Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. I’ve started writing up some of those sales & marketing lessons and I plan to continue to build that section out over time. We focused together on improving our sales methodology, our training and our comp plans.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 5, 2020

Pushing yourself on customers by touting features and price doesn’t work anymore. Although customers today are comfortable providing personal information in return for a better experience, they are also quick to write you off if you misuse the data, disclose it, or use it to push irrelevant products.

Customer 133

Customer Custom Social Media Startup 133

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

A new group of investors have clustered around writing earlier-stage, smaller checks. 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. Price creep hurts investors.

Venture Capital 308

Venture Capital Training Startup Entrepreneur 308

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 7, 2019

Let AI write the script. For one, it needs a lot of technical talent to train Morpheus with screenplay data. “A lot of studios are asking how much we price our engine at, but we are targeting the consumer market. Rct wants to take the experience to the next level by recruiting artificial intelligence for screenwriting.

Startup 235

Startup Artificial Inteligence Los Angeles Software 235

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

I call this “arming & aiming&# your sales teams where you need to standardize both the assignment of territories, industries & accounts (aiming) as well as the process of selling, the collateral, the legal agreements & pricing. We moved toward more standardized pricing (e.g. less negotiating & haggling).

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

For example, both need to provide exemplary customer service, build customer loyalty, and provide real value for a competitive price. If you can’t quantify or document your service for repeatability and new employee training, you will kill yourself trying to grow the business. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 31, 2021

The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes) but gives startups and the broader tech industry about $1 trillion worth of reasons to support it. ” Climate resiliency . Given the steady drumbeat of climate disasters that hit the U.S.

Startup 229

Startup Technical Review Invest Research 229

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2019

Image via Flickr by Phil Gyford Starting a new venture still costs real money, even though the entry price has come down dramatically in last few decades. Salary costs go up rapidly, as people require training, bonuses, expense reimbursals, and an office with a requisite support team and supplies.

Startup 105

Startup Software Review Technical Review Social Media 105

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

In essence, as a contractor, you are a consultant who is competing regularly for new work, and you constantly have to differentiate your offering from other candidates, including price. Write down some target objectives and milestones. Develop the courage to move on.

Startup 98

Startup Outsource Development Competition Social Media 98

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

It was a stock option incentive related “expense” but I bet you didn’t know that because in an era where we only read the headlines — they must be a train wreck losing billions. Except that they didn’t actually lose $2 billion in cash. They actually lost about $175 million in cash in that quarter, FWIW.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 30, 2012

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. then you can start writing a recipe. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long. If your startup is over a year old, and your business isn’t yet ready, you have a problem.

Startup 96

Startup Writing Metrics Marketing 96

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

On September 10th of this year I spent an entire day in California State Prison with people who had committed felonies and worked with them on business plans to help them create legal enterprise upon their release as part of Defy Ventures 6-month training program. I will write about that as soon as Caroline is ready.

Writing 150

Writing Startup Design Training 150

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2011

In all cases, don’t skip the basic training. then you can start writing a recipe. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long. If your startup is over a year old, and your business isn’t yet ready, you have a problem.

Entrepreneur 91

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Metrics 91

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

So how do entrepreneurs train to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave? You need to be an eager investigator, avoiding the temptation to write things off before you’ve opened your eyes to all the possibilities they offer. The needs for new software and services are just as pervasive.

Entrepreneur 95

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Training 95

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

I must admit I discuss this very frequently with portfolio companies but hadn’t thought to write about it. As a startup this is often the one true source of strong leverage in a negotiation to: Get a better price, get a longer-term commitment, get PR commitments and so forth. PR Malloy (@diddly_do_indy) June 13, 2015.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Big thank you to Darius Vasefi , of EyeOnJewels for the write up. People want to invest in people they trust – once you’ve made money for someone you can always go back, and even get better pricing. o Everything is for sale but it’s the price that moves the timing. Here’s a summary of our interview.

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Startup Customer Custom 304

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 12, 2011

So how do entrepreneurs train to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave? You need to be an eager investigator, avoiding the temptation to write things off before you’ve opened your eyes to all the possibilities they offer. The needs for new software and services are just as pervasive.

Entrepreneur 92

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Training 92

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Write things down. They had a team trained up in Documentum and we certainly had enemies from the inside. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. You are most vulnerable right after it has been announced that you won (I will write a separate post on this). Be gracious. Don’t ignore your losses.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

Write things down. They had a team trained up in Documentum and we certainly had enemies from the inside. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. You are most vulnerable right after it has been announced that you won (I will write a separate post on this). Be gracious. Don’t ignore your losses.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328

Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

To start, let’s take a peek inside my train of thinking while I was preparing what I would report on for Tech Crunch Disrupt 2012. With booth prices up to $9,500 , it blew my mind how vague the taglines were. The best way to get a journalist’s attention is to know who you are writing to and what interests them.

Press 97

Press Startup Technical Review Email 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2009

They had a team trained up in Documentum and we certainly had enemies from the inside. We helped the write out their requirements for a system. You are most vulnerable right after it has been announced that you won (I will write a separate post on this). Write things down. We met everybody in the organization.

Startup 151

Startup Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review 151

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

We've also been at a big discount to the other firms for the first seven years we were around, we were half the price of Kaplan and Princeton Review until last year, when they both dropped their prices to match us. We get the right people in, and trained very quickly, and then have them out there working.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. And the starting price for WW is $18 / month … DailyBurn is free. When I trained for the London Marathon in 2003 I bought a Nike device that I put on my shoe that measured my distance and pace via my Nike watch. We’ll see.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

socalTECH

MAY 25, 2016

We'd do a Series A, and participate in the Series B, but when companies hit breakout, we would call a late stage VC and have them price the deal, and do all of that. We can now write $20M, $25M, and $30M checks to existing, breakout companies in our portfolio. With this fund, we do not have a cap limit on late stage investments.

Southern California 113

Southern California Capital Funding Invest 113

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

We spent a lot of time talking about what type of company we wanted to create, how many employees we’d eventually have, whether we would take funding, our lifestyle, and a dozen other things that had nothing to do with writing software. That taught us what we personally wanted to accomplish? I get enough of those from my kids.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2010

So how do we as entrepreneurs train ourselves to lead the Anywhere Revolution, rather than be dragged along by its wave? You need to be an eager investigator, avoiding the temptation to write things off before you’ve opened your eyes to all the possibilities they offer. The needs for new software and services are just as pervasive.

Startup 48

Startup Entrepreneur Ideas Writing 48

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2010

As a teenager he experimented with writing & producing his own rap music and received a lot of feedback from elders that he had a talent with words. He wanted to create awareness for himself to generate marketing buzz and demand and then get the retail stores to pay wholesales prices for his cds. Here are some take away’s: 1.

Entrepreneur 356

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Startup Email 356

socalTECH

JULY 29, 2009

Instead of writing a book, we wanted to develop a platform to bring our methods to life, and scale our knowledge. Can you talk about the pricing and how the business model works? For an educator, it helps to bring classroom training to life. But, it didn't seem scalable. We have patents filed on this process.

Geni 100

Geni Web Guide Platform 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

This started as a post in which I was going to write out tips to personal branding and became in stead an essay of my own branding journey. But what chapped my hide was that every early assignment at Accenture they divided teams, training and assignments into “technical” and “non technical.” That was the market.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

If you've taken a course, and need an application to do chemistry or math analysis, there's a store where you can write, share, sell, or buy those applications. Zareh Baghdasarian: My training is as an engineer. The basic functionality will be free, with additions being charged nominal prices. Talk about your background?

Education 124

Education Startup Course Tool 124

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2018

Many people will write the history on why Ring became an enormously successful company and why it became a real-world unicorn in a world when many startups are anointed that merely on paper. Jamie’s ethos led him to price at just $3 / user / camera / month at a time when traditional home security companies’ monthly fees were so unaffordable.

Startup 247

Startup Pricing Product Marketing 247

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Pricing models, the freemium myth and why you may not be charging enough for your product - Seth Levine's VC Adventure , August 12, 2010 I’ve been pulled into a number of product and pricing meetings recently (for reasons unknown I’ve become the Foundry pricing and productization guy). clearly didn’t cause this.” How it happens.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

There are hundreds of entrepreneurs here in Los Angeles who are building awesome companies, writing awesome books, making awesome movies and are trying to solve important problems to help make this world a better place. Here are 62 63 Los Angeles entrepreneurs we can be proud of. Ryan Born – Founder of AudioMicro. MUST be on this list!!

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

As I write these words I’m aware that I could practically change the words AOL and Facebook for much of this section and with a few factual tweaks it might not be noticeable to the reader which of the firms I was talking about. reinvented, with more people online and trained. I’m going to write a whole post on BothSid.es

Social Network 318

Social Network Networking Web 2.0 Startup 318