Archive: Interviews

Editors note: Alex is running a half day workshop on “kick ass online marketing techniques” at the Future of Web Apps Miami on February 24th. Find out more.

In this installment of “5 questions for…” we ask Alex Hunter his thoughts on branding, the UK and European startup scene and ways of engaging with your customers in real life. He rounds off the interview with 3 online marketing techniques you can’t afford to ignore.

You have spoken before about the importance of branding for online companies. For many branding appears to be an afterthought. Where in the development process do you think it should be addressed?

Simple answer: ASAP. The sooner you lay down your core values and then feed that into your brand development, the better. Why? Because your values will define who you are and more importantly who you will be, now and in 10 years when I’m looking at you on the cover of BusinessWeek.

Set them early, set them well. And remember, that exercise cannot be successfully performed by one member of the team – it has to be tackled by as many members of the team as possible to effectively incorporate and reflect the DNA of the business.

Some of the hottest web startups in 2009 have clearly thought long and hard about their brand right out of the gate – it’s not just a tick/check in the box anymore, it’s a fundamental requirement for success. (more…)

Last year at The Future of Web Apps (FOWA) London we invited Paul Boag, host of Boagworld and author of the Website Owners Manual, along to conduct a series of interviews with speakers from the event. Over the next few weeks we will be publishing some of these here on the blog.

First up is Kevin Rose. Following on from his FOWA keynote “9 Ways to Take Your Site from One to One Million Users” Paul and his co-host Paul Stanton asked Kevin a few questions on community, user testing and advisory roles.

This interview lasts for 19 minutes.

Read the full transcript by Simon Hamp.

I’m interviewing three amazing folks for our FOWA Bytes Series, in the run up to FOWA London on October 1st and 2nd.

First off, I’ll be interviewing Gary Vaynerchuk live tonight (Wednesday August 5th). Please comment below, with the questions you’d like me to ask Gary.

The interview is at the following times …

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