Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

As a tech startup grows it needs to develop more process & management if it is to scale. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. Prices are too high – Inexperienced sales reps will try to convince you they need to lower price to win deals.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

For example, many investors I know tell me they look for business plans that allocate the largest portion of a requested investment to marketing, but most often see the top “ use of funds ” to be further product or service development. The smart ones were already working on new features, and able to counter competition quickly.

Marketing 133

Marketing Customer Custom Outsource Development 133

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. That keeps people from pushing themselves to develop the kind of new solutions that will permanently change the business for the better, versus short-term band-aids.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. presented pricing challenges when compared to a whole new set of offline competitors we didn’t know well.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

One of the pitfalls of optimism is the expectation for early customer growth, and understating the real costs of design, development, and inventory. Your customers and competition make unexpected moves. Smarter entrepreneurs don’t wait for a crisis to drive change, by defining key milestones and metrics for tracking progress.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

Yet, in my experience as a mentor to entrepreneurs, the majority of failures I see are related to starting and growing the business, not developing the solution. A successful business requires focus – define the customer need with a specific solution for a specific price and cost. Manage the business with metrics and goals.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Solution development and delivery. Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

When they look at buying your company they often think in terms of “how long will it take until I earn back the profits to pay for my acquisition price?” I also try to understand things like how you’re pricing your product, how your competitors price and what your pricing expectations will be in the future.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

Solution development and delivery. Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

socalTECH

MARCH 6, 2017

What we're trying to positions ourselves as, and it might sound touchy-feely, is a friend to app developers and app owners who have mobile applications. A lot of what we've been looking at are the metrics. It seem that now, versus a few years ago, it's a lot more competitive to try to get out and acquire a user profitably for an app.

Media 153

Media Mobile Startup Acquisition 153

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2012

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Business model. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 97

Summary Writing Competition Sample 97

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2015

Competitor positioning and sustainable competitive advantage. Of course, these should never be in a customer pitch, but investors expect an overall strategy with specific budgets, milestones and metrics. Partnerships, distribution channels and pricing models should be included. “If

Product 103

Product Slides Customer Custom 103

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2011

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Business model. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 90

Summary Writing Competition Sample 90

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I remember just a decade ago in 2003 when we all laughed at how dumb people in the 90′s were talking about the race to “capture as many eyeballs as possible” before your competition. The minute you try to monetize now they have metrics with which to beat you up and say you’re business has limitations.”

Venture Capital 412

Venture Capital Startup Funding Snapchat 412

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

For example, early social media startup Friendster was so enamored with their early acceptance that they turned down a $30 million offer from Google, then quickly ran into money woes and tough competition. As the business grows, it pays to learn how to use automated financial tools, and review the key financial metrics daily.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 16, 2015

And when it comes to timing, wait until you’ve come up with a working prototype and developed your product before you seek external funding. There’s plenty of capital out there, but there’s also a lot of competition for startup funding. Think of it as a business development process and plan for your raise to take up to 6 months.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Equity Funding 40

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

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. Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning. Metrics related to customer acquisition, lifetime value and churn.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

Your competitive advantage. Identify your sustainable competitive advantage, like unique benefits, cost savings, or industry ties. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition. Who is your customer, what is the price, and how much does it cost you to build one? Business model. Marty Zwilling.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Already covered. But seriously.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2010

Have you set the right price for your salad, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. time-to-market is critical) Viable financial model. Get cooking!

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Startup Metrics Class 48

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Any great board member should tell you, “please don’t create any performance metrics or materials that analyze the business that you’re not already creating for your own management’s use.” Sometimes they don’t even know.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

Margaret Francis – Heroku XL , making large-scale app development easy. Erin Chase – Favado , combining price comparisons with grocery shopping. Sonny Vu – Misfit Wearables , developers of the world’s most wearable sensor products. Alex Taub – Social Rank , Twitter metrics and engagement tool.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Since Arrested Development is back I thought I’d resurrect Gob Bluth’s answer when he was told he needed a “business model” – he quickly figured out that he was missing one so he asked Starla, the Bluth company secretary, if she would be his business model. Like DeviantArt. 65 million monthly actives.

Startup 401

Startup Customer Custom Technical Review 401

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

If the elements of your business aren't expertly developed and aligned, even the best dream will be in jeopardy. Here is my list of those elements, which every entrepreneur needs to develop before charging into the marketplace with high hopes and (sadly) a business that will likely get lost in the throng.

Pricing 100

Pricing Technical Review Entrepreneur Startup 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. They compete on features, price and execution. What the explosion in startups really means for our industry is a much bigger pipeline of potential deals if we VC’s can be patient.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347