Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2013

Many entrepreneurs I know don’t realize that the language they learned in the corporate world, or even their recent MBA class, won’t get them ahead in the startup world today. Even if you have heard some of the new terms, but can’t explain how, when, and why they are relevant to your startup, you may be in jeopardy.

Entrepreneur 109

Entrepreneur Startup Web Equity 109

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. Most new entrepreneurs assume their passion will attract and motivate the right team members. Don’t bother with previous employment follow-ups. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. It is to out friend. Enjoyed this post? Disruptive.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2015

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Everyone on the startup team knows there is no buffer, and no personal isolation from impact based on your job description that can save you. I’m convinced that we are entering a new era of the entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur Satisfaction Customer Custom 106

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2022

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. Time is money, and may be your primary competitive advantage.

Outsource Development 110

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 110

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. It’s no wonder that 45 percent of startups fail in the first five years, and an even smaller percentage ever see a return for their years of effort. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 3, 2011

Making the decision to become an entrepreneur is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. These are not valid reasons to start a business. But if you're focused on solving a real problem, believe you can do it better than anyone else, and confident in wearing many hats, you have the right start-up mindset.

Screening 99

Screening Startup Statistics Guide 99

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2011

Other writers, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent over-enthusiasm or over-confidence that can kill your deal. It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Funding Innocal Competition 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2015

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. Time is money, and may be your primary competitive advantage.

Ideas 107

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Tool 107

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Everyone on the startup team knows there is no buffer, and no personal isolation from impact based on your job description that can save you. I’m convinced that we are entering a new era of the entrepreneur.

Satisfaction 124

Satisfaction Organization Customer Custom 124

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you truly believe that you, your company and your products are exceptional and your company will be valuable then you’re actually doing them a FAVOR by helping them invest in your startup. In my post “ Measure twice, cut once ” I’ve outlined how to plan before you start raising. Should You Start with Your “Safety Schools?”

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 2, 2020

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. Time is money, and may be your primary competitive advantage.

Outsource Development 124

Outsource Development Ideas Tool Outsource 124

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Deal screening. Associates often shadow partners at board meetings so that they can help follow up with the company on important initiatives between board meetings. a really wide angle view of the tech industry since you see so many concepts / so many pitches and REAL data points on how startups perform financially.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2014

These days, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, pitching their latest and greatest new idea, and looking for someone to give them money. Talk is cheap, but entrepreneurs who show you a working model of their idea know how to execute. Time is money, and may be your primary competitive advantage.

Outsource Development 105

Outsource Development Startup Ideas Tool 105

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2016

As a business advisor and advocate for entrepreneurs, I find myself almost always talking and writing about change. I was reminded of a number of these by a recent book, “ The Thing About Work: Showing Up and Other Important Matters ,” by Richard A. Showing up still matters. Anything less makes you non-competitive.

Startup 93

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Screening 93

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 7, 2014

On the bottom right hand corner of the screen, an ominous button reads ADD MORE STRESS? . To me, there’s been no conversation or scenario that has encompassed the feel of a startup accelerator quite like that. ” Thursday: 500 Startups’ Batch 8 Demo Day… And we’ll be right there to cover all the action!

Startup 74

Startup Case Study Study Screening 74

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 24, 2012

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded early by one of the 318,000 active Angel investors in the USA alone. Most of these investors are members of Angel groups that have a rigorous filtering and screening process, to select the top 3% and most fundable proposals. Line up an experienced team. Build a prototype product.

Angel 104

Angel Screening Summary Startup 104

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

After listening to hundreds of startup pitches, and reading even more business plans, most new venture investors develop their own favorite list of “red flags” that signal the beginning of the end of their interest. Every startup needs focus, due to limited resources, so setting irrational goals implies overall poor business acumen.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I just had to line up behind him. I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. We then started talking about Dave McClure. EcoMom originally started as SproutBaby.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2009

The promised to follow up with: calls, using your product, talking to customers or “noodle on things.&# Will they? Despite best intentions they probably won’t follow up on their actions. Why don’t VC’s follow up? I like to tell entrepreneurs to treat it like a sales campaign. So how to proceed?

Venture Capital 277

Venture Capital Startup Email News 277

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2011

One of the hot new approaches I have seen around the country for assisting startups looking for funding has been “crowd-sourcing” sites ( Kickstarter ) or “crowd-pitching” events ( Funding Universe ). These are variations on a “crowd-funding” theme to raise money for a startup through social networks and voting at public events.

Funding 92

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2010

By Jim Flowers A few months ago, Marty invited me to comment on business incubation and what a startup company ought to expect from an incubator. At VT KnowledgeWorks we screen prospective clients for their Market opportunity, for the Magic that they offer to their prospective customers, and for the Moxie displayed by the start-up team.

Incubator 80

Incubator Mentor Capital Startup 80

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

Fred Wilson wrote two posts in 2010 that were very influential with the startup community. I know that they really impacted an entire cohort of startups because every company that was coming to pitch me businesses was (is) saying, “I’m a ‘mobile first’ company.” The power of large screen real estate.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

In his premier film appearance in the blaxploitation send-up “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Chris Rock inadvertently addresses a key pricing challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative.

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2014

Many entrepreneurs seems to be convinced that the “crowd” of regular people using the Internet will somehow solve their startup funding needs, when they sense a lack of interest from accredited investors. If the pitch is offline, the audience is likely to small and mostly budding entrepreneurs. Marty Zwilling.

Funding 101

Funding Equity Entrepreneur Invest 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. The Gust Deal Funnel from the last 12 months indicates is that 70% of the interested companies never make it past the initial screening process. Line up an experienced team. Start early on this one, or you will lose the opportunity.

Invest 99

Invest Angel Technical Review Summary 99

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I was speaking recently to the team at NuOrder , an LA-based company we’re an investor in about “realism in startups” — an impromptu talk I have given to any of our portfolio companies who ask. I prefer to compete more with other startups than with giants. Mission driven, commercially focused.

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Every new startup I know dreams of being funded by an angel investor. The AngelSoft Deal Funnel from the last 12 months indicates is that 70% of the interested companies never make it past the initial screening process. Line up an experienced team. Start early on this one, or you will lose the opportunity.

Angel 89

Angel Funding Technical Review Startup 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2013

Many entrepreneurs seems to be convinced that the “crowd” of regular people using the Internet will somehow solve their startup funding needs, when they sense a lack of interest from accredited investors. If the pitch is offline, the audience is likely to small and mostly budding entrepreneurs.

Funding 106

Funding Equity Entrepreneur Sample 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Everyone on the startup team knows there is no buffer, and no personal isolation from impact based on your job description that can save you. I’m convinced that we are entering a new era of the entrepreneur.

Satisfaction 106

Satisfaction Organization Customer Custom 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2016

Business success is all about having the best team, yet the average entrepreneur has little prior experience with hiring people and building top-notch teams. It’s no wonder that half of startups fail in the first five years , and an even smaller percentage ever see a return for their years of effort. It won’t happen by default.

Organization 57

Organization Entrepreneur Satisfaction Screening 57

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2011

We were talking about a company, Factual (disclosure my firm is an investor), which was founded by one of LA’s most talented Internet entrepreneurs, Gil Elbaz , who as co-founder of Applied Semantics (purchased by pre-IPO Google for $102 million and now Google AdSense) is responsible for a large portion of the Internet’s monetization.

Venture Capital 313

Venture Capital Southern California Google Startup 313

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 21, 2010

One of the hot new approaches I have seen around the country for assisting startups looking for funding has been “crowd-sourcing” tools ( ProFounder ) or “crowd-pitching” events ( Funding Universe ). These are variations on a “crowd-funding” theme to raise money for a startup through social networks and voting at public events.

Funding 59

Funding Startup Social Media Sample 59

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

One of the realities of being an entrepreneur is that you have to keep learning and changing to survive. Everyone on the startup team knows there is no buffer, and no personal isolation from impact based on your job description that can save you. I’m convinced that we are entering a new era of the entrepreneur.

Satisfaction 57

Satisfaction Customer Custom Organization 57

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. Assume competition and assume within the buying organization you have enemies. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. Why Buy Anything ?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

socalTECH

AUGUST 24, 2009

One of the startup areas where we've been seeing renewed activity in the last few months is in the enterprise software space--specifically, in software-as-a-service applications targeted at corporate customers. We spoke with the firm's CEO and co-founder, John Hanna : How'd you end up starting the company, and what is FunnelSource all about?

Oracle 145

Oracle Sales Startup Screening 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 23, 2010

Other writers, like Guy Kawasaki, have irreverently called some of these “entrepreneur lies,” but I prefer to think of them as innocent over-enthusiasm or over-confidence that can kill your deal. It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath.

Innocal 96

Innocal Entrepreneur Competition IBM 96