Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2011

In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. Finally, we want it cheap (of course). Here’s the latest technology. That’s just wrong. This is great and it’s free! CardScan Personal.

Technical Review 83

Technical Review Technology Software Review Social Network 83

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

What price? Of course I went through normal other channels of deal flow. I tapped my friends at big tech companies (Salesforce, Google, Oracle). The only way for a company to be overvalued is if there’s someone willing to pay that price. When I was new at Venture Capital I was trying to figure out the business.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Startup Pricing Invest 347

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. While Google and Facebook will buy “acquihires” (at least as of Dec 2011), many acquirers hate the idea of buying companies that aren’t profitable. You may have leverage when you DO need to fund raise.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 26, 2016

And even when calculated correctly often CAC’s are assumed to be constant but of course they’re not. If you acquire 10 customers a month at $100 per customer and this scales to 100 customers at the same price you may make assumptions about 1,000 customers that don’t hold.

Metrics 150

Metrics Startup SaaS Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail. Trying outrageous new things or even trying mundane things but in new ways but with extreme quality & innovation is what fuels the tech startup industry. Yet I can’t help thinking there are many predictable failures that come from a lack of basic planning.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

I have never felt prouder of the team & product at awe.sm ( please visit to check out our latest & be ready for our next big product announcement due out in next month or so) and yet we just brought in a new CEO to the company, Fred McIntyre. Do we price for volume of consumption or for enterprise integration with other platforms?

Startup 303

Startup Technical Review Product Blogging 303

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 13, 2009

Since the late 1980’s, opportunities for children to run their own businesses have been supplanted episodic fundraisers in which children are asked to sell a variety of over-priced items, such as wrapping paper, community coupon books, candy, etc. Unfortunately, such campaigns are generally carried out by parents, rather than their children.

Web 2.0 222

Web 2.0 Web Sales Outsource Development 222

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2010

In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. Finally, we want it cheap (of course). I found dozens of software packages available on the Internet for free download, or a nominal price.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Technology Software Review Social Network 48

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Of course, customers love free, but investors hate it. Terms “paradigm shift” or “disruptive technology” used more than once. In reality, fundamental changes in technology frighten away more customers than they attract, and take longer and more money to come to fruition than any investors wants to commit.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2013

I’m a very logical guy, so I still fondly remember when new solutions and technologies started trends on the basis of their logical strengths. Today consumers reveal themselves online, with pictures, opinions, ratings and reviews, interests and locations, and expect businesses to adapt to them, and honor the implied relationship contract.

Customer 84

Customer Custom Social Media Technical Review 84

Xconomy

AUGUST 5, 2016

Just as many M&A rumors flame out as lead to deals, of course, but the news was enough to give Biogen’s stock price a big bump, and ignite chatter about what a sale of one of biotech’s heavyweights would mean, particularly for the Boston area. The rumors boosted Biogen’s sinking stock price nearly 10 percent.

News 40

News Thousand Oaks Pricing Report 40

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012

I’m a very logical guy, so I still fondly remember when new solutions and technologies started trends on the basis of their logical strengths. Today consumers reveal themselves online, with pictures, opinions, ratings and reviews, interests and locations, and expect businesses to adapt to them, and honor the implied relationship contract.

Social Media 80

Social Media Technical Review Media Startup 80

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

That said, when a customer posts on Facebook that you should lower your prices by 50%, perhaps this is not something you should spend too much time on. However, if your customers don’t post anything at all, good or bad, perhaps your pricing is too high overall. Actual fan pictures of their In-N-Out Burgers.

Social Media 214

Social Media Customer Custom Media 214

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2015

It has become so synonymous with Internet companies that the French have invented a disdainful term including Amazon: “les GAFA,” which they refer to as Google-Apple-Facebook-Amazon to talk about American dominance of the Internet. It is a household name. Thus Amazon’s market cap is $200 billion.

Ideas 150

Ideas Startup Technical Review Pricing 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. So let’s be very specific: let’s assume your dream job is product manager at Google, working on the Analytics product.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

No one, including the engineers who work on Google’s constantly evolving search algorithms, fully understands how to reliably and consistently boost search results via artificial means. Thus, avoid link farms, mindless keyword content and similar techniques designed to make your site more Google friendly. I was dead wrong.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2012

I have been close to the tech & startup sectors for more than 20 years and I can’t think of a period in which I felt more optimistic about the innovation and value creation I see in front of us. They compete on features, price and execution. So of course returns from 2000-2010 were subpar on average for the industry.

Venture Capital 347

Venture Capital Capital Technical Review Startup 347

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. You need to have passionate tech entrepreneurs who want to build businesses locally. I’m in Seattle this week.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

To say that the tech elite were cynical of Hulu’s launch would be an understatement , but by the time it launched just a few months later it was getting great reviews. The goal of any cartel is to control production, distribution & marketing of a set of goods with the goal of maintaining high prices.

Hulu 292

Hulu Technical Review Content Advertising 292

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Of course we have to believe that there is a viable market, a differentiated product offering and a chance to build something defensible but if you do those basics right you still get crushed without an amazingly talented founder. With Ring it became your doorbell so of course you always use it when someone’s at your door.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 5, 2013

In a second, with Google, I can find a phone number that was assigned to you ten years ago, but it takes me an hour to find your phone number on that business card you gave me last week. Finally, we want it cheap (of course). I found dozens of software packages available on the Internet for free download, or a nominal price.

Software Review 99

Software Review Social Network Email Google 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

Of course much of it is conflicting. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC. I get approached about clean tech or biotech periodically – I don’t focus on these. In ad tech there’s Seth Levine at Foundry Group and both Dana Settle & Ian Sigelow at Greycroft.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 22, 2011

If that bond isn’t there or if it feels like I’m in a bidding process for the highest price, I might as well be Wells Fargo. Payment ready consumers (Amazon, iTunes, PayPal) and businesses (Google AdWords, Square). Often it turns out that the market is greatly expanded by having a lower price point new entrant.

Startup 386

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 386