The Newswhip team including founder Paul Quigley (top left)
What!?
Dublin-based startup NewsWhip achieved revenues past the €1 million mark in 2014 with customers including BuzzFeed, BBC and the Guardian. And us (see widget on the homepage).
We knew them when they were nothing. NOTHING.
But how did they do it?
Founder Paul Quigley, in DublinGlobe explains:
When my girlfriend was a child, she used to race snails. No, dear reader, she didn’t race against snails! I mean she lined them up on a starting line on a piece of wood, placed bets with her friends as to who would get to the finish lines first, and released the slimy little hounds to postulate toward the finish line.
Unfortunately, the snails did not seem to care that they were participating in a race, and so would set off in any old direction, ruining the fun. Direct verbal instructions had no effect, with the snails defiantly sticking to their snail logic, and going any way except toward the finish line. What a problem!
But if you’ve been around startup-land for long, you’ll know that every problem story soon becomes a solution story. In this case, the innovative six-year-olds soon figured one out. Snail trails. Snail trails are not a product you can buy. Snail trails are a streak of water, placed in front of a snail using one’s fingertip.
You see, snails prefer pushing themselves over wet surfaces than dry surfaces. My girlfriend observed that a simple streak of wetness leading directly from the snail’s current position to the finish line kept them on the straight and narrow, so to speak. Snail trails saved the day, and the snail derby of 1988 was a roaring success.
Why am I telling you about snail trails? Well, mainly to instruct you in how to run a successful snail race. But also because they’re key to how a modern SaaS [Software As A Service]business should build its user base.
Right now, your customers are in many places. They’re pecking emails into their smartphones, they’re waiting in traffic, they’re feeding babies, they’re sitting on the toilet checking Facebook, and doing all the other things early 21st century humans do all day.
But sometimes, just sometimes, they’re somewhere you can start a snail trail from. They’re on Twitter, where you can target (or re-target) them, or where your blog post might get shared by someone who they follow. They’re searching for something on Google, and hey presto, your ad comes up.
Or they’re in a meeting, where a brochure for your company gets produced. That’s where your snail trail begins. There are only a few moments where it can happen in their day, and you should figure out what they are, and how you can get a snail trail starting at those moments. As you already know, the snail trails ends with them signing up for your product.
So how slick is your snail trail? Remove all splinters. Make sure you’re attracting the right snails. Some people think of a snail trail as a funnel, which I think is misleading.
All liquid flows through a funnel eventually. But most snails will drop off your snail trail unless you keep it well slicked the whole way through. At this moment of technological development and low barriers to entry, snail trails are 100% the way to go for the vast majority of capital efficient SaaS startups.
To slick our trail, we started a blog publishing our data and analysing the future of media. So through word of mouth, Twitter clicks, and content, many potential customers start down the path that, if we keep it smooth enough, will eventually lead to many curious people starting a free trial. If the slickness continues, they might even buy access to our platform.
Today, the NewsWhip free trial brings in hundreds of potential customers every week. We have many shiny snail trails leading to our landing page and on to a free trial of our software.
The takeaway from this slick little anecdote: one warm, open lead crawling his way into a free trial of your product is worth a lot of discouraging cold-calls. Make it easy for yourself, and for your prospective customer… Wet the wood.
FIGHT!
World Domination, Part 2 – Snail Trails (Paul Quigley, Dublin Globe)
Pic: Newswhip
Does this guy not realise that “snail trail” means something entirely different in most peoples minds? Holy Jasus.
When we wuz yung weTLDR
“and so would set off in any old direction”
Ah she didn’t use the old crushed glass trick then.
Just read the end “wet the wood”. Yep that’d be what a snail trail is for. Filthy.
Fair play (etc), but I genuinely don’t get the point of newswhip. If I wanted to see a load of sh1tty Joe.ie ‘articles’ I’d visit Joe.ie.
I don’t think the real point of newswhip is the little box on the side of the broadsheet page or the app you can download. That just seems to be the method they use for getting their brand out there.
What companies are paying for is what goes into compiling those lists. This lets the like of Joe know what stories are being shared on twitter and FB etc so that they can see what is working and what isn’t.
What is clear is that click bait crap seems to work. The newswhip charts are awash with that shit which just goes to show that people click on it.
Fair point well made, John. Can we then ask Broadsheet what the point of the irritating newswhip sidebar is? Other than to depress the bejaysus out of me…..
my dog I would love to crush his little shell
What a lot of BS. I personally despise those APIs tracking everything, they are part of the problem, not the solution. But yeah, right place right time, easy money, good on them. That snail analogy … just no.
‘postulate toward the finish line.’?
Postulating like a fox.
Very good, that made me smile – but I still hate them, damn predatory paragons of cutesiness coming over here and takin’ our lambs, and our women!
Excellent piece on snail racing
Disgusting
I work for a company that has more than $1m annual revenue. Can we go around talking poo too?
Stretching a metaphor so much I haven’t a clue what he’s on about. Who is paying him €1m ? Why? In 18 months it will either be sucked up by some corporate willies (who understand newswhip even less than me) or it will be washed up on the shore of a lost snail’s dreams. Stretch that.
Spam peddlers company pats self on back for wrecking more heads with analytic based spam content. Snails? get a grip man.
“My girlfriend observed that a simple streak of wetness ” – precocious little minx
I’m proposing a new api called chalk.js
It draws a circle around this. Snails are free to race in any direction so you no longer have to worry about confining your snail..cattl… customers! to predestined water rails.
It’s better for the environment as you don’t have to waste water.
You would get my upvote if such a thing existed here.
Meaningless drivel.
wait until water charges come in —that will put a stop to their gallop
Funny.
Darn this is not exactly meant for the Broadsheeters. Ah well.
Ha. The piece opened up with 1mill in revenue blah
That’s back channel for ” buy me quick”
Suckers!
Ye’re like the snails
jaysus, I fell asleep after startup tldr
His snail trail did nothing for me. I read the whole thing and still have no idea what News Whip is
I liked it.