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Hi. Welcome to The Crowd, a podcast by Near Me. We’re talking about peer-to-peer marketplaces. We’re talking collaborative economy and we’re talking about thought leadership. We’re talking about all these things, any and all of them with some of the best minds in the field. And of course, I’m your host, Kevin Cohen.

My partner in crime, Angela Baldwin will be connecting with Andrea Sharfin Friedenson, a full stock marketer, team builder and executive. She’s been kicking ass in the tech industry building out marketing campaigns, driving customer acquisition and just doing an amazing job. So, Angela, take it away.

Angela:  Hi everyone. I’m Angela Baldwin and I’m here with Andrea Sharfin Friedenson. She’s an entrepreneur and marketing consultant. Andrea, we’re so glad to have you today.

Andrea:  Yeah. Hi Angela, Thank you for having me.

Angela:  Definitely. So, before we get started, I’d love to hear a little bit about your background. And kind of what got you to where you are now?

Andrea:  Sure. So I think if you look at my background on a piece of paper, two things really jump out. And it’s a fascination with the intersection of media and technology and a passion for quantitative results. I really see myself as a pragmatic storyteller. I’ve always been a writer. But my favorite stories are the ones that number 1, actually help people and number 2, make money. So, as a result, I’ve worked pretty extensively at tech startups where I can have a lot of impact on both the users and the business success of the company. Recently, I decided it was time to go out on my own. I’ve always been really fascinated with entrepreneurship. And now, I’m launching a new startup. I’ve got Kickstarter in the works. And I provide marketing consulting services to startups. And I’m also having a baby no big deal.

Angela:  Awesome. Well, congratulations.

Andrea:  Yeah. Thank you.

Angela:  Yeah. And so, tell us a little bit about the way you started. Were you always in marketing? Tell us a little bit more about your story.

Andrea:  Okay, sure. I started my career as a news writer at WSVN-7 in Miami. It’s a pretty well known tabloid news station. And it was a really exciting place to be because I started there during the 2000 elections with the Gore-Bush controversy really centered on Florida. So, I got that kind of fast pace, excitement and it kind of got into my blood. I eventually switched to more of a business track. So, I was taking on sales and marketing roles but I always really liked that quick, quick pace. And so when I work with startups now, it really is a natural fit. I love how fast things move and I love how fast they can really get results.

Angela:  It’s great. And so, when you think about your marketing style, how would you describe your approach?

Andrea:  I would describe my approach as really making the complex simple and compelling. So, that approach I think works really well in tech where you have a lot of technical products and you create things for people.

Angela:  Definitely.

Andrea:  Yeah. It’s not always easy to see that immediately though. In previous conversations you and I have had, we talked about micro location communication technologies and how there’s a greater contribution that they make that they use way less battery life than previous generations with the same tech. Something like that is not that exciting for most people. But when you see that actually fire trucks is the technology to make sure that fire trucks are in the best possible places in the city to defend against fires and that the little battery usage means they can actually keep the tech up for longer and be more effective. You start to realize oh, you know, that innovation that sounds kind of small and not immediately very interesting, that actually saves lives. And I find telling those kinds of transformational stories exciting.

Angela:  Well, that’s a great example. That’s really important for marketers to be able to do or anyone who’s telling their story to make it interesting. Is there anybody that you look at, maybe any larger companies that you would say do a really good job at talking about themselves from a marketing standpoint to make themselves more interesting than maybe they would be if you just look at straightforwardly what they do?

Andrea:  Yeah. I would say the first one that comes to mind is Facebook. Facebook is really mostly a photo sharing service right now. And sharing photos to friends and family like that’s interesting but they really told a story about how actually Facebook helps to make your social network as you experience it more interesting, more alive and deepens relationships between people. So, I think they’ve done a wonderful job of really exploring how their technology really impacts people’s lives.

Angela:  Definitely. That’s a great example. So, as far as resources or books, do you have any recommendations? What do you follow?

Andrea:  Yeah. I follow different people for different things. For growth marketing, I follow Andrew Chen. For branding and storytelling, I really like James Altucher,  I’m hoping I’m pronouncing that right but I think he’s a wonderful storyteller. So, in terms of books and resources, there are three that come to mind right now. I really like The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Ries and Trout. There’s Cialdini book called Influence that I absolutely love because it kind of breaks down this case study on ways that marketers can use language to really influence people and change their mind. And I have new favorite called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg that I think has an amazing example of how changing people’s habits can really change the world for the better. So, I love all those. I actually have a list of links on Delicious that I’d be happy to share with your listeners.

Angela:  Definitely. Yeah. Well, definitely, give me that link as we finish up the podcast and that way we can share it with everyone. We’ll put it on the blog post about this podcast. Yeah. So, I know that you’ve worked with different types of companies. But who have you worked with as far as stage size? And who are you looking to work with?

Andrea:  Sure. I worked with companies of all sizes. I worked with Microsoft. I worked with Facebook. I worked with tiny little startups. All I really look for is, does the company have a product-market fit? And can marketing really make a difference in the future of the company?

Angela:  Interesting.

Andrea:  Yeah.

Angela:  What will be an example when marketing wouldn’t be a good fit?

Andrea:  Generally if the startup doesn’t have product-market fit, if they kind of have a product but they don’t know who it’s for or they have people that are coming in the door but they’re not staying, marketing is not ideal at this time. That’s when you really need to focus on cancelling, on fixing your attention problem. And if you have a marketer as a co-founder, of course, they can help with that. But I don’t think at that point that bringing a new external marketing resource is really going to have the impact that you want it to have as opposed to after you achieve product-market fit. Then you bring in a marketing resource. They can really focus on growth and in storytelling in a way that can be transformational to the company.

Angela:  Yeah. That’s a great advice. Very cool. So, my next question is going to be about the sharing economy. What’s your take on what’s happening in that space?

Andrea:  I think we’re at a pretty interesting point where the sharing economy is really more mature and more like socially accepted than it ever has been. I personally find it fascinating and find it really interesting that the sharing economy has given rise to a lot of new entrepreneurs.

Angela:  Very cool.

Andrea:  For instance people who – yeah. People who operate networks of Uber drivers, people who have multiple Airbnbs they run as a business. I think we are just really starting to see the impact of these small businesses on our economy. And I’m really excited to see where it goes.

Angela:  Definitely. So, as far as building a company in the sharing economy, what will be some key starting points that you would recommend? Some of our listeners are entrepreneurs, marketplace owners or maybe even brands who are creating a marketplace for their audience. What would be those key starting points that you would say?

Andrea:  I think it’s tough right now to create a marketplace per se. I mean, it’s going to be a while before we see another Uber or Airbnb come around but I expect small businesses that are built on those platforms to be the ones that really grow.

Angela:  Yeah.

Andrea:  Yeah. The name of the game there is unit economics. What is the lifetime value of each new person you’re bringing in the door? And how much did you spend to acquire them? And is there a margin there that can make you a profitable, saleable company.

Angela:  Definitely. What I like about what you said is the small business owner because what we’ve seen is the domain experts, for example, are coming to us with an audience already with followers and people who participate in what they’re already providing but they’re moving on to the next phase, which may be the technology you need or just being able to reach a new demographic So it’s really exciting to hear that because a lot of our users are actually that type. So one other question I have for you is, as far as the sharing, so many marketplaces that are out there, which ones do you use? And which one is your favorite?

Andrea:  Sure. I use a lot of them. I really, really love Lyft and I love Airbnb and for very similar reasons. I think both of these companies did a great job of making an emotional connection and providing customer experience that’s pretty much amazing. It’s so impressive when you think about it because they just don’t have that much direct control. Airbnb can’t really tell to a great extent what to do and how they should train people. They can make recommendations but they have no direct authority. Same thing with Lyft. They can make recommendations. They can help drivers form meet-up groups and help each other. But still they both managed to have a really consistent, incredibly positive customer experience. And it’s come to the point where I think people feel like Lyft is the very friendly ridesharing service and Airbnb is really your home away from home everywhere around the world.

Angela:  Definitely. So as far as young startups are concerned, are you watching any whether in the sharing economy space or outside of it?

Andrea:  Yeah. I’m actually watching two right now that I think are doing really neat things. One is actually in the on-demand food economy or in the food delivery economy and that’s Green Chef.

Angela:  What do they do? What are they all about?

Andrea:  They deliver organic pre-prepared meals, well partially pre-prepared meals to people’s homes. What I really think is interesting there is there are so many tons of food delivery and on-demand food economy startups but I think they really care to a really extensive degree about the quality of the food. I think we’re in a market where people really care about their ingredients, where they come from.

Angela:  Definitely.

Andrea:  I think Green Chef just nails that. I’m also liking a really, really small stage company called TFN. What they are is basically market and research in the Cloud, so making customer spending data available to companies and available to marketing departments so that marketers can make decisions on trends, on partnership, everything really, really fast. This is an industry where you normally have to commission a report. It’s really sensitive. It takes months if not an entire year and something like TFN gives you data at your fingertips is really transformational to a marketer. So for me, they’re really awesome.

Angela:  That’s very cool. So as far as the on-demand market is concerned or even marketplaces, what are some big trends that you are noticing?

Andrea:  Trends in the on-demand marketplaces. I think generally what I’m noticing is a ton of food startups like everybody else.

Angela:  Definitely.

Andrea:  The food delivery market is just exploding because it really fulfills a need. I mean, you have couples where both people are working outside of the home. They don’t necessarily have the same time to spend on household activities like cooking. But a lot of people enjoy cooking. They find it either stress relieving or they like the planning aspect or they just like delivery and it just makes their life easier. I feel like there is a really robust and developing economy around those customer needs. 

Angela:  Definitely. Food is a hot one right now. People are ordering groceries. They need the pre-made food or the ingredients whatever it may be. And like you said it’s meeting a need and I think that’s the most important part of it is that when you’re meeting someone’s needs, it’s easier for them to use it, to put their money on it and it becomes an easy referral to others who are also in need of those things. I actually recommended Instacart to somebody once because they were talking about travelling in San Francisco by bus and going grocery shopping and carrying loads of groceries and only being able to buy the amount that you can carry home and having to go multiple times a week. I recommended Instacart because I would say, why don’t you just have it delivered to your home? That realization when I was speaking to them that it was because of how practical it was,how you useful it was and how they genuinely needed it. And it’s kind of easy for me to refer them to it.

Andrea:  Yeah. It’s just so cool that tech is helping people make that connection and I can use it to make my life better immediately.

Angela:  Definitely. So back to marketing, are there marketing techniques that you’ve noticed to be successful for you or the people around you when you think of the latest on-demand or marketplace startups? Is there any, whether it be referral codes or other strategies? What have you seen to be effective?

Andrea:  I think that it’s actually just a matter of strategy. I think that business owners, entrepreneurs really need to look at their specific business and their goals for like the next six months to one year and then choose a channel and choose to spend appropriately. So for instance, if you’re a startup CEO and you’re trying to raise money, you really probably should focus on press. Get your name out there, rate your profile. It also helps a lot with recruiting. So if one of your main goals is to bring on new talents, when you call somebody to try, to get them to come over to your company, the first thing that they’re going to do is Google you. So make sure that there are credible people telling your story out there for you. If your interest is customer growth, then you probably want to consider things like data acquisition or other forms that’s kind of like balancing your LTV aginst your CPS.  But like I said it’s critically important to be strategic. Nothing matters more in a startup than your time and your money because these are your two most finite resources. So being thoughtful and getting the channels right and getting your promotions right is absolutely critical.

Angela:  Definitely. So as far as overall marketing trends, what do you think is next in line? I know that people are talking about mobile ads. They’re talking about all kind of things. But outside of strategy, what are some things out there that you think are what’s next or you’re going to be exploring or paying attention to?

Andrea:  Yeah. For me, it’s all about moving  and about technology. So I’m really fascinated by automation. There are big companies out there, Marketo and Eloqua, and they do some kind of e-mail automation and tracking now. But I think that there’s so much opportunity in that marketplace to provide a really, a much better user experience, a much more robust set of features in a really less complex manner. So what I’d love to see would be a user friendly marketing automation system that actually can control a lot of channels from one place. I think we will see that pretty soon.

Angela:  Yeah. That is very cool. Definitely. I’m sure it’s in the works right now somewhere.

Andrea:  Yeah.

Angela:  Well awesome. I’d love to find out where people can find you online, website, Twitter? How can our listeners find you after this podcast?

Andrea:  Sure. My website is Halfshark Industries. And I think you need a link to share. And you can find me on Twitter @asharfin.

Angela:  Very cool. Well, thank you so much, Andrea, for joining us today. And if there is one final thing that you could say to the entrepreneurs who are listening and thinking about starting their business or have already and are worried, stressed out, working hard, what would you say to them?

Andrea: I’d say actually two things. The first thing is be really strategic with where you spend your time and your money. Be very picky. The second thing is make it human. No matter what you do, always bring the story back to how it’s actually going to help people because the actual people will relate to you more, not just your technology but what value you actually provide.