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I love getting this type of insight from someone that was there during such an important time for Mint. A couple of questions: Authority. We got thought leade

by rubeng 16y ago

I love getting this type of insight from someone that was there during such an important time for Mint. A couple of questions: Authority. We got thought leaders in personal finance to back us. Can you give one or two examples of how you guys accomplished this? Dave had a the killer idea of the content network (blog) which was a HUGE traffic generator and still is to this day. Do you mean the Mint blog or were there others? If others, how many of them?

noahkagan 16y ago
Luckily, I was writing in personal finance for a few years before I joined Mint so I knew most of them. Some of them included Ramit at http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com, Cap from http://stopbuyingcrap.com http://stopbuyingcrap.com and Jim at http://bargaineering.com http://bargaineering.com to name a few. We just went and interviewed the guys above or asked thme for guest posts. You have to think how to serve their interests (traffic / exposure / relationships with a potentially cool company). Yea, the Mint blog.
- rubeng 16y ago
  We just went and interviewed the guys above or asked thme for guest posts. You have to think how to serve their interests (traffic / exposure / relationships with a potentially cool company). That totally makes sense. But if this is early in Mint's history then what's the benefit for them? I'm assuming it's not traffic or exposure since they already have it, right? This is a situation that applies to a lot of startups. What do they have to offer early on?
  - noahkagan 16y ago
    Everyone will do an interview. They want the links and possibly free traffic for minimal work. It did help that I personally knew them. Once you get interviewed, you are pretty likely to promote it if it's a good reference. The issue is most people approach it with generic template emails and crappy questions.

by rubeng 16y ago

noahkagan 16y ago

Luckily, I was writing in personal finance for a few years before I joined Mint so I knew most of them. Some of them included Ramit at http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com, Cap from http://stopbuyingcrap.com http://stopbuyingcrap.com and Jim at http://bargaineering.com http://bargaineering.com to name a few. We just went and interviewed the guys above or asked thme for guest posts. You have to think how to serve their interests (traffic / exposure / relationships with a potentially cool company). Yea, the Mint blog.

rubeng 16y ago
We just went and interviewed the guys above or asked thme for guest posts. You have to think how to serve their interests (traffic / exposure / relationships with a potentially cool company). That totally makes sense. But if this is early in Mint's history then what's the benefit for them? I'm assuming it's not traffic or exposure since they already have it, right? This is a situation that applies to a lot of startups. What do they have to offer early on?
- noahkagan 16y ago
  Everyone will do an interview. They want the links and possibly free traffic for minimal work. It did help that I personally knew them. Once you get interviewed, you are pretty likely to promote it if it's a good reference. The issue is most people approach it with generic template emails and crappy questions.