Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2010

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Portfolio pricing. Tiered or volume pricing. Competitive positioning.

Pricing 98

Pricing Product Startup Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.”

Customer 146

Customer Custom Startup Course 146

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2019

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.” Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 121

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Summary 121

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

Here is a quick summary of the priorities normally covered by the due diligence process: Evaluation of key players. This will involve an analysis of the company’s distribution channels, advertising, and pricing strategy. This is the highest priority item. Sales and marketing strategy.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Here is a summary of each: Complementary strengths allows extended market penetration. In many cases, the products from competitive companies are complementary, or many customers are natural candidates for both. All this was done without damaging anyone’s credibility, or stealing customers.

Startup 173

Startup Outsource Development Examples Customer 173

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

For reference, here is a quick summary of key elements which most investors include in their due diligence process: Key personnel review. A smart investor will take an independent final reading in the market on barriers to entry, active competition, demographics, and price sensitivity. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 118

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2012

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Portfolio pricing. Tiered or volume pricing. Competitive positioning.

Pricing 112

Pricing Competition Customer Custom 112

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2023

Here is a summary of their key observations, with our joint specifics on what to expect, and how to overcome these obstacles: Customers don’t buy what they don’t know and understand. The most elegant products have the highest price tags, thus limiting market size. In today’s information overload, marketing is everything.

Case Study 89

Case Study Customer Custom Study 89

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.”

Customer 124

Customer Custom Startup Course 124

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Here is a summary of their key observations, with our joint specifics on what to expect, and how to overcome these obstacles: Customers don’t buy what they don’t know and understand. The most elegant products have the highest price tags, thus limiting market size. In today’s information overload, marketing is everything.

Case Study 174

Case Study Startup Customer Custom 174

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. Convertible debt is an investment that “converts&# into equity in the future usually at a discount to your next funding round price and sometimes has a “cap&# (maximum price).

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2014

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). In this more traditional product pricing model, the price is set at two to five times the product cost.

Startup 114

Startup Pricing Customer Custom 114

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

The world keeps changing, and visible business strategies that worked well in the past, including being the premium brand or low price producer, simply don’t get the customer loyalty they once did. Make sure that everyone in your business understands your competitive advantage from a customer perspective, and continually seeks to optimize it.

Customer 133

Customer Custom Satisfaction Examples 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

For reference, here is a quick summary of key elements which most investors include in their due diligence process: Key personnel review. A smart investor will take an independent final reading in the market on barriers to entry, active competition, demographics, and price sensitivity. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2018

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.” Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 72

Outsource Development Outsource Summary Training 72

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

My list of excuses includes: product, pricing, competition and lack of sales support. This includes presentations, ROI calculators, competitive analyses and so forth. In Summary. When you are ready to hire sales staff I don’t recommend bringing in people who are too experienced.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2015

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.” Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 104

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Summary 104

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2017

The alternatives range from giving the product away for free (revenue from ads), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). Price based on product costs plus margin. Price based on average value to customer. Price with recurring low subscription payments.

Pricing 66

Pricing Customer Custom Advertising 66

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much. Summary: Making Your Board More Effective Chose the right members.

Startup 269

Startup Venture Capital Layoffs Resource 269

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

JUNE 7, 2015

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. In summary, the transformation starts with placing leaders with a purpose at the core, hiring talent with a purpose at the frontier, and then building and extending the culture of purpose both inside and outside the organization.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Organization Startup Pricing 117

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2014

I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided. Fixed price bidding is the only effective outsourcing model.” Getting a fixed price bid works for well-defined short-term projects, like blogging or programming.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Startup 92

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.

Marketing 379

Marketing Startup SEM SEO 379

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. 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?” Revenue is Not Revenue is Not Revenue.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

As a startup this is often the one true source of strong leverage in a negotiation to: Get a better price, get a longer-term commitment, get PR commitments and so forth. In summary, many advisors, board members or executives will steer you away from exclusivity agreements.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2015

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.”

Customer 101

Customer Custom Startup Course 101

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The price / share is actually $2.40 (not $3.00), which is $3,000,000 pre-money / 1,250,000 shares (because you had to create the 250,000 share options).

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

Notice that I didn’t say anywhere that a good business plan has to be at least 20 pages, or have ten sections, or must start with an executive summary. A few thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a successful business, or for that $1M investment you expect the plan to entice. No problem.

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2014

Employees and customers alike are looking for meaning, not simply employment and commodity prices. In summary, the transformation starts with placing leaders with a purpose at the core, hiring talent with a purpose at the frontier, and then building and extending the culture of purpose both inside and outside the organization.

Startup 91

Startup Organization Pricing Customer 91

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 18, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Mark’s responses. And to leverage that (data), this is a shopper, for example, that only shops for products that are within the top 25% of price points on our (customer’s) website. A big part of our culture is to be competitive and to be at peace with your co-workers, with no politics.

eHarmony 204

eHarmony Media Oracle Commerce 204

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Or read the quick, informative summary below the image! Here’s a summary of our interview. People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing. o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

Notice that I didn’t say anywhere that a good business plan has to be at least 20 pages, or have ten sections, or must start with an executive summary. A few thousand dollars is a small price to pay for a successful business, or for that $1M investment you expect the plan to entice. No problem.

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

It always amazes me how an entrepreneur can define his market opportunity so broadly, and then assess his competition so narrowly in the next breath. Competition and sustainable advantage. List and describe your competition, direct and indirect, including customer alternatives. Asserting you have no competition is not credible.

Competition 113

Competition Metrics Startup Invest 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2014

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Bloom’s recent book, “ The New Experts: Win Today''s Newly Empowered Customers.”

Customer 98

Customer Custom Entrepreneur Startup 98

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.”

Customer 52

Customer Custom Startup Course 52

Berkonomics

AUGUST 31, 2023

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. In this case, the competition was not from a company but from a new technology. In most cases, it is the competitor with a better product, lower price, faster service, better reputation that is the threat. There is no competition.” The post Ouch!

Competition 156

Competition Research Summary Pricing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2013

Here is a quick summary of the priorities normally covered by the due diligence process: Evaluation of key players. This will involve an analysis of the company’s distribution channels, advertising, and pricing strategy. This is the highest priority item. Sales and marketing strategy.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 97