Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2021

Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Decide early where and when money will come from, set some milestones and metrics, and work to a plan, or be caught short. Word of mouth is not adequate for marketing and sales.

Sales 165

Sales Customer Custom Social Media 165

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. Don’t stand still.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Some objections are real and they end up becoming changes to your product, your service plan or your pricing / bundling. As a founder, when you’ve been dealing with these kinds of objections for a couple of years it becomes natural and you easily handle objections on price, product & competition without much thought.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2019

With the real data from that surge, you need to take a hard look at business model realities, cost of customer acquisition, inventory costs, and other key metrics. Control costs and adjust prices to maintain your margin. Document processes and metrics for economies of scale.

Metrics 86

Metrics Startup Training Customer 86

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 7, 2020

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Entrepreneur 131

Entrepreneur Outsource Development Startup Competition 131

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. Don’t stand still.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Explosive growth to an enterprise normally requires a scalable sales model, a well-documented process with incentives, training, and metrics for tracking and management. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Of course, customer relationships, and penetration into new market segments are also critical elements.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2020

In the short term you need customers to find you at any price, and in the longer term you need revenue, profit, and return loyalty. It’s your job as a leader to be the model high performer, quantify the team view with metrics, and expand awareness to the best outside competition and new tools.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Layoffs Social Media Metrics 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2019

Now customer support is called the “customer experience,” and everyone is expecting you to actually anticipate their personal needs, and totally delight them with all aspects of the shopping experience, price versus value, as well as help with any follow-on questions or problems. The marketing metrics covers support as part of experience.

Customer 84

Customer Custom Company Companies 84

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I used an analogy I heard from Michael Dougherty (founder of Jelli) recounting what First Round Capital told him, “sometimes you’re on the local train and sometimes you’re on the express train. The express train might get you there faster but there are no options to get off along the way. VC is different.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 26, 2018

I learned this the hard way a few years ago in a startup where customers loved our idea and the free prototype, but we couldn’t sell one for the full price needed to meet our financial projections. We simply hadn’t tested the price sensitivity in the market segment and geography that needed the features we offered.

Customer 59

Customer Custom Pricing Startup 59

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. presented pricing challenges when compared to a whole new set of offline competitors we didn’t know well.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2015

Proof of any business model starts with a finished product or solution, sold to a new customer for full price, with high satisfaction for the value received. Decide early where and when money will come from, set some milestones and metrics, and work to a plan, or be caught short. Word of mouth is not adequate for marketing and sales.

Startup 107

Startup Sales Customer Custom 107

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

As the business grows, it pays to learn how to use automated financial tools, and review the key financial metrics daily. Prices need to be reviewed to cover total costs and margin. Too busy to focus on hiring, training, and managing employees. Watch for margin erosion as real operating growth costs kick in.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2018

You need to communicate quantified and updates goals quarterly, including the metrics to assess progress and success. The best companies have found that it’s important to constantly prepare team members for moving to the next level, through mentoring and training, rather than trying to keep them in their current role.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Customer Custom Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. Don’t stand still.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Train them fully, give them authority, make them accountable, and tie their pay to customer satisfaction. It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Train and coach continuously. Know your customers intimately.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2015

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Outsource Development 99

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

It must be written down, with measurable team objectives, validated by metrics and compared against competition. Provide coaching and mentoring as well as training. Formal training for the team is just the beginning, not the end. Most importantly, your actions speak louder than words.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Startup Coach 55

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. But don’t practice too long. Don’t stand still.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 1, 2019

Too many employees expect a raise or promotion before they accept new responsibility, rather than demonstrating their value, getting training and experience first. Quantify your results in terms of cost per transaction, higher customer satisfaction, lower prices, and profit per employee, rather than number of transactions or hours worked.

Technical Advisors 75

Technical Advisors Startup Satisfaction Customer 75

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 28, 2016

Products and services for a business need to be attuned to customer requirements, cost and quality tradeoffs, with milestones for pricing and completion. Show that you have a process to hire, fire, and train others as required. Solution development and delivery. Hobbies are developed ad-hoc, driven by personal needs.

Ideas 62

Ideas Outsource Development Startup Competition 62

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

These only come with the proper training, investment in tools, and focus on customer relationships. Managing business growth is more than metrics. You can hire the best salespeople, have great products and define good metrics, but without decisive and innovative managers, the sales organization will not reach its full potential.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2016

You need metrics to show dominant penetration of the relevant customer demographic, added value over existing media, and real customer testimonials of value. Cultures and values are different, pricing norms are unique, and customer needs have to be validated in each location. Local businesses expect proof of value, not promises.

Advertising 63

Advertising Content Social Media Satisfaction 63

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. then you can start writing a recipe.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

One of his companies - Gluecode - was sold to IBM for a pretty good price. Common revenue streams are consulting, training, support, customization, upgraded versions for corporate applications, etc. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -.

Southern California 150

Southern California CTO Coach CTO Hire Social Media 150

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Semick: We’re a very metrics driven company, and we have been from the beginning. Metrics related to customer acquisition, lifetime value and churn. We’re transparent with our employees about these metrics and where the company stands with monthly marketing and sales goals. We spent a lot of time showing them rough prototypes.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

InfoChachkie

MAY 22, 2012

Such follow-up are akin to a train whistle. Each note alerts the investors that your venture is gaining momentum and creating value and they better jump aboard before the train leaves the station. The dynamic of a competitive atmosphere allowed him to sell his cars at their list price while increasing the velocity of the sales process.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Capital Research Customer 236

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? Develop metrics with which to measure yourself and use these to incrementally expand and improve your offering as fast as the market and capital will allow. then you can start writing a recipe.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 29, 2014

If we rewind to 8 years ago, it was me in San Diego training for my second marathon and I was trying to start another company at the time. Metrics are important for any fitness buff and MapMyFitness does the job well by providing necessary data such as calories burned, distance traveled, time spent on workout, etc.,

Social Media 83

Social Media Activity Startup Help 83

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

It’d been a big year in tech, and the different supporting parts of team TZ – so what better way to kick off the festivities with an inaugural train-bound journey, courtesy of the good people at Amtrak. Erin Chase – Favado , combining price comparisons with grocery shopping.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99