StartupNation

JUNE 29, 2025

When considering “unconventional sales tactics” and doing so with a particular focus on startups, the entire issue can be summed up in a simple rule: startups need to use sales best practices as opposed to intuition, demonstrations and ego. It is almost as though they are unconsciously exercising the “better mousetrap” philosophy.

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Jason Malki

JANUARY 16, 2025

I recently had the chance to chat with Vladyslav Podoliako, the founder of the sales acquisition agency Belkins , and the email deliverability solution Folderly. So, if you ask me to list the top drivers why we decided to start our own company, theyll be asfollows: Freedom to shape our future and make decisions that align with our vision.

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StartupNation

JULY 12, 2025

Sign Up for The Start Newsletter * indicates required Email Address * /* real people should not fill this in and expect good things – do not remove this or risk form bot signups */ Why Should Startups Hire Freelancers? If so, why can’t top companies find full-time stars with traditional recruiting?

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 1, 2025

Even in a world where it's hard to command attention, the email inbox is still the place we trust to keep up with what matters to us. And with search engine algorithms and social media platforms constantly in flux, having a rich email list that you own and control is more important than ever.

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 7, 2025

A customer relationship management tool (or CRM) is a critical hub for sales and marketing teams—but it's not just a place to store contact details. When used effectively, your CRM becomes a central command center for tracking relationships, managing pipelines, and coordinating touchpoints across your entire customer journey.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 25, 2025

Not in a replace-me-with-a-robot kind of way (I like health insurance); more in a I-should-be-focusing-on-more-important-things kind of way. Get started Here, I'll explain what AI automation actually is, why it's useful, and how you can start using it to offload all the worst parts of your job, so you can focus on the human stuff.

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StartupNation

MAY 21, 2025

Choosing the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a critical decision for any startup. This switch decreased our operational latency by 30% and enabled us to support our expansion into international markets effectively. Missteps during the selection process can lead to wasted resources and missed opportunities.

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StartupNation

JULY 11, 2025

So, when investors look at small businesses to buy into, they aren’t swayed by hype. Can you expand into new markets? Show real data like customer interests, trends in your space, or competitors who are scaling up. Then, explain what steps you’ve taken or plan to take to capture more of that market. They’re the exception.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 9, 2025

At the end of the day, a CRM is designed to move customers from their entry in the wide end of the sales funnel through the narrow end (and… whatever is beyond the tip of the funnel). As anyone who's ever seen a cartoon plumber knows, the best pipeline management tool is a monkey wrench.

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StartupNation

JULY 16, 2025

Furthermore, new academic research suggests that small businesses are often crowded out of credit markets when macroeconomic risks rise, leading to persistent funding gaps ( Journal of Financial Intermediation ). According to Preqin , the global private debt market reached an estimated $1.7 Still, this form of financing is no panacea.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 30, 2025

It's time-consuming, and it's definitely not why you got into your business in the first place. Streamline your invoicing workflows with automation Learn how And with so many great free invoicing tools out there, you can streamline the process without any upfront investment. Ability to customize invoices. Learn more.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 18, 2025

My own system was a chaotic mix of muscle memory and flagged emails. It's about making the invisible visible so that work can happen without the constant questions, dropped balls, and frantic Slack messages. So, you've got workflows. I once viewed "process documentation" as corporate torture.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 10, 2025

I used to work at a children's shoe store, and we kept all our customer information on index cards (.yeah). So when a customer came into the store asking about their previous shoe size, naturally, we had lost their information and couldn't help them. But which one should you go with? user/month* Premium: $57.50/user/month*

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 17, 2025

Boost your team's productivity Automate your CRM Turns out, a CRM (customer relationship management) app is like my fantasy setup, but for people with actual responsibilities. So, let's talk about what a CRM is, why you need one , and what you get out of using it. Why is a CRM system important?

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 12, 2025

As soon as you hit that purchase button, you'll receive an email confirmation. That's email automation at its finest. But then let's say you receive a welcome email which offers you tips and resources on pet care. Those are all examples of email marketing. Your own customers need it.

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StartupNation

MAY 26, 2025

It’s a rare ­thing ­because it’s quite hard to nail what customers ­will want once, never mind again and again. He showed us a slide with images of products—­ wagons, tricycles, collapsible stuff, and so on—­ and a line dividing them right down the middle. So, Schlegel explained. We ­couldn’t do it. They would never know.

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 13, 2025

you're managing a handful of vendors, the next, your finance team is playing Whac-A-Mole with overdue notices, drowning in an inbox full of emails with the subject line "bumping this." That's why I set out to find the absolute best accounts payable software. Getting paid is great, but paying others? One minute.

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Hunter Walk

APRIL 17, 2025

We hired a strong mid-market banker, Lightning Partners to help us with the process and got an introduction to Bending Spoons in April of 2024. So we were in the early stages of a process when we had our first discussion with Bending Spoons and had a handful of seriously interested acquirers. In fact the opposite is true.

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 20, 2025

Prompt goes in, generated AI response comes out—which is why Perplexity AI is so interesting. So how does this compare to ChatGPT, which has also been held up as a possible replacement for search engines? I've been using both apps side-by-side for a few months now, so let's look at what sets the two tools apart.

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 10, 2025

Successfully running a company requires clear communication across the board: with employees, customers, investors, and any other stakeholders. A marketing communication plan plays a different role. There's a warning on the box my steam iron came in that says, "Do not iron clothes while wearing them."

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 26, 2025

In this guide, I'll walk you through what scope creep is, why it's so dangerous to your projects, and how you can effectively manage and minimize its impact. Why scope creep haunts project managers What causes scope creep? " We've all been there. Table of contents: What is scope creep?

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 10, 2025

Creating a project plan involves a series of strategic decisions, such as defining project phases and milestones, setting up timelines, and breaking the project into bite-size pieces, so the team doesn't choke on ambition. Convinced I was just a hop, skip, and a "Come on down!" Table of contents: What is a project plan?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2012

They’ve been a long-term investor in our fund – GRP Partners – and it was important to me to spend time with them in their home market and meet the people with whom they deal locally. I met with Dave Knox whom I had previously met when he worked at P&G in marketing. I felt nostalgic. In that sense it felt very LA.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

I’ve always believed it’s been one of the most important attributes of business success yet something very few business leaders talk about. So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A Visualization is so important to help yourself & others conceptualize ideas.

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The Zapier Blog

JUNE 12, 2025

Improve your real estate business with automation Automate your CRM But with countless options on the market, how do you know which software is right for you? ​​ Improve your real estate business with automation Automate your CRM But with countless options on the market, how do you know which software is right for you? ​​I

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. But why did Ring succeed when the entire market kept saying that Nest was going to be the winner? Here are my views … 1.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Using video content as part of your digital marketing strategy can be very profitable. Educational videos, whiteboard animations, video explainers — each popular type of marketing video brings something unique to the table, and it’s critical to use the right tool at the right time to get the results you want!

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The Zapier Blog

JULY 9, 2025

Free project management planning templates Free budgeting and financial templates Free sales and marketing templates Tips for using project management templates Benefits of using a project management template Automating your project management templates What are project management templates? Try the template 2.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. People often ask me why I started blogging. I’ll bet your customers, business partners or suppliers would love similar. accessibility.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Rob Bailey is the CEO of DataSift. He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. You should read it. ” His argument is as follows.

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StartupNation

JANUARY 26, 2021

And growth is only accelerating: by 2022, the global e-commerce market is expected to reach $6.5 Even so, turning your venture into a successful, revenue-generating company is a little more difficult. Today’s consumers want customization. Tailor-made products have always been customer favorites.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

JULY 15, 2022

As one of the best marketing channels to connect with audiences and build your brand , email continues to serve as a valuable tool to communicate with potential customers and move them further along your conversion funnel. Adding creative videos to your emails is a great way to achieve this.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

So why is online video such an attractive market to build a startup? These markets represent about $600 billion of total spend between them, leaving tons of opportunities for startups to disrupt and grow large. Not so fast. So what happens when production is reduced by 99% and distribution bends to infinity?

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StartupNation

JANUARY 6, 2021

Too often, brands focus on just showcasing products or services, but the best way to attract your target market is to focus on the benefits your product or service brings. What problems do you solve, how do you improve your customer’s life, how do you meet your audience’s needs? Build your email list. billion (in 2020), up 32.4%

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StartupNation

FEBRUARY 4, 2022

Many startups struggle with finding and retaining customers. Having a sustainable and systematic customer acquisition strategy is an essential component of success for any organization, especially as a startup. Once you’ve implemented the basics to identify and attract new customers, you need to continue growing.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

OCTOBER 24, 2020

Don’t raise money before product/market fit I thought money would accelerate our path towards finding our business model, but it only created a distraction, and ultimately led us to waste money on things we didn’t need to even think about. We got community managers, marketing managers, sales managers, and all kinds of developers.

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Entrepreneur's Handbook

APRIL 24, 2021

Think how much faster you will be able to go, and therefore have more runway to iterate to product-market fit. Think how much faster you will be able to go, and therefore have more runway to iterate to product-market fit. Background So why is it really hard to find a technical co-founder? But that shouldn’t dissuade you.

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