Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2019

Much has been written recently about the requirement to focus today on the total customer experience, as a competitive edge or even for survival. The challenge I hear from savvy business owners and entrepreneurs operating on a shoestring is that providing a superior customer experience costs money.

Customer 96

Customer Custom Coach Pricing 96

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 30, 2014

In order to support all of these teams, there are several on-campus startup competitions every year, from the Silicon Beach USC competition to the New Venture Seed Competition, with prize funds to help build the companies. The post HipTraveler | Taking Startup Competitions by Storm appeared first on TechZulu.

Competition 104

Competition Startup USC Southern California 104

Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

But while competition remains fierce, the advancement and accessibility of smart solutions are making it easy than ever for startups to find their feet. Business tools — from customer relationship management ( CRM ) platforms to accounting software — help to save startups time and money by automating key processes and maximizing efficiency.

Tool 131

Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your “secret sauce,” you need to keep the work in-house. Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced.

Software Review 114

Software Review Technical Review Outsource Development Outsource 114

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.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Marketing 85

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startups are usually so focused on selling more of their branded product or service to their own customer base (organic growth) that they don’t consider the more indirect methods (non-organic growth) of increasing revenue and market share. Fresh customer base. Even mergers and acquisitions (M&A) came quickly. New management skills.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 26, 2022

At the time, the company raised $2 million, and Alexandrov said about the perceived competition, “The level of competition in this market in the U.S. We are creating new habits of customers. On-demand grocery startup Food Rocket launches in the Bay Area, goes up against delivery giants. “We locations.

Funding 246

Funding Demand Los Angeles Competition 246

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

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. Your customers’ biggest need is not for more things. Your best strategy is to find more customers that fit the things you do best, rather than building more things.

Competition 65

Competition Social Media Metrics Customer 65

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Bill had previously created a packaged software company called Knowledge Adventure the produced children’s educational software. He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. So he founded … wait … CitySearch.

Competition 350

Competition Idealab Product CitySearch 350

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020

Los Angeles-based cloud identity management software developer Saviynt says it saw record growth during the first half of 2020--despite the pandemic--saying it saw a 48 percent growth in recurring revenue. The company attributed the growth to "product innovation, competitive customer wins, and key partnership additions."

Competition 113

Competition Software Development Los Angeles Tool 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 24, 2018

Redland-based geographical information systems (GIS) software maker Esri announced this morning that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU), with the national statistics agency for the United Arab Emirates. According to Esri, the MOU came with the UAE's Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA).

Statistics 113

Statistics Competition Software Customer 113

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 19, 2015

Computers and the Internet have now brought in a new era that relies on data to make profitable business decisions in the competitive environment. Below is a full explanation of how small businesses can leverage technology to earn a competitive advantage in the marketplace. BPM Software. Cloud Services. CRM Platforms.

Competition 40

Competition Technology Social Media Tips 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

For example, I believe that Starbucks surprised most people by proving that they could take a commodity business, a coffee shop, and make it a worldwide profit winner, just by justifying premium pricing with a quality product, the right locations, personalized service, and appealing to the professional customer personas.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 12, 2016

Put simply Chuck is amongst the smartest and most knowledgeable leaders in the CRM industry and in the components I consider the future of enterprise software — voice driving input/output, chat-based computing and mobile-first design. If you’re a consumer software company your buyer is your user. Why Invest? Why Invest?

Software 105

Software Mobile Artificial Inteligence Oracle 105

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. o Early on they hired 3 people from ACT software at once (more team hiring) on staff and supplement it with Agency (in LA worked with First Communications – good). o Put a timeframe/money – competition in the picture.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

That is, businesses are using APIs like crazy to stay competitive and communicate with both partners and customers more effectively. According to the team, the driving philosophy behind Mission Control was to help the world create better software. Image Credit: Wikipedia .

Software 78

Software Netflix Competition Design 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Focus on collecting customer references.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Pricing Software Review Customer 88

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 20, 2020

Therein lies the advantages of free markets and competition and if we really believed it were that easy to buy off your largest competitor and be a monopolist we’d all be surfing on AOL TimeWarner portals. Customers were happy and restaurants focused on their in-store business. they just put up with the food delivery company fees.

SaaS 242

SaaS Customer Custom Technical Review 242

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

As organizations we have become more open and I believe this is great for businesses and their customers. We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features.

Organization 280

Organization Customer Custom Tips 280

Tech.Co

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Unlike a lot of grants on this list, the competition is open to all US small businesses, as long as they have fewer than 99 employees, have been operating for at least six months, and have a FedEx business account that's been open before September 1, 2023. It's competitive though – last year 18,000 applicants competed for only 12 slots.

Technical Review 194

Technical Review Software Review Startup Competition 194

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

The market is changing so fast these days, and if you are not planning a solution today for tomorrow’s customers, you may be setting yourself up for failure and don’t even realize it. There are many free generalized tools, including Google Trends , which can be used to track customer behavior in looking for things that don’t exist yet.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. If your software or your manufacturing process is your “secret sauce,” you need to keep the work in-house. Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced.

Outsource Development 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 29, 2016

Management undertakes a simple exercise of calculating the increased profitability of shutting down all R&D, sales and subordinate operations, and universally notes with shock the high net profit that results – from shutting down all operations except customer service to recurring customers (as in software support operations.).

.Net 226

.Net Sales Customer Custom 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Focus on collecting customer references.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

For example, I once worked for a small software company selling a sophisticated enterprise workflow solution. All this was done without damaging anyone’s credibility, or stealing customers. It’s very unusual for two competitors to have exactly the same strengths – in development, marketing, distribution, or customer support.

Startup 173

Startup Outsource Development Examples Customer 173

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

He has forgotten that new technologies are perceived by most customers as causing more pain than the problems they hope to eliminate. Yet we all know that many customers delay their adoption of the latest software platform, and fancy new hardware, for a year or two until all the “kinks” are worked out of them. Marty Zwilling.

Customer 95

Customer Custom Technology Marketing 95

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. A healthy respect for your competition will serve you well.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

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. Your customers’ biggest need is not for more things. Your best strategy is to find more customers that fit the things you do best, rather than building more things.

Startup 144

Startup Social Media Metrics Customer 144

socalTECH

DECEMBER 5, 2011

Santa Monica-based Nimble , the developer of customer relationship management and contacts management software headed by Goldmine Software founder Jon Ferrara, looks to be shifting its sights to paid, business accounts. The firm's biggest competition is Salesforce.com. READ MORE>>.

Santa Monica 213

Santa Monica Social Network Competition Software 213

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA , which I wrote about previously. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it. Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

socalTECH

APRIL 1, 2019

com), which is developing analytics software which leverages mobile phones for data on customers. The hypothesis was, companies are in an extremely competitive environment, and it doesn't matter what company or industry they are in, it's been one of the most competitive environments we've seen in a long time.

Startup 113

Startup Culver City Competition Customer 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2023

Competition is not always a bad thing, and the real purpose is often to make the world a better place. Design the full stack, not just a new software element. It’s also a good defensive move, to preempt competition, which is bound to come world-wide. In Silicon Valley’s classic model, startups must start “asset light.”

Capital 138

Capital Marketing Ideas Venture Capital 138

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2016

Contrary to popular opinion, viral marketing has not eliminated the need for old-fashioned lead generation to bring customers to a startup. Display ads on mobile devices, including video and audio, also offer a new opportunity to reach target customers. Display advertising. Email marketing.

Customer 60

Customer Custom Marketing Social Media 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2021

There is no substitute for talking to customers, analyzing your competition, and honing your solution to meet a target market segment. In general, I see that the strategic cycle for most companies gets longer and longer as they mature, which kills any ability to stay competitive. You already have a large and loyal customer base.

Marketing 138

Marketing Demand IBM IBM 138

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

There were startups and a software industry but barely. In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. They wanted to build new products, solve problems that were unfilled by the last generation of software companies and grow revenue year-over-year while holding costs in check.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

Consumers buying through smart phones, travelers using the new, shared economy and businesses replacing old software with modern cloud-based solutions. It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. And importantly we’ve had revenue. It has been a good run.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354