Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2019

Image via Wikipedia The challenge for all of us in business is to improve competitiveness by improving employee productivity and reducing costs. According to Gartner , one of the biggest drags on productivity is employee engagement, still hovering around 30 percent, and costing our businesses over $450 billion per year.

Tips 96

Tips Satisfaction Training Mentor 96

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

Almost every entrepreneur and new business owner I mentor is certain that his/her idea has a very high probability of success, and all find it hard to believe that ninety percent of startups ultimately fail. You need advisors and a board of directors, but they require regular communication and reporting, a strategic plan, and discipline.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Case Study Mentor Software Review 131

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2020

According to recent reports , these come from all the way up and down the age and experience spectrum, including up to ninety percent of the current Baby Boomers, as well as Millennials. Zappos , led by Tony Heish, has been a leader in this direction, and reports many advantages, as well as challenges.

Competition 168

Competition Startup Demand Training 168

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

To give visibility to these companies to: Sources of funding (angels / VCs), business development partners, mentors who have themselves built successful companies, the press and potential employees to hire. Report Card. One senior mentor to Launchpad LA recently said, “I got more out of Launchpad LA than I even put in.

Venture Capital 287

Venture Capital Funding Startup GRP Partners 287

Tech.Co

JANUARY 29, 2018

Sunil Koduri, cofounder and Chief Listener of Zsolutionz , a software company developing a computer vision and machine learning product for the health and wellness space called Zofie based on fuzzy logic, said gaining information from the industries has helped him realize opportunities. Add Mentors to Your Roster.

Startup 87

Startup Mentor Artificial Inteligence Research 87

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2023

In my own role as advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I was struck by how relevant and critical these same initiatives are to even the earliest stage businesses. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Coach 93

Coach Satisfaction Resource Entrepreneur 93

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

For example , when Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia , a successful outdoor products company, his real goal was building safe products to help the environment. Assess who you can get for value and mentoring. He also still gets excited to donate one percent of sales to environmental groups around the world.

Startup 94

Startup Ideas Metrics Entrepreneur 94

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2012

It will inspire loyalty, provide real satisfaction for work done, and become the basis for mentoring and performance reviews. Managers who fail to delegate responsibility in addition to specific tasks eventually find themselves reporting to their subordinates and doing some of the work, rather than vice versa.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Product Startup SEO 96

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2023

Based on my own experience as a mentor and angel investor, I find that as many as ninety percent of startups fail in the first five years, despite their best efforts. If an innovative solution is involved, prepare a minimum viable product or a video to demonstrate functionality and usability.

Social Media 98

Social Media Metrics Media Tool 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 23, 2019

I and many others reported him regularly, and we were all frustrated that nothing was ever done. I might have been convinced that this was a rare exception to the norm, until I saw some Gallup survey reports showing that 68 percent of employees are not fully engaged at work. Hire and mentor people who show engagement in prior roles.

Mentor 97

Mentor Examples Report Training 97

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 25, 2021

In fact, according to the latest trend data and press reports , these Baby Boomers have grown yearly to 41 percent of small business owners, second only to Gen-X, at 44 percent. With longer life expectancies and greater health in later life, older generations are moving to start new firms -- and mentor young entrepreneurs.

Technical Review 126

Technical Review Technical Support Entrepreneur Startup 126

Tech.Co

JANUARY 10, 2018

In the Harvard Business Review Female Economy 2009 report, women purchasing power was predicted to control about $28 trillion in annual global consumer spending, if not more. Purchasing products from a brand you trust can be more of an emotional buy, and trust is one of the key factors to attracting the female shopper. Tasteful Humor.

Tips 71

Tips Customer Custom Dollar Shave Club 71

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2022

A common request I get while mentoring entrepreneurs is for a copy of the startup checklist they need to follow, in order to build a successful new business. Everyday devices, like Internet soda vending , have an embedded computer allowing full remote reporting and control. I wish it was that easy. Mobile Computing.

Technology 133

Technology Cloud Computing Social Media Networking 133

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2015

As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked what you can do to build the right culture. There is no rule that marketing needs to report to the founder, or that every startup needs a chief operating officer. Some of the best startup cultures have no hierarchical reporting, yet everyone knows who drives each of the initiatives.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Technical Review Mentor Training 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2020

In my own role as advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I was struck by how relevant and critical these same initiatives are to even the earliest stage businesses. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction Resource 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 19, 2021

The fact is that you are in the people business—the business of hiring, training, and managing people to deliver the product or service you provide. Mentor your employees, encourage them, make partners out of them, and your organization is sure to benefit. Act with integrity.

Organization 137

Organization Guide Mentor Training 137

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 7, 2019

In fact, according to the latest Index of Startup Activity by the Kauffman Foundation and recent press reports , these Baby Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom. With longer life expectancies and greater health in later life, older generations are moving to start new firms -- and mentor young entrepreneurs.

Startup 119

Startup Technical Review Technical Support Entrepreneur 119

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2017

It has a huge impact on productivity, as well as morale and loyalty to the company. Trust causes the brain to release oxytocin, which stimulates productivity and raises motivation. He cites eight leadership actions, which I also recommend, from a non-scientific perspective, as a mentor to entrepreneurs.

Develop 58

Develop Development Claremont Mentor 58

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

Greg was the first person to share with me the insights of mobile conversion and why with a simpler product selection and conversion funnel they would get higher conversion on mobile than on the web. Natural mentors – a desire to help. We settled on Venture Partner as is now being reported and also picked up here.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

Berkonomics

MARCH 24, 2016

Selling is required whether it is for sales of the company’s products or selling the business idea to investors. Teacher, tutor, and mentor. Chief Reporter and Scribe. She is also the CEO of Immunogum, a start–up in Newport Beach, California. Pure and simple, it is the number one attribute. This is the issue of transparency.

Startup 120

Startup Ideas Incubator Mentor 120

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 12, 2014

Applications are being accepted starting today, through April 16, 2014 for early-stage companies with innovative consumer media and entertainment product ideas. Accepted participants will receive $120,000 in investment capital to develop their ideas, along with mentor support from top Disney executives, including Chairman and CEO Robert A.

Entertainment 102

Entertainment Santa Monica Ideas Mentor 102

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 11, 2011

Enterprise Software sucks, and if you’re an engineer or product designer, we invite you to join this hackathon to reinvent business 2 business software. The goal is to take the complicated out of softwares like CRMs and project management tools and turn them in to simple, beautiful and usable products. Second Prize: $500.

Santa Monica 72

Santa Monica Yammer Geni Southern California 72

socalTECH

OCTOBER 30, 2009

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth (www.sycr.com) Sponsoring socalTECH's Orange County High Tech Report. Cadence, Intel, IBM, Freescale, Mentor Graphics, Synopsys, LSI, X-Fab, and many other leading-edge. Safire Partners (www.safirepartners.com). Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies. Technology.

Southern California 140

Southern California IP Orange County Glendale 140

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. You finally need to start planning your product roadmap a bit further than your 2-week sprints so that the rest of the organization has a chance to preplan for new features.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

I can’t change who your board members are so let me offer some thoughts on how to make your interactions with your board more productive. Nothing drives me more bonkers than board members who want to hold dissertations on 409a valuations, product feature minutiae or spend 30 minutes on how many people they know that they can introduce you to.

Tips 212

Tips Slides Startup Technical Review 212

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

That may be a boon to dating today, but if your business is making money from apps, it seems like your success will convince users that they no longer need your product tomorrow. Find mentors and advisors who have more relevant business experience, insist you see things that aren’t on your radar, and spot what’s coming around the corner.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2019

A common request I get while mentoring entrepreneurs is for a copy of the startup checklist they need to follow, in order to build a successful new business. Everyday devices, like Internet soda vending , have an embedded computer allowing full remote reporting and control. I wish it was that easy. Mobile Computing.

Technology 86

Technology Cloud Computing Social Media Networking 86

Tech.Co

APRIL 30, 2018

The product blends data mining, cognitive AI, and learning science to analyze a company’s competencies and present the information through simple reporting in order to gain valuable insights from their big data. Headai launched the product in Finland and projects to start in the U.S. in Spring 2018.

Startup 70

Startup Tool Platform Metrics 70

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

“…if you look at a lot of the early stage investors, whether it be Union Square Ventures or First Round or Jeff Clavier at Softtech or Dave McClure – we want to try the product, we want to experience the product, we want to get a sense of how the entrepreneur is thinking about it. You still need the presentation to back that up.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2014

According to a recent industry report on travel spending, small businesses buy 37% more airline tickets than big business travelers, and spend 24% more when on the road. Yet if your service is consulting, for example, real travel is required to deliver the product. Mentoring and shared advisory board opportunities.

Startup 100

Startup Tips Mentor Conference 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth (www.sycr.com) Sponsoring socalTECH's Orange County High Tech Report. Safire Partners (www.safirepartners.com). Los Angeles-based executive search for emerging growth companies. Stubbs Alderton Markiles, LLP (www.biztechlaw.com). Technology. NeoHire (www.neohire.comk).

Advertising 113

Advertising Southern California IP VentureNet 113

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2015

Don’t hesitate to call in an experienced advisor or mentor to help. Thus a visible system is required for reporting to all relevant parties, which also keeps your focus on the problem until it is resolved. Very few startup problems are unique. An experienced advisor, board member or investor has seen them all. Track every problem.

Startup 100

Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction Metrics 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 10, 2012

UCLA 48hr Startup brings together people with technical, design or business background to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups. Saturday mentors help teams move their ideas forward by questioning business model assumptions and providing business insights. 2:00pm – Mentors help teams one-on-one.

UCLA 87

UCLA Startup Ideas Mentor 87

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Unfortunately, too many of the technical entrepreneurs I mentor and advise are focused on their technology, and assume that the value will be self-evident to customers. Improve the whole customer experience, as well as the product.

Technical Advisors 82

Technical Advisors Artificial Inteligence Customer Custom 82

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2016

In my own role as advisor and mentor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I was struck by how relevant and critical these same initiatives are to even the earliest stage businesses. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Coach 52

Coach Satisfaction Entrepreneur Resource 52

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2016

In fact, according to the most recent Index of Startup Activity by the Kauffman Foundation and recent SBA reports , these Baby Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom. With longer life expectancies and greater health in later life, older generations are moving to start new firms -- and mentor young entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur 75

Entrepreneur Technical Review Startup Technical Support 75

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 28, 2015

A common request I get while mentoring entrepreneurs is for a copy of the startup checklist they need to follow, in order to build a successful new business. Everyday devices, like Internet soda vending , have an embedded computer allowing full remote reporting and control. I wish it was that easy. Mobile Computing.

Startup 107

Startup Cloud Computing Social Media Entrepreneur 107