Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

More importantly, we all need to develop the right relationships, and actively avoid those types that are not right for the business, or not right for our career at a particular point in time. Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. Workship - Advocate.

Mentor 91

Mentor Competition Summary Coach 91

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2022

As with most investors and advisors, I always look first at some key personal characteristics and leadership strategies that I find often make you a more likely survivor and winner in the highly competitive world of businesses, both new and mature. Able to maintain customer trust and team confidence.

Startup 143

Startup Competition Coach Satisfaction 143

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2021

Authors Adrian Gostick and Chestor Elton, with their deep backgrounds as executive coaches and organizational consultants, recommend some simple methods, consistent with my own beliefs, to reduce the pain of uncertainty, and increase productivity, in your teams and employees: Make it okay for them to not have all the answers.

Marketing 148

Marketing Coach Startup Product 148

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Linktree leads the space, securing a recent $45 million Series B raise to build out e-commerce features, but Beacons boasts competitive creator monetization tools with just a $6 million seed round in May. Now, Snipfeed enters the ring with its own $5.5 Image Credits: Snipfeed. With its $5.5

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2021

Perhaps you need to do more to be a role model for accountability , and provide more coaching on exactly what it means. I often think of the scope of this example in my role as mentor to a struggling entrepreneur who is quick to blame his problems on employee mistakes, or even changing customer expectations.

Training 173

Training Examples Startup Social Media 173

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2020

More importantly, we all need to develop the right relationships, and actively avoid those types that are not right for the business, or not right for our career at a particular point in time. Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. Workship - Advocate.

Mentor 135

Mentor Competition Summary Coach 135

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

You need to make sure that everyone on the team, from the clerical assistant to the chief financial officer, knows your vision and product, and doesn’t hesitate to actively engage and be an effective proponent with anyone who might be of value to the business. In fact, having one marketing guru on the team alone won’t get you very far.

Marketing 130

Marketing Develop Development Startup 130

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2021

With some coaching and mentoring from other leaders, I was able to do it myself, so I know you can do it too, by committing to the following strategies: Train yourself to always look for positives, not negatives. Define a clear break between work and private activities. Write down your top 5 core values and review them often.

Coach 137

Coach Training Satisfaction Mentor 137

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (now over 2500 in the US alone). It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Training and coaching.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

For example, we all know people who really believe that everyone in the world is their supporter, when in fact many are actively working against them. But, like most other skills, you can learn from these priorities: Everyone benefits from active mentoring. Provide and seek coach and advocate relationships.

Tips 95

Tips Mentor Coach Activity 95

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2020

These days, customers as well as team members, need to be able to relate to a higher purpose for your business, such as protecting the environment, or helping the disadvantaged. Be sure to tie changes back to the “why” – customer value, business objectives, and competition. Publicly reward risk taking and new ideas.

Mentor 122

Mentor Ideas Competition Examples 122

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It!

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2015

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Resource 105

Resource Startup Entrepreneur Training 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2016

The most common proposals I hear are for yet another social networking site ( over 200 active ), or another dating site (over 2500 in the US alone). It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Training and coaching.

Coach 64

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 64

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2019

I found some good guidance on this subject in a new book, “ The Leader You Want To Be ,” by Amy Jen Su, a managing partner in an executive coaching and leadership development firm. I get much more satisfaction, and can provide more realistic help, in steering you through specific pricing, organizational, or competitive challenges you face.

Help 123

Help Entrepreneur Course IBM 123

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2014

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that absorbs resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Entrepreneur 115

Entrepreneur Resource Training Product 115

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Whether the partner is a supplier looking to gain a lock on your business as it grows or a customer looking to create a competitive barrier through use of your product, such an investment typically carries fewer restrictions than from a professional investor and less oversight. It’s an option, even though an expensive one.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2017

Success in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive business environment requires a total alignment between the needs of each business function and the priorities of all team members. Failed strategies erode your competitive position. Measure execution on a single strategy, rather than talk.

Company 54

Company Companies Technical Review Coach 54

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2018

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that spends resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. Focus on activities rather than results.

Resource 52

Resource Training Entrepreneur Activity 52

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2016

You need to make sure that everyone on the team, from the clerical assistant to the chief financial officer, knows your vision and product, and doesn’t hesitate to actively engage and be an effective proponent with anyone who might be of value to the business. In fact, having one marketing guru on the team alone won’t get you very far.

Marketing 89

Marketing Coach Mentor Social Media 89

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It!

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

Helpers may be cheaper and quicker to find, but they cost you dearly in managing, coaching and error recovery. Keep some reserves for a focus on the urgent priorities of strategy, attracting customers and beating competitors, rather than the crisis of the moment. Actively listen to mentor and customer feedback.

Startup 96

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Social Media 96

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s recent book “ Do It!

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. Ethan had pointed out to me that merchants were being barraged by “deal site” wanting to drive customers in the door but they didn’t have great tools to manage their customers.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2018

As I outline key ones in my coaching practice, I find that many people have never tried them and even find them counter-intuitive: Stop multitasking and focus on the task at hand. Your competitive drive for success will cause you to dive in with more energy and not be easily distracted.

Coach 56

Coach Paramount Software Review Product 56

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2019

As an advisor to entrepreneurs for many years, I strongly disagree, and still see the value of at least combining intuition with logical analysis, as we face customers and markets driven by relationships, emotions, and unpredictable social trends. New modes of trusting yourself won’t happen by thinking alone.

Examples 81

Examples Tool Statistics Tips 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them? I found some help from marketing coach David Newman’s new book “ Do It! Give yourself the “So-what?”

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

As a CEO you never stop needing to go on sales calls (or to work the phones in telesales or customer support) and ceasing to do this as your company grows because you’re focusing on investors, recruiting, PR or whatever is a mistake. As a content management system we had lots of write activities and went with Postgres.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2016

More importantly, we all need to develop the right relationships, and actively avoid those types that are not right for the business, or not right for our career at a particular point in time. Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. Workship - Advocate.

Mentor 70

Mentor Competition Entrepreneur Summary 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2017

In my experience, and from the thoughts of others who have “been there and done that,” here is my list of the top elements you should be looking for: Focused on customers and team, rather than “me, myself, and I.” These will provide the competitive edge you need with customers and less-focused team members. Never makes excuses.

Funding 55

Funding Satisfaction Custom Customer 55

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Business leaders must convince the team that the decision makers today are customers, the marketplace, competition, feedback, innovation, and breakthroughs. Develop accountability through coaching and mentoring. Communicate that personal preferences don’t drive the business.

Satisfaction 55

Satisfaction Coach Mentor Training 55

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2015

Effective time management skills are often the best competitive edge. Dr. Yager is a real guru on this subject, having been a productivity coach, trainer, and author for many years, and still found time to squeeze out over 30 books, including five related to this subject. Sometimes the right answer is to revise the goal.

Technical Review 104

Technical Review Entrepreneur Email Social Media 104

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2013

More importantly, we all need to develop the right relationships, and actively avoid those types that are not right for the business, or not right for our career at a particular point in time: Acquaintanceship. Unlike the mentor, who is a coach and teacher, the advocate inspires you to be the best that you can be. Workship - Advocate.

Startup 99

Startup Mentor Entrepreneur Competition 99

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2017

Most business leaders today realize that smart management of scarce resources is the key to competitive success. It also means setting up a personalized coaching and mentoring system, and accelerated rotations for top talent. That’s why they manage money so carefully. Build a culture guided by principles, not rules.

Product 58

Product Startup Guide Framework 58

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

Great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture — when you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own. Portions of the budget are dedicated to employee team building and culture promotion.

Examples 100

Examples Company Companies Google 100

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

Great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture — when you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own. Portions of the budget are dedicated to employee team building and culture promotion.

Examples 100

Examples Company Companies Google 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2014

Effective time management skills are often the best competitive edge. Dr. Yager is a real guru on this subject, having been a productivity coach, trainer, and author for many years, and still found time to squeeze out over 30 books, including five related to this subject. Sometimes the right answer is to revise the goal.

Entrepreneur 105

Entrepreneur Technical Review Email Social Media 105