Marketing is Still an Art (and a Science)

Data-driven decision making has been the mantra of most good CEOs and CMOs over the better part of the last decade. They want all marketing decisions to be based on solid data that had previously not been available, but is today in high amounts. But, data can be deceiving. It may lead you in one direction, when in fact the right answer may be completely in the opposite direction. Allow me to explain with this marketing case study from my Restaurant Furniture Plus business.

Read the rest of the post in Entrepreneur, where I guest authored it this week.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

Red Rocket's Best Startups of 2019

Red Rocket gets introduced to hundreds of startups each year, in the normal course of doing business, or via our involvement with various startup groups or events.  We wanted to honor the best of these startups that we met in 2019, in Red Rocket's 8th Annual "Best Startups of the Year".  This list is not intended to be an all-encompassing best startups list, as there are many additional great startups that we are not personally exposed to each year.  And, this list is not intended to be only for businesses that launched in 2019, it is open to startups of any age, that they or their advisors had some personal interaction with us in the last 12 months.  The business simply needed to have a good idea, good team or good traction, that caught our attention.  Congrats to you all!!


THE BEST STARTUPS OF 2019 (in alphabetical order):

ABC Insights (President, Steve Beisser) - B2B financial benchmarking universities

Annex Tech Partners (CEO, Doug Speight) - B2B corporate divestiture service

Craft Brew Systems (CEO, Andrew Baker) - B2B small batch brew systems

Fytte (CEO, Adam Spisak) - B2C on-demand yoga app

How U Dish (CEO, Michael Gayed) - B2C restaurant food discovery app

Intake (CEO, Michael Bender) - B2B and B2C urine testing at home

Kelaca (CEO, Keith Langbo) - B2B talent advisory service

Keona Health (CEO, Oakkar Oakkar) - B2B call center phone system for healthcare

Luca & Danni (CEO, Fred Magnanimi) - B2C ecommerce jewelry brand

Momentum (CEO, Jessica Mitsch) - B2C technology coding school

Root Bioscience (CEO, Garrett Perdue) - B2B and B2C CBD manufacturer

Shortcut (CEO, John Meurer) - B2C and B2B haircuts on demand

Sock Fancy (CEO, Stefan Lewinger) - B2C customized socks ecommerce

TrueCare24 (CEO, Leo Popov) - B2C marketplace to find caregivers

Wellistic (CEO, Oz Merchant) - B2C to find and review doctors


And, don't forget to check out the 2012 winners, 2013 winners, 2014 winners, 2015 winners, 2016 winners, 2017 winners and 2018 winners, many of whom continue to be doing great things.


Congratulations to you all!!  Keep up the good work.


For future posts, please follow us at: @RedRocketVC

[VIDEO] George Deeb Discusses 'Driving Growth vs. Driving Profits--Which is Right for You?' on ASBN

I was recently interviewed by the Atlanta Small Business Network (ASBN), an online "television network" serving the small business community, about when it is best to drive growth vs. when it is best to drive profits for you business.  I thought this video turned out great, and I wanted to share it with all of you, to help you assess whether it is better for you to focus on your top line revenue (growth) or your bottom line (profits).  I hope you like!!

The embedded video player didn't give me the option to change the size of this video.  But, if you want to see a bigger version, simply click the expand size button in the player above, or feel free to watch it on the ASBN website.

Thanks again to Jim Fitzpatrick and the ASBN team for having me on the show.  I look forward to our next interview together.

For future posts, please follow me on Twitter at: @georgedeeb.

[PODCAST] George Deeb Shares Entrepreneurial Lessons with John Vuong

Red Rocket partner George Deeb was recently interviewed by John Vuong who publishes a podcast with entrepreneurial lessons for startups on this Local SEO Today website.  In this podcast, he features George, who discusses his journey and experiences in growing his businesses, including:

• Business mistakes
• Choosing investment options
• Pitching your business
• Importance of sales and marketing
• Strengths and weaknesses in business
• Importance of networking

Nice work, John.  We thought this turned out great.  Thanks for letting us share this with our readers.

If you have any problems listening to the podcast from this page, you can also listen to it on the Local SEO Today website.


For future posts, please follow us on Twitter:  @georgedeeb, @RedRocketVC, @LocalSEO_Search