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

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

I don’t feel like canceling LinkedIn just because occasionally a well-meaning but slightly not-clued-in person from a faraway place wants me to be their personal mentor, answer 3-questions for their high-school entrepreneurship project or take a sales pitch for their recruiting services. In Adam’s world, I’m rude. Twitter messages?

Email 250

Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

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. Successful businesses require the best people to deliver your vision and services one step better than the competition.

Writing 19

Writing Technical Review Entrepreneur Advertising 19

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 4, 2016

Modern-society is also littered with over-networkers and over-introducers and professional conference attendees. It’s hard enough building a valuable product or service in competitive global markets without spending time on unproductive tasks. Focus is almost always the right answer.

Innocal 255

Innocal Conference Help Study 255

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This blog started from a series of conversations I found myself having over and over again with founders and eventually decided I should just start writing them.It I see founders who think they can be at every conference, advise multiple companies, do side investments in angel deals, leave the office at 6pm and have a balance life.

Competition 394

Competition Startup Writing Marketing 394

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2023

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view.

Social Media 94

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 94

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2013

She entered you reservation by writing in a time slot in a paper calendar and you were in. We spent a year (2012-2013) building a merchant acquisition machine and all of the systems to support bookings, calendar integrations, location services, etc. The hostess worked from 4-10pm so you had to call during these hours. Top Photo Credit.

Development Team Review 324

Development Team Review Course Mobile Writing 324

socalTECH

MARCH 28, 2019

Earlier this month, the annual Montgomery Summit conference was held in Santa Monica, including a special portion of the conference dedicated to the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur. We had over 400 attendees, including some who came from the core conference. I think it's a fantastic program.

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 11, 2010

It’s not just the spammers or marketers trying to sell you products or services. And when I have time I try to write back. So that’s: Marketing / conference invitations – 100 x 5 seconds = That’s still > 8 minutes. Or I’m at BOD meetings or conferences. I understand that.

Email 265

Email Startup Writing Blogging 265

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2020

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Ideas Writing 126

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2014

I recently attended and presented at Dave McClure’s PreMoney conference in San Francisco. I wrote my version here and Scott wrote an excellent write-up of his views here. Scott spoke about the a16z ethos to put more of the fees investors pay into “services” rather than partner pockets. tl;dr version.

Venture Capital 309

Venture Capital SaaS Writing Funding 309

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 20, 2016

In 2006, I gave a keynote speech at the Newspaper Association of America’s national conference in Chicago. A Channel partner is a person or a company with a complementary service, who is knocking on the same doors as you, and who is connected. My response was: FANTASTIC!

Writing 120

Writing Sales Networking Conference 120

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 17, 2019

Harris writes: “The figures, dating back to 2016, paint a picture of a company desperate to meet over-ambitious autonomy targets and one that is willing to spend freely, even recklessly, to get there. Some companies were already operating these services; this action created a regulatory framework. Take bike share. Nvidia GTC.

San Fernando 217

San Fernando Los Angeles Commerce News 217

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

You’re writing a freaking blog post! But it’s mostly customer service. I run a conference – could you speak? I never get grumpy that people write. If you do randomly write me I have advice. I am looking at a company that provides a service supporting node.js “But WAIT !!! Should you?

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

Some people do the conference circuit too much, get involved in lots of side projects and attend every entrepreneur dinner. When I go to conference I never sit in the meeting section – I always cruise the halls meeting people. I was always in a “service&# industry. I’ll write about that in a couple of weeks.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

JULY 30, 2012

I always enjoy a great guerilla marketing story, such as TestFlight’s use of T-shirts and Tacos to gain Steve Jobs’ attention at Apple’s 2011 developers’ conference. Thus, I was inspired when I heard about the impact collaboration-in-the-cloud innovator Central Desktop made at the April 2012 San Francisco ad:tech conference.

Marketing 209

Marketing Conference RSS Angel 209

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 14, 2013

.” Here’s what I mean … Let’s start with what it takes for a journalist to want to write a story. Do I have an “angle” from which to write the story (first company to do X, company does biggest X, consumer behavior is doing X)? They sell accounting services. Final example.

Marketing 389

Marketing Press Blogging Startup 389

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 18, 2010

Everyone will want you to speak at conferences. Service providers will want to get to know you. “Thank you for writing to me – it’s nice to hear from you (or meet you) via email. As a startup entrepreneur you’ll have many demands for your time. I suggested something like the following.

Startup 305

Startup Venture Capital Writing Conference 305

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Today, customers and future managers put a higher value on relationships, and expect to know you from industry conferences, social media, or recommendations from peers. Write down some target objectives and milestones. Too many employees count on their managers to get them promotions, or count on a resume to get the next job.

Startup 98

Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

So I know I’m getting myself into a bit of trouble by writing this. They talk about the need of the CEO to be chief evangelist, speak at conference, lead executive recruiting, etc. I had heads of sales, marketing, business development, product management, technology and customer service.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Here in LA we have a towncar service called Uber that with a tap of an app we can get a door to door town car service ride. Both services are AWESOME; fast, fun, reliable. UberConference – Visual conference calling without video. Lately there has been a non cab, “hire your neighbor”, kind of transportation craze.

Startup 77

Startup Conference Google Web 77

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2015

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view.

Social Media 104

Social Media Ideas Media Writing 104

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2009

We started building 4 products so that our end-to-end, supply-chain services would be complete (MVP? They got us invited to the Fortune CEO conference in Paris held at Versailles. We headlined at the Red Herring Europe conference (they were the equivalent of TechCrunch today). Just don’t believe what they write about you.

Startup 310

Startup Venture Capital Press Journal 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2015

Blogging is one of the best ways to do this and build a brand, even before you have a product or service. Develop an efficient and effective writing style. Your reach with a blog is much broader than traditional business networking channels and industry conferences. Demonstrate thought leadership to potential employees.

Blogging 110

Blogging Startup Search Engine Optimization Social Media 110

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 14, 2014

The three largest webmail services had over 1 billion global users at the end of 2011. Only naive people believe that but for inexperienced entrepreneurs you can be fooled into the narrative by the press who sometimes write stories without the actual data. People don’t want to speak to customer service reps. PHONE CALLS.

Email 339

Email SaaS Venture Capital Google 339

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 18, 2012

I plan to write about it early next year when we’re all through. You probably follow some high-profile entrepreneurs on Instagram and Twitter and see conference pictures of them in Davos, Mexico, Monaco or wherever. There is a difference between a Conference Ho and a successful entrepreneur. You’re not.

Blogging 420

Blogging Press Entrepreneur Venture Capital 420

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. Ask for short conference calls.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

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. It became a huge kerfuffle with many VC partners writing to thank me for the post, which exposed those that gave their industry a bad name. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2013

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view.

Social Media 92

Social Media Ideas Media Writing 92

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2016

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t understand it. Writing, audios, and videos are all great ways to do this, since these all facilitate the one-to-many multiplier. Some people learn best from conferences, while other learn best from blogs and other information online. Provide a unique point of view.

Social Media 63

Social Media Ideas Media Writing 63

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

He keynotes leading technology conferences on cloud computing, SOA, enterprise application integration, and enterprise architecture. Prior to starting KnowledgeBase, Alex founded HostPro, an industry-leading web hosting and application services provider. Alex Kazerani. Chairman & CEO at Edgecast.

SaaS 92

SaaS Cloud Computing CIO Web 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. About six months ago I signed up for a service called PhoneTag run by Jamie Siminoff. The service starts at just $9.95 / month (no, I’m not an investor, I just love the product. I got rid of voicemail.

Product 280

Product Startup Email Technical Review 280

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 2, 2012

A serious threat to our online way of life has emerged in the form of the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). Yet the ITU is about to attempt a huge power grab in an effort to anoint itself the all-powerful regulator of Internet products and services. Got your attention?

Writing 102

Writing Conference Google Technology 102

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 5, 2010

I’ve been meaning to write this post since September of last year when Brad Feld first wrote about the The Founders Visa Movement. I commented briefly on his blog and made a mental note to write a blog post. At the time he granted me permission to write about his story. Felipe grew up in Brazil. Irony, hey?).

Technical Review 282

Technical Review Startup High Tech Software Review 282

Tech.Co

JANUARY 29, 2018

The quote “knowledge is power,” often attributed to Francis Bacon from his writings Meditationes Sacrae in 1597, definitely resonates with founders, Most because gaining knowledge about your market, landscape, and competitors, is a key way to gain strength and momentum. Get Your Playbook Together. Add Mentors to Your Roster.

Startup 87

Startup Mentor Artificial Inteligence Research 87

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

” They prefer to sit in front of a computer doing spreadsheets or coding or writing emails and working on marketing materials than they do investing time in human relationships. They attend conferences and do marketing. I wanted to just write. I like writing. This only works if you win all the time. Empowerment.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have. Being in business since I was 18 years old has led to a lot of conferences, meetings, mixers, classes, tradeshows and after parties. Rather than how much you charge, it’s about how the purchase will impact your buyer’s life.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Marketing SEO 85