San Francisco Oy - The Startup Agency
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We help your startup reach #1
position in its category through
effective marketing communications.
Our mission
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If your media budget is close to zero, your starting
point is similar to 95% of the other startups.
But your product doesn’t sell itself. And marketing communications does not by
itself sell it either. However, it can greatly amplify success of an awesome product.
Your job is to develop the product together with your customers. And sell more.
Then share the awesomeness to others: early adopters, influencers, media.
If your team lacks the knowledge, time or resources to do so, we can help.
Startups have a common problem
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Marketing in different stages of the startup lifecycle
Marketing & GTM plan
Initial website
Sales material
Visual identity
Core messages
PR & advertising
Funding: Valmistelurahoitus, Kasvuvalmennus
Pivot planning
Message re-positioning
Test marketing & analysis
Full-scale online marketing
Content creation
Conversion optimization
Extending marketing to exit
markets (often the U.S.)
Listing potential acquirers
Boosted PR & advertising
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Make an impact, become a thought leader
Early-adopters
& influencers
Media, bloggers
& analysts
Investors
New
employees
1. Understand your
customers/market
2. Create value prop and
messages - Brand
3. Produce great content
like success stories
4. Engage with the
audience using lean
methods such as
search & social
5. Convert interest to fans
and customers
Your tightly
defined market
or community
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Strategy Brand Audiences Content Reach Search Social Performance
Positioning Story Influencers Messages PR Keywords Twitter
Lead
generation
Planning Visual Customers Blogging Email Tactics LinkedIn Automation
Resourcing Website Investors
Press
releases
Events AdWords Facebook Analytics
Research Profiles Employees Brochures Ads SEO
Industry
forums
Reporting
One-stop shop for marketing services
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Performance & analytics
Startups can and should
measure the ROI from all
their marketing activities.
We provide our clients a
monthly performance
report and a board
summary that combines
all activities such as
search, social, web
leads, PR, email, etc.
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A. Company A has recently raised its A-round and the board requires strategic marketing communications plan as well as active PR,
content, search and social media marketing. Instead of hiring a marketing team run by a CMO, the company hires SF for initial
marketing planning project, and after a successful project, to run their whole marketing function outsourced.
B. Company B already has couple of people doing content marketing, but the team lacks knowledge in SEM, SEO and international
tactics, and hires SF to work closely with the internal team, bringing more knowledge in-house.
C. Angel-funded company C is looking to attract investors in a hot industry sector – the founders basically know what should be done in
marketing, but rather focus on customer development and fundraising. Working closely with the founding team, SF helps to attract
press, influencers, investors and new employees with PR and social media tactics.
D. Having developed a great product with good market fit, but not able to scale its sales, company D is looking to ramp up its industry
awareness, eyeing for an asset sale exit. Focusing on engaging with industry influencers though social media, events and PR in the
U.S. market, SF coordinates campaigns with local PR agency and creates an effective event and social media marketing plan.
Case examples (skip this if in a hurry)
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Let’s roll up sleeves and get to work
Can you get us
to international
media like
TechCrunch.
We need a
marketing plan for
Tekes/investors.
We are looking
to raise series A
and need to
shape up.
Our Google
advertising doesn’t
convert and our
website sucks.
We don’t have time to
Tweet. Should we be
on social media at all.
We want someone
to take care of all
our marketing.
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Team
I’m Juhani Polkko, Founder & CMO of San Francisco Oy
I currently share an office in Töölö, Helsinki, with my colleagues Ali (marketing
planner) and Lauri (Visual and UI designer). My co-founder Mikko is building his
own startup in California and is our main link to Silicon Valley.
Personally I have close to 20 years experience in sales, marketing and business
development, and I have focused on startups and digital businesses since 2004. I
have experienced big companies (Nokia), made my first own exit (Offerium to
Sanoma) and helped numerous of startups and entrepreneurs on their journey.
Besides the core team, we have had over 30 different people, mostly freelancers
and experts in their own field, working with our client projects over the past years.
My promise to you is simple: Me and my team provide you the best value for any
services you get, improve constantly and take full responsibility personally.
MBA, Aalto University
1994-2003 IT, games
2004-2006 Silicon Valley
2008-2009 Nokia
2009 - San Francisco Oy
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References
Our client since 2009, the Swedish mobile advertising & analytics company found its niche in click-to-
call ad units and has grown its client base from 3 to 15 countries. Freespee’s marketing was nearly
entirely handled by us for 3 years, helping to build international awareness and lead generation in a
strategic way. During our tenure, Freespee also raised €4.4 million in venture capital funding.
Miradore’s IT lifecycle management plays a key role in the IT service management business, which is in
middle of turmoil due to the switch from legacy client/server world to cloud-based services. We have
made a complete makeover for the company brand, including a new visual identity, website, search and
social strategy, content marketing including videos – and we continue to handle day-to-day marketing.
One of the most acclaimed Finnish digital media startups, Kiosked aims to become a truly global player
in digital media monetization. Together with Kiosked’s internal team and a London-based PR agency, we
have created a communications concept around a new category of visual content experience. Our team
contributes to content marketing (e.g. super popular trend report), SEM, SEO and social media curation.
LeadDesk is up for a daring task: Make telemarketing fair and better for everyone. The company’s
software solution has gained market share in leaps and bounds, taking its revenue to 7-figures and
nailing a 3rd place in Deloitte’s Rising Stars listing. To prepare for international expansion, we built a new
WordPress website, renewed search marketing tactics, and conducted a successful PR campaign.
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We believe that startup PR works best, when the founders/CEO reach out to the press and bloggers. We help
by training, creating media lists, making introductions, drafting pitches and press releases, as well as supporting
through social media activities.
Getting to international startup media is relatively easy and often helps with recruiting and funding. Articles in
industry media usually support sales the best, but require building long-term relationships with the writers as well
as hard evidence on the company success through brand-name customers, success stories and cases.
Press coverage from our PR activities
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• 100% focus on internationalizing startups and their unique needs
• Experienced with funding options – angel, VC, public, sweat equity
• Planning, implementation & all agency services from one place
• Agile and lean approach to marketing - constant improvement
• Long-term partnership: Outsourcing, insourcing, co-working
• Marketing performance reporting - summary for the Board
Your benefits working with us
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Any questions? Contact me today!
Juhani Polkko
Founder & Chief Marketing Officer
+358 40 543 0825
juhani@sanfrancisco.fi
San Francisco Oy
Runeberginkatu 43 B 13
FI-00100 Helsinki
Business ID 2296311-5
www.sanfrancisco.fi
www.startup100.net
The hottest startups from Finland