Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2016

Offer incentives or competition. There is nothing like friendly competition or an attractive reward to bring out a new base of un-edited ideas. For example, the old assumption that lower prices will drive volumes, may give way to higher prices and exclusivity implying more value to discerning customers.

Ideas 103

Ideas Competition Customer Custom 103

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

We're really focused on the consumer getting the right car at the right price. In 2016, that represented a couple of unique concepts. As time has gone on, the company then shifted into the ridesharing market, essentially operating as a car availability platform for Uber and Lyft drivers. There's real competition in this area.

Startup 124

Startup Pricing Platform Study 124

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

million in funding on TechCrunch led by Harmony Partners and Upfront Ventures to double its footprint of 3 cities (New York, Chicago & Washington DC) to 6 in 2016. We raised this capital in what has increasingly become a difficult market for fund raising so I’d like to share with you some details on how we get it done.

Startup 150

Startup Pricing Marketing Product 150

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Investors are looking for a concise description of your product or service without technical jargon or fuzzy marketing terms with value quantified in customer terms. This is also the place to first mention patents and any other differentiators that put you ahead of competition. What are your specific marketing and sales plans?

Invest 108

Invest Startup Slides Equity 108

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

Lately I’ve been having to say things I thought I’d never have to remind people, like, “getting to positive gross margin in several territories is a very low bar to claim success” or “profitable excluding marketing costs” is not actually a real thing. Market Size. MakeSpace provides physical storage.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 24, 2016

Every entrepreneur I know starts out with a strong conviction that their solution is a perfect match for their target market, and yet almost every one later admits a need to “pivot” before finding their groove. This confuses customers, and dilutes your marketing impact. Change competitive positioning and pricing to improve traction.

Entrepreneur 57

Entrepreneur Pricing Course Competition 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2016

The right channel for marketing and distribution is one of the basic “four Ps” of business (product, promotion, price and placement). For growing revenue and market share, it’s a key element of your overall strategy, and one that can make or break you. In many product areas, especially retail, the channel is the market.

Pricing 54

Pricing Customer Custom Sales 54

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

When entrepreneurs introduce new products to the market, their passion and conviction often leads them to assume that every potential customer will see the immediate need and value, and will quickly adopt the solution. In today’s information overload, marketing is everything. Use every marketing channel available.

Product 95

Product Case Study Customer Custom 95

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

Even businesses with highly specialized market segments will find it more effective and simpler to focus on who customers are as people, rather than the “what” of their demographic attributes. Customer value statements must come from customer feedback to other customers, rather than from your marketing.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Social Media Training 97

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Target market sizing higher than $10 billion. It’s true that investors like large markets, preferably in the billion dollar range and growing, but sizing a startup market greater than the GNP of many countries is just not credible. Sales projections are less than one percent market penetration. Skip the hype.

Funding 98

Funding Startup Innocal Entrepreneur 98

Xconomy

JULY 19, 2016

For 2015, there were 133 information security M&A deals, according to 451 Research’s Tech M&A Outlook 2016. In general, M&A is a natural part of the IT security market. It’s why this market segment is so attractive to venture investors. Symantec Forces the Industry to Stay Competitive. Why is this happening?

Symantec 40

Symantec IBM IBM Acquisition 40

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2016

I believe that the resourcefulness to turn constraints into competitive differentiators and new opportunities is a trait that separates the great entrepreneurs from the “wannabes.” Without constraints on pricing and size, computers would still look like mainframes rather than fit in your wristwatch. There is still room for many more.

Startup 57

Startup Resource Entrepreneur Outsource 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

It’s like trying to sell a home still being built at next year’s dream market price. Patents filed, even provisional, as well as trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets count as barriers to entry and sustainable competitive advantages. Get premium for billion-dollar markets with double-digit growth rates.

Startup 71

Startup Patents Invest Blogging 71

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

For example, early social media startup Friendster was so enamored with their early acceptance that they turned down a $30 million offer from Google, then quickly ran into money woes and tough competition. Prices need to be reviewed to cover total costs and margin. Marty Zwilling First published on Forbes on 08/13/2016.

Startup 57

Startup Training Entrepreneur Customer 57

Xconomy

AUGUST 26, 2016

Mylan bumped up the price of the EpiPen 400 percent, presidential nominee Hillary Clinton responded with a tirade against drug price hikes, and—much like when Clinton railed against drug pricing last year—biotech indexes promptly plummeted more than 3 percent. It was the tweet heard around the biotech world, again.

Pricing 40

Pricing Thousand Oaks Startup Research 40