Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

Ever notice how some companies tend to be in the press all the time and your big new product launch struggled for inches? Here’s what’s going through his/her head: Is this story “newsworthy” or am I being asked to publish a press release? ” Can you imagine that ever getting inches in the press?

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

One of the advantages of blogging, using social media, public speaking, etc as a VC is that you get a more nuanced view of these shifts by watching your own successes and failures. But succinctly this press places a marker in the ground for your company. Should I Bundle it With More Juicy News? That used to be the standard.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

Sometimes I make a blog entry. A day might include a discussion with a finance partner, an investor, a customer or a fusion partner. Some days I respond to questions asked by folks like yourself, the press, or an entity doing a case study, i.e. Citrix, RIM, USC. A negative customer acquisition cost! Great posts.

Acquisition 170

Acquisition Customer Custom Ideas 170

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2009

Entrepreneurs get so used to friends and family congratulating them on their press coverage that they forget sometimes that this isn’t real. Press doesn’t mean anything other than free advertising. Press coverage really matters – The good news – your press coverage really does matter.

Venture Capital 291

Venture Capital Press News Startup 291

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid. In London when founders failed they were ostracized in the press and culturally I believe it became harder to raise capital.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2023

Frequent discussions with peers and customers on open questions will keep you from being led astray by your own biases. If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. Frequency keeps the pressure off. Frequency is a realistic approach.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Blogging Ideas 109

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 23, 2011

I pointed out the fact that they only ever talked to the press when the had an announcement and that it was a continual process. You need somebody who REALLY understands your company, its customers and its competitors. And you need somebody who is committed to keeping up your presence in blogs, social media and other online forums.

Startup 349

Startup Writing Press Blogging 349

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). Make sure you’re not spewing out meaningless reams of press releases.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2020

Frequent discussions with peers and customers on open questions will keep you from being led astray by your own biases. If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. Frequency keeps the pressure off. Frequency is a realistic approach.

Startup 173

Startup Writing Blogging Ideas 173

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I will talk about these strategies in my next blog post. ” Don’t.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

It represents the great majority of entrepreneurship and eschews the fairytale rags-to-VC-riches stories we so often read about in the press. She focused on her customer. So Tracy began keeping a blog about … (what else?) If you haven’t read my blog posts on why Tracy chose the right strategy it’s worth a read.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc. You have a marketing department with three people. They’re tasked with doing … marketing.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

In fact 61% of all mobile searches where a customer contacts a business it is via a phone call (source: Google). Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. I don’t want to speak to customer service reps!!

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

So they create a task list of all the marketing activities an organization can do: press releases, web site updates, customer case studies, blog posts, daily Tweets, Facebook fan page, attending conferences, etc. You have a marketing department with three people. They’re tasked with doing … marketing.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2013

I’m sure you’ve all heard saying derived from Voltaire, “don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good” which in a way is encapsulated in the lean startup movement and the ideology of shipping a “minimum viable product” (MVP) and then learning from your customer base. Life doesn’t work like that.

Startup 371

Startup Press Product Blogging 371

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

.&# Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. But don’t let this information get out into the general press and don’t market more than a few months out. They come and go. You don’t.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

Not so long ago, training to meet the press and television reporters was a realm reserved for top business executives only. Social media includes blogs, social networks, and video-sharing sites. It could be a product quality problem, or a major customer complaint on Twitter. Handling different media formats.

Media 118

Media Tips Social Media Startup 118

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

And if you are – what on earth are you reading such a boring blog as this?!? OK, that sounds like an interesting business, but nothing to write a freakin’ blog post about? Gogii spent way more effort marketing to what I call “The USA Today market&# rather than the tech blog market. But I never gave up.

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

Mark is a Partner at GRP Partners and authors one of the most widely read startup blogs, BothSidesOfTheTable. We just knew that we were onto an idea that no one had thought of and we had better be in the press first because, of course, there is a first-mover advantage. Winning customers is sales. Getting press is sales.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results. Ask yourself where are the influencers in your market, the majority of your target customers, and what type of interaction will be most productive to your business?

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 2, 2011

It’s apropos because there is so much noise these days with email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web shows, etc. I was thinking back to a few previous “insider baseball&# blog debates that raged for several weeks: AngelGate (aka Bin38 secret cabal), convertible debt vs. equity, bubble vs. not, and now the AngelList discussion.

Email 287

Email Blogging Venture Capital Writing 287

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). Create meaningful content and engage others online (free downloads, white papers, webinars, regular blogging). Do something unique to get customer attention.

Marketing 102

Marketing Funding Social Media SEM 102

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. So what are Rob’s secret hacks that he didn’t spill in his blog post? . Email updates frequently.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. We listened way too much to what the press said. Make sure you focus on what matters – your customers.

Startup 310

Startup Press Venture Capital Journal 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2013

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). Create meaningful content and engage others online (free downloads, white papers, webinars, regular blogging). Do something unique to get customer attention.

Marketing 106

Marketing Startup Social Media SEM 106

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

We are focused on making life easier for customers and associates by building strong local businesses, powered by Walmart,” Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) International, said in a press release.

Demand 56

Demand Commerce Press Customer 56

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

And that person has almost certainly chosen specifically to be a startup lawyer over serving other types of customers because he or she enjoys working with entrepreneurs. She was lamenting that some startups simply see their PR company as merely somebody who corrals the press when you want to get some inches. And I agree entirely.

Startup 363

Startup Venture Capital Coach Press 363

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. So we first turned to solve the question of how to better meet the needs of our growing customer base of large brands and media companies. Mentorship.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2012

However, Eric recently posted the following insights on his blog. Our customers benefitted from this and saved thousands over the years as a result. But later in 2011, new customers slowed, appointment bookings slowed and average appointment time dropped. Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan. . I was wrong.

RSS 170

RSS Technical Review Capital Email 170

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). Create meaningful content and engage others online (free downloads, white papers, webinars, regular blogging). Do something unique to get customer attention.

Marketing 94

Marketing Startup Social Media SEM 94

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 7, 2012

It's like WordPress, but instead of blogging, it provides an online community, which is self-hosted. We have about 8500 customers there, but only a small percentage have built great communities that took off, and the rest floundered. SocialEngine is four years old, and that's the startup we applied to TechStars with.

Startup 242

Startup CTO Coach Blogging Social Media 242

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. By using a laser focused approach for the first iteration, you may actually produce something and get a customer without funding. Get a real customer and real revenue.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

InfoChachkie

JUNE 3, 2013

blogging, in a sense. If we had a blogging platform then, we would have been blogging. Unfortunately, in the pre-blogging days of 2001, John had to literally send each newsletter out via Outlook, which limited the number of recipients that could be included in each email. “We started sending out the newsletter.

Newsletter 233

Newsletter Startup Entrepreneur Writing 233

Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

Cyber industry alliances, the thinking goes, could make customers’ cyber defenses stronger and easier to manage. The alliance aims to address these challenges by not only better aligning security vendors, but also by creating a more connected security system for their customers. That’s the goal, at least. “We

Press 40

Press Symantec Organization IBM 40

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2019

Airbnb, for its part, filed a press release this week confirming its plans to go public in 2020. HappyOrNot nabs $25M for its customer satisfaction terminals . WeWork has delayed its IPO following questions surrounding its corporate governance and the ultimate value of the company. Ginkgo Bioworks raises capital at a $4B valuation.

Services 207

Services Startup Venture Capital Redpoint 207

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2018

Frequent discussions with peers and customers on open questions will keep you from being led astray by your own biases. If you’re producing just one page, one blog post, or one sketch a week, you expect it to be good and final, and you start to worry about quality. Frequency keeps the pressure off. Frequency is a realistic approach.

Startup 57

Startup Writing Blogging Entrepreneur 57