Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2019

In addition, the discipline of producing it, like writing a business plan, will help you immensely in understanding the key elements that drive you and your business. I often hear the excuse that writing a book takes precious time away from building and running your business, which you cannot afford.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

It has even gone so far that we now have evocative headlines in the tech press such as “ Buy or Die ,” which is what got me thinking about this post. But the press (and I suspect many of the senior execs of these companies) don’t really explore the corrosive downside of these acquisition. Woo the press.

Press 357

Press Startup Yahoo Venture Capital 357

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 26, 2011

Each new customer, each mention in the press or online adds to the feeling of early accomplishment. This moment is not to be spoiled by such mundane warnings from advisors or consultants to plan carefully, research the market and competition, and execute the plan with tenacity and enthusiasm. But the excitement begins much earlier.

Press 149

Press Hollywood Writing Startup 149

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

I’ve tried over the years to write many times about the realism of the downsides of being an entrepreneur because there is a complete cognitive dissidence between what you read about yourself in the press and what you feel internally about where you’re at in the journey. Of course that’s true.

Press 150

Press Venture Capital Startup Entrepreneur 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

For starters some funds are small and thus while they put $750k into your company to own 10% of your company they might not be able to write another $2 million if you then raise a $20 million round (10%). New investors sometimes want early investors to put in money to “prove” they have confidence in the new price.

Guide 336

Guide Venture Capital Startup Writing 336

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. This revenue share comes after the YouTube split.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2013

Competitive sportswoman. Kara on one side of the table showing me market sizes, competitive dynamics, product roadmaps, pricing plans for physical products with COGS and gross margins. She helps write press releases. Remember, it’s about Lines, Not Dots. I first met Kara 5 years ago. Stanford MBA.

Startup 398

Startup Design Downey Activity 398

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2014

It’s building a product that is substantially differentiated, and, as Bill Gross, one of the most prolific tech entrepreneurs of our era says, “ It needs to be 10x better than the competition ” (because if you shoot for that then in competitive markets you might achieve 3x. Simply write a great book?

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

Most newspapers are written at a third-grade reading level, White House press releases average a fourth-grade reading level and the New York Times is easily digestible by the average fifth grader. Competition. Who do I write the check to and where do I send it? Patents and Trademarks. Management Team.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Summary Technical Review Template 211

InfoChachkie

JULY 23, 2012

We have never done a press release. We write blogs, we do music videos, we show up, we engage with people…we love our product. Write Your Own Playbook. We get regularly asked… who’s our PR firm, who does our marketing, what kind of budget do we have for promotion?

Marketing 233

Marketing Blogging Startup Venture Capital 233

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes. Ask for help reviewing your press release. Ask them to mention you to the press, speak about you on stage when they do public events, whatever.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

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. 3. We then addressed competition in the context of SiteAdvisor and how it is important for journalists, customers, and the companies themselves. If you don’t read it and you care about tech & entrepreneurship, you should.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 1, 2016

LPs have followed the recent press about the over-valuation and over-funding of the startup industry, and they experience these phenomena first hand. But the problem for LPs is that as VCs write bigger checks with increased frequency, these firms go “back in the market” to raise funds more quickly than in the past.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Capital Marketing Seed Funding 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I get to do a deep dive on their business model, product roadmap and competitive positioning. When your site crashes and you get slammed by customers and in the press – you’re all in the sh*tter together. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks. I get to choose what I write about.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

She can anticipate reactions to price increases or product changes by customers and she can sustain competitive challenges because she knows the customer will stick by her. A regular dialog with peers can be more valuable than reading any amount of tech press and in many cases more valuable than even board input. I like writing.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. It’s also the keystone to convincing investors that you have a “sustainable competitive advantage.” If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Letters of intent or endorsement.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. o Huge on PR, “Be Everywhere” is his motto – fly to NY, proactively everywhere he could get press. o Put a timeframe/money – competition in the picture. Here’s a summary of our interview. To make PR big you need to find a way to “make news”.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I will write more about this in the next 2 weeks. I suppose I should have imagined that this line would get more press than all other comments combined. When your competition does irrational things to grow fueled by low-cost capital it makes it harder for you to compete by playing by the conventional rules. I believe that.

Pricing 309

Pricing Marketing Startup Venture Capital 309

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

If you’re raising a round where a new lead investor would invest $5 million the VC fund must have no less than $100 million and if you’re looking for them to write $15–20 million as the lead their fund realistically should be at least $400 million. Your job is to push politely until you either get a “soft no” or more engagement.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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. - Given a choice of your marketing person or talking to you (the founder) there’s no competition.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

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. When you account for competition for talent, the difficulty of retention, the cost of living and the difficulty of rising above the noise – there are many advantages of staying put.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

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. When you read about the funding in the press it sounds like it was a walk in the park. Happy raising.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Photo by Hope House Press - Leather Diary Studio on Unsplash It’s also true that there will be tough moments in your company’s journey where you will want to be able to carry people behind the tough decisions you want. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. But what are the KEY ISSUES management is grappling with.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

From the Venture Trenches

MARCH 27, 2013

Yet despite his ability to raise over $1 billion of private equity and to build an organization that is worth $5 billion as of this writing, Mason was shown the door. Thirteen months after raising more than $10 billion in the public markets the board forced Mason out after another dismal financial quarter. Can you afford the distraction?

Venture Capital 45

Venture Capital Capital Anthem Startup 45

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2010

TechCrunch Europe ran an article in November of last year that European startups need to work as hard as those in Silicon Valley and I echoed the sentiment in my post about the need for entrepreneurs to be maniacal about their businesses if one wants to work in the hyper competitive tech world. Our first big institutional round was $16.5

Entrepreneur 308

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital Conference 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I still think it’s best to take money from Dave when you’re also partnered with a more focused, hands-on seed-stage VC who brings different things to the table – like more ability to write larger checks in a downturn (for one) or solving a deep crisis that involves super hands-on involvement.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

In Silicon Valley, people are much more competitive, have more focus/experience in software backgrounds and often focus more attention on the methods first, then the results. In the beginning, we hired a bunch of people based on the “LA profile&# that we were used to, and ended up hiring the wrong people. .&#

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2011

DataSift = platform for companies to develop cost-effective applications using this Twitter data to gain advantage relative to their competition. Twitter is not replacement for Facebook (or vice versa) and while it is competitive it is mostly competing for: user time, brand dollars and 3rd-party development resources.

Platform 307

Platform News Startup Invest 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

As long as you don’t care about getting any press. A way to tell the press and customers what you stand for. But when I think about “stunts” and free press I think about people like Marc Benioff (salesforce.com) or Dennis Crowley (foursquare). That’s fine. ” What does that even mean?

Startup 289

Startup Press Software Marketing 289

Berkonomics

AUGUST 30, 2018

They allow me to preview new devices and technologies before release so that I might write about and speak about them in my “Tech Trends” keynotes. It did not hurt that Apple always seemed to trump the competition in design of the product and the product’s user interface too. The moment of truth: Facing the “no decision” competition.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Pricing Design Product 120

Berkonomics

AUGUST 18, 2011

They allow me to preview new devices and technologies before release so that I might write about and speak about them in my “Tech Trends” keynotes. After all that great press, I realized that the industry just was not ready for such a leap, giving up authority to a computer, even if at least one major airline had successfully done so.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Pricing Design Product 214