With the total train wreck that 2020 was behind us, there is a lot of reason for optimism in the air. More and more people are getting the COVID vaccine every day. Business has been good at MarketBeat and the Sioux Falls economy seems well despite the pandemic. Karine and I find great joy in […]
View PostIntroducing the MarketBeat Burger (Yes, we made a cheeseburger!)

It was the morning of November 2nd. Some of MarketBeat’s team members were working at our downtown office, getting ready for that week’s staff meeting. Just as our meeting was about to start, a curious email came in from Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. (DTSF). Here’s what the email said: The time has come to start […]
View PostAnnouncing the Paulson Center at Dakota State University

When I was a student at Dakota State University, I paid close attention to the emails that were sent to all students. A lot of the emails were noise from student activities I was not interested in, but every now and then great opportunities were presented that any ambitious student could take advantage of. It […]
View PostThe Two Million Dollar Ideas that Propelled MarketBeat’s Growth and Success.

The setting is Thanksgiving of 2010. Karine and I were engaged at the time and were planning a wedding the following summer. We spent the long weekend at her parents’ farm outside of Emery, South Dakota. The weekend was marked by energetic nieces and nephews, board games, walks on country roads and German chocolate pie. […]
View PostMy 2020 Reading List

With 2020 mercifully coming to a close, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the non-fiction books that I have read this year. With two small children in our home, there is not a lot of uninterrupted free time to focus on a book. Consequently, most of my reading has […]
View PostHow MarketBeat Maintains 21% Open Rates While Sending 1 Billion Emails Per Year

A couple of weeks back, I was doing some routine monitoring of MarketBeat’s email engagement metrics and saw an interesting number appear on our dashboard: It turns out that MarketBeat has sent more than one billion emails in 2020 to our 1.75 million email subscribers with an average open rate of 21%. Any spammer can […]
View PostHow I Plan to Evaluate Charitable Giving Requests Moving Forward.

There are more than 500 registered non-profits that have 501(c)3 status in the greater Sioux Falls area, each with their own mission, vision, values, staff, and board of directors. Some non-profits operate on state or federal contracts or through grant programs, but most small non-profits rely primarily on charitable contributions from individual donors. One consequence […]
View PostFive Growth Strategies that MarketBeat Leveraged to Increase Revenue by 75% in 2020.

2020 has been a year of growth for MarketBeat. Our email list has grown by more than 500,000 subscribers since the first of the year. We brought on two additional employees. We just crossed $10 million in revenue for the year and expect to see 75% year-over-year growth for the year. While we did see […]
View PostWhy Most People Shouldn’t Try to Build a Mobile App

Every now and then I receive an email from someone that is looking for advice about building a mobile app for their business or non-profit. These conversations usually start along the lines of, “Hey, I have a great idea for an app. Who do I talk to?” or “Do you know any good app developers?” […]
View PostMy Quarterly Update: Q4 2020

As I write this post, COVID-19 numbers are spiking across the Midwestern states and there are more active cases now than at any point during the pandemic. While COVID-19 numbers do not look great in South Dakota currently, there does still seem to be a sense that things are slowly returning to normal. Micah and […]
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