Making Uncommon Knowledge Common: The Strategies of Rich Barton and Casey Winters

Making Uncommon Knowledge Common: The Strategies of Rich Barton and Casey Winters

In the world of consumer tech, there are a few names that stand out for their repeated success. One such individual is Rich Barton, the founder of Expedia, Zillow, and Glassdoor. Each of these companies has achieved a valuation of over a billion dollars, making Barton a strong contender for the title of best consumer tech founder.

However, the consumer tech sector remains somewhat of a mystery. While some of Barton's techniques are commonly understood, his core strategy for success is not. Barton's playbook involves building Data Content Loops to disintermediate incumbents and dominate search. By creating unique content and indexing an industry online, his companies are able to bootstrap their demand and create a network effect.

One of the key aspects of Barton's strategy is his commitment to empowering consumers. Instead of hoarding information, his companies provide data transparency to users, giving them more control and knowledge. By making information public, Barton's companies have been able to create a network effect, where the more people use and trust their platforms, the more companies must take them seriously.

Another common thread in Barton's companies is their reliance on search as an acquisition channel. By dominating search results, his companies are able to drive significant demand at a low cost. This gives them a major advantage over competitors who rely primarily on paid acquisition. The ultimate goal of Barton's companies is to own the demand side of their respective industries, creating a compounding loop of trust and brand reputation.

Moving on to another successful entrepreneur, Casey Winters, the former growth leader at Pinterest, has also shared valuable insights into his strategies. Unlike other social platforms, Pinterest is more of a personal tool than a social one. People use Pinterest to connect with things to do and buy, rather than connecting with others. Winters found this to be an exciting opportunity, as the revenue model of Pinterest aligns perfectly with the product engagement.

Winters emphasizes the importance of focusing on core mission metrics. For Pinterest, the key metric is the "Save" action, as it signals that a user has found something they're interested in. This metric also provides valuable insights into growth and content quality on the platform. By aligning metrics with the mission, companies can better understand if they are fulfilling their goals.

When it comes to retention, Winters believes in measuring actions within their natural time period. In the early stages of a startup, targeting the normal frequency of a behavior is crucial. However, in the long term, it's important to try and increase that frequency to drive growth. Winters also advises against getting stuck in a rut and only testing one variable at a time. Sometimes, divergent experiments that test a completely new experience can lead to significant growth wins.

Winters also highlights the importance of learning from failed experiments. Understanding why something doesn't work is just as valuable as finding what does work. He shares an example of an email experiment at Pinterest that actually resulted in more unsubscribes than app downloads. This helped the team realize that sending emails with relevant content, matching why people joined Pinterest in the first place, was more effective in increasing activation.

In terms of SEO, Winters encourages businesses to question every best practice and experiment with different approaches. He shares how Pinterest ran SEO experiments with surprising results, challenging industry norms. By understanding the algorithm and building products that work for both users and search engines, companies can maximize their potential in this channel.

In conclusion, both Rich Barton and Casey Winters have demonstrated unique strategies for success in the consumer tech industry. Barton's focus on creating public common knowledge and dominating search has allowed his companies to achieve significant demand at a low cost. Winters, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of aligning metrics with core missions, experimenting with new approaches, and constantly learning from failures.

Actionable Advice:

1. Embrace transparency and empower consumers by providing them with valuable information and data transparency.
2. Dominate search results by focusing on SEO and creating unique content that will drive significant demand at a low cost.
3. Align metrics with the core mission of your business and experiment with divergent approaches to drive growth.

By incorporating these strategies into your own business, you can increase your chances of achieving success in the competitive consumer tech industry.