Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2014

Sponsored by VISA Business Running a small business as an entrepreneur is a never-ending challenge of new products, customers, competitors, and an unpredictable economy. A good entrepreneur feels the incentive to offer a new service/product that no one else has offered before. Beat the competition. The cycle never stops.

Startup 92

Startup Tips Satisfaction Entrepreneur 92

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 6, 2011

Pull Quote: “If you are smart, competitive, hard working and passionate about what you do you will have the best experience of your life. We all make important, complicated decisions in our life and having accurate, objective data about our choices allow us to find and compare products that meet our needs.

Entrepreneur 232

Entrepreneur Competition Software Review Course 232

Tech.Co

AUGUST 1, 2017

Once a novelty act reserved for indie band albums and curious art projects, crowdfunding is starting to play a major role in the world of startups and new products. Your campaign page should clearly highlight your track record, what you’ve already put in place to make your vision a reality, and why you are the one with the skills for the job.

Startup 93

Startup Social Media Tips Ideas 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2015

To make this work, you need heavy traffic on your site -- probably at least a million page views per month -- which most sites never achieve in their lifetimes. While you are doing all this work, of course, you need deep pockets to fund all your efforts, content and growing website hosting fees.

Advertising 99

Advertising PPC CPC Sites 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Entrepreneurs have no trouble focusing on how to build a product, and the good ones know how to find and nurture those first critical customers. Of course, everyone is happy when the numbers keep going up, but the data needs to be mined constantly for deeper meanings and trends. Operating productivity. Size of gross margin.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

There was no viral social networking products back then like Twitter where people could easily discover your content. We started building the product 18 months ago so we are in better shape than 99% of start-ups. Dare I steer off the course from the tried-and-true PowerPoint ritual? Page 1: Market Size. $3 I was wrong.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 24, 2011

We all make important, complicated decisions in our life and having accurate, objective data about our choices allow us to find and compare products that meet our needs. Hmmm, I actually don’t read other entrepreneurial books or blogs – except infoChachkie of course [Editor’s Note: Kevin is clearly full of it here!].

Blogging 219

Blogging Entrepreneur Software Review Course 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

Most entrepreneurs I know are too busy creating a compelling product to give proper focus to the four phases of building a people and media platform that Hyatt says are equally critical for long-term success: Platform creation prior to launch. Building your home base with personal and product traction.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

They are the classic case of the Innovator’s Dilemma because they fundamentally can’t innovate on their product and can’t lower costs or their business craters. And it’s easy to run circles around them as our product differentiation shows. Growing our Product Lines. It worked perfectly. This was painful.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

I was recently talking with a startup company who wanted me to try their product. I’m a big believer in product stability & performance before adding too many features. You’ll have no idea when you’re off course. If you have multiple versions of your product, how many are web vs. mobile? It has to come from somewhere.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

Even if your product is a technological marvel, I look for balanced strength on the team in finance, marketing and operations. Startup leaders have to be relentlessly resourceful in overcoming obstacles and competition. Now, of course, Page and Brin have that same credibility with their successes at Google.

Startup 60

Startup Entrepreneur Software Review Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

Most entrepreneurs I know are too busy creating a compelling product to give proper focus to the four phases of building a people and media platform that are equally critical for long-term success: Platform creation prior to launch. Building your home base with personal and product traction. Using the platform to expand your reach.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Tech.Co

MAY 22, 2018

I’ve had many startup founders tell me that their startup literally has no competition,” said Frank Gruber, Cofounder of Tech.Co, Startup of the Year , and Established. “In What startup teams don’t realize is that having competition is good. Founders are understandably very passionate about their product and startup.

Tips 70

Tips Help Slides Technical Review 70

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

After the first few hundred applications, every word on the page is like Velcro across our eyeballs (which, btw, is why you should never wait until the last minute to apply to a popular accelerator program). We once received an application that ran 22 pages – of text, no graphics! You don’t need to list your competition in both places.

Tips 70

Tips Startup Statistics Metrics 70

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

The idea actually came to him from the Yellow Pages business. He took out an ad in the Yellow Pages (it was the early 80′s, pre Internet), which cost him $1,000 / month for a half-page ad. So the Yellow Page business was always “pay for placement.&#. If it worked in the Yellow Pages, why not on the Internet?

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Maybe small amounts of money for what founders reading these pages dream of but life-changing for many. Of course you know Gangnam Style , which is now the most viewed video in history at 1.3 think Amazon) and therefore hits with high production costs were more suited to the medium. Gangnam Style Meets Torso TV. billion views.

Startup 380

Startup Media Content Platform 380

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2015

As eBay, we have the ability to really focus on a more, family friendly experience, and put more customer service behind our product. Of course, we have technology to help us with that, but we offer human intervention to make sure that transactions go smoothly. However, classifies have not yet caught up with mobile.

San Diego 100

San Diego Mobile Marketing Sites 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

Of course that’s true. I felt this myself as we went from a few founders huddled into a tiny room to the front page of the Financial Times, an influx of VC interest, magazine covers, invitations to high-profile events and the pressures of trying to live up to this perception and the economic opportunities everybody expected.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. I have always worked on early stage products. Some of the products I’ve helped validate and launch include GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting and AppFolio.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Of course none of these funds (my own included) want to be lumped into just one category because we all move across the spectrum. But truthfully both Dana and I are more aligned with the lean startup principles and believe you only go FAT when you’ve really proved out your product / market fit. I would also note that they claim 2.1

Venture Capital 240

Venture Capital Startup Platform Technical Review 240

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Let’s face it– between finalizing your product for launch and working with developers to get the site or app up (or maybe you are a developer yourself), a marketing strategy, big or small, can feel like a bad hangover the same morning you need to go into work. Go here for a free crash-course on design for non-designers.

Guide 105

Guide Startup Marketing Template 105

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Hilariously simple tutorials, gaming, Windows 8 real-time, Windows Azure as a virtually unlimited scaling mechanism, and of course, awesome web and mobile possibilities are just a few of the examples you’ll see demonstrated. Leveraging these techniques should put you on an even playing field or ahead of the native app competition.

Training 65

Training Technical Review Technology Software Review 65

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 22, 2013

Our most popular product is our Facebook app. Any event or artist can add this to their Facebook page and they can see all the photos and videos from the audience. Our latest product we are excited about is a dashboard that allows you to keep track of your fans. It helps you understand who your fans are and what they do.

Social Media 94

Social Media Startup UCLA Media 94

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

Nanea help leadership roles at EA (SVP, COO Global Online), Gaikai (Chief Product Officer, Chief Strategy Officer), JAMDAT (SVP), Machinma (COO) and currently textPlus (President & COO – including leading engineering and product). Here are some things we discussed: User experience focused product management.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Blogging RSS Organization 315

socalTECH

JULY 20, 2009

We give them options and advice on the best course to reach their goals, such as responding quickly and getting to market faster. We also provide production support, and we're also very proactive in monitoring items that might affect them, supporting the specific versions of software they are running.

IBM 100

IBM IBM Mission Ventures Venture Capital 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

Yes, it’s true that FOMO (fear of missing out) is driving some irrational behavior and valuations amongst uber competitive deals and well-financed VCs. Try charging customers for your product when you have 12 competitors giving the product away free finances by $20 million of VC. The Exit Problem. Today’s Normalization.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

With new micro VC entrants into to early-stage investing plus increased competition from angels, incubators and the like – traditional VCs have taken notice. And of course hedge funds and growth-equity funds can’t resist trying to get earlier-stage exposure again. The Blurring of Investment Lines.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Capital Software Startup 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2016

Turning the Urgency Addiction into a Competitive Asset. Of course you’re supposed to prioritize things that are important but not yet urgent!). If for some reason the meeting isn’t productive for me and I can’t see a way to make it more productive I simply begin taking notes for other tasks I need to complete.

Tips 150

Tips Startup Help Mobile 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

And better yet, the company has a product that will turn the stream into a lake. DataSift has a product that builds a permanent database for you of just the information you want to capture. And of course in my 700 are people like Bill Gates and Barack Obama, neither of whom follows me just yet Asymmetric works both ways.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issues, technology trends, funding rounds, etc. Angels will largely take a product risk (they bet on the product or idea and your ability to build it). “A” The team, of course, is just as important as the product or idea.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 12, 2010 This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches. Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Make it unique.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2011

The sign up page for the event is here & there is limited availability. It is intended for product & tech people – mostly people who want to build cool stuff on the Twitter platform and it will showcase some really cool stuff that has been built on Twitter. .” But of course not everybody has.

News 324

News Web Email Startup 324

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 12, 2017

Some, of course, agree with me that BuzzFeed has been and continues to be the gold standard innovator in digital media to emulate. Of course we all had the Utopian view as technologists often do but the laws of unintended consequences takes over. For example, one product alone — Tasty — is consumed by 500 million people per month.

Buzzfeed 210

Buzzfeed Media Content News 210