Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2022

In the old days, every entrepreneur planned on taking their startup public, and making it big. Smart entrepreneurs are now starting to look at this option again, as well as the challenges of running a public company. Violent market swings usually hit public companies first. Public companies are always at risk for takeovers.

Startup 98

Startup Report IBM IBM 98

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2014

Both have worked.Google reached $1 billion in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400 billion. Most modern investors still look for a business model that embodies a gross margin over 50 percent and a net margin in the 20 percent range. entrepreneur revenue startup user count'

Entrepreneur 98

Entrepreneur Organization Invest Customer 98

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

As a business and entrepreneur advisor, I have no trouble getting owners and managers to agree that change is happening faster and faster in the consumer and technology world, requiring them to keep their business more agile , just to keep up. Timely response with smart risk-taking and innovation. It’s the only way to avoid losing.

Competition 102

Competition Examples Startup Resource 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2019

With the advent and popularity of crowdfunding platforms, including Kickstarter and IndieGoGo , as a winning alternative for funding your new venture, I find that many aspiring entrepreneurs are confused about the need to ever seek a professional angel investor. They don’t get excited by early stage research, development, or marketing hype.

Funding 119

Funding Startup Platform Examples 119

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2019

On the other side, entrepreneurs and CEO’s usually have a natural fear of giving too much information to us investors after the initial investment is received. If there is a concern over some investors gaining a competitive advantage, the amount of information may be reduced to the minimum for some classes of those investors.

Class 120

Class Course Report Competition 120

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 16, 2014

The speaks to the continued confidence in the venture capital markets and as I had predicted some time ago the VC markets right now are a great place to invest – especially relative to other places to put one’s money. Or perhaps VCs like to carefully guard who has bankrolled them so as not to attract competition?

Venture Capital 396

Venture Capital Funding Technical Review Startup 396

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

As an entrepreneur, you always need to be on the lookout for ways to expand your current business, and always on the lookout for your next big thing. The competition never stands still, and new opportunities are evolving, based on culture changes in your customers, new technologies, and new problems in the world which need to be solved.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Customer Custom .Net 100

InfoChachkie

JULY 18, 2011

Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham and Marcia Brown’s Stone Soup , the seemingly innocuous board game Monopoly has played a pivotal role in the edification of several generations of entrepreneurs. In addition to the Luxury Tax board space, there are also Chance cards that require you to pay a percentage of your net worth in taxes.

Entrepreneur 216

Entrepreneur Startup Outsource Development Paramount 216

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2019

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company. Violent market swings usually hit public companies first.

Startup 84

Startup Technical Review Report IBM 84

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2015

Exactly what is that customer experience that every modern marketer is talking about, and how do you measure it? Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist. One metric now commonly used is called the Net Promoter® Score (NPS). Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who can be easily wooed by the competition. Detractors.

Customer 100

Customer Custom .Net Competition 100

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. If you have a market lead then raising capital and making investments now will help you as others enter the market.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

This statement leaves no confusion in the minds of investors, or customers, of what the company does and how it is different (and better) than the competition. Investors realize that the resources and risk required to hit both markets concurrently are great, so they will likely look for focus, or a staged approach.

.Net 73

.Net Examples Customer Custom 73

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 The last couple of years has also seen the huge initial success of Ycombinator, the Lean Startup and many other product driven approaches to going to market. What about your competition – how much do they charge? Going to charge less?

Web 2.0 334

Web 2.0 Venture Capital Web Technical Review 334

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Smart entrepreneurs are just now starting to look at this option again, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company. Violent market swings usually hit public companies first.

Startup 87

Startup Technical Review Report Entrepreneur 87

Tech.Co

JUNE 23, 2015

But then some entrepreneurs got an idea: let’s put the power of the live broadcast directly in the hands of the people. In a continual effort to stay ahead of the competition in this market – which by a large stretch is mostly uncharted territory for startups – Hang w/ recently turned to the power of YouTube.

Social Media 88

Social Media .Net Platform Media 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2012

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. The most common failures are solutions looking for a problem, lack of a defined market, and giving away the product. Target market. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 97

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 11, 2014

Exactly what is that customer experience that every modern marketer is talking about, and how do you measure it? Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist. One new metric now commonly used is called the Net Promoter® Score (NPS). Satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who can be easily wooed by the competition. Detractors.

Customer 98

Customer Custom .Net Competition 98

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of easily taking their startup public, and making it big. Smart entrepreneurs now avoid this option like the plague, due to its unpredictability and the challenges of running a public company. Violent market swings usually hit public companies first.

Startup 98

Startup Technical Review Report Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2011

I expect that should seem intuitive to all entrepreneurs, but every investor I know has many stories about startup funding requests with major business model elements missing. The most common failures are solutions looking for a problem, lack of a defined market, and giving away the product. Target market. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 98

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 98

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 11, 2013

In the old days, every entrepreneur dreamed of someday taking their startup public, and making it a multi-national powerhouse. In my view, the key reasons that IPOs have lost their luster from an entrepreneur and investor perspective include the following: The US IPO process seems broken. Startup founders don’t fit in a public company.

Startup 97

Startup Report Entrepreneur Statistics 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 2, 2012

As entrepreneurs, you always need to be on the lookout for ways to expand your current business, and always on the lookout for your next big thing. The competition never stands still, and new opportunities are evolving, based on culture changes in your customers, new technologies, and new problems in the world which need to be solved.

Startup 98

Startup Customer Custom Entrepreneur 98

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 12, 2010

That’s because a company’s value is a composite of all of the quantitative and qualitative factors that comprise a company: revenues, expenses, risks, growth prospects, quality of the management team, competitive advantages, strength of the intellectual property, and so forth. Detail isn’t important; tracking your progress is.

.Net 89

.Net Metrics Competition Template 89

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2016

Whether you are talking to peers, competitors or investors, you as an active entrepreneur will be judged on your familiarity with today’s startup and funding jargon. In that context, I offer you my latest collection of popular investor-to-entrepreneur terms and concepts. Frothy is good for entrepreneurs. Seed-round investment.

Startup 57

Startup Software Review Equity Invest 57

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

But VC is an “illiquid asset&# so funds didn’t disappear quickly - In 2000/01 the stock market quickly adjusted punishing investors in the NASDAQ and in individual public technology stocks. What accelerated this was the collapse of the public stock markets. Staying “lean&# is not an option.

Venture Capital 311

Venture Capital Startup Seed Funding Rustic Canyon 311

socalTECH

MAY 18, 2010

For our interview today, we caught up with Al Eisaian , CEO of Pasadena-based IconApps (www.iconapps.com), which is developing mobile applications for the iPhone market. Al is a repeat entrepreneur, who last founded Integrien, and was SVP and GM at LowerMyBills. We caught up with Al recently to hear about his latest startup.

Mobile 168

Mobile .Net Pasadena Software Review 168

socalTECH

MAY 27, 2011

Ever since the huge success of Monrovia-based Green Dot in its IPO last year, netting a huge return for local angels, investors here have taken a second look at financial startups. Jonathan Cooper: I had been in the financial area, and I had also been involved in advising middle market companies on strategy. What's your background?

Class 168

Class Monrovia .Net Customer 168

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number. The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary.

Startup 108

Startup Invest Patents Outsource Development 108

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

In his premier film appearance in the blaxploitation send-up “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Chris Rock inadvertently addresses a key pricing challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. A recurring entrepreneurial challenge is to determine the optimal price of a new product, especially absent a directly competitive alternative.

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

We typically do not ask entrepreneurs to visit our offices in Santa Barbara, but Jeff wanted to meet with Kevin, an investor in our Fund who helped us vet opportunities and occasionally invested alongside of us. Rather, we value entrepreneurs' time and thus our diligence generally includes introducing them to potential customers and partners.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2016

Google reached $1B in revenue within five years of incorporation, and now has a market capitalization of over $400B. It’s only been in the last ten years that social media companies, like Facebook and Twitter, have achieved market valuations in billions of dollars, while clearly sacrificing revenue to gain users. Both have worked.

Startup 58

Startup Organization Invest Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, saying “make me an offer,” or quoting an exorbitant number. The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage the rollout, and maybe even pay themselves a salary.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Patents Outsource Development 98

InfoChachkie

JULY 11, 2011

As Fred points out, many entrepreneurs hear the word “debt” and promptly run the other direction. As with most negotiations, competition is the only way you will obtain an optimal result. Thus, avoid one-man-band lenders, anyone new to your market or a firm which is lending outside if its core market segment.

Equity 235

Equity Startup Invest Funding 235

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2010

Many entrepreneurs stumble at this point, losing the deal or most of their ownership, by having no answer, playing coy, or quoting an exorbitant number. The founders now need a $1M Angel investment to do the marketing for a national NewCo rollout, build a team to manage blogs and other resources, and maybe even pay themselves a salary.

Startup 93

Startup Patents Outsource Development Web 93

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

If you are not, you may have already blown your chance at becoming a successful entrepreneur on The Fringe, as your future competitors gained hundreds of hours of hands on experience while you played with your GameBoy. Just like in Monopoly, if this contract is broken, the entrepreneur can be thrown in jail. Hands on Learning.

Outsource Development 154

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Training Startup 154

socalTECH

JULY 13, 2009

Mark has also been quite active mentoring entrepreneurs, We caught up with Mark to hear about what kinds of investments GRP is looking at nowadays, his view on the software-as-a-service market, and how best to approach him with a pitch. So we think we're the right size for the market in 2009.

GRP Partners 157

GRP Partners Southern California Santa Barbara Rustic Canyon 157

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 21, 2014

A profile of the state of the Bitcoin industry and its presence of female entrepreneurs. A clear distinction our female entrepreneurs have made here has been their active decisions to hit the ground running. Brock Pierce – Digital Currency Entrepreneur and Angel Investor. The subject on hand?

Startup 104

Startup Venture Capital Draper Invest 104

InfoChachkie

MARCH 16, 2010

He told the homeowner that he represented someone who wanted to purchase the ranch at a substantial premium over its current fair market value. Fortunately, we had several alternatives available to us, including: Access the public capital markets via an initial public offering (IPO). Do nothing – continue to run our business “as is”.

Company 160

Company Companies Pricing Santa Barbara 160