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Praying to the God of Valuation

Both Sides of the Table

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. What happened? People were building.

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8 Keys To Maximizing Your Confidence and Self-Esteem

Startup Professionals Musings

As a mentor, I’m regularly frustrated by people who try to cover their lack of confidence with ego and arrogance , rather than working on the base issue. Some of us are proud to be technologists, while others love marketing or team building. It allows you to change and learn as the market evolves, and your business needs change.

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Reflections on 2020: Brian Mac Mahon, Expert Dojo

socalTECH

Previously we had to bring companies from all around the world to our 8 week accelerator program in Santa Monica and we were restricted by having to use local investors, trainers and mentors to keep our startups occupied. This is my 4th market upset and in the first three I was defensive. Find opportunity in chaos.

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6 Ways To Improve Your Odds Of New Business Success

Startup Professionals Musings

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. Pivot early, as required, to tune your features and marketing to meet the market and technical realities.

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6 Ways To Get From Linear Thinking To Real Innovation

Startup Professionals Musings

Every entrepreneur and every business I meet in my consulting and mentoring role has great intentions of bringing real innovation to the market, yet I find that most ideas are merely small extensions to existing solutions. Inventors are always talking about what they can do with technology, before sizing the need and the market.

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6 Ways To Turn Business Adversity Into a Step Forward

Startup Professionals Musings

Rather than get angry and upset, fall back to your initial process for evaluating markets, customer needs, and financial implications. Seek input from the team, as well as mentors. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice from peers, your advisory board, and outside experts and mentors.

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8 Unpublicized Strategies From Serious Entrepreneurs

Startup Professionals Musings

But privately, as a mentor to many entrepreneurs, I see mindsets and attributes that may be equally critical to success, but are not readily admitted, for fear of being too wacky. While others like to minimize risks of all sorts, and bend an existing market, real success comes from defining a new market and new customers.