Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. Our software wasn’t fully baked. We hadn’t even thought about having a customer support line or who would staff it. It didn’t add up to me. We were unprepared.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

Based on traditional research, getting new customers is five to ten times harder than getting additional revenue from existing customers. If you are looking to start a new business in any domain, it’s definitely worth your time to check your fit for one of these models: Membership website model. Private club model.

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Tech.Co

DECEMBER 28, 2022

With over 305 million start-ups being created every year globally, standing out from the crowd is a huge challenge. We've scoured the startup scene to find out which budding businesses have made big waves in 2022 — and whose growth is showing no signs of slowing down. Sign up to Tech.co's weekly newsletter today.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2023

Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. I say again, customers buy solutions, not technology. Neither is positive.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? What happened? There was no money train.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2021

If you are one of the many professionals still trapped between jobs by circumstances outside your control, or are about to dump the loser job you have now, you should be actively defining and starting your own business, in parallel with looking for that ideal job. Have startup efforts to highlight in job interviews.

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Xconomy

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

Zingle, a startup whose software is used by hospitality, travel, and retail industries to more easily and quickly connect with their customers via messaging, has been acquired for about $42 million in cash by Medallia, a publicly traded software company in San Francisco.

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TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 23, 2020

Founded four years ago by Matt Danna and Sean Stavropoulos, Boulevard was inspired by Stavropoulos’ inability to book a haircut and Danna’s hunch that the inability of salons and spas to cater to customers like the busy programmer could be indicative of a bigger problem. billion transaction by Vista Equity Partners.

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socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2018

As part of our sponsor relationship with the conference, we're running a series of interviews with speakers from the conference about their experience in the area of recurring revenues, customer service, and similar topics. Today's interview is with Jon Ferrara of Nimble (www.nimble.com), the maker of contact management software-as-a-service.

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socalTECH

MARCH 4, 2013

Nimble , the developer of customer relationship management software, said today that it has launched a program for startups, which will offer up a free year of its service. The company said the effort is part of an effort to both support the startup community--as well as connect with future integration partners.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based Pipeliner CRM , which develops customer relationship management (CRM) software tools, said on Wednesday that it has rolled out a cloud-only version of its software. The company is now offering up three versions of the online, cloud software--Starter, Business, and Enterprise--all via a subscription.

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socalTECH

JUNE 24, 2021

San Diego-based Drata, a startup working on security and compliance automation software, said it has raised $25M in its Series A funding. The startup says it helps companies achieve and maintain continuous compliance through automated security control monitoring and evidence collection.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. Or read the quick, informative summary below the image!

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Berkonomics

JANUARY 12, 2023

Management undertakes a simple exercise of calculating the increased profitability of shutting down all R&D, sales and subordinate operations, and universally notes with shock the high net profit that results – from shutting down all operations except customer service to recurring customers (as in software support operations.).

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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." " One was an enterprise software product.

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. Who are the customers?

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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. It is currently is the company’s biggest customer.).

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TechEmpower

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

As part of the onboarding process, the app asks both job seekers and employers what they’re looking for - in a text box - while providing a few suggestions in a pop-up. This isn’t just our opinion - our startup metrics prove it! Even with the pop-up suggestions, we saw significant drop-off during user onboarding.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2021

When someone introduces me to an “idea person,” I automatically jump to the down-side conclusion that this person doesn’t do follow-up. I was with IBM in the early PC days when Bill worked with us to provide PC DOS and other software. For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers.

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socalTECH

MAY 22, 2019

For our interview this morning, we talked with David Wood , the Founder and CEO of Eventene (www.eventene.com), an early stage startup, bootstrapped startup developing event management software. David--a veteran of Microsoft, having been the lead developer of Microsoft Exchange--tells us why he started his company.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Nearly every successful tech startup I’ve observed over the past 20 years has gone through a similar growth pattern: Innovate, systematize then scale operations. Innovate In the early years of a startup there is a lot of kinetic energy of enthusiastic innovators looking to launch a product that changes how an industry works.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2021

A new, Los Angeles-based startup, Dylish, has launched a new online ordering platform to handle delivery and take out orders, the company said this morning. The company said its platform provides customized webpage, marketing materials, social media presence, customizable iOS and Android apps, QR codes, tablet and printer, and more.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups that are scalable, and ready to become the next unicorn. A software product is a classic example of a scalable solution, since it costs real money to build the first copy, but unlimited additional copies can be quickly cloned for almost no incremental cost.

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InfoChachkie

JANUARY 23, 2019

Software terminology is stubbornly not following a similar evolution. It’s high time we kill the term Software As A Service (SaaS) and call it what it is – software. Even Salesforce abandoned it’s silly “No Software” tagline, after the company had to explain in 2015 that it meant, “No legacy software, just cloud software.”.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2021

As an advisor to startups and entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that all new businesses must start with a great idea. I believe the best entrepreneurs start by finding a large opportunity, and only then use good ideas to capitalize on that opportunity. I have to disagree. Find products that seem to fit together (bundle).

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socalTECH

JUNE 21, 2018

San Diego-based startup Truepic , a developer of software which "notarizes" digital photos for authenticity, has raised $8M in a Series A funding, the company announced on Thursday. Truepic says that its customers include Reddit and the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). READ MORE>>.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Santa Monica-based Brace , a startup developing software to automate mortgage servicing, has raised $10M in a Series A funding round, according to the company. Brace says that it has developed a modular, digital platform for mortgage servicing that improves the customer experience and reduces the cost to service.

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socalTECH

JULY 30, 2010

Costa Mesa-based SYSPRO , a developer of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, reported this week that it has signed up medical device startup NeoTract as a customer. SYSPRO said that NeoTract will use its ERP software to manage its financial, manufacturing, and distribution operations. READ MORE>>.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Los Angeles-based Catalog , a startup developing artificial intelligence software to help independent visual artists scale their content production efforts, has raised $1.5M The startup--led by Patrick Ip--develops software to automate the creation of custom visual content for brands. in a seed funding round.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

There are certain topics that even some of the smartest people I talk with who aren’t startup oriented can’t fully grok. It’s common cocktail party chatter to hear people confidently pronounce that some well known startup is sure to blow up because, “How could they succeed when they’re not even profitable!”

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I believe the Maker Movement and hardware startups with limited resources are made for each other. They come at the early stage while a startup has no revenue or valuation, so professional investors are hard to find. Countless startup teams have already been spawned from these. Meet the new consumer demand for customization.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

That challenge is a major business opportunity, as well as a risk, for startups. Internet users need to start watching out for themselves, like looking both ways before you cross the street. The bad news for startups is that your company can lose big if it’s caught in the middle. Don’t take shortcuts on these.

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Tech.Co

JUNE 28, 2021

Startup tech businesses used to land on the scene with big ideas about how their tech could change the world. However, in recent years, there have been precious few startups with such grand ambitions from an early stage. But the trend for world-changing mission statements is waning in the startup sphere.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

San Diego-based Deckard Technologies , a new startup founded by serial entrepreneur Neil Senturia, said on Monday that it has raised $4M in funding and launched a new company focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify property tax scofflaws.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2023

It’s still popular these days for startup founders to operate in stealth mode, meaning no details about the idea or progress are shared with anyone until the big reveal and rollout. Pivots and corrections are inevitable for startups in this age of rapid change, and the earlier you make them, the quicker you get to success.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 19, 2013

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. We only want software revenue.” How do you get referenceable customers?

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 19, 2018

San Diego-based Kazuhm , a startup developing a distributed computing workload platform, has received a funding round from Analytics Ventures, Analytics said this week. Size of the investment was not announced. Tim O'Neal, a former executive at Intuit, is CEO of Kazuhm. READ MORE>>.

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