Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. Overtly connect every operational problem to your strategy, rather than putting strategy on a different plane and making it only an annual event. Don’t make growth a big-bang event.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

New unmet consumer or customer needs. Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. If one metric changes, it may not be significant, but someone needs to monitor whole categories for fluctuations that may be a weak signal. Broad disruptive events.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur eBook Metrics Examples 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2019

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Startup 94

Startup Training Statistics Summary 94

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

When pitching to investors, entrepreneurs always seem to start with a customer pitch, then add a slide or two about the business. In every case, the relevant pitch needs to start by highlighting a real customer problem, then outlining a new solution, with all the features and disruptive technology.

Product 103

Product Slides Custom Customer 103

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

If angel investors are pressuring you to set up a board and if you don’t have the leverage to push back a little then I might suggest a 3-person board in which all 3 seats are appointed by the common stock and you agree to appoint one of these seats to the angel investor but perhaps make it either time based or event based.

Startup 236

Startup Venture Capital Tips Capital 236

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 11, 2019

Every entrepreneur and business leader believes that he or she has the full trust of their team and their customers, and in fact most do in the beginning. Define metrics to measure what you want to achieve. A trusted leader knows that all negotiations with an individual are cumulative, not independent and soon forgotten events.

Mentor 98

Mentor News Summary Coach 98

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Startups should begin by selecting just a few of the vast array of social media offerings out there, and customize based on results. Ask yourself where are the influencers in your market, the majority of your target customers, and what type of interaction will be most productive to your business? Don’t forget the metrics and analytics.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

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. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2015

New unmet consumer or customer needs. Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. If one metric changes, it may not be significant, but someone needs to monitor whole categories for fluctuations that may be a weak signal. Broad disruptive events. Re-evaluating relentlessly for the agility to survive.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur eBook Metrics Startup 106

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2017

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Startup 56

Startup Training Statistics Summary 56

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2012

Your value chain consists of customers, partners, vendors, internal systems, and your own team. This requires executives and a team that understands the parameters, and is focused on customers, quality, and continuous improvement. Communicate effectively with the team and customers. Facilitate the power of your team.

Ideas 94

Ideas Startup Summary Competition 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2014

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Entrepreneur 110

Entrepreneur Startup Training Statistics 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

In fact, a business plan is needed more by you than investors, as the blueprint for your company, team communication, and progress metrics. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution.

Competition 116

Competition Metrics Startup Sales 116

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2011

Your value chain consists of customers, partners, vendors, internal systems, and your own team. This requires executives and a team that understands the parameters, and is focused on customers, quality, and continuous improvement. Communicate effectively with the team and customers. Facilitate the power of your team.

Startup 100

Startup Ideas Summary Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2017

New unmet consumer or customer needs. Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. If one metric changes, it may not be significant, but someone needs to monitor whole categories for fluctuations that may be a weak signal. Broad disruptive events.

eBook 52

eBook Metrics Examples Startup 52

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2013

New unmet consumer or customer needs. Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. If one metric changes, it may not be significant, but someone needs to monitor whole categories for fluctuations that may be a weak signal. Broad disruptive events.

eBook 95

eBook Metrics Startup Examples 95

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 29, 2012

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Startup 93

Startup Training Statistics Summary 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

From his own successes and failures in this domain, he explains how the rules and customer expectations have changed in today’s world, and he offers some practical guidance on how to survive in this new world. Flexible business models, including value-based pricing, bundling, and custom proposals are the places to begin.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Startup 94

Startup Marketing Training Statistics 94

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth. Liabilities: Your liabilities detract from your venture’s value.

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

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. Terms like “every customer needs this” and “next generation platform” are far too soft, and should be avoided. Clearly define the customer, channel, and revenue model associated with this solution.

Invest 74

Invest Tips Competition Metrics 74

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Partly out of the fact that in 1 week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees. Ask them to mention you to the press, speak about you on stage when they do public events, whatever. Further Reading.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 6, 2010

The solution is to establish and maintain a culture and processes that don’t view change as a discrete event to be spotted and managed, but as an ongoing opportunity to improve competitiveness. How good are you and everyone on your team at proactively scanning the environment for opportunities, emerging trends, and customer feedback?

Startup 78

Startup Training Statistics Summary 78

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

If this is the case, offer to make a meaningful introduction to a potential customer or partner of one of their portfolio companies. For instance, you might propose a lead sharing relationship in which both companies trade customer introductions. Yes, I am advising you to sandbag your prospective investors.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Custom 236

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

How much money will airlines companies, hotel companies or event companies pay me as a referral or for booking? After a year in the market, MakeSpace was growing rapidly and our biggest issue was CAC (customer acquisition costs) relative to payback period (when we get our marketing investment back) and relative to LTV (lifetime value).

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Joergen Aaboe – Momentfeed , combining life foot traffic with reduced customer acquisition costs. Alex Taub – Social Rank , Twitter metrics and engagement tool. For those who’ve been to SXSW, you’re in the know – and the social aspect is just as important as the daytime events, talks, networking, etc.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2017

Measure your agility by putting metrics on change. Old views of change rates are no longer competitive. Count the number of new projects, time and resources required to implement, and measure the return in revenue, customer satisfaction, or cost savings. Create a non-online memorable customer experience.

Custom 52

Custom Customer Technical Review Summary 52

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

After reviewing her day-by-day recommendations to improve productivity in a single week, I have extrapolated her guidance to ten productivity tips specifically for entrepreneurs to regain that competitive edge: Focus on managing yourself rather than managing others. Define clear goals and metrics for your productivity.

Tips 100

Tips Activity Startup Product 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

The movie, “The Social Network” might have had more of an impact on creating future entrepreneurs than any other event of the past 5 years. 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. Thank you, Aaron Sorkin! The Exit Problem.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347