Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kaufmann Foundation , the numbers are finally here to show it. The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. The cost of social media done well is low.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 23, 2015

If an entrepreneur can’t build a culture of excitement and commitment at a startup, the chances of long-term success are negligible. As a mentor to entrepreneurs, I often get asked what you can do to build the right culture. Entrepreneurs who are too busy for people never get the culture they envision.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2015

But for startups with limited resources and experience, I always recommend a soft launch or toe-in-the-water approach in a local market -- and scale up later. In fact, for startups, it usually makes sense to announce your solution on social media and blogs even before you have built the first one.

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Tech.Co

JULY 25, 2017

That all changed with social media , and now everyone is glued to their phone’s screen. The successor to social media, at least in terms of cultural significance, are the on-demand apps that have us reaching for our phones not just to message friends, but to make transactions.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 29, 2015

With the advent of social media and the pervasive move to smartphones, even customers who still prefer to purchase in brick-and-mortar stores have dramatically changed their shopping habits. Most startup founders are early adopters, so they love the latest and greatest technology. Blogs must provide value to customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 18, 2015

I may be old fashioned, but the term consultant still conjures up an image of a self-proclaimed expert who can make great presentations, generate recommendations and leave you to do the hard work of implementation. Startups need outside experts who can do the work, as well as provide training on what needs to be done.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2015

If your startup culture doesn’t include a sense of urgency, your probabilities of long-term success are miniscule. Some of you may remember MySpace , which came early to social media, but lost the lead to Facebook by evolving too slowly, many analysts say. Try to squeeze it in before you get tied up handling the next crisis.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2016

Most first-time entrepreneurs seem to believe the myth that they need a minimum of a half a million dollars to start a business. Starting a new business in an area where you have no experience, just because it appears to have great potential, is a recipe for failure. Entrepreneurs who start without a plan spend more money.

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TechCrunch LA

JULY 21, 2020

When Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman first met Natalie Portman a few years ago to talk about ways their non-profit organizations All Raise and Time’s Up could collaborate, she never realized they’d eventually be partners on a sports franchise. “We’re venture capitalists. “I was like… ‘Hey!

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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. The conundrum is that once you have really proven the business model, you no longer need the investor money you asked for to start the business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

Most new entrepreneurs assume that great investors will find their startups based on the compelling solution the founders have created. Thus it behooves every entrepreneur to optimize their investment strategies early, based on time and dollar costs, as well as odds of success. Follow up to learn expected terms and process time.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2015

Most entrepreneurs assume that a lack of an online reputation is a good thing. In reality, it’s negative, because people who can’t find you or any mention of your startup anywhere on the Internet assume you are not savvy or have something to hide. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 8/7/2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2015

Every new baby gets a name before it is introduced to the world, and yet some entrepreneurs continue to send me business plans with TBD (to be determined) in place of a business name on the front page. Most startups don’t have the resources, and should be more humble in starting with a name that customers will recognize.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2016

In business, this means an entrepreneur who never says no to any customer is doomed to a hard life and some expensive mistakes. Use interactive social media and targeted marketing to go after the customers that you want and need. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 12/23/2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2015

Most technologists have little interest in the mechanics of starting and building a business. Thus it’s a waste of time for most entrepreneurs to be looking for investors until they have a product and some customer revenue. Business efforts should start only after the product is right.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2011

These days, I’m hearing more and more about Location-Based Services (LBS) as the next big opportunity for startups. But entrepreneurs need to look more broadly than this to tracking, navigation solutions, safety, security, local business search, and payments. Event marketing. Lead generation. Identify potential new relationships.

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socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2014

We sat down with Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky , co-founders of Nix Hydra, to learn more about their hit game, Egg Baby, the perils of trying to get funding as female entrepreneurs, and what they''re working on next. How did the company start? There are not many women-led gaming startups, was it difficult to start and get this funded?

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2016

As an advisor to entrepreneurs and a technologist, I’m happy to report that the tide may be turning, and we are experiencing a new era of opportunity for entrepreneurs, and a new appreciation of the power of the digital world. Google scores high for tools, location, and social media data sharing, but not for biometric data.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 8, 2020

For today's interview, we spoke to Bill Curtis , the founder of Malibu-based CurtCo Media (www.curtco.com). We spoke to Bill about CurtCo's move into the podcasting area, and why he thinks podcasting is the next frontier in media. It ends up being good for both. It's also a meritocracy, because anybody can put a podcast up.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 27, 2016

Crowdfunding is the hot new vehicle for raising money to support your entrepreneurial efforts, with over 1,250 website platforms around the world to help you, according to a 2015 industry report. While all this is definitely a boon to entrepreneurs, it does come with its own set of challenges. Keep all IP details close to the vest.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2013

Entrepreneurs need to look more broadly into the business-to-business (B2B) space for more lucrative opportunities. As outlined a while back by Adam Holden-Bache on Social Media B2B , I’m convinced that business-to-business has more money and more untapped opportunities, still waiting to be found: Find strategic partnerships.

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Tech.Co

JULY 31, 2017

Yet as an entrepreneur, you can rarely hide under the rock and pretend there’s nothing else happening around you and no one is demanding your attention. While back in 2011, a cell phone user received or made 12 phone calls a day on average, the number has dropped to just 6 calls in 2015.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 2, 2012

But entrepreneurs need to look more broadly into the B2B space for more lucrative opportunities. As outlined a while back by Adam Holden-Bache on Social Media B2B , I’m convinced that business-to-business has more money and more untapped opportunities, along the following lines: Strategic partnerships. Event marketing.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2015

Since the recession, and at least partially sparked by it, I’m seeing a real resurgence of entrepreneurial spirit, and more startup activity than ever before. The rate of new entrepreneurs increased about 10 percent, from 280 out of 100,000 adults in the 2014 Startup Activity Index, to 310 out of 100,000 adults in the 2015 Index.

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Eric Greenspan

JANUARY 24, 2016

Like Ice Cube and Dr. Dre use rap lyrics, Seth and I use social media instead. That said, it was very challenging to get reports of the company’s cash flow or other financial information that was needed to build the fledgling startup. He thanked me and we started the process. The man is honest to the core.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2015

Image via Flickr by Side Wages Some entrepreneurs forget that they need an innovative business model along with an innovative solution to have a successful startup. That’s why I say “two heads are better than one” in a startup. Business work should start only after the product is done." Do both in parallel to be timely.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 28, 2015

Too many entrepreneurs look for that one magic bullet -- an exciting new technology, perhaps, or their own determination to make the world a better place -- to override any shortcomings in their startup model. Such failures ignore the essential business elements investors look for before committing to a startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2015

Customers are more in control of their buying decisions than ever before, with the wealth of alternatives and information available online, and interactive access to sources they trust via social media. Also, don’t forget to follow-up with and nurture existing customers. Here are some specifics I recommend to accomplish this.

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Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 3, 2015

Many started out in a completely unrelated field and fell into their current profession where they discovered a passion, skill and expertise they developed over time, becoming more successful as they grew in knowledge and experience. Register here for his upcoming Silicon Beach Fest June 24-27, 2015).

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

How many times have you heard or suspected that a certain entrepreneur was just lucky? Without fully discounting that random good things sometimes happen, I’m a firm believer that great entrepreneurs make their own luck. In the heat of a thousand daily crises, it’s too easy for an entrepreneur to delegate expense management.

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Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 26, 2016

In 2015 an additional 237 thousand joined the online community. Top media giants Facebook and Alphabet are determined to grow this number with the introduction of various airborne devices designed to bring internet to the far corners of the globe to boost their revenues. One of the stars of 2015 was undoubtedly Slack.

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