Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

Most business advisors I know will say that writing a business plan is the first step to starting your own business, but I believe that a better first step is to do a self-analysis of your real drivers, strengths, and assumptions before committing to this lifestyle. Assess your own resources as well as funding sources.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2014

I can attest from experience that publishing a regular blog to properly showcase your brand value, even before you have it, is a most cost effective approach in time and money. For blogging to work, you need to do it consistently and frequently, at least once a week, or the value evaporates. Populate your team.

Startup 101

Startup Blogging Writing Google 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2022

Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals.

Media 118

Media Tips Social Media Startup 118

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

By definition, you read blogs. But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

In writing anything positive about any of the companies I’m not suggesting that it means that I prefer them to any of their competitors. I just cover the companies that were funded that week. Also, some of the deals I write about I have actually seen as part of their fund raising process. Others I have not.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Capital Email Blogging 265

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2013

In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites cost a million dollars to set up. Personalize a simple web site. The menu should include a link to your blog, separately set up on Blogger, Wordpress, or TypePad, again free. Publish the site and now you are in business. The cost of entry has never been lower.

Sites 78

Sites Commerce Startup Tool 78

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2014

In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites, for example, cost a million dollars to set up. Personalize a simple web site. The menu should include a link to your blog, separately set up on Blogger, Wordpress, or TypePad – all free. Publish the site and now you are in business.

Startup 100

Startup Commerce Sites Blogging 100

socalTECH

OCTOBER 31, 2011

There are lots of knowledgeable people that we find to write these guides--people who grew up there, and who are experts in the area. It sounds like an interesting story behind how it started--tell us how the site came about? Mike Edwards, who is an investor that lives in Whistler, and who is an angel, basically funded it.

Guide 203

Guide Software Review Twiistup Technical Review 203

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2015

I used to love blogging. Blogging proved to be a great way to hone my ideas, have public conversations with people and as it turns out – build meaningful relationships through public dialog that spilled over into the real world. Somewhere along the way blogging changed. Or I could just write about life.

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Startup Ideas 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2019

Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals.

Press 96

Press Entrepreneur Social Media Training 96

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites cost a million dollars to set up. Personalize a simple web site. The menu should include a link to your blog, separately set up on Blogger, Wordpress, or TypePad, again free. Publish the site and now you are in business. The cost of entry has never been lower.

Commerce 99

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 99

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I still plan to publish on this blog occasionally, as well as more frequently on my blogs at Forbes , Huffington Post , and others. Finding funding for startups is a tough process. The simple answer is that if you need funding, do your homework and start networking early. I learn something new every day in blogging.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Blogging Social Media 96

socalTECH

APRIL 14, 2011

I ended up passing on the Twitter investment, but I put out a blog post at the time--I was working for CBS--asking if someone would want to build it, and a kid named Soren MacBeth emailed me back saying he'd build it, which started the idea of StockTwits. So, we built our own, new and improved version of a microblogging platform.

Ideas 248

Ideas Web Startup Content 248

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

In the early days (20 years ago), most new e-commerce sites cost a million dollars to set up. Personalize a simple web site. The menu should include a link to your blog, separately set up on Blogger, Wordpress, or TypePad, again free. Publish the site and now you are in business. The cost of entry has never been lower.

Commerce 88

Commerce Startup Sites Tool 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Since I answer this all the time anyway I thought it might make an interesting blog post. When your site crashes and you get slammed by customers and in the press – you’re all in the sh*tter together. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks. I get to choose what I write about. That’s true.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. Even artisan-based services, like graphic design and writing good ad copy, have innovative processes and principles. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 20, 2017

Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals.

Media 55

Media Social Media Startup Training 55

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 104

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals.

Press 105

Press Social Media Startup Training 105

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Although the first draft of this post began when Kluge was a proud member of NextSpace; as of this writing we have moved to a bigger office to accommodate our expanding team.

Web Design 103

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 103

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2012

Ask Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble , who raised over $10 million on the Kickstarter crowd-funding platform for his relatively low-tech wristwatch with programmed clock faces. Kickstarter may take a bit of the credit for this, but they admit the majority of projects without media attention don’t even approach their funding goals.

Training 93

Training Media Entrepreneur Social Media 93

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

My firm GRP Partners recently funded a young LA based company named Ad.Ly Turns out everybody likes to produce content and take part in the “conversation.&# Massive uptake of user-generated content including blogs (e.g. Wordpress), video (YouTube), pictures (Flickr), review sites (Yelp) and collaborative content (Wikipedia).

Ideas 286

Ideas Advertising Google Technical Review 286

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

Join online “dating” sites for business partners. Don’t forget the wealth of business blogs frequented by entrepreneurs and investors, where you make your interests known. As soon as you find the partner, these are the places to find funding as well. Get this in writing as a standard pre-nuptial. Take your time.

Startup 95

Startup Entrepreneur Activity High Tech 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 101

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO. in Computer Science.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

I spoke a lot about the need for “personal branding” which I plan to write about soon. And what I mean is, I told this story in a blog post I wrote called, “ Is It Time to Earn or Is It Time to Learn ?” I’ve got guys getting funded at 23! ” So I just decided to brand myself as that guy.

Startup 337

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Venture Capital 337

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2011

An inflated sense of financial well-being can result in sloppy budgeting and accounting as you write checks here and there without pause. Fancy websites are expensive, but blogs and Facebook pages are free. But if you've spent all your money on the website for party supplies, you may not have the funds to have the site redone.

Startup 92

Startup Capital Blogging Ideas 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2011

Join online “dating” sites for business partners. Don’t forget the wealth of business blogs frequented by entrepreneurs and investors, where you make your interests known. As soon as you find the partner, these are the places to find funding as well. Get this in writing as a standard pre-nuptial. Take your time.

Startup 92

Startup Entrepreneur Activity High Tech 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Every investor expects to see some traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2011

A huge shout out to Ricky Wong of NYCSteals for helping me with the write-up. Seth raised $100k in angel funding to fuel operations. Initial traffic was driven by word-of-mouth, specifically blogs and a bit of luck. The bar brings chat to the website and sites have seen share rates double using the bar. For Meebo 1.3%

Startup 286

Startup Venture Capital Web Ideas 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I had to laugh a bit reading it. So back to MBAs.

Startup 337

Startup Venture Capital Study Course 337

From the Venture Trenches

APRIL 30, 2013

Building a standout destination site for video gamers takes moxie in the highly competitive and lucrative on-line game industry. Although the first draft of this post began when Kluge was a proud member of NextSpace; as of this writing we have moved to a bigger office to accommodate our expanding team.

Web Design 40

Web Design Social Media Seed Funding Design 40

socalTECH

JUNE 27, 2013

Despite the increase in startup activity in Southern California, local venture capital funds are still few and far between, and a large chunk of the funding here is still from Sand Hill Road. The firm just announced that new fund, and a new name, Upfront Ventures (www.upfront.com). Tell us about the new fund?

Funding 196

Funding Venture Capital Los Angeles Social Media 196