Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2021

In other words, inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers. You need a viable business model and customers. Investors expect proof that your invention can be manufactured in volume, and can justify a sales price at least double the cost, to a large customer set that has money to spend.

Technical Review 156

Technical Review Funding Patents Ideas 156

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2023

Entrepreneurs looking for investor funding often fail to realize that all money comes with strings. For example, if you have watched the Shark Tank TV series, you probably noticed that the Sharks always ask the entrepreneurs for their intended “use of funds.” Funding for founder salaries at this stage is a red flag.

Tips 91

Tips Funding Startup Invest 91

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. You’d be very wrong. Contrast that with a VC conversation I had.

Customer 341

Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

<== Our conclusion was that this isn’t a temporary blip that will swiftly trend-back up in a V-shaped recovery of valuations but rather represented a new normal on how the market will price these companies somewhat permanently. When you look at how much median valuations were driven up in the past 5 years alone it’s bananas.

Venture Capital 416

Venture Capital Marketing Technical Review Seed Funding 416

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

In those years I learned to properly build product, price products, sell products and serve customers. By 2015 it had come to signify by the market a new era where business fundamentals had changed, companies could easily and quickly be worth $10 billion or MORE so why worry about the “entry price!” billion fund.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth. Great stuff. This post looks at the implementation details of HTML 5 video.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2021

Investors expect a great return for their risk, so they look for people who can look beyond the technology and their own passion to see a customer need that perhaps even the rest of us haven’t yet envisioned. Some people like to talk incessantly about their idea and possibilities. Driven by a higher purpose as well as profit.

Funding 152

Funding Startup Ideas Resource 152

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

AOL co-founder and former chief executive officer Steve Case’s venture capital fund, Revolution , deploys capital to companies “outside of the hotbeds.” Today, Washington, DC-based Revolution is announcing its latest fund. Revolution began nearly 15 years ago as Steve Case’s balance sheet fund, in essence.

Venture Capital 211

Venture Capital Funding Seed Funding Activity 211

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.

Customer 107

Customer Custom Sales Social Media 107

socalTECH

APRIL 2, 2012

Santa Barbara-based Make It Work , the on site technical support and computer repair service headed by Eric Greenspan, said Monday that it has switched its services to a new fixed-price, per-service model. The shift is a significant one for the firm, which previously offered up it services for an hourly service charge to its customers.

Pricing 159

Pricing Tech Coast Angels Technical Support Santa Barbara 159

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

Just Insure , a pay-per-mile insurance technology company, has raised $8 million in a funding round. . Or put more simply, it charges customers only for miles driven and its rates vary based on driving behavior. Root charges customers a monthly fee, and when policies are renewed, the rate is subject to change based on driving behavior.

Startup 203

Startup Customer Custom Los Angeles 203

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the other hand, the biggest winners will turn out to be much larger than the prices people paid for them and this will happen faster than at any time in human history. And as a result of this there are now very robust secondary markets where founders and seed-funds alike are selling down their ownership long before an ultimate exit.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 23, 2013

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free, to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). It’s great for customers, but not for startups, unless you have deep pockets. Freemium” model.

Pricing 116

Pricing Product Customer Custom 116

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 27, 2021

The company’s massive mint comes thanks to a new $500 million financing round led by Sequoia’s Global Equities fund and Tiger Global Management. Rowe Price, Dragoneer Investment Group, and ICONIQ Growth.

SaaS 292

SaaS Glendale Statistics Los Angeles 292

socalTECH

AUGUST 14, 2019

The startup is backed by Daimler AG, and offers up online pricing of services, online scheduling, and servicing of a vehicle at a customer's home, work, or at a shop. Size of the investment by Daimler AG was not announced, although RepairSmith called the the backing a "major investment commitment".

Los Angeles 113

Los Angeles Funding Pricing Tool 113

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2020

in a funding round. According to the company, the round--a Seed-2 funding--was led by Okapi Capital, and also included The Cove Fund, Early Light Ventures, SaaS Venture Capital, and Stage Venture Partners and Brad Perry (co-founder of Dealer Socket), along with others. The founder and CEO of TrackStreet is Andrew Schydlowsky.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Santa Barbara SaaS Venture Capital 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2021

They are looking for startups that have a sustainable advantage over direct and indirect competitor offerings, as well as obvious value to customers living without your product today. All of these are competitors in terms of speed, price, or luxury. Thought leadership position in your market and customer set.

Competition 166

Competition Funding Startup Patents 166

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2022

In reality, a simple Excel spreadsheet model customized around your assumptions can save you hours and avoid a wasted expense in validating alternative vendor and marketing decisions. In my experience, the top candidates will include the following: What if you have to cut your targeted price? Pricing is always a tricky issue.

Startup 147

Startup Pricing Sample Customer 147

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. You will realize much more from the ultimate sale of your business even if at a considerably lower price than if splitting the proceeds with investors. There is a lot to say about retaining control.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. One of the most important aims of a fund-raising process is to keep similar firms at the same stage of your process. Why 8–10 and not just 3–4?

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

socalTECH

DECEMBER 13, 2021

Los Angeles-based Sensible Weather, a new startup which reimburses travelers when bad weather impacts their trips, says it has raised $4M in a seed funding round. The startup is led by foudner and CEO Nick Cavanaugh.

Arcadia 113

Arcadia Seed Funding Research Examples 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2022

Every entrepreneur thinks he can relax a bit after his business model is proven, funding is in place, and revenues are scaling as projected up that hockey-stick curve. Initially, all companies sell to customers who are the easiest to reach and most excited about the new product. Prices begin to decline quickly.

Startup 106

Startup Pricing Cloud Computing Customer 106

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

Solana Beach-based Flock Freight , a startup which develops software which uses algorithms to pool multiple, less-than-truckload freight shipments together so they can take advantage of full truckload pricing, has raised $50M in a Series B funding, according to the company. The funding was led by SignalFire and GLP Capital Partners.

Pricing 124

Pricing Funding Capital Help 124

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

But today a startup that’s tackling a different aspect of the market — addressing the supply chain that subsequently turns the wheels of the bigger food distribution machine — is announcing a big round of funding as it continues to grow. The funding is coming from a wide mix of investors. and Canada.

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He is very hands-on and helpful – especially for any company looking into customer acquisition. People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing. o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing. we both love Jason).

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Los Angeles-based online underwear, sleepwear, and loungewear brand MeUndies has scored a big, $40M funding round, the company announced on Monday, from private equity investor Provenance. The company says it has so far sold 16 million pairs of its underwear.

Equity 113

Equity Los Angeles Pricing Design 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

I recently wrote a post on angel financing covering the topic of convertible notes but I realized I was thinking about the issue more from investor perspective and a very narrow topic of how to price the round. Very few people fund individuals. This post is for those who want to raise angel money. Team: You need a team.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2010

One of the toughest decisions for a startup is how to price their product or service. The alternatives range from giving it away for free (like Twitter), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). It’s great for customers, but not for startups, unless you have deep pockets.

Pricing 98

Pricing Product Startup Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

As a startup investor, I often see business proposals looking for funding that really look like expensive hobbies looking for donations. I still see entrepreneurs who spend money and time for months on a new business idea without any separation of personal and business funds, and any formal accounting system for their new business.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Most technology startups seem to be funded by product people or business people. Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. They are as good at selling you as they are at selling your product to customers.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

In my view, this focus on the wrong skill set is the primary reason why over half of new businesses fail in the first five years, and only one out of a hundred startups get their requested funding from professional investors. Diagnosing and understanding the customer problem. Value is far more than cost versus price.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Projecting financials is a natural extension of the homework every entrepreneur needs to do on customer opportunity size, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value. For additional value, I suggest the use of a spreadsheet such as Excel as a financial model, with a few variables, like price and volume.

Startup 116

Startup Pricing Sales Statistics 116

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 20, 2019

Postmates is launching a new feature called Postmates Party that lets customers within the same neighborhood pool their orders. In return, these customers get the food delivered for free, eliminating a major pinch point for potential Postmates users. cities in which it currently operates. and Philadelphia. billion valuation.

Orange County 200

Orange County Long Beach San Diego Los Angeles 200

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 17, 2018

million in a new round of funding. . million in funding, which came from a clutch of big name strategic partners, venture firms and individual angel investors. . million in funding, which came from a clutch of big name strategic partners, venture firms and individual angel investors. ” Powering that effort is the new $3.7

Snapchat 179

Snapchat Los Angeles Pricing Startup 179

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Most entrepreneur that fail are quick to offer a litany of constraints that caused their demise – not enough money, time, customers, or support from the right players. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Subtraction leads to simplicity, better usability, and easier education of your customers.

Resource 112

Resource Ideas Competition Entrepreneur 112

socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2020

Those include a new "Future Funds" program interest only payments for six months and starting payments as low as 1.5% of the total purchase price. At month seven the customer is presented a choice to pay off the balance or finance for an additional 12 to 60 months. READ MORE>>.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Startup Pricing Technology 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Solicit funds from friends and family. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

Startup 136

Startup Technical Review Equity Incubator 136