SUBCOM: How to Get Your First 1000 Subscribers (and a few reasons you shouldn't)

This is an extension of a talk I gave earlier this year at MamaBear Conference put on by 500 Startups. I've been mean to expand on this for a while. This is the exhaustive version of that talk as I continue to get a few emails every week from ambitious (and a little crazy) entrepreneurs who are trying to launch their first subscription based business.Before we get started though let's talk about a few reasons why you shouldn't.Simply put, there was and continues to be too many subcom businesses. Thanks to the straight forward model and day 1 revenue a lot of people rushed into the space. Unfortunately that means that VCs were also inundated with pitches for this model. So they have a noticeable amount of fatigue around the model. Many of them affectionately call these businesses "shit in a box" so that should give you some idea of their level of interest today. So if you can't build your business without, or are dependent on large funding events to grow ($20M plus), forget about it. You won't get the money.If you're still crazy enough to try here are the basic milestones most investors expect for this type of business.

  1. You have 1000 active subscribers within the first 30 days and 10,000 subscribers within 12 months.
  2. You have the ability to buy customers at low to no cost.
  3. You have (or cas.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/dockers-free-pants.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="307" />

    A Super Bowl commercial from Dockers pants is offering free pants. Learn more at http://dockers.com/freepantsDockers: Wear the Pants2010 Super Bowl Commercials

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