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As a partner and head of operations, Lizzie leads the Propulsion team that helps propel our founders’ businesses forward. She was previously the COO of sneaker marketplace GOAT Group, CMO of Gilt Groupe, and founding partner of Brilliant Ventures.

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As M13's community program coordinator, Samantha aligns with M13’s commitment to creating an inclusive community through authentic experience, dedication to innovation, and creativity. Samantha was previously the development associate for outreach and programming at Rockefeller University.

Samantha Hughes

Operator

As M13's community program coordinator, Samantha aligns with M13’s commitment to creating an inclusive community.

M13SharePeople-SEO image Samantha Hughes

Samantha Hughes | M13

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As M13's brand project specialist, Generra brings her experience in operational excellence and community building from her previous time at The Knowledge House, a tech non-profit. Prior to that, Generra led project management, from enrollment and ops to data management, for Newark Public Schools. 

Generra Rodriguez

As M13's brand project specialist, Generra brings her experience in operational excellence and community building from her previous time at The Knowledge House, a tech non-profit. 

M13SharePeople-SEO image Generra Rodriguez

Generra Rodriguez | M13

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Erik is M13's accountant and has a vast background working in tech companies and the applications used in accordance with GAAP for reporting. Erik was previously an accountant at Glamsquad and Stella Connect, which was acquired by NYSE listed Medallia in 2020, which gave Erik the opportunity to oversee the finance integrations of the two companies. 

Erik Grant

Erik is M13's accountant and has a vast background working in tech companies and the applications used in accordance with GAAP for reporting.

M13SharePeople-SEO image Erik Grant

Erik Grant | M13

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Feven was an investment analyst for KingsCrowd while simultaneously receiving a certificate from Cornell’s Women and Entrepreneurship program, where she focused on the start-up ecosystem for minority groups.

Feven Solomon

Investor

Feven was an investment analyst for KingsCrowd while simultaneously receiving a certificate from Cornell’s Women and Entrepreneurship program, where she focused on the start-up...

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Feven Solomon | M13

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As a member of the investor relations team, Talitha has worked with the team to build the IR systems at M13 from the ground up. She was previously the quality control and administrative assistant for the accounting and assurance department of Lindsay & Brownell, LLP.

Talitha Wright

As a member of the investor relations team, Talitha has worked with the team to build the IR systems at M13 from the ground up. She was previously the quality control and...

M13SharePeople-TalithiaWright

Talitha Wright | M13

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Sarah was previously the VP of marketing and investor relations at Arlon Group and has served in IR roles at StepStone Group and Citi Private Equity. She is a public company board member, co-founded the Sustainability Investment Leadership Council, and has served on numerous non-profit boards.

Sarah Tomolonius

Sarah was previously the VP of marketing and investor relations at Arlon Group and has served in IR roles at StepStone Group and Citi Private Equity. She is a public company...

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Sarah Tomolonius | M13

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A people operations analyst, Rita was previously the owner and operator of Street Beatz Dance Company. Prior to that, she held the roles of internal annuity specialist and registered client associate at Merrill Lynch.

Rita Serrano

A people operations analyst, Rita was previously the owner and operator of Street Beatz Dance Company. Prior to that, she held the roles of internal annuity specialist and...

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Rita Serrano | M13

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Morgan spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She worked on a presidential campaign, at Bloomberg Philanthropies and consulted for start-ups in the political media space.

Morgan Blumberg

Morgan spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She worked on a presidential campaign, at Bloomberg Philanthropies and consulted for start-ups in the political...

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Morgan Blumberg | M13

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Latif manages the overall investing strategy for the firm and has led numerous deals across money and health verticals with a large focus on web3. He was previously the managing director at Virgin Group where he led investing in the Americas including investments in Ring (acq. by AMZN), Slack (NYSE: WORK), Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE), and Virgin Orbit (NASDAQ: VORB).

Latif Peracha

Partner

As M13’s general partner, Latif manages the investing strategy for the firm and has led numerous deals across money, health, and web3 verticals. He was previously a managing...

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Latif Peracha | M13

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As a principal at M13, Karim leads investments across the firm’s future of money and work themes. Karim was a GTM leader at four fintech companies including Remitly (IPO’d in 2021), Carta, CommonBond and Yodlee (IPO’d in 2014). Prior to joining M13, Karim personally invested in Carta, Auth0, GitLab, Chipper Cash, and Doorvest.

Karim Bhalwani

As a principal at M13, Karim leads investments across the firm’s future of money and work themes. Karim was a GTM leader at four fintech companies including Remitly...

M13SharePeople-KarimBhalwani

Karim Bhalwani | M13

Lizzie Francis

Adam Domian

Customer acquisition, as the name implies, is the process of gaining new consumers. It involves identifying, finding, and ultimately persuading people to hand over their hard-earned money in exchange for your product or service. The customer acquisition strategy you develop and the tactics you employ should be measurable, repeatable, and scalable. 
There are specific activities, resources, and dollars you will commit to bring in new customers. However, there’s an entirely separate set of activities, resources, and dollars you must budget to keep your customers coming back and buying more from you. Some of the tactics you use to acquire and retain customers overlap, but these activities are distinct enough that we’ve covered [customer retention in a separate guide](https://m13.co/guide/how-to-drive-customer-acquisition-with-paid-owned-earned-media). 
To efficiently gain new customers, here’s why your business needs a thoughtful strategy for customer acquisition:
<DotBullet highlight="Content generation is expensive." text="In the last five years, the cost of acquiring new customers has increased by over 50%. It’s very easy to waste money if your strategy is not well-thought-out and tested."/>
<DotBullet highlight="Finding the “right” cost to acquire a customer is a combination of market research and hypothesis-driven experiments." text="Your goal is to find the channels, message, or creative that can yield high-quality customers at the lowest possible cost to your business."/>
In this guide, we’ll cover the basics of customer acquisition:
<NumberedBullet number="1" highlight="Analyzing the customer journey"/>
<NumberedBullet number="2" highlight="Measuring the success of your customer acquisition strategy"/>
<NumberedBullet number="3" highlight="Leveraging paid, owned & earned media"/>
<NumberedBullet number="4" highlight="Embracing the customer acquisition ecosystem"/>
<NumberedBullet number="5" highlight="7 inspiring case studies"/>
<NumberedBullet number="6" highlight="Resources we love"/>
<NumberedBullet number="7" highlight="Takeaways & next steps"/>

Measure, repeat, and scale your customer acquisition strategy with these tips and tools.

NOVI, M13's astronaut mascot, is illustrated thinking about how to acquire customers, visually represented by a cloud of different social media logos and work tools. 

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How to Drive Customer Acquisition with Paid, Owned & Earned Media

Use M13’s customer acquisition guide to learn why startup founders should leverage paid, owned, and earned media to acquire customers.

Driving Customer Acquisition with Paid, Owned & Earned Media | M13

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Lindsey was M13’s brand manager for three years before joining OPTE, an M13 portfolio company, as its director of community. She previously founded Marlowe Media.


Lindsey Marlowe

As a partner and head of operations, Lizzie leads the Propulsion team that helps propel our founders’ businesses forward. She was previously the COO of sneaker marketplace GOAT...

M13SharePeople-LizzieFrancis

Lizzie Francis | M13

On April 7, M13 partners hosted virtual office hours to discuss pressing challenges facing startup leaders today. As former founders and operators, we’ve successfully navigated periods of economic downturn and wanted to share strategic approaches to finance, talent, data, digital marketing, and more. 
Our Partner and Head of Operations [Lizzie Francis](https://m13.co/team-members/lizzie-francis/) shared best practices on marketing, customer acquisition, and fostering meaningful brand experiences during crises. Read Lizzie’s insights, and watch her office hours below. 
## Founders are experiencing a number of marketing and customer acquisition challenges. How do you balance an offense vs. defense strategy in this climate?
CPMs are going down as advertisers withdraw and consumers spend more time online. Unfortunately, you can’t control these macro impacts to consumer behaviors, but you can focus on your customer experience and evaluate your acquisition and conversion funnels. Determine the areas that you can positively impact and that could improve your metrics throughout your funnels. 
If your customers are like me, they’re tracking every single package because they care more than ever about when things will arrive. So think about your shipping fees, customer service hours, your return and refund policies these are a few of the things you can absolutely control and have the ability to truly drive demand in this uncertain climate. 
If you are at scale, invest some of your margin into those things. Look at leading indicators on your paid acquisition. Understand if your hypotheses on your tests are actually coming to fruition. Most startups are thinking about these things on a day-to-day basis right now, but I would recommend mapping out your strategy over the next few weeks. Make sure your test plans are nimble, particularly with regards to the areas of your business that you can control. 
## Should you be testing right now? How should you think about your test budget?
Under normal circumstances, at least 30% of your marketing dollars should be allocated towards innovating, ideating, testing, and thinking aggressively about how to surpass what you’ve already done. In an economic downturn, that percentage may change. It could be as low as 10% or as high as 40%; it really depends on your business. I would still encourage brands to ruthlessly test. Look at leading indicators. You may not be at statistical significance or however you’ve defined statistical significance for your organization at this point, but you really need to look at those leading indicators and then quickly kill tests or experiments that aren’t working. 
## How should founders prioritize what to test?
Invest in tactics that drive sales and revenue at the top of the funnel. Invest in your existing customers; they will help drive recurring revenue if you invest in tactics that further encourage their loyalty. 
This is an unknown time for all of us. Those of us who experienced the 2008 recession remember the incredible arbitrage opportunities that arose and the great partnerships that came together as people collided in the marketplace. I think we can expect to see similar opportunities unfold now. I recommend that you stay on top of what’s coming up in your pipeline and network and understand what you should be testing. 
Because you’re going to be ruthlessly prioritizing, you need to be particularly sharp with your hypotheses. As you run these experiments, make sure that you are clear what you’re testing and think about what will truly drive revenue or learnings for your business that can then be doubled down on over time. 
## How do you double down on existing ["super users"](https://www.m13.co/using-data-to-inform-key-business-decisions-during-crises/)? What have you seen work in terms of doubling down on these highly valuable customers?
After spending money acquiring customers, it's real important to create a plan to keep them loyal and engaged. Allstate and American Family Insurance announced [they're refunding 15% of premiums](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/06/business/allstate-payments-coronavirus/index.html) paid by their customers in April and May. This isn’t to drive new business; this is to reward policy holders and keep customer satisfaction high as they look at the macro environment. This is a great example of something all businesses can think about doing, even if it’s on a much smaller scale.
<PullQuote author="Lizzie Francis" text="Call your customers. There’s never been a better time to have that two-way dialogue to keep them loyal and engaged. Create that bespoke experience that so many consumers need during this time." />
‍Connecting with your customers in meaningful ways and creating a bespoke experience for them is so critical to driving your revenue over the next few weeks and months. Especially right now, customers enjoy having dialogue and feeling connected with brands they love. 
<YoutubeVideo
video="https://youtu.be/1LHkCnCHDFQ"/>

Adapt your strategy with nimble tests, investing in existing customers, and more.

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Marketing and Customer Acquisition During Economic Downturn

From nimble testing to investing in existing customers, rethink your startup’s marketing strategy in an economic downturn with these best practices from M13. 

Marketing and Customer Acquisition During Economic Downturn | M13

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When it comes to brand marketing these days, is it table stakes for startups to work with influencers? At M13’s recent [Future Perfect: Influence event](https://m13.co/future-perfect-why-the-impact-of-influence-matters/"Future Perfect: Influence event"), I posed this question to two experts on influencer marketing: 
- Brian Lee, co-founder of The [Honest Company](https://www.honest.com/), [LegalZoom](https://www.legalzoom.com/country/in), and [ShoeDazzle](https://www.shoedazzle.com/)
- Jeff Stibel, co-founder of [Bryant Stibel](https://www.bryantstibel.com/) and [Stibel & Company](https://www.stibel.com/) 
Brian and Jeff are Los Angeles legends who have contributed to building some of today’s most iconic brands as both founders, operators, and investors. Like us, they believe that connecting with your customers comes from staying true to your brand value proposition and aligning that with influencers and champions who can authentically represent and support emerging brands. 
From sharing their best advice on leveraging influencer to discussing the influential and critical role of founders, check out the highlights from our conversation below. 
## What’s your approach to successfully leveraging influencers?
__Jeff:__ “For me, it's all about trying to create an organic experience. So knowing and understanding your customers, knowing what they want and what they need and trying to fit the product to that, and then match your messaging in a very organic and authentic way, which sometimes involves influencers because psychologically, they can be very powerful if authentic. Sometimes not. For me, I do not use influencers very often. So it's sparing both in the businesses that I have run but also with businesses that we invest in. When we do it, it's because there's a certain amount of authenticity. Their effort, time, and experience carries the day. And the fact that they're influential is coincidental.” 
__Brian:__ “It really is about authenticity and building that natural relationship with the consumer. When we talk about partnering with a celebrity or influencer, that really has to relate to the end consumer. And you can't have the end consumer think twice about it. If the end consumer has to make an additional step or an additional connection to connect that influencer to whatever service or product that they're representing, then you've already lost.” 
## How can a brand develop an authentic relationship with an influencer?
__Brian:__ “At the time we started The Honest Company [with actress Jessica Alba], most of her followers were not young moms. We had to really build that following with her to attract more and more modern moms. We did by reaching out to bloggers and having a lot of influencer events. By the time we launched, we had a tremendous following these moms who understood her story, which resonated with them quite naturally.” 
## So are influencers necessary for a startup?
__Jeff:__ “Every startup has a pre-packaged influencer attached to it from Day One, and that's the entrepreneur. As the entrepreneur, you should be the best person to convince your customers, your employees, your investors that they want and need and have to have whatever it is you're selling … The reality is if you feel like you need an influencer, there's nothing authentic about that. If you see a fit with someone who happens to be influential, then you should go after that individual as a partner. Otherwise, be your own influencer. It’s the best way to learn about your market, learn about your customers, learn why people want or don't want your product. Do that before you bring an influencer.
<PullQuote author="Jeff Stibel" text="I'd actually argue that table stakes is not having an influencer. If you have to constantly question early on whether you're selling something because an influencer is hawking it or because it actually provides a real service and real value to someone, you're ultimately going to do your business a disservice." />
## What’s a great example of an authentic company partnership with an influencer?
__Brian:__ “One that really sticks out to me is Goop. What Gwyneth Paltrow has done with Goop is quite amazing. She has built her preferences (what she loves and likes) into this company that exists not just for her brands but for other brands that she’s attaching to it in very organic ways. I think Goop is here to stay.” 
<YoutubeVideo video="https://youtu.be/flpVhBHShlM"/> 
At the end of the day, authenticity matters. As a startup founder, remember to listen to your intuition, and wield influence as an effective tool. When you discover a tipping point of what clicks with the consumer, double down on it when it happens because it can provide some tremendous insights, momentum, and opportunities for brand building and creating connection with your customers. 
To catch up on more of [M13’s Future Perfect: Influence series](https://m13.co/future-perfect-why-the-impact-of-influence-matters/) on everything from the [creator economy](https://m13.co/future-perfect-paris-hilton-and-elizabeth-stark-crypto-and-the-creator/) to social impact, check out the full [video replay](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zY20YdW9dk).

Finding the right influencer for your brand is all about authenticity—and knowing your role as a founder.

Brian Lee and Jeff Stibel: Influencer Marketing Secrets

Brian Lee and Jeff Stibel: Influencer Marketing Secrets for Startups

At M13’s Future Perfect: Influence event, Brian Lee and Jeff Stibel share their best advice on successful influencer marketing, the role of the founder, and more.

Lizzie Francis

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How to Drive Customer Acquisition with Paid, Owned & Earned Media

Marketing and Customer Acquisition During Economic Downturn

Brian Lee and Jeff Stibel: Influencer Marketing Secrets for Startups

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