Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

If you’re a technology startup you need to excel at product, of course. But being best-in-class at online marketing is also a sine qua non to standout from your peer group. The starting point of product IS marketing, which is what a lot of young entrepreneurs that never studied business don’t realize.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

With the enormous changes to our economies and financial markets?—?how how on Earth could the venture capital market stand still? One of the most common questions I’m asked by people intrigued by but also scared by venture capital and technology markets is some variant of, “Aren’t technology markets way overvalued?

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

Serial entrepreneur, venture investor and startup accelerator pioneer Brad Feld has notoriously mocked traditional marketing throughout his career. companies should… focus on building amazing products. If you have amazing products, the marketing of those products is trivial. Trada – Guerilla Marketing In Action.

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2019

Image via Flickr by jardenberg Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. Then write it down. It’s pretty simple to do.

Customer 93

Customer Custom Marketing Tips 93

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

While the market isn't short of spritely, innovative entrepreneurs, harsh economic headwinds combined with a pullback in investor spending have made it harder than ever for budding businesses to break through. Organic milk formula product Bobbie. 2023 hasn't been an easy year to be a startup. Runway AI user interface. Gumroad homepage.

Startup 213

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 213

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Finish the product before marketing begins.

Startup 124

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 124

Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

First: Product risk. . Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to. One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2017

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Everyone assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. If you want to connect with customers, put aside your writing formalities.

Content 67

Content Marketing Newsletter Writing 67

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Finish the product before marketing begins.

Startup 174

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

I recommend that you always use brainstorming, or expert feedback, to define similar approaches and markets, before proceeding to produce and sell a solution that may be expensive to change later. One of the best ways to assess development risk is to build and test a prototype, or minimum viable product (MVP).

Ideas 145

Ideas Startup Case Study Writing 145

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2012

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 92

Product Outsource Development Competition High Tech 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “ Deferred Life Plan &# and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek. I would love to say that I’m the productivity guru. Tim Ferriss gave this extra emphasis in his book.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2011

Why is it that most of the business plans I see are really product plans? I define a product plan as a detailed description of your product or service, with a bit of business thrown in at the end. A business plan is a detailed description of your business, with a bit of product description thrown in near the front.

Product 93

Product Entrepreneur Outsource Development Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

It is simply the most important way to proactively control your career development and how the market perceives you. This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. That was fine with me – the market is the market.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

First: Product risk. . Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to compete in the marketplace? Second: Market risk. . Email readers, continue here…] Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? And fifth: Competitive risk. .

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). It super charges a business that is closer to product delivery.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

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.

Software Review 114

Software Review Technical Review Outsource Development Outsource 114

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

The reason for this is that the executives who founded the company have so much tacit knowledge of how to position their product relative to the competition that they can easily win campaigns when they’re involved. So I often work with teams to get them to codify the key things they do well that the competition does not.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. In today’s market, so much focus is placed on transacting business online. Who do you view as your biggest competition? You’re right.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2016

I answered in the same way I always do so I thought I’d just write it publicly. “I I spend hours thinking about the products, competitors, market opportunities, recruiting and financing of these businesses. I am much more attracted to technical product teams than to new business concepts or commerce types. I fall in love.”

Invest 254

Invest Writing Pricing Metrics 254

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2022

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 111

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. You may have gotten some articles that covered your product launch or may have gotten into industry rags but this might be your first time on TechCrunch, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, GigaOm, Business Insider or the equivalent. Should I Bundle it With More Juicy News?

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2021

Their computers then merge your ads with search results when users search words imply an interest in your products. It pays only if a customer clicks through AND takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. Campaign setup and ad copy writing. Keyword research and budget forecasting.

PPC 154

PPC SEO Paid Search Search Engine Optimization 154

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

I find the over-introducers especially corrosive around first-time founders who often struggle with the balance of their time between tasks like building product versus tasks like speaking at conferences or meeting with potential business development partners. In many instances this help is genuine, well-meaning and productive.

Innocal 255

Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

On this blog I’m often trying to combine lessons for entrepreneurs and market commentary. I have long wanted to write about FNAC (feature, not a company) because it’s part of my normal lexicon to push teams that present to me to think harder about where the economics in their industry is coming from. It lingered.

Email 270

Email Writing Blogging Competition 270

Berkonomics

MARCH 15, 2012

First: Product risk. Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to compete in the marketplace? Second: Market risk. Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? And fifth: Competitive risk.

Outsource Development 200

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 200

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Yet, in the interest of full disclosure, and an honest intent to save future entrepreneurs some grief and money, I would remind you that starting any business has key dependencies on at least five major elements, including product design and delivery, the right people on the team, adequate funding, a sizable market opportunity, and marketing.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I can’t control the market. Private markets for stocks are the opposite.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

This is part of a series on sales & marketing. Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. But they want to establish a baseline in the customer’s mind of the value they will get by using your product. We’re a premium product.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

TechCrunch LA

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces. When should a VC invest?

Venture Capital 202

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Invest 202

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

The idea that the course asks students to write public blog posts is a testament to its more modern teaching style. My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. Feedback isn’t always an excuse – and often sales people can provide the best feedback to your product teams.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. She learns how to ship product, how to deal with merchants, how to hire product managers. Always meeting her product ship dates. She was always able to get into the weeds on product or biz dev discussions. She speaks about ethical sourcing of eco-friendly products. Stanford MBA.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2020

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 122

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2020

Some entrepreneurs love to talk and produce videos, but hate to write anything down. From an investor perspective, understanding and acting early to establish a sustainable competitive advantage, and barrier to entry, is the best assurance of a financial return. Effective communication requires real listening, as well as talking.

Entrepreneur 126

Entrepreneur Social Media Patents Mentor 126