12 Lessons Learned Building SEOmoz
Rand Fishkin, CEO Download at http://bit.ly/mozlessons2012

$450K+ in personal debt sucks…
a lot.

On track for $20mm+ this
year

#1: Establish Core Values
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-we-believe-why-seomozs-tagfee-tenets

#2: Stick to Your Values,
(Especially When It’s Hard) “The core values embodied in our credo might be a competitive advantage, but that is not why we have them. We have them because they define for us what we stand for, and we would hold them even if they became a competitive disadvantage.” - Ralph S. Larsen, CEO of Johnson & Johnson http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

#3: Build a Team that
Matches Your Values http://blog.eladgil.com/2012/04/never-ever-compromise-hiring-for.html

#4: Marketing Matters as Much
as Product http://www.seomoz.org/blog/i-disagree-with-fred-marketing-is-for-companies-that-have-great-products

#5: Make Customer Acquisition Cost
a Competitive Advantage Paid Channels Only 15% of Moz’s customers come via paid channels; hence our cost to acquire customers is ~$73 and payback period is 0.7 months! This Inbound meant we could grow and invest, even when we couldn’t raise outside funding.

#6: Don’t Be Afraid of
Letting People Go

#7: You Are Not the
Customer.

#8: Don’t Let Outliers Become
a Yardstick or a Trend AKA: You are not these five companies

#9: Humility is the Most
Overlooked, Undervalued Trait in Startupland

#10: The Price of Success
is Failure After Failure After Failure. This is when Geraldine started her blog

#10: The Price of Success
is Failure After Failure After Failure. This is where people usually give up.

#10: The Price of Success
is Failure After Failure After Failure. Past 3 months are averaging 3.5K visits/day

#11: Best Way to Get
Startup Experience – Join a Startup

#12: Don’t Go It Alone

Download this deck:
http://bit.ly/mozlessons2012