When I moved to San Francisco last Fall, I committed to not hanging out.

Through a mutual friend I met Justin Mares, and we started hacking on dumb projects.

Fast forward a few months, we discovered an ecommerce plugin called Notify. It helped increase online sales by showing recent purchases, in real-time, to website visitors. We loved it.

This March we bought Notify and drafted a plan to grow it. Today, that plan goes live.

I’m proud to introduce my latest project, Fomo.

In one line of code, Fomo turns customer interactions into instant marketing material. Syncing with everything from email signups to ticket sales, it’s the online equivalent of a busy store.

With over 2,500 paying customers already, we think we’re up to something special.

To keep in the loop on all things Fomo, check out our new blog. We’ll be writing about startups, the future of marketing technology, and of course, the power of social proof.

Cheers,

Ryan

The post Introducing Fomo appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

“You have beautiful hands,” she said.

It was my first day of 6th Grade. We were shuttled around to the art, band, orchestra, and drama extracurriculars. We were to choose one discipline that would define our middle school career.

One teacher, Dr. Scruggs, grabbed my hands and said I should play violin in her orchestra. I obliged.

It’s been 15 years since that afternoon. Here’s what I have to show for it:

• Can play several instruments
• 2,000,000+ views on YouTube
• Performed 100s of times
• Recorded 4 studio albums
• Failed to turn a profit

I could make excuses about why this happened.

Like, my parents’ discouragement. How they lectured me to put music in a little box called “hobby,” and to get a college degree + “real job” instead. 

But while those excuses would be accurate, they don’t change anything.

Next March I’m hitting the studio one last time, to record yet-another-album and attempt to make something of my God-given talent, music.

I’ve had a lot of success in building technology companies, but I will always be a better musician than a marketer or developer. So my heart, and my savings account, says I should give it another go.

As we approach Spring 2017 and the launch of my next album, you’ll notice some changes on this blog and my profiles around the web. I will be getting back to basics, as a musician first, employee second.

The post I Am a Musician appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

2014

“Where can I find Travis Kalanick’s email address?”

2015

“What’s the best price for 10,000 leads?”

2016

“How do I compel prospects to respond to me?”

Data is no longer the problem; Information is free. I’ve personally scraped half a million contacts for $0.

As sales people get better at finding prospects, prospects get better at ignoring them.

My friends at Nova.ai are trying to fix this. I’ve tried to fix this.

Because when Aunt Jemima understands “mail merge,” everything changes.

It’s almost like we have to…

* Build human relationships
* Rethink scale
* Create a monopoly

If you spend most of the day deleting bounced emails, you’re doing it wrong.

The post Peak Scrape appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

As marketers we’re taught to avoid churn. The more enlightened ones among us understand that reducing churn = growth.

Now try this one on for size: use your churn rate to set your growth goals.

Suppose you have 1,000 subscribers paying $20 per month for your SaaS platform. Your top-line is $20,000 MRR, but you have 12% churn.

This means if you acquire zero new users for a full month, you would only have 880 subscribers next month, and your MRR would drop to $17,600.

OK, now check this out.

If churn is 12%, you could merely double it and set that as your baseline growth goal.

Suddenly, you have 3 cases by which to measure the health of your business:

1. Worst case — zero new customers, 12% churn, $20k –> $17.6k MRR
2. Base case — 12% churn + 12% growth, $20k –> $20k
3. Growth case — 12% churn + 24% growth, $20k –> $22.4k

In the growth case, you’ve grown 12% in a single month. Maintain this focus on 2x churn for a year, and you’ll grow to at least $87,000 MRR. Huge.

Of course, this does not account for the natural reform that occurs when churn is as high as 12%.

Businesses with empathy are likely to uncover new features, support gaps, pricing, or customer persona issues that enable them to reduce churn from 12%, while still maintaining a growth of 2x their worst case.

Next time VCs or peers claim you need to be growing by an arbitrary metric, consider this strategy instead. Plans rooted in reality are good plans indeed.

The post Churn as a growth metric appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

when i worked at red bull, one of the restaurant sales strategies was to seed fake demand.

here’s how it worked. you’d ask students and colleagues to patronize the restaurant and ask “can i add a red bull to that?” the cashier says “no,” because they don’t carry red bull.

a week later, low and behold, a red bull rep walks into the restaurant. “have you guys considered selling red bull?” “actually yes, we’ve been getting asked about it all week.”

we can’t control our customers, but we have a pretty good idea of what controls them — their customers.

so take a page from red bull, and build a way for your customer’s customer to sell for you.

The post Ask your customer’s customer appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

Uber is the world’s largest private company, worth $68 billion. Here’s their iPhone App Store listing:

Xcode, the required IDE for building iOS / Mac apps, is responsible for $23 billion per year in sales.

And then there’s Google, creators of the best email client on the planet:

Do you think these companies dedicate teams to their app store ratings? I don’t.

Let the haters keep down-voting. Votes don’t matter.

The post Haters Gonna Rate appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

Last month I reminded myself that I am a musician. I told you I’m making a comeback next Spring.

What I didn’t share was how I’m combining music with my tech “talents” to boost my reach.

Today, I’m proud to share my first music-tech project, Groupies.

Groupies is an SMS marketing platform for musicians and indie artists.

You can read more about it here, or text me (646.362.1256) to automatically subscribe to my new tunes.

The post Introducing Groupies appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

peter thiel’s latest:

“Think about what you want to accomplish in the next 10 years. Now figure out how to achieve those things in the next 6 months.”

working through this exercise, admittedly, i intend to accumulate wealth.

this could happen when Distribute.com goes public. or Fomo gets acquired. heck, maybe my real estate property parlays into a duplex.

but the real question is: when? and how do I expedite the outcome?

here’s where i arrived.

helping people, hurting people

you can make money either way, but you make a lot MORE money helping people.

this is something criminals don’t understand — armed robbery doesn’t scale.

meanwhile, if you sell crowbars online and offer free shipping to chicago, you win.

online, offline

my first tech-founder experience was artspot. we helped artists and venues connect and exhibit work.

i had to tread through snow to close deals. i had to hire other people to tread through snow to close deals. offline sucks.

now, everything i do is in the cloud. one line of code handles billing. another handles SEO. more still send welcome emails, feature announcements, etc. it’s too easy. startups are easy.

work life balance

my friend and colleague murphy says, “there is no such thing as work-life balance. anything worth doing unbalances your life.”

in the past 30 days i cancelled netflix, hulu, linkedin, meetup, and skype. for now, books and twitter are my sole entertainment. c’est la vie.

with fewer distractions, i get more done. you play more when it’s out, after all.

mocking the competition

i think ignoring your competition is stupid. since my desk is at wework, i observe daily what “grinding startup culture” is all about. its like this: get to work at 10a, leave by 4:30p.

when you realize the competition is mostly lazy idiots who work at a startup vs a real job because ping pong, it’s easier to focus on shipping great products to customers.

pissing people off

seven months ago i built a chrome extension that re-brands SJWs (social justice warriors) on twitter with a new avatar, and promptly forgot about it.

a few weeks ago, it went viral. thousands of people tried it in 2 hours.

the best part of this hack wasn’t the exposure, but the visceral response. it pissed people off.

when you make people feel something, the emotions flung at you will stoke the fire well into [otherwise] watching netflix time.

health and fitness

i’ve been working out and eating better. i look pretty good.

when you almost throw up on the treadmill every morning, saying “NO” to ice cream and bad friends gets easier.

reading

last year i read about a dozen books. last week i finished three.

non-fiction business, strategy, biography, and philosophy will 10x your decision making abilities if you absorb it, take notes, and apply.

indecisiveness is when you lack the mental framework for a given situation.

stretching

in 30 days i’m recording a new album. did you know i’m a musician?

soon i’ll be writing more about my music career and less about technology.

it’s easier to focus on my cushy job, lifestyle, and social circles where i’m respected. but it’s a lot more fulfilling to bet the ranch.

winning

i try to clock at least 1 win every day.

this could be a customer review, russian press hit, personal best at the gym, whatever.

when you win daily, you remind yourself sacrifice is worth it.

asking tough questions

how will you accelerate your 10 year plans?

email me, i’d like to know.

The post how to make a lot of money appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

fresh paint

i started this blog in 2012. last night i updated the design for the first time.

while the former theme was easy to use and self-sufficient, it was also dry and uninspiring.

further, there were non-trivial bugs that literally deleted entire paragraphs of content during composition. as a result, i have 14 unpublished drafts where the full piece wouldn’t save. yikes.

anyway, here are a few more updates beyond pretty pixels.

page speed

minimal sites don’t suffer from slowness. that said, faster is always better.

here’s my old site — 2 seconds page load.

and here’s the new site, a whopping 2.16x faster.

reading experience

we’re now equipped with embeddable code snippets, social share buttons, a like counter, and better quote handling.

“the problem with quotes online is you cannot confirm their validity.”

–Abraham Lincoln

bells and whistles

i’ve always preferred the look of images with drop shadows, but never knew how to make them.

with the help of this guide i wrote a script that automates their creation.

adding drop shadows to my uploads is now as simple as running “shadow {{ filename }}” from my terminal. #winning

View the code on Gist.

mass communication

finally, i revisited how i communicate email subscribers.

currently, all new posts land in your inbox the morning after publication.

the emails are simple, and the content is inline.

while this is decent for plain text newsletters, it doesn’t work with rich media, something i’m planning to incorporate.

to address this, i’m following bryan harris’ guide and switching email providers. in the meantime, i’ll be sending OG style BCC from my personal Gmail.

summary

1. ryanckulp.com 2.0 is faster and sexier.
2. if you’re still here, keep reading for a more important update.

new deal

last month i tweeted about my company. it’s a textbook rationalization of my failures as a musician.

i used to play in a rock band. i still do pic.twitter.com/4IOzRr2lGL

— ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) January 15, 2017

are websites and computers the same as stages and mosh pits?

no.

then why can’t i play in a rock band again?

so here’s the deal — i’m shifting focus to music.

next month, for my birthday, i’m recording an album in atlanta at Spotlight Sound Studio with producer Jason Andrews. jason has toured with or produced dozens of artists — everybody from Jay Z to the Plain White T’s.

not only am i stoked to work with him, but also the special guests stopping by who will add their own style to the production.

naturally, this focus on music brings with it a fresh set of ideas and projects to write about.

you’ll see this represented on my blog in the following ways:

• essays about music entrepreneurship and the broken arts industry
• videos and recaps of live performances
• audio and unreleased songs you can listen to
• photos that document my upcoming studio sessions

what i won’t do is ask you for money, because there is no money in music.

note: if you’re a tech bro who is disappointed in this decision, i encourage you to stick around for 2 more posts.

what you’ll find is that i’m going to write about growth hacking the music industry.

topics will include:

• booking shows with web scrapers
• setting up A&R meetings through cold email
• writing code to send text messages to fans
• … and more.

from my research (18 seconds on google), there’s very little marketing content for musicians. there is especially little (none?) for musicians who know how to code.

this blog will fill that gap.

beginning today, my wager in the music industry will be a test tube.

i’ll be composing, recording, performing, and then writing about everything i experience.

at the very least, artists will learn what not to do. at best, they’ll find success sooner.

bottom line

the worst thing that can happen to me is i go broke and embarrass myself. but i’ve been doing those things intentionally for the past 5 years anyway.

and although most investors are retards, this guy says it best:

Believers make more money than skeptics. Loss aversion makes less sense when you can create things from scratch.

— Garry Tan (@garrytan) February 22, 2017

i create things from scratch. sometimes they pay me. it’s what i do.

if you’re on board, please show your support by sharing this post with 1 friend.

thank you.

ryan

The post fresh paint, new deal appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

ever wanted to upload your music to itunes for free, or learn how to sell music on spotify, tidal, etc?

unfortunately i haven’t found a free service to sell on itunes since tunecore discontinued their free plan a few years ago.

however, if you’re patient and willing to wait ~5 days, here’s a quick hack to get on iTunes, Spotify, and 150+ other online stores for just $12.

how it works

first, sign up for a free account on distrokid.com.

after logging in, you’ll be asked for your credit card. don’t do it.

instead, log out of distrokid.

this will trigger an abandoned cart sequence, which is marketing speak for “send a discount code!”

in about 2 days, you’ll get an email offering 35% off iTunes music store uploads.

pretty sweet, right?

well, if you’re not in a rush to upload your music to iTunes, wait just 2 more days.

you’ll get an even better email:

now it’s time to pull the trigger.

click the link in the email to automatically claim the distrokid coupon deal.

that’s it!

within a few hours you’ll be selling on itunes for [almost] free.

The post DistroKid Promo Code appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

background

2010, college. i worked for my university’s programming board, and my spring project was to produce a concert.

i called a booking agent, and he told me about a new artist named Trey Songz.

trey’s ridiculous single “lol smiley face” had been out for months, but he was starting to get air play on local Atlanta radio stations.

i decide Trey Songz is the next big thing.

budget

my school gave me a budget of $50,000 to produce the show.

after deducting Trey’s fees, rider, the venue rental, security, etc, i had $500 left.

thing is, we still needed an opening act.

challenge

realizing a few hundo wasn’t going to entice an up-and-coming artist, i changed the narrative.

this was no longer a measly gig, but an opportunity to open for megastar Trey Songz. haven’t heard of him? sad!

solution

to build buzz and democratize the selection process, i launched a contest.

since us artists aren’t too smart, my contest had just 3 rules:

1. musicians can submit 1 song, no longer than 5 minutes
2. fans text to vote for their favorite act
3. votes count once, abusers get disqualified

execution

this was years before i knew how to code, so naturally i had no clue how text-to-vote would work. although Twilio is an obvious choice today, it was still early and sub-mainstream in 2010.

luckily, i found a startup called Mozes who specialized in large, text-to-screen displays at live events. not exactly what we were looking for, but it seemed close enough.

after some gracious concessions on our sales call, mozes agreed to power our text-to-vote infrastructure at a huge discount. there was just one caveat: they couldn’t shield us from duplicate votes.

given this was our most important contest rule, it was almost a deal breaker. on the other hand, i figured artists would never find out if Mozes’ technology did what we said it did, so we moved forward anyway.

with the SMS backend ready to go, it was time to build our proverbial funnel.

first, i tweeted from our university’s programming board handle. this contributed zero.

Want to open for TREY SONGZ? Just go to gsu.edu/spotlight and fill out an application. You DON'T HAVE TO BE A STUDENT!!

— GSU Spotlight (@GSUSpotlight) March 19, 2010

next, i partnered with Dormtainment to spread the word beyond campus news.

they did some street team stuff (passing out flyers, etc) in exchange for free tickets and a co-emcee slot with yours truly.

finally, i made a free YouTube channel to host the contestants’ music.

as songs landed in my inbox, i would import them to Windows MovieMaker, add generic credit slides, and upload. once the YouTube URL was ready, i’d share it with the artist along with simple promo tips for garnering votes.

included as a best-effort with this messaging were stern warnings about how “if you ask for duplicate votes, our staff will be alerted and we will disqualify you immediately.”

truth be told, it was actually just me behind an Outlook account, crossing fingers that nobody called Mozes’ sales team.

results

• timeline – 11 days
• votes – 26,000+ from 47 states
• tickets – sold out in 6 days
• 39 submissions
• concert – very happy Trey Songz

Much love to Georgia State for givin me the best Welcome home eva!!! I'm outchea!

http://maps.google.com/?q=33.7776%2C-84.3749

— Trey Songz (@TreySongz) April 3, 2010

i think the Mozes invoice was ~$740, or $240 over budget.

my debt was forgiven.

note: trey songz is now an international celebrity. dormtainment has grown from a few thousand to 1,000,000 youtube subscribers. mozes got acquired. looks like i’m batting 100 in vendor foresight.

The post how i sold out a concert for $500 in 6 days appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

“you are the youngest person i know who retired.”

–arnold, still working

last week, at 26 years old, i retired.

never, ever, ever again will i fill out a W-4. or get free health insurance. or save PTO.

for long-time readers, this isn’t a surprise. i don’t believe humans are meant to work. (although we enjoy building things…)

so i’m not going to do that anymore.

non-obvious benefits of retirement

i’m only 6 days in, but here’s what i’ve learned about retirement:

• you wake up earlier than when you had a job
• productivity explodes
• sense of purpose presents itself

for example, an hour ago i finished my to-do list for the entire week. i never finish my todo list.

maybe now i’ll have two.

making ends meet

social security won’t exist when we (millenials, americans) turn 65.

it’s perhaps the greatest Pyramid Scheme of all time; one the government mandates us to participate in.

so what can we do to “secure our future?”

saving helps. sure.

but there are 2 ways to increase your runway: make more, or spend less.

that’s why in preparation of this move, i launched simple shopify apps to generate passive income.

within 60 days, i’ll have 2 more apps that are even better.

my team @usefomo is launching a new side project next week… who wants in? pic.twitter.com/uKZz5K1pCc

— ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) March 7, 2017

(if you’re reading this and think, “but you can code!…,” see here and buckle up.)

thriving as a 26 year old retiree

while passive income is great, it’s not enough to sustain my lifestyle.

Moving into a new loft. #nyc

A post shared by Ryan Kulp (@ryanckulp) on Nov 17, 2016 at 10:28am PST

within hours of early retirement, by the grace of God, new opportunities filled my inbox.

in case you think i’m exaggerating, a synopsis:

1. business – full-time product marketing role (out, i’m retired)
2. code – SMS daily deal platform for a winery
3. business/code – sales outreach machine that personalizes images
4. business – SEO for a social network

so “rent” and “money” are not really an issue.

instead, choosing happiness is my new litmus test for deciding what to do every morning when i wake up.

(hint: meeting for coffee/drinks and responding to email do not pass the test.)

why you should retire early

i don’t usually tell people what to do. my marketing ideas are mere posits, concluding with a question or a challenge.

but today, i’m grabbing you by the tie.

stop doing what you don’t like, and figure out how to get paid for what you do like.

this isn’t my advice. idk if the sage can even be traced.

but it’s something we all agree with, deep in our hearts. some us believe it deeper than others, and a thing called “inspiration” helps it surface.

or maybe you’re fully on board, but you’re waiting for the Right Moment.

below are a few Right Moments, from my observations:

• $1,000,000 in the bank
• mortgage paid off
• kids’ college fund saved

notice something? every reason is rooted in money.

we trade creativity and joy and talents for… cash. it’s backwards.

money should be exchanged for more life.

here’s the worst that can happen if you retire today.

1. in XX days/months/years, you run out of money
2. you get another job, fill out a W-4, get free health insurance, and save up PTO

maybe i’m missing something, but this 2-step recovery looks like something people with jobs do, too.

what’s next

today i woke up and emailed some customers. i wrote some code, and listened to thug rap music.

tomorrow i’m recording a video for the Dunkin Donuts music contest.

friday i have a routine Physical, since my health insurance runs out in 23 days.

this weekend? the rest of my life? who knows.

The post i’m retiring appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

when i lived in san francisco, i spent a lot of time with justin on startup ideas.

startups are religion in the valley.

so we took a step back and thought… why not spread the gospel?

what

printed out 30 pages of twitter’s API documentation.

hired a guy on craiglist who owned a clergy cassock.

made some props.

he showed up at 8a outside Twitter HQ, for coffee with cream and $150.

why

the stunt didn’t earn PR coverage; we did it to make a point.

if the cost of breaking silence is $150, i’ll choose “heard” every time.

The post startup priest appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

with celebrity comes the propensity to reinvent yourself.

if i become famous, would i still…

• talk to ____?
• care about ____?
• eat at ____?

it’s probably true that some people, upon achieving higher social or economic status, do change.

but in general, it appears the prospect of changing who we are is offensive.

a few examples from our friends in the rap business:

drake

What am I afraid of?
This is supposed to be what dreams are made of
But people I don’t have the time to hang with
Always look at me and say the same shit
They say “You promised me you would never change”
“You promised me you would never change”

— The Resistance

childish gambino

Crowd at my shows more mixed than Rashida Jones
Haters say I’m changin’, but I haven’t changed at all
Indie kids saying that I’ve ruined all their favorite songs

— Difference

jeremih

When I was so young before I could remember
I would always treat my gang like family members
Even when I changed, a n**** never changed up
I always bring my friends, my friends, my friends, my friends up

— Summer Friends by Chance the Rapper

the resistance

last month i read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

it’s a brief but exhaustive guide to dealing with what he calls The Resistance.

you know, the voice inside our head telling us we can’t achieve greatness; that we should find another show to watch, and eat another scoop of ice cream.

perhaps the most interesting part of Pressfield’s manifesto is when he says The Resistance can take the form of other people.

“resistance by definition is self-sabotage. but there’s a parallel peril that must also be guarded against: sabotage by others.

when a writer begins to overcome her Resistance… she may find that those close to her begin acting strange… they may accuse the awakening writer of ‘changing,’ of ‘not being the person she was.’

… they are trying to sabotage her.”

–pg 19, Resistance Recruits Allies

sound familiar?

what this means

maybe this has happened to you.

remember that time when you got into a certain university, or left your hometown for a bigger city, or quit your job to focus on a new career?

a pattern is emerging. we’re:

• capable of great things (albeit not without struggle)
• proud of achievement (but then criticized for it)
• offended when people say we changed (and feel compelled to debunk)

well, i’m siding with steven. he adds:

“the reason is that they [the criticizer] are struggling, consciously or unconsciously, against their own Resistance. The awakening writer’s success becomes a reproach to them. If she can beat these demons, why can’t they?”

maybe drake is the same guy who played Jimmy on Degrassi.

that would be a better world indeed.

The post when people say “you’ve changed” appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

i spent last week in Atlanta, recording my new album at Spotlight.

the album’s name? South of Market.

there are 6 songs on the EP, including one you were forced to listen to as a child. we did a track with 90% synth instruments, and another with slide guitar.

the music is all over the place, just like me. i cover topics like working in silicon valley, relationships, careers, and growing up.

soon, the lyrics will be open sourced on Github and annotated on Genius.

shout out to CJ, Brian, Daniel, and of course Jason (producer) for help on keys, clarinet, drums, vocals, etc. this wouldn’t be possible without you guys. all pictures were taken by Barbie of Gaki Media.

and did i mention? the album will be free.

to download it later this month, share your email at the bottom of this post. (if you already get these blogs by email, you’re good).

for daily updates on my experiments in music, follow me on instagram or twitter.

The post ryan goes to the studio appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

last month i recorded a new album, South of Market.

we finished mixing it yesterday, and the tracks will be live on iTunes, Spotify, and perhaps most importantly, Tidal, on April 27.

this week my tour kicked off in Seattle, playing at Conor Byrne and Tim’s Tavern.

(shout out to the host Sheldon for making me sound like i know what i’m doing.)

it felt great to share my art with strangers.

maybe i can apply this experience to what i’m doing in 2 weeks: live-coding on stage in Brooklyn at the Growth Marketing Conference. is coding, art? idk.

here are a couple local artists i met and enjoyed listening to:

• Young Chhaylee (beachy vibe, smooth voice, he plays solo and w/ a band)
• Honey Mustard (guy/gal duo; complex guitar, sexy voice)

ryan’s tour dates

next up – Nashville!

The post Ryan goes on Tour appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

the first time i went to san francisco was november 7, 2013.

a few days before, my boss offered to send me to the growth hackers conference if i could find a cheap flight. this was my first industry event for my new career in tech, so i was ecstatic about the opportunity.

wandering outside SFO airport quickly reminded me of the west coast’s best quality — no humidity. i thought: this air is cool. i am cool. i should live here.

i got into a rental car from an awesome new startup, FlightCar (RIP).

then i drove North on the 101 towards San Francisco to crash at my future job’s office (didn’t know at the time).

the next day, i went to the conference. i met the head of marketing for Homejoy, a hot startup that graduated from Ycombinator, the darling incubator in the Valley.

when i asked about their (cleaning service) cheap $20 price, the guy said “we’re not worried about profit or margins right now. our CEO is telling us to just, like… grow grow grow!”

for the next couple years, this was my experience in technology.

1. build a relationship with an infectious founder
2. founder raises money
3. give up other dreams to help the founder realize theirs
4. everyone fails

but finally, things started to change.

i learned to code. i joined a venture capital fund. and because i couldn’t tame the idea, i moved to san francisco.

that’s when i started to experience real success.

i bought a company. i grew it. i built a team. then i decided san francisco sucks, and GTFO out of there.

back in nyc, things still weren’t 100% right. so i retired.

and today, i’m launching myself back into the world as a musician.

to listen to my new album, South of Market, stream it now on Spotify or iTunes. (it’s also live in other stores but i don’t think people listen to music on Amazon.)

here are a few other ways to support me:

• tweet about my new project (pre-populated)
• read my annotated lyrics on Genius (coming soon)
• pick up a signed, limited edition floppy disk album (go here)

oh, and i’d appreciate a Spotify follow. at 250 followers, i get a checkmark. ;)

here’s what’s next.

a) playing shows around the world
b) recording new singles every month or two
c) diving into industry conferences, meeting producers, etc

i’ll also be sharing everything i learn as a marketer/developer turned musician.

some upcoming posts for this blog and others:

• finding product-market fit as a songwriter
• musician’s guide to getting ROI from hyper local advertising
• hacking music networks to find new fans
• PR for indie musicians

thanks for reading listening,

ryan

The post Introducing South of Market appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

in tech they teach us about product market fit. at least, losers like Eric Ries who don’t create anything themselves like to talk about it.

the concept is you don’t have a real business until you can…

• identify your ideal customer profile
• predictably onboard them to your product/service
• make more money from them than it costs to acquire them

this is also true for musicians.

below is a 30 day recap since launching my acoustic-rock album, South of Market.

distribution

nobody cares about CDs anymore because nobody has a CD player.

nowadays, distribution is synonymous with streaming. i paid $11.99 for a year of streaming on all major platforms, then made some of it back with a referral link in this seo spam blog post.

in other words, worldwide music distribution in 2017 is free.

and once you rely on an internet connection to be heard, there are several ways streaming platforms can dictate your popularity, music notwithstanding.

for example, here’s what my Spotify page looked like on Day 1:

see those “< 1,000” markers?

what prospective, skeptical fan, who is probably only checking out your music because you emailed them about it, will feel better about the listening investment with stats like these?

it’s a double-edged sword, of course. with time, you get new stats…

this is by no means impressive, but being #18 led to more daily plays than #40, or where i started, #300. no change to my music, just a number on a chart.

lesson: what they say about your music is more important than the music itself.

merch

i love being creative. i enjoy blowing money to make a point and piss people off.

while writing this album i observed how the Hipster Thing is to print limited edition copies of your record on vinyl. t-shirts and pin-back buttons are out.

but since i’m not a Hipster™, and because i left a career in technology, i released my album on limited edition Floppy Discs instead.

explicit self-promotion is also not a Hipster Thing, so i only sold a few of these.

result: the experiment flopped (sorry i had to).

on the flip side, i now understand more about various compression strategies than most people, including the entire staff of HBO’s Silicon Valley.

lesson: nobody wants to buy your music. they want to pay for no commercials on Spotify and get your music for free.

market research

this is tough for artists.

if you have a new toy concept, for example, you can produce crude prototypes and pay parents to “loan” you their child’s attention span for a couple hours to play with them.

based on the kid’s reaction to your toy prototype, you can decide whether or not to manufacture a million more toys.

unfortunately, a song (or any piece of art) takes about the same effort to create whether you record it (manufacture) or not.

and the song’s frontend load — the feeling — will always matter more than the recording quality, no matter what they tell you in audio production school.

that said, i did collect quantitative and qualitative feedback for my album. here’s a snapshot of feedback i collected through Crowd Review:

“hit” songs score 9+, and i got a 7.4.

the named influences (mayer, bieber, jack johnson) are reasonable gestures by listeners without an ear for music, but a bummer to receive as an artist.

here’s more:

i’m glad people would listen again, and think the music is positive. regardless of how my style changes in the future, positivity and a replay factor are crucial.

now for qualitative feedback.

i sent this email to 12 people:

the key component was asking for specific feedback.

a simple “what do you think?” yields binary and shallow answers, e.g. “sounds like John Mayer” from the 100-listener survey above.

another aspect of this request was my permission to be critical.

i’ve found that most folks are wimps and refuse to criticize their friends for fear of repercussion. since i don’t have many friends, i had no problem establishing this table stake.

by explicitly stating my openness to critical feedback, i got what i really wanted.

below is a raw, unedited sample of exactly that:

“it sounds like it would be a B-side release from 2004. songwriting & production sound a little dated. i’m not saying people don’t still listen to that stuff, but it struck me as being very Plain White T’s, you know?

which would be fine if the world hadn’t had the Plain White T’s be a thing, but they were a thing, and we all moved on, and now we listen to trap and EDM and a whole bunch of other nonsense.

jason mraz still makes a living, but jason mraz came up during the time where people wanted to listen to that. i’m not sure people are clamoring for more plain white ts?

vocals need more processing across the board, they’re too raw for the style you’re going for. a teeny bit of the right reverb goes a long way. needs to be compressed and leveled but you mentioned this hasn’t been fully mixed so i won’t harp on that too much.

dynamics, dynamics, dynamics. a little lacking here. songs sort of start and end at the same energy level – this is partially a volume thing, but mostly an arrangement thing. it’s what turns “good” into “great.”

you’ve stuck to the building blocks of traditional songwriting structure really well. maybe too well. there was nothing in here that made me go, ‘holy shit that’s great’ or ‘holy shit that’s terrible.’

the question i really want you to answer for me, and for yourself, is: what is this music supposed to make me feel?”

if you want to see all of the qualitative feedback i received, go here.

but no matter how many resources you have for collecting and analyzing data about your art, you should think deeply about whether your creation lives up to your own expectations.

before reading any of the above feedback, i felt that:

• the genre feels 10 years old
• it’s not catchy enough
• lyrics are too personal
• doesn’t make you want to move

in the same way tech founders overvalue their code, many musicians presume their song is a “smash” or their beat is “fire.” and they’re usually wrong.

so my advice here is to only be satisfied with commercial art when your gut matches the gut of others.

it is at that intersection where you are probably closest to the truth.

and with this combination of outsiders’ feedback and my own, we agree: South of Market is not very good.

lesson: do better next time.

building a fanbase

a few months ago, when i knew i’d transition from tech to music, i launched groupies.

i thought, “when i become a musician, i’ll use this to text my fans and build real relationships!”

false.

i never logged into Groupies during the creation or release of this album.

however, i have been in touch with major record labels who want to use Groupies for their own artists.

so while it didn’t turn into a marketing channel for my own music, it could become a ‘funder’ of future ryan kulp music marketing channels.

here’s what i did do.

beyond streaming services like Spotify and iTunes, i made profiles on…

Reverb Nation

Fanburst

SoundCloud

…and even Sonicbids.

[img redacted, sonicbids sucks]

while these platforms have varied features and traction, what they all have in surplus is musicians and what they all lack in desperation is listeners.

for example, there are over 22,000 artists on Fanburst. but how many of them consume vs create?

let’s figure it out with common sense and a bit of code.

step 1 – learn what happens when you get a new follower

an hour after creating my profile on Fanburst, i got this email:

as an artist, this was a boost of satisfaction. “it’s working! i’m getting fans!”

as a marketer, i smelled bullshit. after all, i hadn’t uploaded any music, so there was nothing discoverable about my profile.

so i dug in to figure out who this “jeremy” guy is.

the usual suspects (angellist, crunchbase, etc) had nothing. there’s also no Team page on the website. then i checked out the Privacy Policy.

ok, so the company is actually called “Doublenote.” let’s google it.

crack open the first link, a Copyright infringement claim…

Bingo. jeremy is the founder of Fanburst. this was an auto follow.

step 2 – auto follow everyone

if Jeremy’s auto follow on my profile resulted in an email to my inbox, wouldn’t my follows to other profiles do the same thing?

let’s write some code.

View the code on Gist.

every profile on Fanburst is recognized on the frontend by its Primary Key ID. this is a no-no for social networks, because serialized object IDs == scraper’s dream.

what the above does, is imitates the “follow” and “unfollow” buttons being clicked, by passing in the user’s credentials with a token/cookie combination and an integer ID.

here’s the script in action:

results

i did this for a few days, following and unfollowing 650 users per day.

it worked.

then i did the same thing on Soundcloud…

View the code on Gist.

ok, you get it.

lesson: automation can kickstart a few hundred listeners, but it’s not sustainable.

getting press

if small hacks and 1 to 1 fan-building aren’t your thing, it makes sense for Other People to talk about you.

a few months ago while browsing Indie Hackers, i discovered SubmitHub. it’s a marketplace that connects artists with journalists who write about new music.

there’s a free option to send journalists your tracks, but you can also buy “credits” which guarantee a play + response.

i found a 10% off coupon, then bought 50 credits for $36.

by leaning on the feedback i received from the 12 beta listeners, i chose Americana and Indecisive as the 2 most-single-ish tracks on the album, and sent them to 11 and 7 bloggers, each.

while i spent 18 credits ($12.96 worth), 4 were refunded due to a non-response from the blogger.

result: 1 shoutout, which you can read here.

Reverb Nation also has a press-friendly featured called Opportunities, which is just $10 /month.

an opportunity is essentially a promotional email blast, like “free mastering” or “open for band XYZ in philadelphia.”

artists can apply for Opportunities with 1 click, so it’s a no brainer for musicians on the go. since i’m still running a growing company, the streamlined nature of Opportunities is perfect.

in ~33 days i submitted to 46 different opportunities.

result: 3 shoutouts, a 6.5% conversion rate.

• AVA Live Radio (played on live station + DJ mention)
• Five to Watch (sponsored by speaker company JBL, hosted on Breaking and Entering)
• Lady Lake Music (selected this week, awaiting publication)

Gab is a new social media platform that’s gotten a lot of attention and hate for being filled with conservatives. how dare our populace not bleed from thine own heart!

by engaging slightly with the platform, i picked up a decent following and started talking about my music.

result: 1 feature story.

it’s a long interview, but you can read it here.

that’s enough PR for me.

virality

it’s not exactly “remarkable” when a twentysomething white dude releases an album on acoustic guitar.

to combat this, i told a different story: Silicon Valley tech executive becomes a full-time musician.

as Godin says, All Marketers Are Liars Tell Stories.

this worked OK, and it’s not disingenuous. i really did leave a high paying, full-time job in San Francisco to pursue music.

but the story isn’t everything, you also need meat on the bones.

so i tried two things:

1. troll a public figure in the tech industry
2. create nostalgia

trolling

this is one of the things i do best.

my twitter reach in a 2 hour timespan, 2 nights ago. thanks haters pic.twitter.com/28iqjGha20

— ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) December 31, 2016

why not apply it to songwriting?

during a bourbon-ish conversation with my friend Alex, he said:

“A song will never get us to Mars… music as we know it is on the way out.”

after further thought, the second track on my album is called Elon Musk. the opening limerick?

“they said a song will never get you to Mars…”

while Elon isn’t exactly an easy guy to get in touch with, i did meet his ex-wife in Dallas, and his ex-cofounder Peter Thiel in Washington DC.

love hanging out with patriots.

A post shared by ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) on Jan 19, 2017 at 9:06pm PST

so i figured, how hard could it be?

.@elonmusk i'm a retired silicon valley tech exec. just switched careers to music. named a song after you. :) https://t.co/2Gj0MwPTLh

— ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) April 27, 2017

result: nothing.

nostalgia.

did you ever watch Mad Men? this scene, the Carousel pitch, is among the best.

to do something similar with the album, i covered the world-famous hit single, December 1963.

9,000 plays later, it got an OK response. the stats are nothing to brag about, but i do encourage you to listen since my friend CJ killed a rap interlude.

lesson: maybe next time.

performing

no musician would be taken seriously if they didn’t play live.

after launching my album, i played 3 shows in Seattle and Nashville.

the audience reception was positive, and a handful of folks came up to me afterwards with personal compliments.

result: zero new email subscribers or merch sales.

ryan’s tour dates

i’m playing a few more gigs this year, but am not holding my breath for ground-breaking outcomes.

community

while i’ve been busy in tech since 2012, my peers in the music industry have leveled up on all things promotion –> networking. or so i thought.

to catch up on the latest industry expertise, i started listening to the DIY Musician Podcast. i also subscribed to New Artist Model, a musician / business resource from prolific writer Dave Kusek.

if i had to summarize the music marketing landscape in a word, it’s weak.

top tier professionals at music industry conferences are still telling artists how to “get a twitter handle with their band name” and to “make sure your band name is available as a domain.”

if this advice was shared at a startup conference, you’d be laughed off stage. and if it needed to be shared at a startup conference, the founders in attendance would be laughed out of the building.

essentially, most musicians haven’t evolved to do more than their craft: music.

put another way, a quote from Tommy Darker’s footer: “A Musician Who Is Just A Musician Can Never Become A Good Musician.”

so, i’m considering launching a podcast where i interview full-time musicians about how they sell themselves. more on that later.

with 1,000 true fans in mind, i open sourced my lyrics:

i thought this would encourage startup folks to support a peer’s non-tech venture.

result: i never told anyone in tech about the album, much less the target geography — South of Market.

next, i annotated my album’s lyrics on Genius:

this was fun, and i’m glad i did it.

my lyrics are honest and personal, and friends / lurkers have enjoyed reading them. but, it didn’t exactly create a bump in my listenership.

advertising

prior to recording South of Market, i brainstormed a laundry list of ideas for promoting it.

some of these ideas were wacky ad concepts, like getting a billboard by the Caltrain stop at 4th / King Street. or cold-emailing sales teams free leads (CSV files) if they listened to the album.

after releasing + listening + collecting feedback, however, i decided against heavy investment.

what i did try, though, is Facebook ads through Reverb Nation.

as you can see above, they have a nifty WYSIWYG builder that removes the pain of graphic design from marketing.

here’s another ad this created, without any skills on my end:

because i was a new user to the Reverb Nation platform, i got around $40 in free clicks on these ads.

result: several streams, maybe 2-3 subscribers.

what’s next

i don’t listen to my own album anymore.

a day after releasing it, i picked up home recording gear for better demos and modern [synth] sounds. acoustic rock is dead.

hear you guys loud and clear. you want pop? brb. #starterkit #beatz

A post shared by ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) on Apr 28, 2017 at 4:12pm PDT

i also sat down with Cutting Room Studios, where i intend to record a few singles this summer. expect something soon, before your neighborhood pool gets the first poop scare.

next, i’ve been accepted into the Fall 2017 batch of Crē•8 Music Academy.

this is a ~5 week expansive music production curriculum that will help me write, record, and produce my music before i distribute it to the next wave of ryan kulp fans.

the courses are presented in partnership with Westlake Studios, a renowned recording studio in West Hollywood with clients that include everyone from Michael Jackson to The Chainsmokers.

summary

within 30 days of launching South of Market, i spent 10 hours promoting it.

this generated:

• 2,000 streams – original music
• 4 PR mentions
• 9,000 streams – cover song
• a few floppy disc sales
• several email subscribers
• a songwriting wakeup call

i’ve benefited tremendously from meditating on critical feedback, listening to new genres, and curating tools and resources to inspire my next release.

this blog post is the beginning and end of South of Market, but a new era awaits.

Los Angeles, i’ll see you in October.

The post finding music market fit appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

before diving in, some credibility:

i’ve sent over 500,000 cold emails.

from bespoke suits to trucking, air filters to keyless entry, i’ve emailed bloggers, scientists, moms, rock stars, doctors, lawyers, CTOs and secretaries.

to be honest, i’ve never met anyone who has sent more cold email than me.

show me the money

my cold email course course ranks Page 1 on Google… twice.

i’ve written case study after case study after case study after case study detailing my experiments in the science of “mass outreach to strangers.”

even the cold email generator — which ranks #1 and #2 on Google and kicked ass on Product Hunt — was built by yours truly.

wonder how i got started?

it was 4 years ago when i was poor and unemployed, living in Harlem.

armed with a spreadsheet and YAMM i sent my first-ever cold email campaign to potential freelance opportunities.

this 5x’d my income to over $200k /year in 90 days.

so yeah.

but why

entrepreneurs who asked me a year ago if cold email is an effective sales tactic, received a resounding yes.

indeed, Nigerian Princes are the grandfathers of cold email. obviously it works, it’s the longest running internet marketing campaign of all time.

so you don’t need me to demonstrate that. but the times, they are a-changin.’

below is an explanation, inspired by introspection, that reverses my former “yes it works!” knee-jerk approval to cold email.

i’m sharing this to help you, dear reader, understand why i (insert: any marketer) would quit doing something that works.

state of the modern consumer

AT&T ran the world’s first banner ad in 1994. the click-through rate? 44%.

twenty years later, the results are 27x less interesting:

yet… banner ads are better than ever before.

a few things we have today that were non-existent in 1994:

• auction-based pricing algorithms
• browser fingerprints
• pixels/cookies to identify people/demographics
• ip location targeting
• talented visual designers

so what’s going on?

consumers are becoming more sophisticated.

which is a byproduct of marketing that few talk about.

here’s the deal: channels work when they impress or delight a prospect, so much that the prospect becomes a customer.

this is the essence of every PR stunt, and digital marketers are trying to host mini PR stunts on the interwebz, 24/7.

but the paradigm of “marketing channels that work” is when adjacent businesses make the same discovery.

how quickly did AT&T’s competitors launch banner ads?

physics

when competitors use the same tactics, prospects feel overwhelmed with non-differentiated choices, and then nobody buys.

it’s the bar scene from A Beautiful Mind, illustrating John Nash’s theory of equilibrium:

equilibrium is a stable state in which no player can gain advantage through a unilateral change of strategy assuming the others do not change what they are doing.

a few women walk into the bar, their front-runner an attractive blond. as the guys strategize how to win her favor, John (played by Russell Crowe) remarks:

“If we all go for the blonde, we block each other and not a single one of us is going to get her. So then we go for her friends, but they will all give us the cold shoulder because nobody likes to be second choice. But what if no one goes to the blonde? We don’t get in each other’s way and we don’t insult the other girls. That’s the only way we win.”

counter-intuitively, competing businesses serve their selfishness better when they don’t encroach on each others’ effective marketing channels.

but don’t take my word for it, read 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Laws 3, 6, and 13.

each chip away at the concept of finding your niche, owning it, ignoring the urge to do “everything,” knowing when to buck vs ignore competitors, etc.

state of cold email

cold or warm, mass email outreach shares the downward trend in efficacy as digital advertising.

in the 90s we got an email (you’ve got mail!), in the 2000s we get 100s, maybe thousands of emails.

hell, VC-funded companies exist solely to help us unsubscribe from email.

when Gmail launched “Tabbed Inboxes” in 2013, marketers everywhere lost their mind. it was even dubbed an “apocalypse.”

(think that’s melodramatic? the headline is from Marketo, a leading marketing automation platform)

even Harvard Business Review chimed in to offer solace. their Ivy League advice? “craft emails your subscribers want to open…”

recipe for blah

combine the saturation of marketing channels like email with rising consumer intellect, and you’re left with a shitty sales machine.

even worse, though, is the negative impact these strategies have on your brand.

as an example, let’s check out my own company, Fomo.

pitch aside, Fomo is a marketing platform that helps websites increase their conversion rates. we do this by helping marketers leverage social proof.

with our target audience (ecommerce stores) in mind… does it make sense to send emails like this?

hey so-and-so,

we increase your conversion rates with social proof.

want to learn more?

or should we build things like this?

extremely proud of our new Customers page. thanks @dhh for the inspiration. https://t.co/eXHFCV44W4

— ryan kulp (@ryanckulp) May 26, 2017

by offering existing customers a public shoutout…

1. they write honest reviews
2. reviews are published on Capterra + our website
3. earned website traffic sees the reviews, converts more often
4. un-earned website traffic browses Capterra, where we rank by review count

so, Fomo grows by talking to customers, not strangers.

as for the brand implication, which better personifies our value prop — “increase your conversion rates” — the email, or the backlink?

fear

before taking this stance, i considered the following objections:

• ok Ryan, just because email doesn’t work for you, doesn’t mean it won’t work for me
• you know don’t what you’re talking about(!), all my business is from cold email and prospects appreciate it
• what you’re saying makes sense, but i don’t know what else i should be doing

here goes.

cold email can still work

buying drinks for girls used to work too, until date-rape was $5 /pill at the corner bodega.

cold email works for me

see above. then append: mass cold email is going extinct, and you’re a flat earther.

predictable sales requires that you are always figuring out the next channel. as Cuckerberg says, “we have to build the Facebook Killer or someone else will.”

what should i be doing

my past self would request you hire me but then i retired and now i’m not for sale.

in all seriousness, you should figure out how to flip the funnel to encourage prospects to find you, instead of the other way around.

future of mass marketing

i’d be remiss if i didn’t admit a few things:

• Fomo has sent a lot of cold email
• in the early periods, it was a primary growth driver (2-3 paid installs /day)
• cold email connected us with receptive strangers who otherwise may never have known we existed

the last point is the toughest to swallow.

because when a cold email prospect responds with something like, “i’ve been looking for a solution exactly like yours, where do i sign up?!” it’s a good feeling.

and it’s easy to justify a shitty sales machine for those moments.

the good news is, the alternative to achieving the same outcome is hidden in their reply:

“i’ve been looking…”

ergo, now Fomo does a bit of this:

…and it works.

in fact, one of our customers was looking for our competitor, but he found us instead.

i’ll let him tell the story.

does it get any better than this?

we paid ~$1.50 for his click, and simultaneously “stole” mind-share (and market share, and brand share…) from a Fomo competitor.

so no, the “mass” prefix on marketing campaigns isn’t going away anytime soon, nor do i want it to.

but, the lie of mass personalization in today’s common sales strategies is one consumers see through, and subsequently attribute to your brand image, leading to lower returns in the long term.

as a new business especially, you’re better off treating the “how will prospects know i exist?” concern as a sales qualification filter.

put another way, rather than filling up your funnel with so-so leads and then “nurturing” the best ones out at the bottom, why not fill your funnel with only the good leads, and close them all?

for more of my thoughts on this specifically, go here.

summary

i end all long blog posts with a summary.

today’s summary is for mass cold email marketers who aren’t willing to think deeply about how they communicate with their target audience, yet have the audacity to skim my blog post shouting “¡viva la scraping!” in self-righteous indignation.

sigh.

here’s my advice:

• solve a problem that actually exists
• be creative in flipping the funnel

i’ve never advocated Godin’s Permission Marketing. in today’s crowded world, sometimes we have to demand attention, then ask permission later.

but the context matters.

our email inboxes are decreasingly ripe for unwarranted sales pitches. our ability to filter, spam, partition and ignore information — even information that’s good for us(! see: dieting) — is becoming increasing powerful.

the next time you consider hitting “send” on a CSV file of victims, ask yourself:

• is this the only way i can add value to these prospects?
• is this the only way they’ll know i exist?
• if yes, is that a serious problem for my business?

as the saying goes, sales cures all.

but if the “cure” lands in a spam folder, you’re infected. game over.

The post i’m quitting cold email appeared first on Ryan Kulp.

five years ago i got my first job in tech. as my old boss says, “i didn’t even know how to spell HTML.”

i’ve since learned to code, built a bunch of stuff, and founded a successful startup.

among the most impactful steps in my transition from a generalist marketer to a full-stack developer was learning jargon to earn a programmer’s respect.

unfortunately, most developers are elitist (not cool in high school) and they enjoy the following:

• making non-technical people feel stupid
• convincing non-programmers “few humans are capable of coding”
• treating non-technical startup folks like imposters
• developersplaining why a feature request is impossible or stupid

(gee, i really hope this ranks #1 for “developer-splaining”)

here are a few examples…

sales

sales gal pitches a prospect, who says “i’ll sign up once you have support for multiple team members and permissions.”

developer says “we can’t do that because our tight 1:1 architecture would require a huge refactor for multi-tenancy. tell them to just share a password.”

business suffers.

marketing

marketing dude is executing a few campaigns simultaneously, and the bossman wants to know which one is working.

“if the developer adds XYZ tracking parameters, we’ll have proper attribution.”

developer says “Angular2, like all modern Javascript frameworks, assumes a single-page app architecture, so your cute Google Analytics pixel won’t fire on URL path changes.”

business suffers.

operations

chief operating officer (aka the 3rd co-founder who doesn’t have a real role) needs reports on everything from revenue to signups for ongoing strategy decisions.

developer says “i’m not giving you WRITE access to the database, you’ll delete everything and we don’t have a good backup procedure in place.”

business suffers.

software concepts

while the scenarios above are realistic, elitist developers will probably tell me via Twitter or email that they are contrived and “harmful” to the community.

but this post isn’t written for elitists, it’s written for you, the one wearing flip flops who still thinks coding is “hard.”

so without further ado, below are 11 terms and descriptions that will give you an edge in conversations with developers.

backend vs frontend

the frontend is what users see. a user could be your customer, or a colleague inside an admin panel.

don’t assume “backend” means “admin panel” and “frontend” means user-facing, or that “backend” means “logged in screens” and “frontend” means “logged out pages.”

for example, HTML / CSS are frontend-only languages. so, don’t tell a developer “we should add a new HTML button to the backend…”

client vs server

parallel to the example above, when web developers say “client” they usually mean a browser like Google Chrome. meanwhile the term “server” or more specifically “server-side” refers to things your application does on the backend.

suppose you visit google.com.

your client (Chrome) makes an HTTP request to Google’s servers, where a “router” handles requests, HTTP or otherwise.

Google’s backend then decides if your request to google.com is valid [+ allowed], and sends a response to the client (Chrome browser).

in this example, Google’s server sends back things like HTML/CSS which the client knows how to turn into a webpage.

so: clients make requests, servers receive + respond to requests. a server can also make a request to another server, but let’s not go there just yet…

request vs response

the request-response cycle is something all web developers think about daily.

think of requests and responses as emails for robots. they contain headers, a body, and some other data. and some of these details, much like email, are optional.

when a client or server makes a request to some other client or server, it generally expects a response.

pending the receiving backend’s interpretation of that request, it responds with its own headers, body, and some other data.

this response is then used by the requesting service (maybe: Chrome browser) to execute another behavior.

some of the most heated arguments between web developers are when they complain about response codes.

developer A: “i’m hitting your server but getting back 401 unauthorized!”
developer B: “just whitelisted your IP, should be good to go.”
developer A: “are you sure your changes hit staging? still getting 401s.”
developer B: “check your headers bro, make sure content-type is application/json.”

there are a handful of response codes, but generally a “200” or “2xx” (because they can be 201, 202, etc) means “success” and a “401/500” or “4xx/5xx” response means something didn’t work as expected.

so, as long as you keep it 200 while hanging out with developers (sorry, had to), you’re in the clear.

database vs software

a database, basically a spreadsheet that connects to other spreadsheets, is what gives software state, or a sense of knowledge about who is who on the website and what they’re allowed to do.

software connects to databases in a few ways, pending your application’s flavor.

for example, PHP apps often have raw SQL queries inside frontend views. crazy!

but modern frameworks (Django for Python, Rails for Ruby) follow design patterns that mostly restrict database interactions to the backend.

in the latter case, these connections between software and databases are handled by adapters and things called “ORMs,” or “object relational mapping” tools.

the ORM i use most is ActiveRecord, which has been adapted to Ruby on Rails.

instead of querying all my users like this…

View the code on Gist.

i can simply do this…

View the code on Gist.

not impressed?

how about figuring out which signups from the last week are named Ryan?

raw SQL:

View the code on Gist.

ActiveRecord ORM:

View the code on Gist.

key learning: don’t use terms like “app” and “database” interchangeably, because some elitist developers will decide you don’t understand technology.

articulate how your ideas affect the product you’re building, and at what application layer (software or database) this idea should be implemented.

objects vs types vs classes

while every programming language has its own jargon, there’s a lingua franca (arguably Javascript) that all web developers speak which lets them have productive conversations about engineering challenges.

objects

an object as an entity that stores things.

View the code on Gist.

above is an object assigned to the “person” variable. we could return “Bob” if we invoked person.name.

types

an object or entity’s “type” could be things like…

• string
• number
• array

and within “string” there are various representations, pending whether you’re in the context of a software or database layer,  like char() vs varchar(255).

heck, within a “number” there’s FixNum and Float and BigInt and many others. blah blah blah.

the array type is more interesting.

whenever you shove objects, strings, etc between brackets ( [ ] ), it’s usually called an array.

in our example above, the person object’s children property is an array of names, and each name is a string.

classes

again, every programming language is different. but sometimes a “type” (ie, array) inherits cool features (called “methods”) from a class with the same name.

for example, in Ruby there are arrays, just like other programming languages. but, in Ruby each array is an “instance” of the Array class.

and you can also define your own classes…

View the code on Gist.

similar to the Javascript object example above, this allows a developer to write:

p = Person.new("ryan", 27)

and then do things like…

p.name #=> "ryan"

… to retrieve the person’s name.

of course, objects can also store “verbs,” called “behaviors.”

for example, if we extend our Person class…

View the code on Gist.

we could now create a person with p = Person.new("jim", 15) and then invoke p.jump which would return “jumping!” inside our program.

key learning: objects store properties (attributes) and behaviors, and each attribute or behavior works with various classes and types to accomplish its logic.

what now

the ~dozen software concepts above should help marketers and sales people interact more efficiently with peer developers.

likewise, developers who recognize common mis-phrasings by non technical colleagues become better product people, which frankly has nothing to do with engineering.

if you’re non-technical, and found this post helpful, please let me know and i’ll continue exploring these topics.

if you’re technical, and have recommendations to improve the accuracy of this post, please let me know.

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