Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 13, 2021

Once you are able to achieve some real “traction” with your business (paying customers, revenue stream), it may seem the time to relax a bit, but in fact this is the point where many founders start to flounder. The key is to make decisions from data and feedback, once your business has real customers and real products.

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Entrepreneur Startup Coach Mentor 169

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 10, 2021

Every technical entrepreneur is an early adopter of technology, so naturally they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets, early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it’s easy to get mislead on the real requirements of mainstream customers.

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Customer Custom Technical Review Product 117

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I tend to see many of the same obstacles appearing in every new startup, and since I don’t want to appear to be a downer , I’m not sure how to properly warn people ahead of time to be on the alert for these challenges. Too many entrepreneurs think that expert external advisors are suspect, or will slow them down.

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Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2020

Attracting the right customers is the key to success in business, whether you have a new startup or a mature enterprise. For example, Xerox tried to broaden the use of "xerox" as the standard term for "photocopying" to extend their existing customer segment into office automation and all kinds of computing.

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Customer Custom Technical Review Examples 123

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2021

New entrepreneurs routinely jump into a startup with a full charge of passion and energy, but often find themselves drained of both after a few months by the workload and challenges. Of course, this same challenge extends well beyond the entrepreneur, into all walks of life and work. These keys are meaning, interactions, and energy.

Entrepreneur 174

Entrepreneur Startup Press Study 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2019

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process.

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Customer Custom Sales Social Media 107

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2020

Entrepreneurs who search for real pain points, and build solutions around them, have the best chance of changing the world. As an alternative, if you are an entrepreneur looking for the next big thing, where should you look? That’s the great thing about being an entrepreneur. When the world gets smaller. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

As a business advisor and technologist, I often think about the large array of opportunities for entrepreneurs as technology seems to be evolving faster and faster. The opportunities to capitalize on these vehicles are huge, ranging from control software, hardware design, support facilities, to entirely new applications.

Ideas 105

Ideas Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Startup 105

Berkonomics

MAY 9, 2024

Test yourself as to whether you can identify the size of your market niche, and whether you can overcome the many barriers to access customers within your niche. A strategic relationship with one or more of the largest customers? Some great ideas just cannot be made into a product at a reasonable enough price to attract customers.

Patents 156

Patents Pricing Ideas Marketing 156

SoCal Tech Calendar

JANUARY 19, 2017

Wednesday, January 25, 2017 -- Direct-to-Consumer Packaging: Delighting Customers in a New Era of Retail. For product entrepreneurs, designers, and manufacturers: the first MAKE IT IN LA event for 2017! Design a consumer experience that goes beyond the product to delight the customer with every delivery.

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Customer Custom Commerce Design 100

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2021

Anyone who works with entrepreneurs will tell you that all are different. Others are really marketers out to make money fast, and believe that they can entice customers to any offering. The Opportunist is the speculative part of the entrepreneur in all of us. Of course, discovering your entrepreneur type is only the beginning.

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Entrepreneur Framework Mentor Web 134

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2016

In my role as a business advisor, I often see well-meaning entrepreneurs try to be everything to everyone, which results in many things done poorly, and few totally delighted customers. People are confused by multiple messages, and employees are frustrated trying to personalize customer experiences.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2011

I’m going to take that thought out into the field and validate it with my customers." I’ve spoken to dozens of customers, I have a validated customer persona, built an MVP to test key behavioral hypotheses, and the data doesn’t back what you’re saying." Customer Validation 101. Either: "That’s interesting.

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Customer Custom CTO Coach Startup 227

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2018

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Social Media Training 100

InfoChachkie

MARCH 21, 2019

Opportunity knocked when one of her customers was spotted at a high-end boutique, wearing one of Ida’s outfits. The store’s owner, Enid Bissett, asked the customer where she had purchased the dress. The two women established a custom dress shop called Enid Frocks. In contrast, Ida’s designs accentuated women’s feminity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

In today’s totally interconnected world with its abundance of information, choices, and marketing, how your customers buy has drastically changed. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur, a marketer, or a salesperson, it’s time to look beyond how you sell, and focus on how your customers buy.

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Customer Custom Social Media Startup 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Thus entrepreneurs were able to build prototypes and design new products without the traditional huge prototyping cost. They have also become great networking events for meeting other like-minded entrepreneurs. Here are some key positives from an entrepreneur perspective: Shorten the time and cost from idea to prototype.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2015

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. A few companies are leading the way, including Apple with their iPad and iPhone, offering irresistible stores with friendly experts, elegant packaging, and customer service that never ends. Don’t assume that early input is adequate.

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Design Product Customer Custom 61

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2019

You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late. How many customers will have any idea what this means to them?

Marketing 97

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup Technical Review 97

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2013

So he made hand-made batches in a bucket and drove it to customers in his van. How much could the new generation of entrepreneurs learn from that? When his packaging suppliers tried to get him to change his product to make it less hot or more sweet for American customers he refused, “ “Hot sauce must be hot.

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Entrepreneur Startup Pricing Product 415

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. It’s a tough job, and inexperienced entrepreneurs just don’t know where to start, and how to do it.

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Competition Services Startup Training 99

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2021

The ultimate compliment that any entrepreneur can get is that they can “see around corners.” Elon Musk with Tesla and SpaceX may be the most current example of this phenomenon, but others often mentioned include Richard Branson (Virgin Group), Joe Costello (Cadence Design), and Howard Schultz (Starbucks).

Marketing 157

Marketing Design Entrepreneur Ideas 157

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 28, 2023

Why do a few entrepreneurs, like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, seem to come up with all the real innovations, while the majority of business leaders seem stuck in the rut of linear thinking? He connects breakthrough thinking to four initiatives, which I believe every entrepreneur should practice: Questioning deeply-held beliefs and assumptions.

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Startup Entrepreneur Tool Ideas 128

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

For founder Jeremy Redman, V/One was a business that solved a problem he had faced himself as an entrepreneur just starting out, but lacking the technical experience to build his own applications. “But, I wasn’t going to let someone tell me I couldn’t be a tech entrepreneur.”

Mobile 250

Mobile Develop Development Artificial Inteligence 250

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2023

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 131

Customer Custom Social Media Training 131

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. I see you were involved in the Rise of the Female Entrepreneur effort at the Montgomery Summit this year, tell me a little about what that is all about?

Capital 162

Capital Entrepreneur Invest Artificial Inteligence 162

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. There is no one set of exceptional experiences that will work for all customers.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Social Media Training 97

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

All true entrepreneurs operate off a set of tenets that are built into their psyche, or drilled into them from training and mentors. In a book a while back by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie from the Columbia Business School, “ Designing for Growth ,” the authors encourage managers to think more like designers.

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Entrepreneur Design Ideas Competition 103

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 15, 2017

Entrepreneurs have become more resourceful since the 80s, and your options are more diverse as well. The Instagram lifestyle may have inspired a slew of would-be entrepreneurs to merge work and travel as never done by previous generations. It is possible to add a few touch-ups as some are designed minimally. Home Office.

Entrepreneur 121

Entrepreneur Startup Course Commerce 121

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2016

Every technical entrepreneur is an early adopter of technology, so naturally they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets, early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it’s easy to get mislead on the real requirements of mainstream customers.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Technical Review News 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 7, 2020

Every entrepreneur and startup loves you, but too many forget that every potential customer is not like you. If you are a technical entrepreneur, you can count on early adopters to be first in line for your product, and they are quick to provide feedback on quality, and suggest even more features.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

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. For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. Capture your “secret sauce.”

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Startup Training Services Writing 111

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process.

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Sales Entrepreneur Customer Custom 82

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

She actually IS the prototypical entrepreneur. But Tracy did what entrepreneurs do. Sam is the managing director of Launchpad LA and we were about to pick our 2012 class of entrepreneurs. In the first 5 minutes you’ll realize that she’s a classic entrepreneur. She focused on her customer.

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Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2010

It was difficult to make the transition to a “top down&# thinker but as a senior executive – and as an entrepreneur – you’re far less effective without this skill in your arsenal. I assembled tons of data, grouped things, found results and drew conclusions. I started by doing billing systems.

Entrepreneur 372

Entrepreneur Startup Design Framework 372

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2016

Customers are acclimating to change faster than ever before, technology is evolving very rapidly, all markets are instantly global, and the cost of entry is lower than ever. Overtly design the ecosystem as well as product. They make a long-term strategy come alive for customers. But now I believe that times have changed.

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Entrepreneur Marketing Design SpaceX 61

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2023

Many experts are certain that successful entrepreneurs are the ones with the most inspiration (passion and dream), while others will assert that it’s about more perspiration (working harder). Here are five key ones to celebrate: Enjoy the feedback from every satisfied customer. In my experience, both are always required in heavy doses.

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