Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” milestones entrepreneur startup funding business' Traction means forward progress.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2012

I think these tough economic times and social networks have re-awakened consumers to the fact that there is more to a business transaction than price. Today you have the tools, like blogging, videos, and new web technologies, to explain and make your customers appreciate what you do, and how you do it better than anyone else.

Customer 104

Customer Custom Startup Competition 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2017

Engaging in social media and blogging on a regular basis is a low-cost way to achieve visibility, and become the “go-to” person for that topic and the voice that people trust in your industry. Courting them with ongoing updates and special offers through their social networks is a natural way to keep their loyalty.

Social Media 59

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Platform 59

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 6, 2011

Pull Quote: “If you are smart, competitive, hard working and passionate about what you do you will have the best experience of your life. With that said, what books, blogs or other resources do you recommend for emerging entrepreneurs? If you don’t possess all of those things, it will suck and you will be fired.

Entrepreneur 232

Entrepreneur Competition Software Review Course 232

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 24, 2011

With that said, what books, blogs or other resources do you recommend for emerging entrepreneurs? Hmmm, I actually don’t read other entrepreneurial books or blogs – except infoChachkie of course [Editor’s Note: Kevin is clearly full of it here!]. I also read them “my speech,” which goes something like this: . ‘If

Blogging 219

Blogging Entrepreneur Software Review Course 219

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Understand the basic tools – the social media trinity. Blogging (Wordpress), micro-blogging (Twitter), and social networks are the trinity. Key social networks are Facebook (500 million consumers) and LinkedIn (60 million professionals). Then set your goals. Assess and commit the resources required.

Social Media 95

Social Media Media Startup Blogging 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Social media is so pervasive in today’s world that every entrepreneur believes instinctively that they know how to use it for their startup. When it comes to social media for your business, expect a high learning curve, but rest assured it’s not rocket science. Top social networks are Facebook (1.2 billion users).

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

One of the most frequent questions entrepreneurs ask about when they raise a little bit of money or are getting close to launching their first product is whether they should hire a PR firm. And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums. Always more appealing.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2014

There are many more, but these should get you started: Create a professional website and blog. A blog is critical, and essentially free (your cost is creating content). Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start. Find partners and channels which are complementary, and not directly competitive.

Marketing 102

Marketing Funding Social Media SEM 102

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Now, thanks to social media, you don't have to outspend. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. In many of them I get asked similar questions, including the inevitable “what makes a great entrepreneur?”

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2013

Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them. Love that sustainable competitive advantage. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Marketing is top priority.

Startup 100

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2015

Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should select only social media for marketing, or stick with digital media, or just count on traditional media. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Marketing Resource 108

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 17, 2007

On Ben Kuo's blog, he posted about Entrepreneurs in Southern California and pointed to a post by Will Johnson, a Southern California entrepreneur and blogger. The problem is that right now it's very competitive to find good architects and developers period. And there are tons of ways to use social networks.

Southern California 150

Southern California Startup SoCal El Segundo 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2013

Engaging in social media and blogging on a regular basis is a low-cost way to achieve visibility, and become the “go-to” person for that topic and the voice that people trust in your industry. Courting them with ongoing updates and special offers through their social networks is a natural way to keep their loyalty.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Platform 108

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2010

Aspiring entrepreneurs ask me why their great idea hasn’t sold; they talk about it endlessly, and they expect others to do the development, finance, and marketing work for them. Love that sustainable competitive advantage. Reserve the same names on the leading social networks and blogs. Marketing is top priority.

Startup 88

Startup Patents Competition Social Network 88

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2017

Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should select only social media for marketing, or stick with digital media, or just count on traditional media. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. Don’t try to tackle all 20 major categories of digital social media at once.

Media 59

Media Marketing Social Media Resource 59

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 17, 2012

It is a platform that allows anyone who offers a service to advertise it for free – we promote this profile on the most popular social networks such as Twitter , Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Stumbleupon and many more. They can add photos, video and even a blog article to improve their profile. Why this region?

Advertising 79

Advertising Services Social Network Startup 79

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 25, 2015

Use social networking and blogging to get your message out. It will definitely show off your energy and vision, and will make you a more competitive candidate for any role. Pick a startup business that you can do for minimal cost, like a services business with the skills you have. You don’t even need an investor.

Startup 101

Startup Social Network Activity Ideas 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2013

Isn’t it frustrating to think you understand something new in business, like marketing with social media, only to realize that the landscape changed while you were looking at other priorities? Don’t Buy It ,” which asserts that “earned” social engagement drives far better business results than paid social exposure.

Social Media 100

Social Media Media Marketing Platform 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2013

There are now many resources out there to guide you on building social media into your business and improving your customer experience, including the book from multicultural marketing expert Kelly McDonald, “ Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You.” Before social networking, an unhappy customer might tell three people.

Social Media 99

Social Media Customer Custom Media 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

Use social networking and blogging to get your message out. It will definitely show off your energy and vision, and will make you a more competitive candidate for any role. Pick a startup business that you can do for minimal cost, like a services business with the skills you have. You don’t even need an investor.

Help 56

Help Startup Social Network Activity 56

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2010

There are many more, but these should get you started: Create a professional website and blog. A blog is critical, and essentially free (your cost is creating content). Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start. Find partners and channels which are complementary, and not directly competitive.

Marketing 94

Marketing Startup Social Media SEM 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2010

Use social networking and blogging to get your message out. It will definitely show off your energy and vision, and will make you a more competitive candidate for any role. Tags: entrepreneur startup parallel job hunting business. You don’t need an investor for this approach. Get business cards made. Start up now.

Startup 98

Startup Social Network Ideas Commerce 98

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 19, 2012

Use social networking and blogging to get your message out. It will definitely show off your energy and vision, and will make you a more competitive candidate for any role. Pick a startup business that you can do for minimal cost, like a services business with the skills you have. Get business cards made.

Startup 93

Startup Social Network Ideas Commerce 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2012

Engaging in social media and blogging on a regular basis is a low-cost way to achieve visibility, and become the “go-to” person for that topic and the voice that people trust in your industry. Courting them with ongoing updates and special offers through their social networks is a natural way to keep their loyalty.

Social Media 79

Social Media Media Marketing Platform 79

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2011

Use social networking and blogging to get your message out. It will definitely show off your energy and vision, and will make you a more competitive candidate for any role. Pick a startup business that you can do for minimal cost, like a services business with the skills you have. Get business cards made.

Help 92

Help Startup Social Network Ideas 92

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Traction means forward progress. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 13, 2010

TechZulu is helping the startup community out by listing all the great startup/entrepreneur oriented panels. Bootstrapping advice, entrepreneur, startups. . The step by step story of an entrepreneur’s journey from idea to bootstrap web startup from her vi. Bootstrapping entrepeneurship, entrepreneur, startups. .

Guide 69

Guide Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur 69

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

Most people under estimate the challenge of winning “share of mind” the least understood concept with tech entrepreneurs. How many social networks, picture sharing sites, new aggregators or blogs can we really spend time on? Everybody thinks if I build this cool app people will come and use it. In 6 months? In 3 months?

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Traction means forward progress. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 10, 2012

“I found it to be the best social network, connecting people on a deeper level. He worked with High School and College students, striving to make it easy for anyone to become an entrepreneur. “At There was no competitive advantage once the big guys got involved. Park’s platform allowed them to do so.

Startup 98

Startup Customer Custom Pricing 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

I hear a lot of entrepreneurs contemplating their great “idea” for several years with little discernable progress, and looking for money to start. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” Tags: entrepreneur traction startup investors business. Marty Zwilling.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Tons of great conversations about new startups, hardware, and the entrepreneurs building them. As we know, long gone are the days of experiencing SXSW Interactive with just 9,000 other tech entrepreneurs and business brights – with 30,000 registrants in 2013 and the final numbers for 2014 still in the works.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2010

Due in large part to the current economy and an ultra-competitive job market, a Gen-Y entrepreneurial tsunami is already upon us. Perhaps your intern might be given the freedom to design and implement an entire strategy for your company (social networking, for example). Tags: entrepreneur startup intern business.

Competition 96

Competition Startup Technical Review IBM 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri who wrote me an email in response to Chris Dixon’s blog post (link below) from August, which recently re-ran on Business Insider and has generated much Twitter chatter. I told entrepreneurs that it was a bit of a Faustian bargain. There are multiple firms that did this.

Seed Funding 283

Seed Funding Venture Capital Funding Software Review 283

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2011

I always try hard to make this blog a place where you can learn lessons rather than an advertisement for portfolio companies. He wanted to be an entrepreneur. When I was an entrepreneur I had a term sheet with True Ventures (my second company) and thought highly of them. I still do. “And importantly Web 2.0

Invest 303

Invest Company Companies Web 2.0 303