Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

For most young entrepreneurs, the best networking you can do is to pitch and discuss your startup idea with peers in a school-sponsored “startup weekend” or competition judged by outside investors, where everyone wins with minimal cost and no jeopardy. Write a business plan and pitch deck for learning.

Entrepreneur 157

Entrepreneur Mentor Class Resource 157

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

For this morning's interview, we talked with Noah Auerhahn , President of San Diego-based Extrabux (www.extrabux.com), an online site focused on providing consumers with comparison shopping combined with discount offers. For people who haven't heard of ExtraBux, what is the site all about? Noah, thanks for the interview.

USC 207

USC CPC Sites Startup 207

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 4, 2021

What most people don’t realize is, according to recent statistics , despite top positioning, only a quarter of sites selected comes from paid search. For sites displaying the ads, this is called pay per click (PPC). Campaign setup and ad copy writing. Cost per action (CPA).

PPC 154

PPC SEO Paid Search Search Engine Optimization 154

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

Tech.Co

MAY 26, 2020

Jeff Bezos didn't get to be the world's richest man by writing a lot of checks, and one recent way to keep Amazon's profits healthy has been to cut its affiliate commissions scheme. A host of bloggers and publishers are seeing their revenues massively dented, from tiny BBQ grill review sites to the hugest media organizations around.

Technical Review 129

Technical Review Buzzfeed News Networking 129

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

TechCrunch LA

MAY 17, 2019

Both services are entering a highly competitive and increasingly fragmented entertainment landscape with many big studios building moats around their content in the form of exclusive subscription-based streaming services. Michael Scott is simultaneously writing a pilot for linear television.

Services 167

Services Report Netflix Content 167

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Here are some key strategies that I recommend to every worker today: Develop and highlight your competitive differentiation. That means regularly scanning LinkedIn and job sites for roles and opportunities that you may quality for, and honing your skills and connections to be sure you are competitive.

Startup 98

Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. I have talked with people in the industry who tell me that mobile movie sites convert ticket sales much higher than desktop websites. Try writing long reviews of a restaurant. They are limited in size.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

socalTECH

AUGUST 27, 2014

We''ve also built a data driven platform, that allows us to drive millions of unique visitors to our network of sites every month, covering the banking, credit, and travel and vertical markets. We started looking at the landscape, and as I was getting my MBA at the time, ended up writing the business plan for ConsumerTrack.

Startup 239

Startup El Segundo Marketing Media 239

socalTECH

JANUARY 15, 2009

Our startup interview this morning is with Josh Stomel , founder of ResumeBucket (www.resumebucket.com), a new web site that is focused on helping people share their resumes with the world. Stomel--who is bootstrapping the startup from his recruiting firm, NeoHire--explained the site to us. What's the idea behind the site?

Startup 140

Startup Yahoo Sites Oversee.net 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

The days when you could launch your business with a new web site, and the phone would begin to ring, are long gone. Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. Make your customers your platform.

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2010

Let me be clear – a product or consulting startup today without a blog, even with a static website, risks not being competitive in cost and time to reach and hold that critical mass of online customers. Every business wants their web site to appear on the first page of search engine results from a relevant search (Search Engine Optimization).

Blogging 48

Blogging Search Engine Optimization Startup Writing 48

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

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2010

Johnson's latest effort is Lunch.com (www.lunch.com), a web site which takes the concepts behind VirtualTourist.com beyond travel, and into lots of other subjects. Back at that time, I had people ask my--why would I ever want to read what other people are writing, isn't that what professional authors and journalists are for?

Content 204

Content Startup Sites Manhattan Beach 204

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

The days when you could launch your business with a new web site, and the phone would begin to ring, are long gone. Be visible online and to traditional media, volunteer to lead, write guest posts for others, be responsive, give stuff away, and provide many ways to communicate. Make your customers your platform.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2010

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) – technique used to spread networking worms. You need to be plugged in to be career competitive with hyper-networked peers, and keep ahead of competitors. Contractor, temp, or outsource worker off site. Twitter accounts are being used as a command and control center for botnets.

Social Network 87

Social Network Networking Tool Sites 87

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. The only other ways to get discovered was to have good organic search results or to get covered by a major blog site. Page 3: Competition. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2011

There was a real opportunity for me to arbitrage the last decade and a half of my experience in the Internet, and apply that to a products company, and to get some real competitive advantage. Having a strong presence online and strong, positive word of mouth in a relevant audience is a real competitive advantage.

Web 225

Web Social Media SEO Media 225

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

InfoChachkie

JUNE 20, 2011

Competition – Make it clear that only the best Interns will be granted offers for full-time positions. This explicit competitive element will cause the high-achievers to excel. . It was not possible to replicate this strategy at Expertcity, as a tour of an office in which people were writing software code did not have the same allure.

Startup 244

Startup Software Review Technical Review Class 244

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2010

My partner is a documentarian and reports for the New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, and was given a story to write about for the New York Times, about the sounds that fish make , for their Science section. A few months later, we won the USC New Venture Competition. We grew out of an interesting use case. It ran in April of 2008.

Journal 187

Journal USC News Startup 187

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. Become a visible expert.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2017

In this age of information overload, success is all about building a brand that stands out above the competition. Start a blog and write for industry forums and newsletters. Every organization and web site is begging for content, so spread yourself around. Every business community sponsors a plethora of these events.

Startup 55

Startup Organization Newsletter Content 55

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Jenna can write a recommendation on Andy’s profile or send an email to friends recommending Andy, one of his workout plans or the fitness event she’s registered for. Advertising revenue is generated from each site visitor, paid or otherwise. Any competition in LA? We haven’t identified any competition in LA, specifically.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

For sites displaying the ads, this is called pay per click (PPC). Campaign setup and ad copy writing. In this more popular model these days, advertisers do not pay for each appearance of the ad, but only when a user clicks on an ad and is redirected to the advertiser website. Cost per action (CPA).

Paid Search 90

Paid Search PPC Organization SEO 90

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 18, 2012

Members can also enhance their expert status by writing informative articles and position themselves as a contact person for other professionals to get information from. Confirmed experts are given more options on the site and achieve higher visibility for themselves and their content. Competition? How many users so far?

Networking 71

Networking Help Social Media Platform 71

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. Become a visible expert.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 104

socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

My first job was as a page at NBC, and after that I went and did a year and a half of writing and production at MSNBC with Keith Olbermann and Chuck Scarborough. If you look on our site, the Humble Twin is the first inventory we had. What's your background, and how did the company start?

Dollar Shave Club 210

Dollar Shave Club Startup Pricing Sample 210

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

For sites displaying the ads, this is called pay per click (PPC). Campaign setup and ad copy writing. In this more popular model these days, advertisers do not pay for each appearance of the ad, but only when a user clicks on an ad and is redirected to the advertiser website. Cost per action (CPA).

SEM 90

SEM Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization 90

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. Become a visible expert.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Custom 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2010

When all goes well, it is a real partnership between the investors and the company management teams, figuring out the strategy, rolling with the punches you get from the economy and competition and working together to create a great company. This work uses everything I’ve learned, both about business and people, so it is a lot of fun.

Venture Capital 65

Venture Capital Capital Entrepreneur Competition 65

Jason Nazar

JUNE 18, 2009

They attract over 70 million people a month (just in the US), and by most accounts are still one of the 10 most popular sites in the world. MySpace should not require a login to get into the site, and I DON’T want to see my profile when I do log in. This could also be done by leveraging a partnership (or buyout) of a site like Mahalo.

Development Team Review 76

Development Team Review Content Sites eHow 76

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. They created a reason for their customers to aggregate on their site on a regular basis. By definition, you read blogs. Apparently not.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

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. Become a visible expert.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88