Disqus - Latest Comments for iseff

Re: Money or talent: which is more lacking in Detroit?

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 09:56:08 -0000

Oh no doubt! Detroit is set up with a great foundation. Certainly I didn't want to imply otherwise. But, I think it's clear we can grow far larger very quickly, and understanding how that happens is meaningful. I believe grooming at the seed stage with smart, experienced operators-turned-investors is a necessary component that is light in this region.

Re: 20 million new reasons to bet big on the Pacific Northwest

Ian Sefferman — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:58:26 -0000

HUGE congrats! Can't wait to see what you guys fund with this one.

Someday I'll dig up photos from the Eastlake space to see how far you've really progressed the entire region. :)

Re: Google, Uber, Facebook & The Future of Search

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 30 May 2014 12:08:29 -0000

Hi Adam,

Make sure you're thinking about the difference between Open Graph and AppLinks, but assuming you mean AppLinks, I think it's definitely wise for all sites to install the metadata tags... especially if driving folks to the better experience of your app, there's really no downside.

Hope that helps,

Ian

Re: Qualifying for the 2014 Race of a Lifetime

Ian Sefferman — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 19:03:50 -0000

Go go, MAT, go! Congrats on your success, can't wait to see what 2014 has in store.

Re: Embrace Your 8 Mile Moment

Ian Sefferman — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 20:45:53 -0000

"There is a power in being vulnerable. We forget it sometimes. Opening up about where you came from, what you failed at, your weaknesses not only robs your competition of ammunition (which can be very powerful, particularly in big brand building) but it’s also a kickoff to a 1-to-1 moment between you and someone else. Being vulnerable breeds authenticity. Authenticity breeds trust. Trust is at the heart of everything."

Well said. Politicians know this better than anyone. Ever notice how the politicians that seem to go the furthest and reach the highest elected positions magically come out with books baring their past and their souls to the world just a couple years before running for a particularly tough race? Obama having done cocaine was a relative non-issue because he bared it all, rather than the opposition or media finding a "scandal." Politicians are built on authenticity and trust (or, at least, the appearance of such... but that's another story), and being human and baring it all early gives them a meaningful advantage.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

Ian Sefferman — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:57:28 -0000

Mo' love, mo' money. Incredibly important to see exactly what customers think about you and how to make your app better.

Re: SXSW PanelPicker

Ian Sefferman — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:56:06 -0000

Seeing religious debates about inbound vs paid is tiring. Seeing people talk about using paid to complement inbound (and vice versa) is inspiring. Do this!

Re: How Does iOS 7 Affect App Marketers And How Do You Take Advantage? - MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:08:54 -0000

I'm not sure if I have any secrets, unfortunately. Relationship building isn't easy, but it is necessary. Reach out through your network, find out who the right people are, get in touch, and so on. Don't be spammy, of course (these folks get lots of random requests), but be genuine and try to understand their objectives (what do they need to do to impress their boss?) and help them achieve those objectives.

Re: How Does iOS 7 Affect App Marketers And How Do You Take Advantage? - MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:07:51 -0000

Thanks, Dane! Will definitely keep updating! :)

Re: Here are 5 secret arts of app store optimization

Ian Sefferman — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:57:55 -0000

Love the attention that ASO is receiving lately. There's so much opportunity in app store search, and we've been seeing incredible demand from enterprises wanting to learn more and win at this important channel.

If anyone needs help with ASO, always feel free to reach out anytime.

Re: The Curse of the Technical CEO

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:40:08 -0000

I think that's absolutely possible, so long as you also recognize the opportunity costs of doing so.

An example: In our case, we have Account Managers who sometimes need custom reports to be pulled. They're not things that we should ever productize, and they're not things that non-engineers could get at. Sometimes, I'll actually do these tasks still, since they help advance the goal of telling the story to a customer and unblocking the Account Manager. That's probably still a good use of my time (especially when it takes under 30min) -- though it likely won't be forever.

I think also there's absolutely no reason to not be CEO. In my case, I like lots of things, not just coding. I want to be a storyteller in many different ways. Those are fascinating things to me. But I think if the primary thing you like is coding, maybe you should team up with someone who can be CEO while you focus on what makes you tick.

Re: The Curse of the Technical CEO

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:34:03 -0000

Totally true. Great advice.

Re: The Curse of the Technical CEO

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:11:09 -0000

Thanks for the comment, Emmanuel. I think your sentiment is true -- every company is different, and small, profitable companies are a great place to continue to write code as a CEO. That said, in a company that is scaling, I really want to focus on being a leader and mentor, and teaching others to fish.

Also, I'd love to see any supporting evidence of both of those companies. As far as I know, Brian (CEO of HubSpot) never really wrote code, and Jason (CEO of 37signals) doesn't write code anymore, either. Both do have tremendously talented CTOs in Dharmesh and David that continue to write code, of course. If I'm wrong about that, I'd love to see how they're doing it and their thought process. :)

Re: Have you changed your app title yet? - MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:04:01 -0000

We've definitely seen this, Marnny. The best article we've seen written on it is here:

http://blakeleftwich.blogsp...

At a high level, looks like most special characters are now disallowed.

Re: Sonar: This new service automatically tracks when app stores change their algorithms

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:53:51 -0000

Definitely a bug, that should be SSL. You're right that we always submit to SSL (and, in fact, we use Stripe, so we don't get any of that sensitive data anyways), but we'll change that page to have SSL for comfort sake. Thanks for letting us know!

Re: Sonar: This new service automatically tracks when app stores change their algorithms

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:00:08 -0000

We're incredibly excited to be launching Sonar today and can't wait to hear the reaction from users and readers. If anyone has any feedback or questions, feel free to ping me directly anytime. Thanks, John, for the coverage.

Re: Meet the startups that just got accepted into TechStars Seattle

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:39:02 -0000

+1. MobileDevHQ makes well into 5 figures every month, with consistent growth. So much so, we're hiring!

Any engineers looking for an amazing company and opportunity, contact me! :)

Ian

Re: Meet the startups that just got accepted into TechStars Seattle

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 15:48:25 -0000

Hi Jessica,

As a founder of MobileDevHQ, I can't tell you how amazing it is to have investors like Andy and Chris on board.

As Andy said, we were all aware of a potential conflict of interest when applying to TechStars, which is why Andy and Chris graciously excluded themselves from our selection process. Instead, we spent our time interviewing with other investors and backers in TechStars, who ultimately helped make the decision on our admission to this year's class.

In any case, we're insanely excited about TechStars and the opportunity to make amazing app store optimization tools.

Hope you have a chance to try out our product and tell us what you think!

Ian

Re: The Lowdown On Apple's Chomp Update || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:20:00 -0000

I'll run the same analysis, Troy, for publisher name and see if there's more weight given there than before.

Re: The Lowdown On Apple's Chomp Update || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:13:37 -0000

Great data, Mark! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see Hit Tennis 3.

Re: App Store Optimization: iTunes Keyword Field Best Practices || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Wed, 23 May 2012 23:18:46 -0000

Hi Ravi,

This is exactly what MobileDevHQ does -- provide search volume for keywords within the app stores. :) Sign up and try it out.
Thanks,

Ian

Re: App Store Optimization in 3 easy steps || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:21:25 -0000

Thanks, Sylvain.

Great suggestions on learning how much rating affects ranking -- I'll do my best to research that and write another post.

Re: Top 3 iOS App Store Optimization Tricks || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:51:06 -0000

Totally true. Great images matter.

Re: App Store Optimization: iTunes Keyword Field Best Practices || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:29:11 -0000

Hi Jay,
I would do "Ian,Sefferman" -- Apple is smart enough to know to concatenate both the terms so if someone searches for "Ian Sefferman" it should show up.

Hope that helps!

Re: App Store Optimization: iTunes Keyword Field Best Practices || MobileDevHQ

Ian Sefferman — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:38:29 -0000

Great question. We've found that having it in your title is good enough right now. You can save the space and use another keyword in the Keyword field.