Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 12, 2022

The same goes for business deals that fail during acquisitions or when it is time for you to retire. Back in the early days of the personal computer, Bill Gates and Microsoft were widely recognized and having the strongest technical culture, as well as a commanding marketing presence. Make sure they have the tools to support them.

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Technical Review Social Media Entrepreneur Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2017

If you are proposing a merger or acquisition, or simply seeking an investor for your business, the process is the same. This may seem intuitively obvious, but as an angel investor, I have heard hundreds of new business pitches that focus heavily on the product, but don’t tell the rest of the story. Temper your emotion with data.

Social Media 58

Social Media Coach Invest Media 58

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

For example, if you have ever watched the Shark Tank show on TV, they always ask about the cost of customer acquisition. Pitch a rational plan for expansion and growth. You need to have quantifiable objectives, with measurements, to keep you on the path to success. Show that you have to ability to move the ball forward.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

He actually had pitched me on this several years ago, when I was in a middle of another project. Girish pitched me on the idea for Thrively, and I loved the idea. Jon Kraft: We just launched our public beta, and essentially what we''re doing now is lots of testing of different customer acquisition channels.

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Help Idealab Activity Startup 252

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 15, 2019

Skyler Lucci is co-founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based HeyTutor (www.heytutor.com), a startup which has created an online platform which connects and matches students with in-person tutors. In this industry, customer acquisition costs are super high. Customer acquisition costs can be as much as $200 an hour.

Startup 113

Startup Venture Capital Beverly Hills Acquisition 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2016

Here are eight key points that I believe should be taken from the show by every startup founder looking for investors in real life, across the range of venture capitalists, angel investors, or even friends and family: You will be judged first as a person, then by your idea. Personalize your presentation, if possible, for every investor.

Startup 57

Startup Entrepreneur Sample Ideas 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2020

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly.

Startup 148

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 148

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 18, 2015

Founded a series of successful startups resulting in IPOs and acquisitions. Was the VP of Technology at eHarmony where he built personality-matching technology. Join us at REACH NeXT and Apply To Pitch or buy tickets if you’d like to attend and see some of the most brilliant & pioneering minds in tech. Have a startup?

eHarmony 40

eHarmony Oracle Acquisition Startup 40

Jason Nazar

JUNE 1, 2016

Yet, I always get asked: “What’s the secret to win over investors in pitch meetings?” These are the pitch techniques the best entrepreneurs employ to raise billions in capital. None of this can substitute for the business fundamentals, but it never hurts to be the best pitch person in the room. Don’t Slow Play It.

Slides 49

Slides Startup Entrepreneur Metrics 49

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

My personal favorite and best fit for GRP Partners was Thumbtack. Marco Zappacosta served up an cogent, business focused and nicely demo’d pitch of their product. – and provide a way to facilitate a match between vendor and person needing service. Thumbtack is marketplace for local services. As I’m sure Pip.io

Angel 254

Angel Technical Review Software Review Platform 254

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 24, 2013

This is the most important role because this person graduates a company from startup to viable long-term business. Thus, you need to enable new ways to create a scalable customer acquisition process. A good example of growth hacking was Andrei Marinescu’s role as head of customer acquisition for Hulu.

Hulu 111

Hulu Startup Social Media Organization 111

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Shockingly, some of the recommended tactics pitched by NPS gurus could actually decrease your sales by solidifying a propensity to not promote your solution. As noted in Personal Pitch , entrepreneurs must make it easy for others to help them succeed. A Net Promoter Score of 10 and a bank account of 0 equal a failed venture.

.Net 182

.Net Satisfaction Entrepreneur Customer 182

socalTECH

OCTOBER 25, 2012

For the average person, you don't want to deal with what kind of packaging you need to buy, having to go to the post office, figuring out who pays for it, how much it costs, and so on. I read everything online I could about customer acquisition, marketing, design, and coding, and every part of the business I could.

Startup 236

Startup Education Acquisition Funding 236

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 28, 2012

I pitched an idea that was voted in the top 12 but couldn’t form a complete team. The following week, I joined AT&T Hackathon at iO/LA in Hollywood and again pitched the idea. After pitching this idea twice in other events and not being able to form a team, it certainly felt good that I was finally able to do so my third time.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas San Diego Mentor 100

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Shockingly, some of the recommended tactics pitched by NPS gurus could actually decrease your sales by solidifying a propensity to not promote your solution. As noted in Personal Pitch , entrepreneurs must make it easy for others to help them succeed. A Net Promoter Score of 10 and a bank account of 0 equal a failed venture.

.Net 168

.Net Satisfaction Customer Custom 168

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2013

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. This has value now, and is critical for maximum value in a merger or acquisition. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Listens before answering questions.

Technical Review 109

Technical Review Entrepreneur Course Patents 109

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2012

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. This has value now, and is critical for maximum value in a merger or acquisition. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Listens before answering questions.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Technical Review Course Patents 117

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

If you have not seen the Firm’s recent music video entitled I’m A VC , take a moment to watch it now – it will give you a window into Brad and Jason’s respective personalities and the degree to which they do not conform to the stereotypical stick-up-the-ass venture capitalist. Also, consider asking for a carve-out for acquisitions.”

Venture Capital 205

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Writing Guide 205

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

Even an extraordinary engineer or product lead who have built a breakthrough product aren’t guaranteed success unless they can get access to capital, get much needed press to drive low-cost customer acquisition and persuade fickle business leaders to join their company and help them shape their businesses beyond tech innovation.

Mentor 150

Mentor Venture Capital Marketing Product 150

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Technically, he filled ten roles, as he pitched left handed when facing right-handed batters and right handed with lefties at the plate. This is not simply altruistic advice, as being available to your company means that you can focus on getting results without being distracted by a problematic personal life. Utility All Star.

Startup 222

Startup Coach Sales Entrepreneur 222

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2018

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly.

Startup 73

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 73

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

They know her personally and know she cares about her constituencies even if she has to make tough trade-offs from time-to-time. I’ve heard directly from top executives that Jeff Bezos (in my opinion the most talented person in the tech industry) has received his fair share of VC coaching in the early years. Shame on you.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. That might start with the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2010

The reality is that angel investors are humans, and personal traits often make or break the relationship, even before the investment is considered. This has value now, and is critical for maximum value in a merger or acquisition. Here are some key ones they look for: Talks and writes well. Listens before answering questions.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Angel Technical Review Course 96

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

As discussed in Personal Pitch , entrepreneurs must cultivate the help of Donors during the early days of their adVenture. However, when one does find its way into my email inbox, I admittedly am more energized to help the person or organization in the future. Thus, they naturally attribute personal successes to their abilities.

Entrepreneur 210

Entrepreneur Help Networking Startup 210

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2016

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly.

Startup 67

Startup Ideas Equity Invest 67

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2014

It never hurts to start networking personally with all levels of investors early, but sending out teasers and business plans to every name you can find on the Internet is a waste of your time and theirs. Tune your investor pitch and funding expectations accordingly.

Startup 93

Startup Funding Venture Capital Ideas 93

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Along with Selling (see Be Like Sam ) and Networking (see Making Stone Soup and Personal Pitch ), negotiating is a vital startup skill. Once he proved his negotiating skills, people from all over the company brought him significant acquisitions for him to negotiate. Enter Liquidator Larry. Another Reason To Be Like Bill.

Startup 221

Startup Pricing Entrepreneur Email 221

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 13, 2010

This will result in personal and specific descriptions of your involvement. However, be sure that any statistics you quote are primarily attributable to your personal efforts. Imagine a resume that only describes the person’s personality traits, likeability and strong character. As noted in Cialdini et al.’s

Startup 113

Startup .Net Organization Networking 113

Eric Greenspan

OCTOBER 29, 2009

It’s a fun company, but customer acquisition is the biggest challenge we face. I spent Sunday night at the U2/Black Eyed Peas concert and awoke on Monday to attend the Perfect Pitch with keynoter Sir Richard Branson. I’m the CEO of Make It Work, Inc. We have 34,000 customers already, but we need more more more.

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Blogging Email Yammer Doc 100

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Holocognics would break it down even further and discuss why, for instance, SEO works in one industry and not another – both in the sense of why a certain business has a higher chance of succeeding in showing up higher in a search, but also why SEO in a certain business has a higher “acquisition” rate (to use the Startup Metrics term).

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

His key quote is, “there are a couple things in this particular post that don’t work for me personally (every VC is different!). And when you finish the demo you can bring in the other important components such as competition, team, customer acquisition strategy, etc. Find great presenters and have them hear your pitch.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 8, 2014

Chance was recently featured on Fox News for comments on Facebook’s high profile acquisition of wearable VR company, Oculus, for an impressive $2B – and what that meant for early adopters who initially helped the company get off the ground by funding through Kickstarter. As an entrepreneur, this is a terrible and common mistake.

Invest 83

Invest Platform Entrepreneur Paramount 83

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Plus, many acquisitions happen when you are already partnered with the company so you may have to get beyond the hurdle in point 5 before getting to this step. I personally recommend it in the following situation: When you have your A round and/or B round done, the business is progressing well and you’re not early stage.

Venture Capital 279

Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur Framework 279

Frank Addante

FEBRUARY 24, 2012

Before you waste your time with a business case, sales pitch, or SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), put yourself in your customers’ shoes. You may have long acquisition cycles or a long and expensive market education path ahead of you. Personal: My family will be safe if we get a flat tire.

Ideas 45

Ideas Mobile Sales Product 45

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

Pop Quiz: Who was this person and what did they ultimately do with the cards dealt them? One or both of your parents may have the personality of an entrepreneur, but if their parents were struggling entrepreneurs who put in long¬-hours and netted meager returns, then your parents may have rejected their latent entrepreneurial tendencies.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153