Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2021

In fact, some very innovative individuals, known as ‘idea people’ or inventors, often end up creating the most dysfunctional teams. Innovation is not all about coming up with new ideas. Generate ideas. This requires divergent thinking, with the strengths of every team member, to generate as many ideas as possible.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2021

Every business I know needs to be on a constant lookout for new ideas, both in what they offer to customers, and in their internal operations, to stay competitive. Fortunately, there are ways to nurture the creation and capture of new ideas. Believe me, it’s no fun to see a competitor implement a good idea that slipped your mind.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 13, 2020

Many aspiring entrepreneurs I mentor can talk at length about their innovative ideas and passions, and ask lots of good questions, but never make much progress in building a real business. In my experience, building a business is much more about getting things done than having great ideas.

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Ideas Writing Startup Entrepreneur 121

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2020

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? Separate nice-to-have ideas from ones solving painful problems.

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Technical Review Ideas Patents Startup 173

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Don’t waste your time and energy talking to angels and VCs about technology funding when you could be focused more productively on grants, private funds and future business partners. Business investors and customers want to hear about solutions, and tend to back away from technology, until it is proven.

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Resource Ideas Funding Research 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2021

The entrepreneurs I see are always talking about “disruptive innovation” ideas, but the plans I read are more often linear extensions of a current hot offering, like one more social network with the best of Facebook and Twitter, one more dating site dimension, or another “must-have” accessory for smartphones. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Every startup needs to think hard daily about what problem or challenge is holding back progress, what really matters today, and what entirely new possibilities exist. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. How many times have you actually made up work to keep an idle person busy?

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2020

Savvy entrepreneurs start testing their ideas on potential customers even before the concept is fully cooked. They have enough confidence in their ability to deliver that they don’t worry about someone stealing the idea to get there first, and they don’t forget to listen carefully to critical feedback.

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Ideas Tips Marketing Social Media 124

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2020

One thing I have learned the hard way in business is that implementing new ideas is usually much more difficult than conceiving the idea in the first place. That’s why I caution my aspiring entrepreneur clients against proclaiming to investors that they are a great “idea” person. For example, I have a friend with a Ph.D.

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Ideas Writing Examples Outsource 126

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2023

Here are some key drivers that will likely lead you to a fundable idea: A business crisis. That’s the great thing about being an entrepreneur. So why do I see some many funding requests for products along these lines? As an alternative, if you are an entrepreneur looking for the next big thing, where should you look? Marty Zwilling

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Ideas Outsource Development Outsource Course 118

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 20, 2012

Now, I’m pretty on the record that being an entrepreneur is about being great at The Do. I’ve talked in the past about how I manage my own creative process. I zone out and think about how things could be different. I can feel the ideas needing to come out and I know if I get distracted I will lose them.

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Venture Capital Conference Ideas Entrepreneur 400

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca For the first 5 years or so after I became a VC I didn’t talk much about what I thought a VC should be excellent at since frankly I wasn’t sure. It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. I don’t think this is the job.

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

If you haven’t read Adam Lashinsky’s awesome new book about Apple , you should. It takes on many of the lessons MBA programs and Corporate America have been teaching about business for the past 50+ years and questions whether lessons from Apple might be more applicable in thinking about the future. Specifically, 1.

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InfoChachkie

JANUARY 3, 2012

In this 8-minute video excerpt from his recent talk, Seth describes the practical, hands-on methodology that he uses on a day-to-day basis to identify and vet his entrepreneurial ideas. As I note in Spilling The Beans , the basic ideas upon which startups are founded are worth nothing. " Ten Step Idea Evaluation Worksheet.

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Ideas Guide Startup Santa Barbara 266

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 15, 2014

.” I have been weighing in slowly on the topic over the past few weeks on Twitter but have avoided writing a blog post about it until now. I have thought a lot about anonymity over the years and actually have enjoyed debating the topic with those passionate about anonymity’s benefits because of course that’s how I learn.

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Technical Review Blogging Examples Startup 329

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2017

We did know about Snapchat as early as anybody. It was a “disappearing text app” where the founders told me that they named the company because the idea came from how Tiger Woods got caught cheating on his wife because all of his mistresses had evidence that he cheated because they saved text messages from him. I should have.

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Snapchat Invest Technical Review Dollar Shave Club 214

socalTECH

OCTOBER 5, 2011

To understand how one local company is making that transition, we talked with Los Angeles-based All About Addiction (www.allaboutaddiction.com), a company that grew out of Adi Jaffe's work at UCLA as a trained psychologist. First, what is All About Addiction about? The idea is really to make the process as simple as possible.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

When Ethan was considering leaving Google we talked about it. He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. What do we like about OpenTable? The company was called Red Beacon. He was seeking $500k.

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CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

A common request I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is for an assessment of their latest idea. I don’t even try to assess things at the idea level, since I can’t read minds. Here are seven key considerations for how you should make your own best entrepreneur business idea decision in this context: Pick something you really enjoy doing.

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Ideas Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 78

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2014

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. At the same time, myths about innovation are commonplace in business. While it is true that you can’t get started without an idea, the importance of the Big Hunt is vastly overrated. Marty Zwilling.

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Ideas Startup Resource Entrepreneur 107

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2013

I’m not saying that lawyers were my screening process – simply that they knew about deals early on and they had voted with their time and pocketbooks so I knew I had a degree of filtering. no, I''m not talking about SVB, Comerica, Square1 and the like. I like to hear their passion for the idea. Big difference.].

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Startup Venture Capital Pricing Technical Review 361

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2015

I saw him on stage at the event talking about how he used social media to engage audiences. And after one meeting they started asking for his advice about marketing, customer engagement, product design, monetization – whatever. Five-and-a-half years ago I first met Chamillionaire at a tech conference in LA.

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socalTECH

JULY 31, 2012

Stocktwits developed the idea of click-able stock tickers, allowing users to search for conversations about certain stocks on the micro-messaging site, as well as through partners like CNN Money, Yahoo Finance, and others. Twitter announced the feature this morning on its stream.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 24, 2018

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? Separate nice-to-have ideas from ones solving painful problems.

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Ideas Technical Review Patents Startup 83

SoCal Tech Calendar

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 -- Funding the Big Idea! The event features our premier Speed Dating* program where you can personally meet one on one and present your idea to Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, and Private and Public Equity Investors.

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Ideas Funding Conference Equity 124

Eric Greenspan

MAY 9, 2013

There’s great ideas everywhere. My idea is to never plant anything you can’t eat. The time is ripe for the next generation keyboard idea. Keyboard idea 1. Keyboard idea 2. About me: I’m a dad, a social research marketer, customer service champion, closet chef, TEDster. Edible Landscaping.

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Ideas Screening IBM IBM 117

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

A common request I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is for an assessment of their latest idea. I don’t even try to assess things at the idea level, since I can’t read minds. Here are seven key considerations for how you should make your own best entrepreneur business idea decision in this context: Pick something you really enjoy doing.

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Ideas Satisfaction Entrepreneur Activity 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2019

Image via Pixabay In my role as a new business advisor and occasional investor, I hear lots of people talking about their dreams of “someday” starting and running a new venture. They can talk with passion about their innovative new idea, and ask lots of questions, but never seem to really get started.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2014

In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? Separate nice-to-have ideas from ones solving painful problems.

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Ideas Entrepreneur Technical Review Patents 106

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2015

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Yet I can assure you that people who are paranoid, or want to avoid all risks, won’t be happy as entrepreneurs, so it’s all about balancing the risk-reward scale.

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Ideas Technical Review Patents Entrepreneur 106

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2015

As a business mentor, I sometimes feel besieged by people begging for my view and support of their latest idea. In reality, I like most ideas, but I have to tell them that the real challenge is taking the inspiration from a dream to a business. Now you see why no one should judge business success potential by the idea alone.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Some entrepreneurs seem to never stop talking about themselves, and all their accomplishments. The best ones talk more about how they have assembled a well-rounded team, and will continue to fill in the gaps. Talks about the implementation plan, not the idea. entrepreneur startup idea investor funding founder business'

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 15, 2023

Most entrepreneurs I meet are reluctant to disclose anything about their idea to investors before getting a signed confidential disclosure agreement (CDA). Yet I can assure you that people who are paranoid, or want to avoid all risks, won’t be happy as entrepreneurs, so it’s all about balancing the risk-reward scale.

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Technical Review Patents Ideas Sample 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2015

I’m sure she had no idea just how powerful that word and that concept would become. Fred Wilson immediately weighed in on her analysis , a meme was born and we were off to the races talking about “Unicorns.” I’m not talking about raising money at a billion dollars. ” Are there enough unicorns?

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Startup Venture Capital Course Marketing 150

socalTECH

MAY 1, 2019

We caught up with Brian to hear more about the startup. I thought it was about time to do something about that, to make sure small business ownersnot just multi-million and billion dollar, Fortune 500 companiescould have access to all of the benefits and protection of the law. It's more about product differentiation.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 29, 2013

Can tapping the power of the crowd not only help you find customers and help fund your project, but also help you shape your startup idea and find funding? A new, Los Angeles area startup, JumpStartFund (www.jumpstartfund.com) recently launched, offering up a combination of crowdfunding and crowd-advice for entrepreneurial ideas.

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Ideas Patents Funding Startup 178

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 8, 2018

As Mr. Johnson points out, big ideas generally result from the collision of many small hunches. In isolation, a particular hunch may be worthless, but when combined with other ideas, at the right time, the result can be a game-changing innovation. Seth notes that, “Ideas are a lot like exercising. The Idea – brief description.

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Ideas Startup Technical Review Santa Barbara 69