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 […]
View PostHow COVID-19 Has Impacted the Sioux Falls Startup Community (and What’s Next)

At the beginning of the year, it looked like 2020 was going to be a big year for the Sioux Falls startup community. We had gotten into a groove of running 1 Million Cups weekly, doing monthly startup events for Startup Sioux Falls and Zeal, and were planning a couple of bigger events as well. […]
View PostCoping with Entrepreneurial Loneliness

For the last twelve years, I have largely worked in solitude in front of a computer screen. First as a remote employee and then later as a business owner, most of my workday as been spent at home or in a small office with minimal human contact during the day. Even today, there are at […]
View PostMarketBeat Named to Inc. 5000 “Hall of Fame”
Sioux Falls, SD, August 15, 2020 – Inc. Magazine has ranked MarketBeat No. 2296 on its 39th annual Inc. 5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the United States. 2020 marked the 5th year that MarketBeat has been included on the Inc. 5000 list, giving the company a coveted “Hall of Fame” […]
View PostHow We Created Custom Manhole Covers for the MarketBeat Office

Our new office space partially sits on an old loading dock, which includes manholes for drainage. The manhole covers that were in the space previously were cracked, beaten up and likely as old as the building itself. I asked the question, “What would it take to make some new manhole covers that have the MarketBeat […]
View PostMy Quarterly Update: Q3 2020

Over the last couple of months, I have had the opportunity to start wrapping up some long-term projects and “clear the plate” to make room for some new adventures in my life. Many people, including myself, have the bad habit of continuing to do things long after they have finished serving their purpose simply because […]
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