Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

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. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Scott McCorkle has spent most of his professional career thinking about business to business software and how to improve it for a company’s customers. If customers are doing the things i want them to be doing through my product. “It is API embeddable and we have a full user experience layer.”

Chief Technology Officer 145

Chief Technology Officer SaaS Metrics Custom 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2022

As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. He talks in detail about ten of the key challenges that Facebook faced in their growth, to move from a tiny social media upstart to one of the most successful companies in the world.

Startup 144

Startup Social Media Metrics Custom 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Competition 99

Competition Services Startup Training 99

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. First in late-stage tech companies and then it will filter back to Growth and then A and ultimately Seed Rounds.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2017

Not so long ago, every business assumed that the keys to success were the highest quality product, the best value for the buck, and the best customer service. Now all we hear about is providing the best “customer experience.” You have to hear your customer’s dreams, goals, passions, and aspirations.

Custom 85

Custom Customer Product Marketing 85

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

This topic was well addressed in the classic book, “ The Invisible Advantage: How to Create a Culture of Innovation ,” by Soren Kaplan, who lays out the key steps to assess, disrupt, and reshape the existing culture of a company to get more innovation. Frame the way you want to change the world, and make it about the customer.

Develop 135

Develop Development Startup Metrics 135

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. I started my first company in 1999 and was admittedly swept up in all of this: Magazine covers, fancy conferences, artificial valuations and easy money.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Currently, TikTok relies heavily on digital advertising to bring in revenue, although this has not been as reliable of a profit stream in recent months as it has previously and is forcing the company to look for alternative ways to make money. By some metrics, certainly not.

Social Media 148

Social Media Startup Commerce News 148

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2022

According to what I see, as outlined by Surdak, this data surge is being driven by the following six technological and social trends: Mobility: smartphones, tablets, and the “Internet of things.” More and more company and personal services are being virtualized to the Cloud. Data enable: use metrics and measurements.

Startup 126

Startup Social Media Entertainment Metrics 126

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Some customer segments value the DVD business and these may be more price sensitive. Some customer segments value the convenience of instantly available films. Netflix needs to segment their customers and charge each what is appropriate. Netflix announced the changes to its company via a blog post. No, probably not.

Netflix 287

Netflix Custom Customer Pricing 287

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2022

Instead of sizing up new opportunities and actively courting every new customer, you start worrying about cutting costs, repeatable processes , and overtaking known competitors. As a consultant, I hate to see you lose that startup focus on innovation, change, and customers. How about in your industry?

Startup 154

Startup Artificial Inteligence Metrics Netflix 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2022

If you aren’t yet adapting to the market and your customers, you are falling behind. I define business agility for my consulting clients as the ability to change your business rapidly to meet customer and environmental changes, with minimal organizational disruption and cost. Adopt some key metrics to measure your change agility.

Competition 148

Competition Metrics Demand Custom 148

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2022

As a potential investor, I always think of the high rate of failure of disruptive technologies, due to the longer learning curve of customers, infrastructure change consistently required, and higher marketing costs. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by an initial innovation that has served your company well so far.

Technical Review 101

Technical Review Metrics Resource Software Review 101

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Startup 154

Startup Training Custom Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2011

New product startups rightfully begin with a heads-down focus on creating the ultimate product – whether it’s a new technology, a new look and ease of use, or a new low-cost delivery approach. Customer centricity is far more than providing excellent customer service, although that’s a step in the right direction.

Custom 90

Custom Customer Services Pricing 90

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Technology solutions are now used by authoritarians to monitor and control populations, to stymie an individual company’s economic prospects or to foment chaos through demagoguery. Are we in a bubble?”

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. It depends on the business, people, technologies, etc. Each situation is just a bit different.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

Some startups have a new technology, but stick to a tried-and-true business model. He makes the case, and I agree, that creativity in a company, large or small, doesn’t just happen – it requires a culture. Not just one innovation, but a culture that assures that you are never standing still on the technology or the business model.

Company 90

Company Companies Competition Netflix 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

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. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

Technical Review 160

Technical Review Technical Advisors Startup Mentor 160

socalTECH

JANUARY 5, 2009

Los Angeles-based Image Metrics (www.image-metrics.com) recently landed a $6.5M, Series B funding round for the firm's facial animation products. Tell us about your facial animation technology and how it's used? How did a company started in the UK end up here? It's very cool, and it's an unsolved problem, with real technology.

Metrics 100

Metrics Startup Sales Newsletter 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2021

For example, a few years ago, the company Beepi had a vision to build a new market for buying and selling used cars, but became overly focused on fundraising to grow fast, and ignored many customer complaints. Hypermetricemia – metrics for everything. Thus you are driven to short-term growth fixes versus radical change.

Metrics 133

Metrics Product Yahoo Examples 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

If you can’t provide a memorable customer experience, your startup won’t survive very long these days. According to many observers , we can thank or blame technology for these higher expectations, providing information at the speed of light, leading everyone to expect more. Every job on your team drives your customer experience.

Custom 55

Custom Customer Startup Coach 55

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience continues to decline. You have to start with hiring only people who are willing and able to make serious customer service happen.

Custom 92

Custom Customer Startup Services 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

I do believe that we are in structural change where technology will increasingly play a bigger role in all facets of life so the long run up for tech is promising through all of these cycles. And as I always assert, “Great companies are built in downturns. And it’s when mediocre companies get pulverized.”

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2022

The key elements of leadership in a company, both individual and organizational, are less tangible, but very critical in setting a market value for investment, acquisition, or going public. For startups, the entrepreneur and founder is almost always the face of the company. How much goodwill can you and your company command today?

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Funding Organization Coach 129

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

While these investors, and early customers, will always argue that they found you, I’m convinced that there is no substitute for aggressive networking on your part. Ability to relate aspirations to customer needs. You need to show insights to real customers and their needs, that get beyond your passions and projections.

Startup 113

Startup Custom Customer Technical Review 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2019

The pillars of change she details include the following: Embracing and adapting to technology. Technology is not the solution per se , but it provides the key enablement, drivers, and support for the required flexibility, integration, communication, metrics, and affordability that are required in the workplace today.

Company 78

Company Companies Coach Satisfaction 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2023

Networking to build and maintain positive relationships with the right people outside your company is something you can’t forget in the rush to get your new business going. Potential customers these days rely more and more on name recognition for credibility and new brand adoption. Put operational systems and metrics in place early.

Marketing 116

Marketing Resource Training Startup 116

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 31, 2012

New product startups rightfully begin with a heads-down focus on creating the ultimate product – whether it’s a new technology, a new look and ease of use, or a new low-cost delivery approach. Customer centricity is far more than providing excellent customer service, although that’s a step in the right direction.

Custom 90

Custom Customer Startup Pricing 90

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

What neither group seems to fully comprehend is that retail needs to fundamentally change to succeed, far beyond the addition of an online component, to meet the experience expectations of today’s generation, an oversupplied global marketplace, and technology for instant pricing and distribution. Look outside for benchmarks.

Custom 52

Custom Customer Technical Review Summary 52

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2023

Thus they are blindsided and try to react quickly when a new competitor starts stealing customers. For example, we all remember when Blockbuster realized too late that Netflix was stealing customers by offering videos online rather than via DVDs, but even then they were unable to adapt their processes and their thinking.

Metrics 71

Metrics Training Netflix Resource 71

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2023

New digital technologies, business models, and regulatory rulings are forcing all of us to think outside of our silos and rethink what it means to operate effectively. It is fair to bring in outside technology to reduce the risk and speed the implementation. Not having a means to measure holistic impact.

Outsource Development 140

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Metrics 140

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2012

You can’t succeed in your new startup if you can’t win customers, and the new Internet-empowered customers are tough. Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices.

Custom 93

Custom Customer Startup Competition 93

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2017

Of course, nobody really knows all of what tomorrow will bring, in terms of globalization, digital technology, or demographic shifts, but most experts agree that certain elements are already obvious, and things must be done today to get your business ready in time. Company culture drives decision making and process.

Company 55

Company Companies Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 55

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

You can’t succeed in your new startup if you can’t win customers, and the new Internet-empowered customers are tough. Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices.

Custom 88

Custom Customer Competition Metrics 88