Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

I’d like to talk about Crocodile Salesmen in 3 scenarios: 1) when YOU are selling (or someone on your team), 2) when you are trying to recruit a sales person. But how to apply “listening&# in a sales meeting? Beware of Crocodile Sales. I still do this sometimes, too. Always “test your understanding.&#.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Customer 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2021

When you first start your career as an investor (or when you first start writing angel checks) your main obsession is “getting into great deals.” Consider: When GOAT started it was a restaurant reservation booking app called GrubWithUs … it’s now worth $3.7 the sale of the company for $1 billion. It was ~30 days from bankruptcy.

Funding 294

Funding Startup Writing Invest 294

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2021

There really is no excuse these days, with samples on the Internet, business-plan books in every bookstore, and dozens of apps to automate the process. A great business plan doesn’t have to be a book in length, with extensive financial statements. Don’t try to impress constituents with technical terms, jargon, and acronyms.

Sample 137

Sample Writing Mentor Content 137

Berkonomics

JANUARY 13, 2022

Not many founders or entrepreneurs do experience the success of a favorable sale of the business they dreamed would make them rich. Others are diluted by subsequent investors to the point where there was nothing for them to celebrate at all in a sale. Write a book. Many fail multiple times. Here are some thoughts for you.

Writing 156

Writing Entrepreneur .Net Sales 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

I just finished a new book on this approach, “ Beyond the Business Plan ,” by Simon Bridge and Cecilia Hegarty, which outlines tradeoffs and recommends ten principles for every new venture explorer. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Acquire the relevant skills.

Writing 102

Writing Startup Entrepreneur Capital 102

InfoChachkie

JULY 22, 2013

In their new book Startup Life , serial entrepreneur and venture investor Brad Feld, along with his wife Amy Batchelor, describe what has, and has not, worked for them during their 22-year relationship. Brad is in the midst of writing a series of startup-oriented books. A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes.

Startup 248

Startup Writing Santa Barbara RSS 248

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. If you’re going to play in the big leagues you need to be writing checks from a $700 million?—?$1 Are we in a bubble?” By definition?—?I’m of the fund.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

InfoChachkie

JULY 22, 2013

In their new book Startup Life , serial entrepreneur and venture investor Brad Feld, along with his wife Amy Batchelor, describe what has, and has not, worked for them during their 22-year relationship. Brad is in the midst of writing a series of startup-oriented books. A version of this article previously appeared on Forbes.

Startup 210

Startup Writing Santa Barbara Entrepreneur 210

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple , you should. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I understand that Adam Grant is a fairly popular professor at Wharton and has a book that some people loved called “Originals” (for me it interesting but not mind blowing, and I have some first-hand knowledge of some of its inaccuracies). I know it may feel this way since I’m writing this tongue in cheek. I’m not an elitist a **e.

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

socalTECH

OCTOBER 28, 2010

At the time, I was looking for a book to teach web design to my students, but figured out that one had never been written. So, I ended up writing that first book, and Bruce helped me with the research, and that was one way we got to know each other before we were even dating. That's how we really started. It was going crazy.

Startup 242

Startup Web Design Writing Web 242

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

As I noted in Why Most Business Books (Still) Suck , I am generally not a fan of business books. If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. Pithy – Guy is the Steven King of business books.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Class Entrepreneur 279

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2022

Thus, if you are like me, with no real background or experience in public speaking, I encourage you to start early with some traditional training, like a Dale Carnegie course, or read a good book on the subject, like the classic one by successful businesswoman and speaker Jan Yager, Ph.D., “ The Fast Track Guide to Speaking in Public.”

Marketing 113

Marketing Entrepreneur Customer Custom 113

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 15, 2014

In his book, The Entrepreneur’s Manual , Richard White cites a survey of venture capitalists which ranks honesty as the single most important characteristic for serial success. Guy Kawasaki encourages entrepreneurs in his book The Art of the Start to reflect upon the following: “It is the end of your life.

Entrepreneur 189

Entrepreneur Sales Writing Customer 189

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

So I thought I’d write about out with what I would look for in a VC knowing what I know now and why. Most VCs are book smart. In fact, book smart can be a negative. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 26, 2021

Then fans would be tasked with writing their own stories, submitting them to the Realms of Ruin universe by minting them as NFTs on the Solana blockchain. If the authors are inviting fans to write fan fiction about a universe they created, who owns the derivative works? Another unabashed proponent of fan fiction is N.K.

Writing 196

Writing Outsource Development Technical Review Examples 196

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. Amazon started with books, so we will too. The ecommerce site Bookshop offers a book-specific affiliate program. commission).

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Buzzfeed News Networking 129

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2023

In the name of this cause, the company donates time, services, and at least one percent of their sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups around the world. I remember a classic book, “ The Purpose Effect ,” by renowned author Dan Pontefract, that provides a good framework and background or doing just that.

Framework 95

Framework Customer Custom Tips 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 5, 2021

John Bradberry, in his classic book “ 6 Secrets To Startup Success ” explores many of these attributes, especially passion, and defines some useful principles to help enthusiastic entrepreneurs squeeze the most out of their passion, while not being trapped by it. Ensure that your passion adds up. Execute with focused flexibility.

Entrepreneur 145

Entrepreneur Course Ideas .Net 145

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

In the name of this cause, the company donates time, services, and at least one percent of their sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups around the world. I remember a classic book, “ The Purpose Effect ,” by renowned author Dan Pontefract, that provides a good framework and background or doing just that.

Tips 174

Tips Framework Customer Custom 174

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2023

In a classic book on this approach, “ Beyond the Business Plan ,” Simon Bridge and Cecilia Hegarty outline tradeoffs and recommends ten principles for every new venture explorer. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Acquire the relevant skills.

Startup 142

Startup Capital Resource Research 142

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2015

There really is no excuse these days, with samples on the Internet, business-plan books in every bookstore, and dozens of apps to automate the process. A great business plan doesn’t have to be a book in length, with extensive financial statements. Don’t try to impress constituents with technical terms, jargon, and acronyms.

Startup 109

Startup Writing Mentor Sample 109

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 8, 2015

Not many founders or entrepreneurs do experience the success of a favorable sale of the business they dreamed would make them rich. Others are diluted by subsequent investors to the point where there was nothing for them to celebrate at all in a sale. Write a book; I did. Many fail multiple times.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Writing .Net Sales 120

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

American Western writer Louis L’Amour left home during tenth grade and worked a variety of itinerant jobs for over a decade before beginning his writing career. During his vagabond days, Louis learned a very important lesson, “There is no such thing as an unimportant person.”. Lesson: Who are the rack jobbers in your industry?

Education 100

Education Zag Entertainment Sales 100

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

Vince: I’m an author, speaker and management consultant with a special expertise in online media sales. I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days. Vince: In addition to my management writing I’ve interview many CEOs and innovators.

Startup 225

Startup Los Angeles Twiistup Social Network 225

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. ” Who cut you in on their bonus because even though you’re “just an sales engineer” they know you really deserved more credit for this deal. Writing a book will be fun. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

I recently read a book I’d highly recommend to every reader of this blog called “ Yes, 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive &# by Robert B. Cialdini who is also author of a very well received book called “ Influence &# (which I plan to read). You should, too. (no, This is all explicit decision making.

Guide 293

Guide Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 293

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

Why will people invest 5x the money to get book smart and struggle so much to take a big salary cut to get real life experience? But then you can springboard from there to your next gig and you’ll be an experienced startup employee with functional experience at sales, marketing, product or whatever roles you played.”

Startup 409

Startup Invest Venture Capital Writing 409

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 8, 2010

I guess let’s file this under sales & marketing advice. Don’t just write a carbon copy of what somebody else is doing. OK, well, actually the first thing I did is come up with a list of 50 posts that I wanted to write. I didn’t want to run out of things to write about in the first 6 months.

Blogging 286

Blogging Startup Writing Summary 286

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

This is a theme that comes up in one the most influential business books for me of the past decade, The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb where he talks about the role that luck plays in business success. I started by writing 3-4 times / week. Just like a sales person at the end of a quarter. I’ve kept it up for 2 years.

Startup 391

Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2019

Thus, if you are like me, with no real background or experience in public speaking, I encourage you to start early with some traditional training, like a Dale Carnegie course, or read a good book on the subject, like the classic one by successful businesswoman and speaker Jan Yager, Ph.D., “ The Fast Track Guide to Speaking in Public.”

Entrepreneur 87

Entrepreneur Customer Custom Guide 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2020

In a classic book on this approach, “ Beyond the Business Plan ,” Simon Bridge and Cecilia Hegarty outline tradeoffs and recommends ten principles for every new venture explorer. These include financial management, marketing and sales, and the appropriate production ability. Acquire the relevant skills.

Startup 143

Startup Capital Resource Research 143

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2017

Thus, if you are like me, with no real background or experience in public speaking, I encourage you to start early with some traditional training, like a Dale Carnegie course, or read a good book on the subject, like the classic one by successful businesswoman and speaker Jan Yager, Ph.D., “ The Fast Track Guide to Speaking in Public.”

Company 97

Company Companies Entrepreneur Customer 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

It’s predictable, there is no reason to get mad about it and with a well-designed play book you can overcome this much of the time. Frankly, it’s the life of ANY executives with whom you want to sell product, do a business development deal with, execute M&A, a journalist you want to write about your company?—?anybody.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381