If you are promoting a company or service, make sure that's less than 50% of your tweets. For me, its probably around 10-25% promotion and 75%+ value.
3) Learn to hit publish!
So many of my most successful tweets and threads were ones I wasn't going to publish. I thought they were stupid or would make me look bad.
I learned to hit the publish button *especially* when it felt uncomfortable.
4) Publish regularly.
The best Twitter accounts publish at least 3x/day. I don't always get there myself, and that is one reason why I'm not one of the best Twitter accounts :)
5) Watch the algorithm.
I obsessively check the ratio of engagement to impressions. If I hit 5%, I know I'll get some traction. 10% and I have a hit. 25%+ and its a slam dunk.
I watch what types of my tweets get higher engagement and I try to write more content like that.
6) Learn from successful accounts that were just like you.
I had a leg up given that people recognize Udemy. So don't use me as your only example - watch people who grew their audience organically.
Go through their tweet history and check the metrics. Likes and RT's are public!
7) Twitter is a creative medium.
You don't win on creative mediums by full-on copying other people; you win by finding your own unique voice and style that perfectly leverages the medium.
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Many saw it and asked to invest, and we worked with @joinrepublic to make this possible
Investing in startups is the ultimate "who you know" game; you must be an insider and have significant access to capital
The open application process helps us provide access to non-accredited, non-traditional investors AND maximize the impact this has on our company's success
Advanced Fundraising Strategy:
For most, fundraising is a chore. These days, more companies are fortunate to have competitive rounds.
What do you do when you have options? How do you optimize a competitive round?
@wes_kao and I had options... Here's how we approached it.
👇🏾
We named our priorities up-front: 1. Involve investors who backed us in the past 2. Find a Lead who would help raise the A 3. Leverage Lead + large syndicate to create traction (our market is aligned with this strategy as many investors can be instructors or help promote courses)
To make room, we had to raise $4M. If we raised less, we'd have to exclude too many people. If we raised more, the company would be over-valued or over-diluted.
I do not believe in having a valuation over $25M for a pre-seed company. Too hard to beat those expectations.
I’ve been thinking about co-founders a lot lately.
In 15 years of building companies, I’ve had >10 different co-founders.
They’ve fired me. I’ve fired them. But I’m still friends with 100% of them to this day.
... 15 Rules on Co-founder Relationships
**Read On**
Rule 1: You don’t have to know each other in advance.
@erenbali and @caglaroktay didn’t know me when we started @udemy, but I think all of us would agree the company wouldn’t have happened without any one of us.
Rule 2: Create a pre-nup through role definition.
99% of companies should have a clear CEO. If you are not that person, you report to them.
Co-founders firings should not be done lightly, but if it happens, the CEO decides.