Great post. Pre-Square, every taxi I was in complained about taking your credit card. Now, every taxi driver happily pulls out their Square to take your credit card. Ridiculously seamless. Plus, people at farmer's markets, etc. can easily sell more because they don't just have to take cash. Square also pushed big players like PayPal into the market to create poorer/more clunky products that just shed to light the possibilities and are helping market their market.
Granted, this is a high-level breakdown of the virality of LinkedIn Endorsements, but still somewhat interesting. Would be much better if there was actual data showing the virality and engagement on LinkedIn, but no dice.
Some people love this feature and some people hate this feature. I think both work well with LinkedIn in that all people talk about it and some people use it a bunch. I don't really see a ton of value in that it's just a +1 for certain skills, so easily manipulated versus a written recommendation they offer, but if well-respected endorse you, that can definitely help. Thoughts?
Any reason why you're anti-growth hacking? There are lots of great blogs and posts (check out Andy Johns on Quora) how extremely successful startups have blended marketing and engineering to drive revenue/signup/traffic/(target metric).
We use Experian's Knowledge-Based Authentication, which is similar to what ben1040 mentioned above. It is based on your name, address, and sometimes your SSN.
Yeah, there are quite a few notable startups and a strong community that is growing very quickly. Just had Startup Weekend in Orange County with another planned for March and one in LA in January.
I'm down in Orange County so I'm more involved in the community here with startups such as Mavenlink, Catchfree, and Drumbi. If you're going through LA, I strongly suggest stopping by Coloft.
If you have more questions or anything, let me know.
https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/468891756982185985