Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2015

Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. For example, quarterly sales on one of your most important products suddenly decreases, or your inventory across a whole category has surged. New entrepreneurs are notoriously great at capitalizing on new opportunities, both weak and strong. Marty Zwilling.

Entrepreneur 106

Entrepreneur eBook Metrics Startup 106

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Obviously this definition is generic, so my first recommendation is that you take the lead in defining traction metrics for your startup, and then selling your results convincingly to investors. A graph that shows a hockey-stick “up and to the right” curve with at least three data points per key indicator is a great visual assist.

Startup 121

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 121

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

I’d like to do a few posts on what life looks like on the way up and perhaps how to keep your head on straight and avoid drinking your own Kool Aid because as I often advise entrepreneurs on irrational exuberance, “ In a strong wind even turkeys can fly.” Poorly implemented this category was the definition of shelfware.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2020

As a frequent advisor to new entrepreneurs and startups, I often hear your frustration with being treated differently from other startups by investors, on expectations for valuation , traction, and market size. Now the emergence of autonomous and driverless vehicles fits into this nascent future potential category.

Marketing 174

Marketing Startup Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 174

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2016

Most business managers preach that the key to success is holding employees accountable for actions, but I have found that successful entrepreneurs are all about holding themselves accountable. Usually the real culprit is procrastination, lack of focus, or low productivity and lack of metrics. Wait and hope for a miracle.

Entrepreneur 59

Entrepreneur Startup Class Coach 59

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2022

Thus, in my mentoring of potential technical entrepreneurs who have a real passion for their technology, I often recommend that they find a co-founder who can manage the marketing and execution elements of the new venture. Many smart people I know fall into the category of “idea” people.

Mentor 133

Mentor Startup Customer Custom 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2011

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Within each of the platform categories defined above, there is a right one and a wrong one for your audience. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different.

Social Media 93

Social Media Media Entrepreneur Platform 93

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2015

Most business managers preach that the key to success is holding employees accountable for actions, but I have found that successful entrepreneurs are all about holding themselves accountable. Usually the real culprit is procrastination, lack of focus, or low productivity and lack of metrics. Wait and hope for a miracle.

Startup 116

Startup Entrepreneur Class Coach 116

socalTECH

MAY 17, 2019

David Loo: Ultimately, at the C-level, the CIO requires data metrics and intelligence, in order to compete and make decisions and take actions to further a company's agenda. What's your biggest lesson you've learned as an entrepreneur? What specific problem were you seeing? What are the biggest challenges today for your company?

SaaS 113

SaaS Startup Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 15, 2013

Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. For example, quarterly sales on one of your most important products suddenly decreases, or your inventory across a whole category has surged. New entrepreneurs are notoriously great at capitalizing on new opportunities, both weak and strong. Marty Zwilling.

eBook 95

eBook Metrics Startup Examples 95

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2015

*. If you are a 20-something tech entrepreneur you could be forgiven for thinking that seed-stage investors, Angellist Syndicates and widely available angel money always existed. Jeff and his peer group have done an excellent job at creating a new category of seed-stage VC. It is, of course, a very recent phenomenon.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Startup Invest Cloud Computing 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2017

Changes in your organization’s core performance metrics. For example, quarterly sales on one of your most important products suddenly decreases, or your inventory across a whole category has surged. New entrepreneurs are notoriously great at capitalizing on new opportunities, both weak and strong.

eBook 52

eBook Metrics Examples Startup 52

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2017

You have to make sure your cost of acquisition, retention rates, and conversion metrics are all in place. We went a little too fast, and took on too many categories at first. Scott Cannon: I had to go back, and really get operating metrics in place to know how to look at the business.

Startup 174

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

Obviously this definition is generic, so my first recommendation is that you take the lead in defining traction metrics for your startup, and then selling your results convincingly to investors. Marty Zwilling First published on Young Entrepreneur on 02/18/2013. Market penetration. Average transaction size and revenue per customer.

Startup 106

Startup Metrics Customer Custom 106

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Granularity and Consistency of Startup Metrics - SoCal CTO , March 11, 2010 Tim Berry has a great post on Why I Hate Those Huge Market Numbers tells us that he doesn’t like to see business plans with multi-billion market numbers used as the basis for projections. Not that it’s always a bad thing.

Startup 150

Startup Software Review Competition SoCal 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2016

Good entrepreneurs are all about managing change, but too many forget that they have to change themselves as their dream evolves from a startup to a scalable business. Many entrepreneurs gave grown to prefer the relative quiet and isolation of their garage, and their ability to set their own schedule.

Social Network 59

Social Network Startup Demand Entrepreneur 59

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2017

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Within each of the platform categories defined above, there is a right one and a wrong one for your audience. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different.

Social Media 66

Social Media Media Tips Platform 66

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2014

Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist. One new metric now commonly used is called the Net Promoter® Score (NPS). This works by asking your customers for feedback, and dividing them into three categories: Promoters. business customer experience entrepreneur startup' So how do you measure customer loyalty and relationships?

Customer 98

Customer Custom .Net Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2015

Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist. One metric now commonly used is called the Net Promoter® Score (NPS). This works by asking your customers for feedback, and dividing them into three categories: Promoters. Yet we are all still learning what that means, in terms of hard business practices. Passive.

Customer 100

Customer Custom .Net Competition 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2012

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Within each of the platform categories defined above, there is a right one and a wrong one for your audience. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different.

Social Media 95

Social Media Media Startup Platform 95

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Most of the guidance you see for entrepreneurs is aimed at those who are selling a product (Apple, Tesla, Xiaomi), or selling a service (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat). The “product” value is difficult to quantify, the costs are nebulous, and entrepreneurs have to clone themselves to scale the business. Don’t forget seminars and events.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2017

If you are an entrepreneur today, and not using social media to promote your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity. Within each of the platform categories defined above, there is a right one and a wrong one for your audience. Return-On-Investment metrics are not new, but the tools are different.

Social Media 58

Social Media Media Platform Tool 58

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2017

Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist. One metric now commonly used is called the Net Promoter® Score (NPS). This works by asking your customers for feedback, and dividing them into three categories: Promoters. Yet we are all still learning what that means, in terms of hard business practices. Passive.

Customer 85

Customer Custom Product Marketing 85

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. Facebook is about to try to dominate display ads the way Google dominates text ads - Chris Dixon , May 15, 2010 It is customary to divide online advertising into two categories: direct response and brand advertising. If you’re an entrepreneur, the glib answer is “no.” You Can’t Sign This Deal.

Startup 248

Startup Venture Capital Conference Social Media 248

socalTECH

OCTOBER 14, 2019

Los Angeles-based BiasSync (www.biassync.com) was founded by three, very experienced serial entrepreneurs-- Michele Ruiz (broadcast journalism), Robin Richards (CareerArc, Internships.com, NTI Group, MP3), and Dan Gould (former VP of Technology for Tinder). We're basically putting those two pieces together.

Content 150

Content Training Education Outsource Development 150

InfoChachkie

JULY 20, 2015

Six outstanding entrepreneurs have created this sweet flavor of success in one of the most beautiful places on earth – Santa Barbara, California. Lifestyle businesses are typically looked upon with derision by investors, as they generally do not have economic metrics that lead to large exits. From Lynda.com ’s recent $1.5

Santa Barbara 100

Santa Barbara Startup Sales Entrepreneur 100

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

It’s human nature to prioritize the metrics that get measured, so the simple act of keeping track is often enough to have a significant positive impact. Items that paint a big picture include revenue by major product area, cost of goods, and operating expenses by category. Detail isn’t important; tracking your progress is.

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

However, the ubiquity of the iPod including use by many folks who certainly would fall in the Time Rich category (lots of time to play with music) suggests that their product and marketing appeals to both segments. Product Manager Entrepreneur Mark Geller SEO for Startups Startup Version 1.0

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

” I mention journalists here because they perpetuate the myth that focusing on profits is ALWAYS the right answer and then I hear many entrepreneurs (and certainly many “normals”) repeating the same mantra. I have had this discussion with many a first-time entrepreneur. If you don’t, somebody else WILL!”

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

In our industry we applaud the efforts for entrepreneurs to have tried and we know that today’s failure can bring the experience for tomorrow’s success. The metrics were good but we wondered how much better they would be when we expanded our product. Many startup businesses – tech or otherwise – fail.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 12, 2008

Personally, I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years, running companies with P and L responsibility for divisions, and watched with frustration as the Internet has grown up around us. In the consumer space, this has been solved very well, category after category. What's the idea behind Zubican?

SEO 100

SEO Advertising Gogii Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Zulu Event

DECEMBER 13, 2013

Today, we support four categories: house cleaning, dry cleaning – pickup and delivery, wash and fold – pickup and delivery, and dog walking. My every day is trying to fundraise, reaching, re-reaching out, and trying to keep people updated with metrics. Because it’s not easy, you have to be a little bit crazy to be an entrepreneur.

Technical Review 87

Technical Review Mobile Startup Los Angeles 87

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was saying that I was happy it was all out in the open because I felt at least everybody could now understand the issues & opportunities from the perspectives of angels, entrepreneurs and VCs. Jody didn’t exactly have an easy time fund raising because he’s not one of the prototypical Silicon Valley funded entrepreneurs.

Startup 292

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Summary 292

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

The plan better include some specifics on how this will be spread across multiple digital and traditional marketing channels, and metrics to measure which are providing the best return on investment. As a starting point, I would expect to see a marketing budget in the first year of 15 to 30 percent of projected revenues.

Product 86

Product Marketing Education Examples 86

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2015

Yet I can’t remember the last time any entrepreneur asked me to assess personal potential, despite the fact that most investors will admit they invest in the person more than the product. Many might say Donald Trump epitomizes this category. These entrepreneurs dream big, go big and too often crash big. Opportunist. Specialist.

Startup 106

Startup Incubator Entrepreneur Metrics 106