Most web startups are created by multiple founders, as creating a successful business from scratch is so hard that it helps to have someone to blame when things go wrong.

Or is that someone to share the load?  I’m not sure, I can never remember.

If you are running a startup chances are you have at least one other co-founder.  Often a developer will team up with a “business guy” in order to maximise the chances of success, with each bringing a different set of skills and experience to the relationship.

These differences include entirely different ways of communicating.  You say tomato…

…

When you first launch your web application, there is one MASSIVE hurdle that stands in between you and enormous bundles of cash.  We weren’t initially aware of it ourselves, but over time it became clear.

It’s about conversions.

The path from interested prospect to paying customer is filled with so many holes, walls and mountains that it is a wonder that anyone, anywhere ever gives you any money.

You know that smooth “conversion funnel” you built to allow people to sign up and interact with your product?

It’s really only a funnel shape in your head.  It is not smooth, and it …

In an effort to increase our conversion rates we recently decided to redesign our sign-up page (again). The very first incarnation of this page involved six input fields. We realised this may have been a possible deterrent for users so we stripped it back.

Right back.

Maybe we went a little too far.

OK. We know. Hindsight is 20/20. We now realise it might have been a bit extreme, but we had our reasons at the time.

Pros

• Minimal fields
• Simplicity = no distractions

Cons

• Is this too sparse?
• This doesn’t look like the page I just came from. Where the heck am I?

We’re man enough to admit when we make a mistake (ie: we blamed it on the designer) …

It’s true.

We built our startup in Flex, having spent six months wrestling with HTML/JavaScript and browser compatibility. Flex offered enormous advantages that we just couldn’t overlook, so we dumped six months of development effort and started again .

Adobe have been a great supporter of us for obvious reasons, and we presented during a keynote at one of their recent roadshows.  Like any startup we study the competition, but never did we think we would have to worry about Apple.

Apple vs Adobe

The current Apple vs. Adobe saga has us in a bit of a quandary. With each …

As a new startup, we often review what other successful companies are doing to see what we can learn.

Where have they put their call to action? What copy are they using on the pricing page? Where have they successfully reduced the friction between buyer and seller?

This constant review of “best practice” is enormously beneficial, and we have taken a lot of what we have learned and rolled it into Eventarc.

You need to be careful though.

There are things successful companies do because they are already successful and it NO LONGER MATTERS.  They get away with it, but if you tried the same thing you would die a quick and painful death.

Case in point?  Groupon.

Groupon is a phenomenally …

The SXSW Trade Show.  Over 400 vendors all competing for attention, all selling their wares.  Each have spent tens of thousands of dollars on their booth to make them look professional and successful.

The problem is, all 400 look the same.  Everyone has flashy signs, matching furniture, t-shirts to give away, brochures to take and free beer to drink.

You get to the end of the show and you cannot tell one from the other.  They all spend their budgets in order to stand out, but it has the opposite effect.  They blend in….

We are a business who make online registration and ticketing software, and we do this with a small number of staff.

Large competitors have fully staffed call centres, retail outlets, business development managers, human resource consultants, lawyers, training departments, management layers and stupendously large marketing budgets.

We counter all of that with speed. Speed of execution. Speed of response. Speed of decision making.

When you call or email us, you are dealing with the people who actually made the software. The people who made the software are the same ones with the ability to say yes or no to almost any question you have.  We respond quickly and go the extra mile for our customers because it is how …