Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. Selling at smaller retailers will net you fewer customers and higher margins.

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2011

I find it amusing when a journalist writes an article about a prominent startup (either privately held or preparing for an IPO) and decries that, “They’re not even profitable!” Exec Summary: Most companies (98+%) in the world (even tech startups) should be very profit focused. One of them is profitability.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 8, 2015

We come to the end of this cycle of insights with a thought about how you might view your successful exit from the company you have spent so much effort to build. Email readers, continue here…] First there comes a sense of relief, knowing that you no longer need to worry over daily cash or threats to your net worth.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Writing .Net Sales 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

70–80% of the costs of most startups are employee costs so what you’re really talking about when a company is unprofitable is that they are growing their staff ahead of their revenue. Are you looking to potentially sell the company in the next year or two? I often ask entrepreneurs to consider, “What’s your objective?

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2016

I have experienced many first-time entrepreneurs with too much hubris if fund-raising came easily and press was fawning and employees joined in droves and customer adoption has been rapid. So founders took fewer risks and at the societal level with fewer companies taking fewer expansion risks job creation is weaker.

Startup 261

Startup Press Blogging .Net 261

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. VCs (and LPs) have a vested interest in having more data, whether they want to invest in your company / firm or not.

Funding 336

Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2012

And she didn’t start her company in Northern California. Tracy built her company, Recycled Media , out of necessity. She drove her company to profitability before paying herself a modest salary. She put all of her savings into her company. In one year of Airbnb Tracy netted more than $28,000.

Startup 363

Startup Entrepreneur SEO Venture Capital 363

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2015

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story a while back “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article on this subject, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Net out the problem and your solution in the first 30 seconds. Pitch your company, not your product.

Startup 104

Startup Writing Entrepreneur Slides 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2014

People cite sources like this BusinessWeek story last year “ Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans ,” or even my own article a while back, “ 10 Reasons Not To Write A Business Plan First.” Net out the problem and your solution in the first 30 seconds. Pitch your company, not your product. Executive summary glossy.

Entrepreneur 108

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Slides 108

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2018

It’s hard to be successful in any business when your customers can’t find you, or they find you and still can’t figure out whether your solution works for them. By far the most effective technique for improving your writing is simply carrying out user readability tests on every piece of content, and really listening to feedback.

SEO 53

SEO Tips Newsletter Statistics 53

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Mike uses his own experience as a recovering workaholic building two multimillion-dollar companies to net out seven steps in his transformation. Only then can you start to adjust your time and your company to let it run without your constant involvement. Identify a single key function to your company’s success.

Resource 60

Resource Examples Design Entrepreneur 60

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 16, 2011

After 4 years of retail she went to “the other side of the business&# working for a clothing brand where she sold apparel to department stores and other companies. I provided information for my customers to make their lives easier.&# Really understanding the business of your customer matters. I agree whole heartedly.

Startup 311

Startup Sales Venture Capital Entrepreneur 311

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. But when I’m looking to write my check I need to look in the eyes of the captain — the maestro who brings the whole orchestra together. There are plenty of great leaders who work really hard and work for big companies. They finally quit.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2013

Cash is king when it comes to the financial management of a growing company, so this is not the place for shortcuts and sloppy practices. No matter how small your company is today, there are more moving financial parts than you can manage dynamically in your head. On the other side, your new customers expect a free trial period.

Startup 114

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 114

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2010

The value proposition is a short statement that clearly communicates the target customer, the customer’s problem and the pain that it causes, the unique solution that addresses this problem, and the net benefit of this solution (value derived versus relative cost) from the customer's perspective.

Funding 106

Funding Startup Entrepreneur Activity 106

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

Microsoft Dynamics CRM has over 30,000 customers and 2 million users worldwide. Microsoft as a company also donates its products and services to help those less fortunate. Credit for the writing and research of this article and content goes to Zack Schuler of Cal Net Technology Group, Founder & CEO.

Writing 88

Writing Training Email .Net 88

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2016

Cash is king when it comes to the financial management of a growing company, so diligence is required. No matter how small your company is today, there are more moving financial parts than you can manage dynamically in your head. On the other side, your new customers expect a free trial period.

Startup 64

Startup Sales Layoffs Slides 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2018

In a two-minute video clip, you can introduce yourself, show your passion and the engaging personality you need to win over customers, partners, and employees. Net out the problem and your solution in the first 30 seconds. Pitch your company, not your product. Executive summary glossy. Written business plan.

Startup 65

Startup Entrepreneur Slides Content 65

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2. Along the way many things came together: being able to find the right people, getting great customers, having lots of luck, being in the right place at the right time. From day one we focused on customers.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2010

Based on a survey just last year by Robert Half Technology , over half of today’s companies block social networks completely, while another 19 percent only permit it "for business purposes." My clients and customers use it, and I need to stay in sync. " The blocking percentages are still going up, rather than down.

Social Network 87

Social Network Networking Tool Sites 87

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 10, 2010

It was recommended to me by my friend, Net Jacobsson , who was trying to do some basic Life Hacking. But Net had told me that he picked up some valuable lessons from the book, so I thought, “WTF? Want to take a year pursuing your dream to write a screenplay, travel through Asia, run a triathlon or start your own fashion line?

Startup 295

Startup Email Technical Review Course 295

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

Working with professional athletes combined with my natural leadership ability and experience in business development makes me uniquely suited to lead a technology company in the health and fitness industry. We have 115 paying customers right now. What they’re doing is less important than what our customers tell us they need.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

That said, there are times where you need to cast a wider net. I want to judge whether they’re really committed to my company or not. By everybody I mean your lawyers, theirs and the VCs or whoever the client is (maybe a company acquiring you). When you want to sell your company one day – the same rule applies.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

It has historically been the case that VCs would rather fund the promise of 100x in a company with almost no revenue than the reality of a company growing at 50% but doing $20+ million in sales. Goliath” mythology take on the titans of industry and wins. This “overnight success” was first financed in 2004.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 13, 2010

As noted in Net Profit Score , salespeople have used references as a means of establishing credibility with strangers for hundreds of years. Thus, cite quantified results, such as percentage growth in revenue, number of new accounts closed, Net Promoter Scores achieved, etc. Start by writing a draft of your reference.

Startup 113

Startup .Net Organization Networking 113

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2009

You are forty, out of a job, a newlywed, your wife is expecting a baby, you don’t own your own home, you have no specialized qualifications, the only company you ever launched went bankrupt and you have just been sentenced to one year in jail.”. A Writer Is Someone Who Writes. Source: Harold Evans, They Made America.

Entrepreneur 153

Entrepreneur Ideas Writing Startup 153

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

So I thought I’d write a post about how I drive my personal creativity. (A This applies equally to VCs, startups & big company executives. The key is channeling what you learn when you drive onto paper for retention purposes so you have to write it down soon afterward. So no whinging about what a long post this is!

Writing 356

Writing Startup Ideas Summary 356

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

I am in the middle of writing up some of my thoughts on this and will post about it and let you know. I have to say that it has netted far more than I would have thought. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. And, I dont like to copy and paste.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

As I write these words I already imagine my next deposition in which I’m asked to read this out loud. The simple point is that if you control 51% of your company and/or the voting rights you can avoid a lot of headache and you can still be very generous with early people who join your mission. *. Lawsuits. He sued anyways.

Startup 150

Startup IP Writing Ideas 150

InfoChachkie

JUNE 25, 2009

Such attorneys can also add tremendous value in your negotiations with Big Dumb Companies (BDCs), as they can ensure that you focus on the deal points that are of most significance to a small entity. He or she must be willing to fight for your company and go toe-to-toe with your investors. Sometimes You Do Get What You Pay For.

Technical Advisors 124

Technical Advisors Technical Review IP Patents 124

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I didn’t mean to be so insulting and I didn’t mean for the net to be cast so wide that many people wondered whether I was talking about them when I was speaking of “job hoppers.&# I learned a lot from reading the comments. No rule is ever absolute no matter how it sounds when one writes a blog.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

some fun, big tech issues like privacy, net neutrality, location-based services and real-time data. A very big thanks to Alexandra Harris, the founder of FanCause , a company that aims to connect entertainment brands with their fans to raise money. lessons learned from his days as an entrepreneur. Sounds like a noble cause.

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

Not the successful companies themselves but the entire b t culture of swash-buckling startups who define themselves by hitting some magical $1 billion valuation number and the financiers who back them irrespective of metrics that justify it. My fear isn’t whether these companies will be valuable in the future. ” No.

Technical Advisors 150

Technical Advisors Startup Writing Blogging 150