
So why bother with cold pitches at all?
6) Often in marketing there are 2nd order effects that make attribution challenging.
For ex, do ppl decide to refer me a pizza startup because I tweet a lot about the hot pockets I ate for lunch?
That would get attributed as a warm referral, but the impetus for it was Twitter.
For ex, do ppl decide to refer me a pizza startup because I tweet a lot about the hot pockets I ate for lunch?
That would get attributed as a warm referral, but the impetus for it was Twitter.
7) The problem with unattributed marketing is it's hard to diagnose.
One way that you can attempt to solve this puzzle is by looking to see there are correlations. In this case, I get more pizza startup warm referrals the more I tweet.
One way that you can attempt to solve this puzzle is by looking to see there are correlations. In this case, I get more pizza startup warm referrals the more I tweet.
8) So, in fact, as a best guess, Twitter may actually attribute to up to 50% of the startup applications we receive -- which is HUGE!
This of course is not scientific, but often in marketing you do the best you can w/ whatever concrete data you have.
This of course is not scientific, but often in marketing you do the best you can w/ whatever concrete data you have.
9) tl;dr VCs spend a lot of time on Twitter, because their attributed and unattributed deal flow comes from here.
A lot of marketing involves making best guesses around unattributed channels.
You'll continue to have the privilege of reading about the hot pockets I eat here.
A lot of marketing involves making best guesses around unattributed channels.
You'll continue to have the privilege of reading about the hot pockets I eat here.
