article thumbnail

6 Due Diligence Goals When Vetting Business Partners

Startup Professionals Musings

You need to do the due diligence to make that decision before you sign away your equity. As a former startup investor, I was often involved with due diligence on founders, and I felt that founders should do the same on co-founders, as well as investors. The same benefits also apply to a joint venture.

article thumbnail

6 Due Diligence Concerns Before Outside Contracting

Startup Professionals Musings

For example, it is no secret that software pirating is still very common in China, Vietnam, and other cultures. Leading edge technology software and manufacturing require constant course corrections and iterative restarts. Customer-facing services, like call centers, should rarely be outsourced. Marty Zwilling.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

7 Due Diligence Checks On Your Idea To Save Some Pain

Startup Professionals Musings

Some analysis and due diligence along the following lines should be performed on every idea, as a reality check, before committing your efforts and other people’s money to building a business: Look for places where competitors are few. Don’t forget to consider customer alternatives, like trains versus airplanes.

article thumbnail

53 Questions Developers Should Ask Innovators

TechEmpower

At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. After all, that’s what tech innovation is all about. Who are the customers? Do you have a custom algorithm or other technology? What are some examples of similar brands?

Develop 520
article thumbnail

How Much Information Should you Give VCs for Due Diligence?

Both Sides of the Table

When is it appropriate for a VC to call your customers? If you show a list of key customers or key business partners and if this list is sensitive (READ: If you don’t want VCs calling them) then you need to make it explicit with the VCs. “We are sharing with you our list of key customers / biz dev partners.

article thumbnail

8 Ways To Ensure Customer Interactions Are Memorable

Startup Professionals Musings

Yet, as a business consultant, I often find minimal focus on improving employee engagement and assessing their customer-facing performance. For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees.

Customer 147
article thumbnail

8 Brand Models To Attract Your Perfect Fit Customer

Startup Professionals Musings

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.

Customer 123