socalTECH

JUNE 11, 2018

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Scot Lawrie , the President and technical Co-founder of Los Angeles-based Coverfly (www.coverfly.com), and John Rhodes , Coverfly's head of Marketing and Business Development, to learn a bit more about the early stage, bootstrapped startup focused on Hollywood script writers. What is Coverfly?

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Hollywood Platform Competition 100

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. Regularly follow reviews and influencers in your industry. Ask the right questions, and listen to your customers.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

What every entrepreneur needs more than anything else, after they have built an innovative new product or service, is visibility, credibility, and trust by customers, potential employees, and future business partners. Yet, most good business people I know agree, but don’t know where to start.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. A host of bloggers and publishers are seeing their revenues massively dented, from tiny BBQ grill review sites to the hugest media organizations around.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Buzzfeed News Networking 129

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Too Techie - Tone down emphasis on the technology underlying your venture; an interested investor will perform tech diligence at the appropriate time. What does your pain reliever look like, how is it implemented by the customer and what future products do you expect to roll out? Competition.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should. If you like the quick summary notes, please check out Adam’s blog on tech, entrepreneurship & VC as a thank you.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 8, 2014

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Dont give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost wont help you if you cant make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 95

Outsource Development Outsource Offshore Software Review 95

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

If I’m interested I get to spend more time with them, if I’m not I don’t have to – A few companies per month come in that have fascinating business ideas that warrant my spending more time trying to understand their people, company, technology and market. I get paid to network – I love meeting people.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

I recall being impressed with Jeff, but I was concerned that he was creating a platform, which often requires a significant amount of capital, takes an extended amount of time to establish and can be subject to margin pressure as the enabling technologies become commoditized. Tech Diligence - Consider The Source.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. While many tech startups do this intuitively (say, SnapChat thinking it would be much better if our photos out partying disappeared) it still happens. So they’ll have to look for other competitive advantages for distribution.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

So before you decide to move your manufacturing, software development, or call center out of town, make sure you understand the following considerations: Don’t give someone else control of your competitive advantage. Saving cost won’t help you if you can’t make the daily innovations required to stay competitive. Marty Zwilling.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers. They’re in beta).

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Ask your customer why you lost. Write things down. Specifically: 1.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. China is indelibly an important part of the future of the global technology system. Ask your customer why you lost. Write things down. Specifically: 1.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

Patents held by startups generally have a limited ability to reduce competition. One is obvious, without protection, such IP might prove to be of little worth, as other companies can mimic the technology without recourse. Most US high-tech companies begin the utility patent process by filing a provisional patent application.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

Value is created through diligent hard work. Once you prove that a substantial number of people are willing to pay more for your solution than it costs you to provide it, you can then consider licensing your underlying technology. Thus, you have negotiating leverage as long as a legitimate, competitive threat exists.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

Thus, you must first create the playbook by which an independent sales rep can readily sell your product, including: identifying objections and developing strategies to overcome them, creating reference accounts and establishing meaningful customer adoption. Value is created through diligent hard work. 3) Attempt To License An Idea.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 9, 2012

You must convince dispassionate, objective customers that your value proposition is worthy of their cash. Accomplished entrepreneurs are curious about their customers' desires, competitors' future strategic directions and their industry's technological trends. Friendly constituents will not sustain your startup.

Tips 277

Tips Startup Entrepreneur Entertainment 277

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. It included one firm who I asked not to call Salesforce.com as a reference (they were our largest pilot customer) and in their kindness they called Marc Benioff (the CEO) and asked his opinion. That changed very quickly.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

It made me laugh because the technical world has this exact phrase to talk in computing sense about the need to block out interruptions in order to complete a task. They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. I believe in consensus building and understand Sikakkar’s sentiment.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. They decided to re-open the competition for 3-4 more weeks. I don’t want to lose next time.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

I had worked as a tutor for Princeton Review, and Jake for Kaplan. We thought, we could put out a better product than Kaplan or Princeton Review, which would be more compelling, and also would tie in a strong social mission. On the SAT/ACT side, in classroom tutoring, we have used our technology to automate the back office.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

InfoChachkie

MAY 23, 2011

Exclusivity excludes your startup from taking full advantage of future customer, partner and market opportunities. As noted in Alliances , startups with compelling technologies can often form an alliance of partners around their unique solutions. Write this number down. As such, deals are not exclusive, they are excludesive.

Technical Review 183

Technical Review Marketing Sales Competition 183

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

You are particularly vulnerable if: You have revenue concentration (few customers each providing a large total of percentage of your revenue). You have a large number of startup customers (because when markets crash they have a funny way of going bankrupt quickly or cutting burn precipitously).

Startup 383

Startup Company Companies .Net 383

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2010

I’m writing this post to make sure you’re all on that same playing field. Fortunately I was mostly a technology consultant, which meant that I coded computers, designed databases and planned system integration projects. He said, literally, I sh*t you not, “well, my report was due and I didn’t have much time.

Statistics 415

Statistics Startup Report Research 415

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

I’ll try to get write-ups shortly but for now here is an overview of my interview with Nanea Reeves – President and COO of textPlus. Nanea Reeves has a storied career in senior leadership roles at technology companies. Office politics – including Nanea’s experience being a woman in technology.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Blogging RSS Organization 315

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. Responses ranged from, “hey, they’re in a HUGE market&# to “it is an amazing company and their technology rocks.&# For others it feels like a two-speed economy, where rules apply to hot tech startups that don’t apply elsewhere. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing. I don’t intend either, Burstly has respectable and strong competition. He’s a natural leader, appropriately competitive, very customer focused and a pleasure to work with.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Yet, despite his exceptional courtroom theatrics, you would be foolhardy to hire good old Johnnie to review your software cross-licensing agreement. Once you draft the straightforward text, sans the legal mumbo-jumbo, ask your lawyer to review the text to ensure your layman descriptions do not result in an unintended interpretation.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. He listed all of the product releases that were up coming, the customers that were in the pipeline and where he saw his competition moving.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

How Most Board Meeting Prep Works I’ve been sitting on tech boards for two decades so I have some experience with what goes wrong. This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever. This is part of a broader series on Board Meetings.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

. - Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - But more broadly it got me thinking to one of the biggest mistakes tech executives get into in the first place.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

I remind founders that the no’s come early because it’s super easy to qualify out a deal that you know is unlikely due to stage, focus, geography, competitive deal you’ve done or even just the fact that you’re too busy right now. And in a later post I’ll write about why you want them to fall of the fence even if it means “no.”

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232