Startup Marketing Jobs: Marketing Manager, MineralTree

by Nathan W. Burke on September 20, 2013

Every now and then, I’ll post a job description here. This time it happens to be a job at MineralTree. I’m looking for someone to work with me to change the way small businesses make payments, and to revolutionize how banks market to their SMB customers. If you’re up to the challenge, let’s talk.

Marketing Manager, MineralTree

At MineralTree, we’re building software that changes the way small businesses pay their bills. MineralTree’s automated bill pay software helps business owners process, approve, and pay their bills online with a simple, secure, and mobile platform, giving them more time to focus on their business. Our employees solve problems that help our customers every day in a fun and fast-paced environment.

We are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts steps away from the Alewife T Station.

We’re looking for a creative Marketing Manager to join our small and tenacious marketing team. We’re a fast-paced startup, so if rolling up your sleeves, multitasking, and staying on top of multiple projects concurrently are what you look forward to in your work, we want to talk to you.

Roles & Responsibilities

  • Writing – You are able to communicate effortlessly in emails, expertly in blog posts, and it shows. You don’t have to know every technical detail of our product, but you do have to grasp the fundamental concepts and be able to convey that in words.
  • Prospecting – Admittedly not the most glamorous of marketing tasks, but one that is critically important. You’ll find new potential customers, and will be able to plow through a list, qualify prospects, and load them into our CRM.
  • Events and PR Coordination – We’re doing several events and PR campaigns in 2013-14, and coordinating everything takes time and effort. From printing the right product sheets and shipping USB drives to booking hotels and meeting with press, there are endless tasks to complete. You’ll be asked to help out with some of the meeting logistics, and you don’t mind nagging people to get things done.
  • Marketing Operations – You’re disciplined enough to get things done. You’re able to work through our marketing systems (Salesforce.com, Marketo, WordPress, etc.) to manage the entire lead cycle.
  • Social – Our social channels need care and feeding. You are able to stay on top of industry news, post updates to our Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook pages, and own the social channel.
  • Metrics – You will help to produce marketing metrics each week to show visitors, pipeline trends, ranked account acceleration, and other KPIs.
  • News – You’ll stay on top of news trends, and will share relevant items internally, and can turn news stories into blog posts and social announcements.

Requirements

Must Have:

  • Marketing Experience in a Company – 1-3 years experience in a marketing department.
  • Passion for Making an Impact – You want your work to make a difference.
  • You are Ultra-organized and Self Disciplined – The term fast-paced startup isn’t just a cliché in this case. You’ll be bombarded from every angle with tasks, but that’s no big deal to you. Water off a duck’s back. Spreadsheets are your best friend.
  • You are Eager to Learn – We have a great team and are always willing to share what we know to help you learn. This isn’t a punch-in, sit around for 8 hours, punch-out kind of a gig.

Nice To Have:

  • Marketing experience within a software company
  • Use and Understanding of Salesforce.com, WordPress It’s a plus if you know your way around a CRM, CMS, and have either used or understand the concept of a marketing automation product.
  • Design experience is a huge bonus. We’re always coming up with new ideas that need graphic work, and our designer is perpetually overbooked.

Please apply at jobs@mineraltree.com  (or email me personally at nathan dot burke at mineraltree.com)

 

{ 0 comments }

We’ve just posted three jobs on the MineralTree site, and we’re looking to fill three positions in our Cambridge, MA headquarters (in walking distance from the Alewife T Station). If you or anyone you know would be a great fit for these positions, please let me know at nathan dot burke at the name of the company I just mentioned dot com.

Account Manager

As an Account Manager, you are passionate, and seek a rewarding and challenging career opportunity in a fast growing company. Working in our sales organization, you will be responsible for driving customer success.

Responsibilities

  • Field general for named accounts, executing on strategic account plans, focused on ensuring successful sell-through growth within each account
  • Track, forecast and manage key account metrics
  • Assist with high severity requests or issue escalations as needed
  • Own central purview of bank-related communication and internal coordination within cross-functional teams

Requirements

  • Proven track record with 4+ years of sales or account management experience selling technology products into banks
  • Proficient ability to communicate, present, demo solutions, and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of the organization
  • BA/BS degree or equivalent
  • Live within a commutable distance to MineralTree’s Cambridge, MA offices (in the greater Boston area). In addition, some limited travel is required

Benefits and Compensation

  • Competitive salary in line with experience, excellent benefits including stock options

Principal SSO Engineer

As a Principal Software Engineer at MineralTree, you are passionate and seek a rewarding and challenging career opportunity in a fast growing company.  You will be responsible for the design and development of a Single-Sign-On (SSO) subsystem for a cutting edge online payment system and work in a fun environment where you can make a significant impact.

 Responsibilities:

  • Work with business and technical teams to analyze and convert business requirements into scalable, robust, and flexible designs
  • Design and develop reusable software components. Ensure that both design and implementation meets the company and industry standards and best practices.
  • Present technical design and approach to current and potential customers

Requirements

  • A proven track record of building and delivering maintainable and scalable software with experience writing multi-threaded applications
  • Extensive Java J2EE programming experience
  • Proficient in web application security, user authentication and authorization and performance tuning server-side components
  • Experienced with application integrations and messaging middleware

 Benefits and Compensation

  • Competitive salary in line with experience, excellent benefits including stock options

Senior Project Manager

As a Senior Project Manager, you are passionate, and are seeking a challenging and rewarding career opportunity in a fast growing company.  You will have the opportunity to work directly with our bank partners and their small and medium size business customers to drive their success with our products.

Responsibilities

  • Clearly and effectively communicate project scope to the partner
  • Develop and manage project plans, schedules, agreements and proposals to ensure timely completion of projects within budget
  • Perform and manage project research, analysis, documentation, design/development, testing, problem resolution, negotiations, training, status reporting, implementation, project closing and post-rollout review/audit, including all project deliverables
  • Develop and present project documentation and communication with all project stakeholders
  • Participate and lead project management process improvement and best practice assignments 

Required Skills and Experience

  • Proven track record with 5+ years experience with treasury, banking and payments products
  • Technically proficient with working knowledge of software development, software development life cycle, data center operations
  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Benefits and Compensation

  • Competitive salary in line with experience, excellent benefits including stock options

{ 0 comments }

I wanted to share a great Boston-area startup event on October 3rd where 100% of the proceeds go to a non-profit funding technology education in Mass public schools.

Boston TechJam: Boston’s Tech Block Party

On October 3rd, 2013, Boston-area companies, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, students and industry associations will come together for the inaugural Boston TechJam, a block party celebrating Boston’s tech industry leadership and status as a cradle of innovation. Billed as a showcase for 21st century business development and growth, Boston TechJam will connect students from our world-class higher learning institutions, entrepreneurs, business leaders, venture capitalists and incubators in a fun, supportive environment that celebrates everything about starting and building thriving businesses in the State of Massachusetts.

“I’m delighted to welcome Boston TechJam to District Hall in the Innovation District,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. “Events like these that bring area entrepreneurs together strengthen Boston’s vibrant tech and innovation economies by building social infrastructure and creating new partnerships.”

Located at and around District Hall in Boston’s “Innovation District” from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Boston TechJam invites the innovation community out to rub elbows, network in a whole new way, check out new startups and tech products, and develop new business relationships in a street party atmosphere unique to Boston. Boston TechJam will feature live music, local craft beer producers, food trucks and inspiring local artists to help make this first party one to remember.

The event will also feature a panel of leading Boston venture capitalists and experienced entrepreneurs in a “Shark Tank”-like event where startups and entrepreneurs are invited to test their company pitches and ideas and get exposed to potential investors.

{ 0 comments }

Startup Marketing is Art

by Nathan W. Burke on July 14, 2013

Startup marketing is art.

Really. I mean it.
Because what is the definition of art, really? That’s rhetorical. I’ve taken the liberty of looking that up.

art – Noun
1. The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination
2. Works produced by such skill and imagination

Now, we usually think of art as the product of painters, sculptors, photographers, and musicians, but I think that’s short sighted. If marketing is not art, I don’t know what is.

Marketing is the open-ended process with the end goal of creating demand for something. Think about that. The timeline is as such:

  1. Start with nothing – In the very beginning, there’s nothing but an idea. Someone comes up with an idea for a product that does not yet exist, and that’s where marketing’s job begins. Take that which does not exist, and turn it into something people want.
  2. Define what it is – From creating a name to coming up with a logo, you must then create the story that defines what it is you offer.
  3. Generate awareness – Put this idea into the world and let people know what it is.
  4. Create demand – Package the idea in a way that solves the problem of a defined set of identifiable people, and get them interested.
  5. Engage – Find ways to get in touch with the audience, with the end goal of getting them to try the product.
  6. Nurture – Keep in touch with your leads, keeping your product top of mind.
  7. Keep Customers Happy – After the sale (especially in a subscription business) ensure that customers stay customers. Additionally, make customers so happy that they become advocates and references.

By the way, that’s the oversimplification of the century. But if you look at every one of those areas, you’ll notice that there’s human creative skill and imagination in every step of the process.

Every blog post. Every case study. Each email and video. All are decisions that require creativity and imagination.

And that’s why we’re all getting together on Tuesday for our first startup marketing labs event. A group of creative people with an insanely difficult end goal will meet to trade stories, discuss challenges, and lean from each other.

The Boston-area B2B Startup Marketing Meetup is holding its July event on Tuesday, 7/16 at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge. The event is free, and more details are available on the meetup site

 

{ 0 comments }

After taking a month to get settled into my new position at MineralTree, it’s finally time for our next Boston-area B2B Startup Marketing Meetup!

On July 16th, we’ll be hosting the 1st Startup Marketing Labs at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge.

Our first Startup Marketing Labs event will have experts on hand from different areas of startup marketing, including branding, PR, inbound marketing, automation, and other interesting topics. Together, we’ll explore our marketing challenges and exchange advice on how others have tackled them successfully.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for topic areas or experts. More details to follow!

{ 0 comments }

My Last Day At CloudLock

by Nathan W. Burke on May 6, 2013

A little over four years ago, I went on an interview at a very early stage company in Waltham, MA called Aprigo. I remember thinking “these guys are super intense.” They were. And they are.

The challenge: create something out of nothing. Should be easy, right?

We were creating a product that was served from the cloud to help IT professional take control of their unstructured data (files). We then decided to create a version of the product for Google Apps, letting companies see how employees were sharing data in Google’s productivity suite. The thinking was that if a company was using Google Apps, they would still have files on-premise, so we’d give them “Aprigo NINJA for Google Docs” for free to help generate leads for the other product.

Then something funny happened. People wanted to buy the Google Apps version, and didn’t care about the other product.

The Pivot

Our CEO and founders made a decision: We’re going all in. 100% cloud. We were entertaining a name change, and since we were going to be offering security for data in the cloud, I came up with a name I really liked: CloudLock. It was a hard fight against candidates like Cloud Commander (the company’s founders all have a military background), but I think it’s a pretty good name.

Since then, we’ve been able to market and sell to the largest companies in the world that use Google Apps. In fact, we like to say “The largest Google Apps customers in the world trust CloudLock to secure their data.” That’s not just a tagline. It happens to be true.

The Decision

Four years is an awful long time in startup years. And while I continue to believe in the company’s success, it is time for me to move on. So after today, I’ll be taking a long, two-day vacation and will be joining Cambridge-based MineralTree on Thursday.

It’s a completely different market that will require a different set of strategies and tactics than what I’ve been doing here at CloudLock. And I’m ready for that.

Thank You

Though I hope to have thanked everyone individually at CloudLock before the end of the day today, I want to do it here, too. I’ve worked with incredible people at CloudLock and have learned a lot. I wish everyone continued success, and will be following the company closely as it becomes the #1 company people think of when they’re looking to keep information secure in the cloud.

{ 0 comments }

Our next Boston-Area B2B Startup Marketing Meetup will be held on Tuesday, April 23 at 6:00 PM at the Wistia offices in Somerville. More information:

Getting Personal with Video

Video is sexy, social and shareable. But that’s actually not why it’s such a powerful medium for business. Ezra Fishman will share how Wistia has used the personal side of video to drive their marketing efforts and build a rabid and loyal following.

And of course, pizza and beer will be provided.

Due to the size of the venue, we can only fit ~40 attendees, so there will be a cap on the number of registrants.

Note: Rather than having our 1st “Startup Marketing Labs” this month as planned, we’re going to wait until May, giving us more time to both find a large enough venue and spend more time planning and promoting the event. If you have suggestions for a venue that can comfortably fit ~80 attendees, please let me know.

{ 0 comments }

Cross posted on medium.

I don’t know why this touched a nerve today, but when I received yet another comment spam notification, I kind of blew up. The trigger:

The Goal of Comment Spam

For years, companies have hired “website promotion firms” to try to get their site ranked higher in search engines, and one tactic is to get as many inbound links as possible. As part of their ranking algorithm, search engines look to see how many sites link to a certain page and count links as “votes”. This is a vast oversimplification, but you get the picture: the more sites that link to your page, the more valuable that page seems to search engines.

And that’s where comment spam comes in. Companies will use software, scripting, and other brute force methods to send what appear to be comments from human beings, hoping that a blog or site author will publish said comment, along with a link to the commenter’s site. And since it’s easy and free to do, why not send the same comment to millions of blogs, hoping that at least some of them will fall for the hoax and publish a link back to a page? Just like email spam, it’s a numbers game.

Content Spam as a Larger Spam Strategy

Because setting up a web site and publishing hundreds of pages of keyword-laden pages is simple (if you don’t care about quality of writing), people will focus on a market, and will create content spam as bait, in the hopes that they will rise through the search engine rankings. The process:

Step One: Find a market that requires local services. In this case,  (I’m not going to use the term in text here, as these spam companies have a history of DDOSing anyone criticizing them). When you’re locked out of your house, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to do a search for   + {whatever city you’re in}. This makes a perfect market for spammers.

Step Two: Build a cheap, basic website that can be repeated over and over. Since this is a numbers game, spammers focus on repeatability rather than quality. The example in question:

Look generic enough? Good. Because we’re going to be using this a LOT.

Step Three: Build a few pages that are lousy with keywords. Don’t worry about creating sentences that make sense. Focus on what people are searching for as they’re watching the dog chew up the couch from the back porch. They don’t care about spelling mistakes, they care about getting back inside!

Step Four: Build hundreds of these sites, all linking to one another. Just change “Boston” to any other city you can think of:

Step Five: Sell your services. Go through the yellow pages and call your target with an exclusive offer. Explain that you’re already bringing in x leads a month, and they’re begging for your business. We’ll make you the exclusive {job} in {city}, and you’ll already have a website. We’ll feature your phone number exclusively on a site that’s getting ###,### unique visitors per month.

 Step Six: Repeat over and over.

Summary

Some will say that this way of doing business is simply taking advantage of the search engines, and is completely valid. Maybe.

But by spamming blogs and web sites using comment spam to lift these content farm sites to the top of search engine results, that’s not okay. That’s crossing the line. And a quick BBB check tells us that the company behind this spam empire is up to no good:

{ 0 comments }

April Fools Day Sites Graded

by Nathan W. Burke on April 1, 2013

Every year, companies post April Fools Day pranks ranging from weak to hilarious. Here’s a quick roundup for April Fools Day 2013:

Site: ThinkGeek.com
Prank: Batman Family Car Decal Set

My Take: I don’t understand why people put little stickers depicting their family on their cars in the first place…what message are they trying to send? So making fun of the people that put the “look at me, I have a family” stickers on, while simultaneously highlighting Batman’s tragic upbringing is always good for me.

Grade: A


Site: Hubspot.com
Prank: Google Glass-like Sunglasses that allow marketers to find qualified prospects wherever they go.

My Take: Really, really well done. Though it would be a nightmare to have marketers stop you in the grocery store to offer an ebook, I often wish I could have these powers. Great job.

Grade: A


Site: Contactually
Prank: Um, something about cats, I guess.

My Take: Taken over by cat sorcerers? Lowest common denominator. Weak.

Grade: F+


Site: YouTube
Prank:  YouTube is really to “select a winner” of best video. They’ve closed the site for submissions and will announce the winner in 10 7ears

My Take: I don’t love it, but it’s kind of clever.

Grade: B


Site: Google
Prank: Google Nose. Smelling is believing.

My Take: At first, I didn’t love it, but I’m into it now. I like Google’s ability to make fun of itself, and the imagery and actual integration of the prank into Google search is a real commitment.

Grade: A-


Site: Twitter
Prank: Announcement of the new service Twttr, where you cannot use vowels

My Take: Meh.

Grade: C

 

I’ll keep adding if I see any other good ones.

{ 0 comments }

One of the best tools we have at CloudLock is an audit report. It’s simple: we run our app on a customer’s domain, and produce a report with a security score, showing them which 3rd party apps are installed in their Google Apps domain. We’ve found it to be much more effective than simply giving them access to a free trial. (I’ll create a post on this later).

About 2 weeks ago, I had a thought: We’ve done audits for companies representing hundreds of thousands of end-users. Why not go through the audit data to see what we find?  Maybe we could even get some good coverage.

Journalists Love Numbers

If you were a writer for a top publication, what would you rather have?

  1. A story about an obscure new feature in an app
  2. An advertorial-style puff piece from a company
  3. Real data that proves a theory, and results in analysis of a new industry trend that hasn’t been covered

3, right?

There’s a constant stream of new feature pitches that every writer deletes. Unless you’re Google or Apple, a new feature isn’t likely to be interesting enough to cover. But if you’re able to provide real, no bullshit numbers and an analysis that supports a point of view….well then you have something.

Have A Story

But don’t just stop at the numbers. Having numbers without a story is the same as a story without proof: it’s a start, but not interesting enough. Our story starts with a simple point of view:

Google Apps provides an opportunity for enterprises to transform the way they deliver IT. The platform extensibility and rich ecosystem of 3rd party applications allow employees to work the way they live. Enterprises can accelerate and multiply the ROI of Google Apps by allowing their employees to adopt the web and mobile apps that make them most productive.

In other words:

When companies give employees the tools they want to do their jobs, they’ll be more efficient. When companies move to Google Apps, they’re allowing employees to use any number of 3rd party apps to accomplish their tasks. Deny them those tools, and they’ll find a workaround. They’ll use personal accounts and unsanctioned apps, therefore taking control of company data out of the hands of IT.

We parsed the data of over 109,000 employees, and looked at the top applications installed in enterprises using Google Apps. What did we find? The top 20 apps are used to get work done.

The Result

20 Most Popular Cloud-Based Apps Downloaded into Enterprises – Forbes

From the article:

A perusal of the leading third-party apps downloaded to enterprise Google domains yields an astounding array of productivity solutions now being downloaded from the cloud, ranging from collaboration platforms to electronic signature services to presentation software to project management tools. (In addition, three non-business apps slipped into the top 20 list.)

The list of top cloud apps within the Google realm was recently compiled by CloudLock, a cloud security vendor. The list is based on research on more than 100,000 Google Enterprise end users to see what apps are downloaded the most in a corporate domain. CloudLock says it aggregated this anonymous data from its customers using its recently launched Community Trust Rating platform. Most of the apps are accessed via Gmail, GDrive files, Google Docs, or Google Contacts.

The Takeaway

You won’t always have huge, newsworthy announcements that the media will jump at. But if you get creative and have a point of view, it’s amazing what you can do.

{ 0 comments }