(Note: Cross posted with ShiftMode.)

What happens when you take the best parts of a good old roadtrip and mash it up with one of Canada’s coolest startup conference? I wasn’t sure either but ThreeFortyNine Roadtrips is my best guess.

A group of local entrepreneurs kicked off a new event series called “Landing Page and Website Optimization” this week at 349. Not surprisingly, based on the title of the event series, we’re rolling up our sleeves and taking a hard look at actionable tips, tactics, and tools that we can implement to boost the money generating potential of our online ventures. After spending a couple of hours working and learning together the consensus answer to the question of “What if a simple test could double your revenue, is that something you might be interested in?” was heck yes!

The bulk of this past event was spent pouring over 3 case studies that demonstrated the impact that A/B testing can have on a companies bottom line. A/B testing couldn’t be more simple. You start by defining a conversion goal (e.g. clicking a “Signup Now” button) and then test whether the original version of your webpage (version A) or the new version of your webpage (version B) leads to a higher conversion rate. Though the methodology is simple it’s absolutely astonishing the improvements in conversion rate that can be achieved by making small changes to page elements like copy text, layouts, images and colours. We studied tests that led to improvements in conversion rate of 100%, 91%, and 190%. Amazing!

With images of the 3 original webpages in hand the attendees split into teams and brainstormed the page elements that they would test  if given the chance. They were also asked to guess what the changes were that led to the massive improvements in conversion rate. They all did a great job at brainstorming variables that should be tested. But it became abundantly clear upon the reveal of the actual case study results that instincts just aren’t enough. Don’t get me wrong, landing page and website optimization instincts that are honed are very powerful. They are fundamental to putting a website on the right path. But it’s absolutely indisputable that one must test, test, and test some more in order to reach the goal of achieving maximum results.

Have you heard the one about the company that blindly followed the path of the HiPPO? I’ll spare you the sad tale. Let’s just say that those that joined us at the inaugural “Landing Page and Website Optimization” event now know more than ever that taking a data driven approach to improving your conversion rate is the only way to go. Unless the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO) is to test, test, and test some more your business must simply be afraid of reaching it’s true potential.

While this first session was a bit of a feeling out process, a touch of “attendee discovery” if you will, it’s clear we’re hungry for more. If you’re reading this and your answer to the title question was heck yes too, then you obviously want more. Don’t hesitate to join us at our next event and join the group on Linkedin!

Why are we doing this? Pitching isn’t a skill that’s only required if you’re raising investment. You need to pitch when you’re trying to hire, getting coworkers to help you with a project, or getting that perdy girl to talk to you. What we’re doing in this event is getting hand’s on practice with a required business/life skill.

Pitching is also a great way to quickly find the real value points in your offering. Given unlimited time, your pitch can bloat and focus on the wrong things. A real example? We just built an initial sales site for a new roadtrip project we’re running. It’s good but does it pitch itself well? A great first step to refactoring this site? Grab a few folks who know this project and ask them to pitch it to strangers in 2 minutes. Listen closely to what they pitch, take notes like mad. Now go refactor the pitch on that site based on what you just learned.

Where am I going with this particular rant? We’re going to test out a new event here based on this. We’ll form into pairs. Your partner has 10 minutes to prepare to pitch YOUR project to the room. They have 2 minutes to pitch. Then you have 10 minutes to prepare to pitch your partners project.

You still get a chance to practice pitching. The real meat is the insight you gain by watching your partner pitch your project. Did the room love their pitch? If so why? Did they make up something that’s not in your current offering? Did they leave out mentioning something you typically focus on? Those revelations of “I never mention that” and “you didn’t even tell them about” are so valuable in refining your own pitch.

If you’re interesting in coming to our events, join us for one or we still have room in our founder’s club.

“Coudal felt the big player in the field, Moleskine, was ripe for taking down. “I was not buying the bullshit from Moleskine about the Picasso notebook that’s made in China,” he says. “And I personally needed a notebook I could carry with me. And I liked the aesthetic of them, the sort of 1930s and 40s mid-American agricultural design, the Futura typeface, the fact that we are only sourcing materials from the United States.”

I immediately bought a sample pack and have been hooked on their paper and pens since. I love their films and their marketing in general. While we’re clearly not a retail store here at 349, we almost all rely on paper and pen in our meetings and we like good products. I reached out to Field Notes about selling their products here, both to our members and the public. They responded with…

“After checking out your website and what you guys are all about, we’d love to have you sell Field Notes!”

So we now have Field Notes for sale here in Guelph. Our pricing matches what’s on their website and currently we have pens, pencils, Steno Books, and a variety of 3 packs including Red Blooded, Neon Summer Camp and original. Stop by for a coffee and some paper!

This could be a single sentence blog post – feedback is massively important.  End of story.  But there’s a little more to it than that.  I work closely with a business partner (my dad) and a couple of other colleagues, and I have for years.  After a while, you start to know what they will say given any circumstance or business decision.  Although you must always weigh your partner’s feedback and opinion on a given situation, it may lose a bit of clout due to this familiarity, and this seems like a natural, and unfortunate, progression.

In comes the third party voice.  I think everyone knows that sometimes you need to reach out beyond your immediate business circle to get some advice and clarity.  More often than not, they will confirm your previous assessment or decision, but this feedback is invaluable to moving forward with your decision.  You may have been stuck on a point, or you may have devalued a certain element over time, and the third party feedback can realign you with your goal and help you to make the right business decision.

I am a ‘founding member‘ of the 349 events group.  I work from home and every day I make business decisions.  Usually, I have to make them independently of feedback, and this has probably cost me a lot of time and money.  But more recently, I have gained access to this great circle of entrepreneurial minded people here in Guelph, and when I need some feedback on a major decision that can have lasting repercussions, it’s great to know that I can look beyond my immediate circle for input and guidance.  What is the value of having access to a group of objective, intelligent, business minded people for third party feedback?  Massive.  At the customer discovery session, there were four other 349 members present.  They offered their time and insight generously when I asked for advice regarding a new venture.  The feedback I received directly influenced a major decision regarding the fundamental web presence of the business.  This is massive.

To clarify, DCG proper is not changing. All we’re doing here at ThreeFortyNine is hosting a smaller, more intimate event inspired by the early days of DemoCamps. We’ve renamed these new events to just “Demo”. We’re hosting the first one April 4th. We’ll have room for about a dozen people. Register to join us for it!

What does Banana Tax, Mailman Boots, and Fire Extinguisher Guitar have in common? They were all pitched last night at ThreeFortyNine as real businesses. A bunch of us got together and played a version of Dave McClure’s half baked last night and it worked.

If you can craft a compelling pitch in 10 minutes for something called Banana Tax, imagine what you can pull off for something you’re passionate about? Here’s how we worked it.

1. We all wrote some random words on pieces of paper.
2. We formed into partners and drew two random words for each team.
3. We then had 10 minutes to brainstorm the first pitch.
4. One partner then pitched to everyone. You have 2 minutes.
5. Once each team had pitched once, we all gave feedback on the pitches.
6. We broke into teams again for 10 minutes to brainstorm the second partners pitch, incorporating the feedback.
7. Your partner then pitches.
8. More feedback, done.

This was our first time running this event and IMHO it was great. The feedback in the room was massively valuable and we just don’t get enough chance to actually practice pitching day to day.

I’d love to hear what others who attended thought. Please comment below if you were there.

ThreeFortyNine is hosting two Half Baked events in March

• March 14 at 8 pm – Register to attend
• March 28 at 8 pm – Register to attend

If you’re able to come, please register now.

If you’re able to make it, please sign up so we have an idea of numbers. As well, we’re cover the costs of the food, please bring a non-perishable food donation.

We want to host an event that’s like speed dating for staffing your project. By project think more hack than formal company. The target audience is people with fun side projects they’re working on and people looking to get involved in projects. If you’ve been to a DemoCampGuelph, this is like taking the announcement portion and making an event around it.

These details are fictional just to illustrate what we’re thinking….

We’ll have 5 spots for people to pitch their project. You can either pitch your project or pitch your skills that are looking for a project. You are not pitching in order to get feedback, you’re pitching to find co-conspirators. Each pitch spot is 3 minutes. The goal of the event is to ‘staff’ these cool projects by connecting people together who will help make it happen.

Some made up pitch examples…

“I want to make an app that hooks in the google map api and freshbooks api to allow you to steal money from people based on the location you’re at. I have a working prototype but can’t figure out the google api. I’m looking for someone to write that code. I’m working on this Wed nights for 3 hours at this point. Ideally someone can work with me for those 3 hours each week until we get through the prototype.”

“I don’t have a project but I want to help with one. I’m a graphic designer primarily but I can write a bit of content as well. I’ve dabbled with html and some php.”

After the ‘pitches’, the rest of the night is social. Hopefully the person or project you’re looking for is in the room or someone in the room can connect you what you need. What do you think?? An event we need here in Guelph? Would you be interested?