Danielle Morrill was still reeling from her startup’s failure when a new idea fell into her lap: data-based predictions about startups to help VCs make smart investment decisions. Within a matter of days, Morrill had a prototype ready and had already started acquiring users. At Hustle Con, Morrill will explain the exact processes she used to get her early clients and build Mattermark into the go-to data site for investors.

1. Prototyping
Mattermark
Danielle Morrill
CO-FOUNDER + CEO, MATTERMARK
How we landed our
first customers

2. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
How I got to Mattermark
Dropped out
of college
Joined logistics shipping
company
‘03-’04
Seattle 2.0
Contributor
Created Seattle
Startup Index
Moved to SF
1st employee at Twilio
Head of Marketing
Shutdown Referly
Not in love with
affiliate marketing
2009 2009 2012
Quit Twilio
Joined YC &
started Referly
Feb. 2013
NOW WHAT!?
“TechCrunch-killer”?
March 2013

3. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
“If you’re shutting down Referly
why not start over with something
completely different? If you want
to kill TechCrunch, then do that.”
Paul Graham, Y Combinator

4. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
Idea
Could a “TechCrunch-killer” media
business get traction?

5. 30 “tech media” posts in 30 days
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
WHY?
• Validate that we could grow an
audience
90 POSTS LATER…
• Hundreds of newsletter subscribers
• 135,000+ monthly pageviews in 2
months

6. Detecting startup buzz wins
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
THE DATA-DRIVEN POSTS STOOD OUT
• Startup Rankings Index
• “Zombie VCs”
CREATED BUZZ IN STARTUP
INDUSTRY
“Thanks Danielle! We should
do this ourselves :-)”
- Marc Andreessen

7. People wanted our data!
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
• Published our spreadsheet research
• Readers accessed data behind form –
generated dozens of leads

8. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
Lightbulb moment!
Finding and analyzing data is hard.
OUR PROBLEM
Let’s build an online database to make
it easier!
SO…

9. Cursive v1
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
• We compiled all our spreadsheets into a database
• Wired it up to a super-simple javascript table plugin

10. Productizing our data process
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
ANDY SPARKS (COO)
• Manually collected raw
data
• Identified pain-points in
process
KEVIN MORRILL (CTO)
• Turned raw data into
online database
• Automated Andy’s painful
process

11. June 1, 2013: The moment of clarity
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
Leena Rao’s post on TechCrunch described data-
driven investing…
We coded furiously for 48 hours to productize what
we built

12. 48 hours later, Mattermark launched (free)
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
Investors wanted to
access our data…
So we rebranded &
launched
Mattermark.com in
June 2013

13. June 4, 2013: We were on TechCrunch
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill

14. Free access = Valuable insight
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
Investment funds signed up and gave us
game-changing feedback

15. Free access = Valuable insight
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill
Led to $50,000 contract to build
new functionality, proved
valuable for future customers
ROY BAHAT

16. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
Off to the races signing up VCs!
Over the next 3 weeks, we talked to
everyone on Sand Hill Road
Show VCs what we made and teach them how to use it
THE GOAL
Hundreds of pages of notes with feedback
RESULT

17. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
Armed with validation from customer
development…
JULY 2013
Launched
Mattermark
Pro at $499/
month

18. @DanielleMorrill #hustlecon
Money in the bank!
We made $4,491 in the first month!

19. 3 years later
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill

20. $3+ million ARR & over 600 customers
#hustlecon@DanielleMorrill

21. Mattermark.co
Danielle Morrill
CO-FOUNDER + CEO
#hustlecon
@Mattermark
@DanielleMorrill