Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

What I’m talking about here is a level of discipline and skill necessary to collect and analyze the relevant business data, known as metrics. Here is my selection of ten key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but too many small businesses only monitor haphazardly, if at all: Sales revenue.

Metrics 106

Metrics Startup Sales Statistics 106

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. On the one hand, you’re over paying for every investment and valuations aren’t rational. dot-com bonanza. Seed has become an option factory for many.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entree for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2022

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 135

Social Media Framework Media Metrics 135

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

During my time in Silicon Valley, I was struck by the fact that most successful entrepreneurs seemed to personally know and regularly hear from all the “movers and shakers” who had the investment capital and leadership they needed. Using metrics to measure results and commitments. Marketing your personal brand and your vision.

Startup 113

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 113

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know all of this because every VC knows this because we’ve all either funded companies that have marketing technology or we’ve seen a pitch with a company that does this. Your deck should be so good that a VC asks you for permission to show it to his or her portfolio companies. Many of my colleagues do, too.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2023

I see this happening in smaller ways often, where there is minimal focus on competition. Here are some key initiatives that I recommend to every business owner and leader to stave off new competitors before they seriously impact or cause a competitive crisis in your business: Continually compare yourself to known competitors.

Metrics 71

Metrics Training Netflix Resource 71

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

You need to work just as hard to convince investors that you are the best person to take your idea from a dream to a successful business, and provide an impressive return on their investment at the same time. Offer an attractive and viable investment equation. He didn’t have any big technical shoe innovations.

Ideas 140

Ideas Entrepreneur Equity Resource 140

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets.

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2022

After many years in business, working in large companies as well as startups, I’m no longer surprised at why mature and successful companies struggle with introducing innovative new ventures as the market and environment changes. Make sure everyone comes with an entrepreneur mindset for real innovation.

Incubator 143

Incubator Seed Funding Metrics Customer 143

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought. Some examples of common objections across many companies: 1. It is tacit knowledge. You can have best of both worlds.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 13, 2014

Back when we were all trying to figure out the real value of traffic on the web, we investors – and acquiring companies – got a bit crazy with metrics used to value acquisitions and investments. That is the quandary which entrepreneurs face today in building models for new companies around a web presence.

Metrics 207

Metrics Sites Advertising Web 207

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 3, 2019

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 96

Social Media Media Marketing Metrics 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2022

Bigger organizations should invest in the new “big data” tools. Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results. Most companies I know will claim to be busy collecting and analyzing data, but very few actually use it to drive people management. Subjectively measuring employee engagement.

Tool 121

Tool Statistics Entrepreneur Metrics 121

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 12, 2015

In my experience, finding real innovation in existing company environments is even tougher. It starts with a vision, but benefits quickly from a structured process of idea generation, evaluation, prototyping, customer feedback, and success metrics. Innovation is not a random walk into the unknown. Set milestones and meet them.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 101

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2010

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor. Competition and sustainable advantage.

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 12, 2010

Spark Capital is relatively new to VC (founded in 2005) yet has become one of the hottest new VCs having invested in Twitter, Tumblr, AdMeld, Boxee, KickApps and many more companies. Company grew by more than “400% each year” for past few years [assume growth metric = revenues]. Our guest was Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital.

Venture Capital 217

Venture Capital Capital Metrics Competition 217

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2014

It’s super hard not to want to spend more time with these companies. For all the things he’s likely known for, he probably hasn’t yet built a strong relationship as an early stage venture investor (he invests often in later-stage deals where he is very respected). Competition is fierce. Why am I so lucky?

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Email 333

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2022

How does any entrepreneur define the right balance, and then measure their performance against real metrics? The real opportunity for entrepreneurs is to provide solutions that solve a problem better than the competition, while also providing sustainability and social responsibility. The whole can be greater than the sum of the parts.

Startup 110

Startup Entrepreneur Capital Examples 110

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

Use metrics to assess needs and growth economics. Business and customer satisfaction data measurements are required, in addition to subjective assessments of team progress, tradeoffs, and investment decisions. A popular set of metrics for customer views is the New Promoter System ( NPS ), available from Bain & Company.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2021

To keep you on a positive track with potential investors, I recommend the following logic principles, to balance your passion in presenting your vision of a new business: Make sure your plan includes some business metrics. Postulate competitive reactions and your responses. Don’t forget to focus on the value of you and your team.

Entrepreneur 162

Entrepreneur Social Media Examples Metrics 162

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

An alternate outcome that I also unfortunately observe in some cases are companies who had extreme early success with an initial product adoption but failed in key areas that limited the growth and therefore the ultimate financial outcomes. I see many companies that don’t make this transition well.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Do you need a board when you first start you company? Time based as in “a guaranteed right for 12 months, which can be renewed by mutual board consent” and event based “a guaranteed right until the company has raised $x million from new investors.” This is the norm and unless you have a hugely competitive round it’s not worth fighting.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In a larger public company, it’s all about making your quarterly numbers, versus investing in strategic growth alternatives that may not pay off until several quarters later. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. There is an inherent value that any company has. I acknowledged this in the article.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Things that make it investment-grade for outside investors will also benefit you, since you are the ultimate investor. Competition and sustainable advantage.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2018

I will suggest to you as a business owner and entrepreneur that focus on certain key behaviors will drive innovation without waiting for the next competitive crisis: Be outspoken in communicating proactive required change. Too many companies try to force a sense of employee urgency through deadlines and performance goals.

Metrics 58

Metrics IBM IBM Competition 58

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Let me start by saying that Clayton is one of the most influential people on my thoughts about markets that led to both the concept behind my first startup and my main theses in investing. We also spoke about technology systems in the perspective of global competition. New company in Boston with a model called “royalty capital.”

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model. You need product / market fit.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Originally created in the mid 1990’s to help with the imprecise problem of how to value early stage companies, especially those in technology, I developed what soon became known as “The Berkus Method” when published in the popular book, “Winning Angels” by Harvard’s Amis and Stevenson with my permission in 2001. Well, it had to happen.

Startup 120

Startup Examples Metrics Marketing 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

You have to understand whether they’re likely to yield revenue growth in the near term OR whether you have access to cheap enough capital to fund your losses until your investments pay off. Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Normally the goal is to make enough money to be sustainable and provide a return on the investment of constituents. Together they set the standard for collaboration and culture that will make or break the company. Manage the business with metrics and goals. Treat every business dollar as a personal one.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

I realized a while back that creating a new company for the first time is a lot like whipping up a great dinner entrée for the first time – you need a recipe, even though it may look simple. All the investment money in the world won’t make your company succeed, if you have the wrong team. Make them “feel the love.”

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2019

In addition to quantifying the positives of the customer lifetime value metric, they address the mistakes that I see regularly in my business advisory service relative to assessing the value of customers and value, including the following: Failing to account for current customer status and stage.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Metrics 85

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2017

They randomly churn for hours a day on a couple of their favorite social media platforms, with little thought given to goals, objectives, or metrics; and ultimately give up and fall back to traditional marketing approaches. Create an action plan with metrics. Measuring is all about return-on-investment (ROI). Marty Zwilling.

Social Media 62

Social Media Media Metrics SEO 62