Community, Content, Culture, Education, Entrepreneurship
Anastasia Ashman
2024 Progress Report: The Bigger Picture

Wearing my ‘serial founder exploring starting a company’ hat, I advanced my passion project KIP3.

KIP is a seven-year long passion project to tackle the disinformation problem on social media that makes us poor information citizens and polarized neighbors who cannot take collective action in the face of threats like the climate crisis.

2024 Progress Report: The Bigger Picture
Entrepreneurship, Education, Community, Content, Culture, Tools
Anastasia Ashman
Timely Civic Education Project ISO Peers, ...
It’s a Wikipedia + Wordle for Current Affairs to make better citizens and voters…
A comprehensive project that aims to promote trust and transparency in democracy while combating disinformation and corruption.
The deliverables can be used individually or collectively to empower citizens with the knowledge and tools needed to critically evaluate information and build a network of trustworthy sources.
Timely Civic Education Project ISO Peers, Partners, Sponsors

Takeaways from the European Innovation Academy

Enjoyed working with these fine fellow mentors, and the students and administration of EIA! 

Click through to read Nine takeaways from keynotes at the European Innovation Academy in Nice, France this summer. All the presentations are linked there too.

Thanks to Dany Augustinho, an innovation specialist at Amadeus IT Group, for including mine! 

 

Dany writes, "90% of startups fail. Every entrepreneur should bear this in mind. So, if you’ve been playing around with our APIs, and considering launching a startup in the near future, it is time to learn from the experts!

"For the third year in a row, Amadeus has sponsored the European Innovation Academy, a summer school that teaches students from the world’s most prestigious universities – and some selected Amadeus employees – how to innovate and launch a startup. Three weeks is all that it takes for them to find the right idea, draft a business model, prototype their product and learn how to fund their project."

 Here's my keynote, which used Product Hunt as an example: "How Meaningful Community Can Grow Your Revenue"

A few slides...click through to Slideshare to view the full presentation.

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And what a surprise appearance in the keynote of another mentor in the program, Gigi Wang's "Know Your Customer: Customer Persona & Customer Validation"!

 

Interviewed for a Growth Hacking thesis

...by an Irish entrepreneur from the European Innovation Academy this summer. Here are his questions, and my answers:

 

 

    •    What is growth hacking in your opinion?

Accelerating the usual rate of growth of a product or service.

 

    •    How relevant is growth hacking for start ups?

It’s required for startups to differentiate themselves from lifestyle businesses and other non-scaleable businesses.

 

    •    In your opinion, has there been a paradigm shift away from traditional sales and marketing? If so, is it here to stay? If not, why not?

Marketers would say no, growth hacking is the same as marketing. What might be different is the time scale.

 

    •    What are the characteristics required to be a growth hacker?

Knowing where people are, how they can be reached, and what it’s worth costing to do so.

 

    •    Is an appreciation of marketing and coding needed to growth hack successfully or is a deeper understanding required?

Expert growth hackers would probably say there is a deeper understanding, but I think anyone can be a growth hacker to a basic degree. I like growthhackers.com as a resource for newcomers.

 

    •    What method / methods of growth hacking did you or your organisation employ to gain traction? 

The last startup I worked with was so unfamiliar with growth hacking they refused to consider the San Francisco and Silicon Valley standards I suggested. They are not based in the USA. This would have been a way for them to level the playing field, and I suggest it for startups outside the USA.

 

    •    Should big data be embraced in the customer acquisition process or is privacy becoming more important?

If you can get access to data, by all means, use it. Also, don’t be a creep, and think of the user. There is plenty of data users don’t mind parting with for real value. It does not have to be a privacy issue.

 

    •    Are there a set of steps a startup can take in order to optimise the growth hacking process? Is growth hacking an art or a science or a combination of both?

It’s both an art and a science. As I suggested earlier, try tapping into the community of growth hackers at growthhackers.com

 

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