Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around. On the other hand, I see teams with almost no process that are tremendously productive.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive.

Product 99

Product Mentor Startup Technical Review 99

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

I hear too often from business owners and entrepreneurs that they are bombarded by so many requests and problems, that they have trouble sorting out the daily crises from opportunities with a major payback for the business. You can’t find the time for coaching and mentoring. Meetings with your team seem to be non-productive.

Coach 120

Coach Satisfaction Custom Customer 120

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

You need a faster and more flexible on-demand hiring strategy, based on the current gig-economy of remote freelancers, contract personnel, and specialists. Many entrepreneurs still believe they need a traditional multi-level organization to handle growth and scaling, so they start hiring career managers to populate it.

Competition 168

Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2017

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around. On the other hand, I see teams with almost no process that are tremendously productive.

Entrepreneur 78

Entrepreneur Coach Organization Mentor 78

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2019

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. Team members need your critique of their work to learn, but attacking the person is never productive.

Mentor 124

Mentor Technical Review Coach Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2019

Most entrepreneurs assume that success is dependent on their product expertise, coupled with some knowledge of how to run a business. Successful entrepreneurs today must practice human-centered leadership to compete and win. Effective entrepreneur leaders focus on getting people needs satisfied early.

Training 123

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 123

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Every one of you business leaders I know struggles with the competing demands of finding and keeping employees motivated and satisfied, versus building and enforcing a set of repeatable processes that work. Engaged people are more productive than your best process. Obviously, both are required for a company to stay healthy and growing.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. They will call you back.

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2015

Most entrepreneurs I know want to do the right thing for their businesses, as well as themselves, but they are not always sure what that means. By demand, entrepreneurs are crisis managers, and can be busy reacting 24 hours a day to urgent short-term issues. Don’t let day-to-day demands take the reins and drag you off course.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Training Demand Custom 102

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it. Train and coach continuously.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2014

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. They will call you back.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Tips Marketing Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2023

For example, it has long been widely accepted that one of the primary causes for entrepreneur failure in new startups is that many give up too soon. It takes effort and homework to find productive relationship channels, such as industry conferences, connections to experts, and key customer relationships. Loners need not apply.

Startup 121

Startup Satisfaction Technical Review Ideas 121

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it. Train and coach continuously.

Startup 154

Startup Training Custom Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2021

Green, a noted executive coach, speaker, and CEO of Brilliance, Inc. A key part of her message that resonated with me, as a mentor to entrepreneurs, is her guidance on how to deal with the constant demands and requests that every business founder faces. If yes, apologize, then do better. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 172

Startup Tool Coach Satisfaction 172

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2020

More importantly, I look for entrepreneurs and owners like you who are not afraid to hold themselves accountable for the success of the business. This almost always starts at the top, based on a founder’s dream and passion, without the proper homework on sizing the market, or assessing product realities.

Startup 113

Startup Examples Coach Metrics 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

Image via Pexels Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around. On the other hand, I see teams with almost no process that are tremendously productive.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. There is no free lunch.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Jason Nazar

APRIL 2, 2016

The following checklist is my comprehensive criteria for how to grade entrepreneurs. I, like many entrepreneurs, never followed directions that well. Balance “Coaching and Cheerleading” vs. “Doing and Directing” (via Bob Walters ). Product / Customer Evangelist. Know their product better than anyone else.

Entrepreneur 46

Entrepreneur Tips Organization Sales 46

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2012

The hard part for entrepreneurs is figuring out what it takes to play. Here is just a sampling of the latest terminology and lingo that I gleaned from Dave, and from some additional research on the Internet, that I think every entrepreneur should know, who may be looking for funding now, or down the road: Micro-VCs. Series-seed round.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Seed Funding Incubator 101

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2015

Most entrepreneurs assume that success is dependent on their product expertise, coupled with some knowledge of how to run a business. Successful entrepreneurs today must practice human-centered leadership to compete and win. Effective entrepreneur leaders focus on getting people needs satisfied early.

Startup 103

Startup Training Coach Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2019

Yet, in my daily role as an advisor to entrepreneurs and small business owners, struggling to boost revenues, profits, and earnings, I still see too many managers falling back on command-and-control, a focus on weaknesses, and not enough time for people. The result is lost productivity and a poorly engaged work force.

Coach 95

Coach Technical Review Satisfaction Examples 95

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

Richards--a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in a number of technology companies here, including NTI Group (sold to Blackboard), Internships.com, MP3.com, I've learned a lot, and my partner Paul has through our companies, and as a result, a lot of mistakes you make as an entrepreneur, we're not going to make.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2017

Aspiring entrepreneurs and new business owners often ask me for a secret formula for success, and they seem surprised when I tell them there isn’t one. Leaders need to reward experiments, rather than demand fixed processes. These are two sides of the same coin, and both lead to improved productivity and innovation.

Coach 57

Coach Mentor Organization Entrepreneur 57

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2018

Most entrepreneurs assume that success is dependent on their product expertise, coupled with some knowledge of how to run a business. Successful entrepreneurs today must practice human-centered leadership to compete and win. Effective entrepreneur leaders focus on getting people needs satisfied early.

Training 55

Training Coach Startup Entrepreneur 55

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. There is no free lunch.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

You can find a mentor, a coach, a project, or experience, to help you prepare for the role you are looking for. We were originally operating as a coaching company, and we built out this assessment technology for our own clients. Anne Fulton: I've always been an organizational psychologist crossed with a serial entrepreneur.

Help 100

Help Southern California Startup Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Good entrepreneurs are all about managing change, but too many forget that they have to change themselves as their dream evolves from a startup to a scalable business. You can’t demand total loyalty from all, so you have to learn to accept criticism without being defensive. Happy to work and live on your own terms. It’s a big change.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2022

You need to look for higher team collaboration and productivity around this hidden leader, as well as high individual performance. It’s no secret today that customers are more demanding than ever. Mentoring and coaching are also important. No team member leader can afford to ignore customer views.

Custom 110

Custom Customer Coach Organization 110

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). ” So Ethan went to work as a product manager at Google Video. I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2013

Great entrepreneurs have long been the epitome of people with a great work ethic. Now is the time to assess your own situation, set out clearly what you expect from each and every team member, and unleash the entrepreneur inside every employee. It extends directly to your customers through dependable products and services.

Startup 106

Startup Guide Organization Mentor 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2017

Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. They will call you back.

Tips 75

Tips Marketing Technical Review Startup 75

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Most of the guidance you see for entrepreneurs is aimed at those who are selling a product (Apple, Tesla, Xiaomi), or selling a service (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat). The “product” value is difficult to quantify, the costs are nebulous, and entrepreneurs have to clone themselves to scale the business.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and Founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. There is no free lunch.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. That’s where I see too much entrepreneur burnout, growth plateaus, and founders being replaced, to their chagrin. Of course, not every entrepreneur wants to tackle this challenge. There is no free lunch.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. I’ve been involved with SaaS companies with VCs who don’t understand demand generation, lead qualification, sales coverage ratios, sales forecasting or frankly when deals should be inside sales vs. outside sales. I think of VCs as coaches.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2013

Yet I see many entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. Don’t waste your time following up.

Startup 103

Startup Marketing Social Media Technical Review 103