Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

For the rest of us, we need a business plan, as well as a product plan. Some of you may be convinced that your product specification communicates the product message even better than a business plan, so why be redundant? Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Provide specifics on the customer business model.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Eric Greenspan

MAY 29, 2010

Using social media to increase your company’s touch and reach with each of your customers may be the most important reason to jump in to this game changing strategy. Social media can help bridge a long standing gap between customers and the companies they trust with their hard earned cash. 40,000) to join me on Facebook.

Social Media 214

Social Media Customer Custom Media 214

TechCrunch LA

JULY 19, 2022

More people are focused on the beginning of the product lifecycle; very few are focused at the end.”. The end of the product lifecycle is where Murthy and Kaplan feel Ghost has “an enormous opportunity to help people be more efficient in that process,” Murthy added. That’s our vision.”.

Product 191

Product Funding Technical Review Equity 191

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

The market is changing so fast these days, and if you are not planning a solution today for tomorrow’s customers, you may be setting yourself up for failure and don’t even realize it. There are many free generalized tools, including Google Trends , which can be used to track customer behavior in looking for things that don’t exist yet.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. If you don’t have a high level of commitment and passion, you customers won’t seek you out.

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. If you don’t have a high level of commitment and passion, you customers won’t seek you out.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Sure, we built SaaS products before the term even existed but at 31 it was hard to delineate reality from what all of the monied people around us were telling us what we were worth. In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. Until we weren’t.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Berkonomics

MARCH 25, 2021

We know that one of the ways we hold onto our customers is if there are high switching costs to move away to a competitor. Do you have an estimate of the cost for a potential customer to switch to your side? Offer incentives to existing customers to stay, and for competitor’s customers to switch. What to do?

Competition 156

Competition Customer Custom Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

Your marketing launch is the most important element of startup success these days, to get customer attention in this world of information overload. Every entrepreneur assumes their product or service is so great that “word-of-mouth” will carry the day for them. The eye is just as important as the mind when it comes to customers.

Content 146

Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2022

As a mentor to many business professionals and owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, I find a wealth of innovative ideas, but often less insight on what it really takes to transform ideas into an income stream that can excite new customers into long-term business success. Test your innovation with at least a hundred customers.

Ideas 145

Ideas Startup Case Study Writing 145

InfoChachkie

DECEMBER 2, 2009

As noted in Pour and Stir Part I , the key to the successful execution of this strategy is managing the following equation: The cost to acquire a customer < lifetime value of a customer. Decreasing Your Customer Acquisition Costs. This is equivalent to being handed a free customer for every ten customers you acquire.

Customer 164

Customer Custom Advertising SEM 164

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2023

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 124

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 124

Berkonomics

JULY 20, 2017

A product at the concept stage contains feature-functionality that customers may not want or be willing to pay for, or which just might not work well enough for release to the public. Allow for the cost and extra time for tweaks to the product or service. Our variant of the “battle plan” truism is important to internalize.

Customer 256

Customer Custom Writing Product 256

Berkonomics

MARCH 5, 2020

First: Product risk. . Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to. One way to mitigate this is by using early money to create a prototype, to perform market research, to complete the first generation of the product, or to deliver the service to a satisfied customer.

Outsource Development 156

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2023

Patagonia , a successful outdoor products company, combines building safe high-quality products with philanthropic efforts to help the environment. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free. Delight and deliver value to your customers. Without customers, there is no business.

Framework 95

Framework Customer Custom Tips 95

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2022

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. Assess social media relevance to your product or service. If your business is industrial B2B products, social media should be low on your list.

Social Media 126

Social Media Media Startup Platform 126

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

That great productivity drain that we somehow all buy into. So I ask you – if you’re being reactive to somebody else’s emails are you really being as productive in your company as you could be? You’re writing a freaking blog post! But it’s mostly customer service. ” Brilliant!

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2023

As a business advisor and advocate for entrepreneurs, I find myself almost always talking and writing about change. Peers and customers alike still expect responsiveness. Yet peers and customers notice phone calls and e-mails not returned in twenty-four hours or less. Productive networking traffic does not happen by default.

Startup 106

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Screening 106

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 12, 2021

Even with product businesses, it’s the ultimate way to build your brand credibility, bring in customer leads, and get feedback from your target market. You should start blogging about your business before you have a product, to test interest and establish your credibility. An informal writing style is generally recommended.

Blogging 135

Blogging Services Search Engine Optimization Web 135

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

Patagonia , a successful outdoor products company, combines building safe high-quality products with philanthropic efforts to help the environment. Write it down, make it specific, expressive, yet succinct and jargon-free. Delight and deliver value to your customers. Without customers, there is no business.

Tips 174

Tips Framework Customer Custom 174

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

I’m over-paying for every check I write into the VC ecosystem and valuations are being pushed up to absurd levels and many of these valuations and companies won’t hold in the long term. We can’t wait for customers to use the product for 12–18 months and do customer interviews or look at purchase cohorts. By definition?—?I’m

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 31, 2020

The company created a product that could be delivered as a service to medical clinicians anywhere in the world, enhancing their ability to understand their patents’ problems and needs in less time, using the expertise built into an AI expert system created by the best minds in many medical specialties. How refreshing!

Equity 156

Equity Writing Education Research 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2020

I believe the old adage that you don’t know what you don’t know until you try to write it down. The discipline of writing down your plan is the best way to make sure you understand how to transform your idea into a business, and how to communicate it. Offer free solutions to bring in more customers.

Startup 174

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Ideas 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

They realize that their productivity is suffering, as well as their health, but they don’t know what to do about it. Take the time to fully focus on each task you are faced with, and your decisions and productivity will improve. Make every effort to have your mind be totally present for each challenge from a team member or customer.

Demand 103

Demand Activity Email Mentor 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2023

Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. You can’t isolate your customers from language idiosyncrasies and culture issues, per reduced customer engagement highlighted a while back by the The Globe and Mail. But customers are not looking yet another homogeneous product or service, so be careful.

Software Review 114

Software Review Technical Review Outsource Development Outsource 114

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 18, 2011

Having paying “Customers” is what makes the cash register roar. An entrepreneur having low self worth is the number one deterrent for a potential customer not buying into what you are selling. Using your service or owning your product isn’t why a person buys, it’s the experience your customer will have.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Marketing SEO 85

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

I’ve been writing a series on a simple methodology that we used at my first enterprise software company. Simply, this is identifying a customer need that has economic value to them if they can solve it. This solves the customer question, “Why Buy Anything?”. There are many out there and many books have been written on the topic.

Sales 328

Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

SoCal CTO

MARCH 10, 2010

Steve Blank wrote a great post recently entitled Perfection By Subtraction – The Minimum Feature Set where he explains the real goals around defining a minimum viable product: Founders act like the “minimum” part is the goal. Or worse, that every potential customer should want it. Often, it’s the related nature of the features.

Product 150

Product Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

I’ll try to get write-ups shortly but for now here is an overview of my interview with Nanea Reeves – President and COO of textPlus. In our video we discussed leadership topics such as managing product and engineering teams, communication and company organization. Company Organization.

Technical Review 315

Technical Review Blogging RSS Organization 315

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2022

Most business advisors I know will say that writing a business plan is the first step to starting your own business, but I believe that a better first step is to do a self-analysis of your real drivers, strengths, and assumptions before committing to this lifestyle. You can’t really succeed in life if you are not happy.

Social Media 105

Social Media Writing Ideas Resource 105

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. He wanted to get input from me on what he's doing, and he wants to begin to ask developers what it would take to build his product. Me : Product definition, use cases, feature list, wireframes, comps, really whatever you have.

Develop 354

Develop Development Technical Review CTO Coach 354

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2015

This term refers to the penchant to add just one more feature to the product or service before first delivery, just because you can. The result is a bloated first product which finally collapses under its own weight, or is too late and too expensive for the intended customer. Define milestones for cost review and sign-off.

Technical Review 104

Technical Review Product Software Review High Tech 104

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 29, 2023

Bobbie One startup that's proved to have the formula for success this year is Bobbie – the first infant formula to be certified as organic by the USDA, and the fastest-growing product of its kind to enter the US market since the 1980s. Organic milk formula product Bobbie. million site visits in October alone. Gumroad homepage.

Startup 213

Startup Generative AI Newsletter Tool 213

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. As I was trying to figure out the role I wanted to play in the VC world I decided I wanted to focus on businesses that were building deeply technical products to solve problems for business users. Over the past 2.5 Why does that matter?

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Berkonomics

MARCH 14, 2019

First: Product risk. . Is the product or service possible to produce at all, let alone economically enough to compete in the marketplace? Email readers, continue here…] Are you ahead or behind the market with your product or service? Second: Market risk. . Third: Management risk. . Fourth: Financial risk. .

Outsource Development 120

Outsource Development Ideas Resource Patents 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it. The reason for this is that the executives who founded the company have so much tacit knowledge of how to position their product relative to the competition that they can easily win campaigns when they’re involved. by your customers.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Customer 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2013

I will add to this as I write more in the coming weeks on the topic. You may have gotten some articles that covered your product launch or may have gotten into industry rags but this might be your first time on TechCrunch, AllThingsD, PandoDaily, GigaOm, Business Insider or the equivalent. The benefits usually far outweigh the costs.

Startup 355

Startup Funding News Press 355