My fourth week interning in Bali has passed at lightning speed. As always I’ve met all sorts of interesting people, made some great contacts in all types of industries, achieved some amazing things and had a fantastic time while doing it.
Within weeks of arriving, I was speaking with two venture capitalists, an ex-software engineer at Facebook and three marketing experts about my own startup idea. You make connections so quickly with different people from all over the world.
The marketing funnels which I’ve been working on for the past two weeks have been published and I’m now testing them to ensure they work as they should. I’ve got to be honest, the funnels have proved much more difficult to implement than I first anticipated. Sadly, it wasn’t just a case of writing a couple of emails and choosing when they had to be sent out. To create the most value out of this type of marketing, I utilised several different applications which all helped to ‘tag’ different customers depending on the decisions they make throughout the ‘sequence’ or process. This is ultimately done to make sure no lead goes ‘cold’ which in turn maximises sales without annoying customers.
For example, if a customer clicked on a link to a product, they would be tagged automatically as having seen that particular product. However if they don’t buy the product , we can automatically send them tailored emails to perhaps remind them to buy the product or offer them information about a similar product. This has been hugely beneficial for the startup as it frees up time and reduces costs which are both invaluable assets. I’ve also not just learnt the tricks of the trade but also seen where value can be created for a business. I can then use the knowledge I’ve gained on my own startup or at any company I work for.
I’ve also been making great progress on my own startup. I’ve confirmed the name of the business, slogans, and have brainstormed ideas for logos. Having created a few designs, I then contacted a designer on Fiverr who is in the process of making the logo look really unique; my main advice for this is to make sure your designer is offering unlimited revisions, I’m currently on my 11th! More importantly, I’ve been working on the overall business model. To do this I enlisted the help of several people at Hubud to give me some ideas of how I can monetize the business and how I can market it. To get even more access to ideas and advice I’ve signed up to present a Think Thank which is an hour long session designed to brainstorm a particular business’s challenges.
Outside work, I’ve attended numerous events organised by Hubud including “F*** Up Night”. This involved three separate speeches by successful people who spoke solely about their failures. It was really interesting to see what issues they had encountered and how they were able to overcome those challenges and move on.
Along with nine others from Hubud we went mountain biking down Mount Batur on Saturday. It was an intense 12-hour day of biking through jungle, small villages, mountains and down to the beach at the end of the day. Along the way we were greeted by really friendly villagers who offered us fruit, drinks and high-fives. I had to remind myself that I was mountain biking down a volcano in Bali. I would’ve pinched myself but I might have crashed!