Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 18, 2016

As an entrepreneur looking for professional investors, one of the quickest ways to lose credibility and get rejected is to start with a ridiculously high pre-money valuation. It’s like trying to sell a home still being built at next year’s dream market price. Relate your startup to similar startups funded with a higher valuation.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. At the startup entry level, most entrepreneurs find little need for Profit and Loss statements and Income statements – they know all the key transactions.

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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. They have high-priced property and zero innovation. They had instilled in me a discipline that few well-funded but inexperienced startups have. Little old us.

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socalTECH

NOVEMBER 6, 2020

We caught up Stewart to see how the company has significantly pivoted its vision for the company, the recent deal with Honda to offer up certified pre-owned vehicles to its users, and more. Let's start out at the top, for those who haven't been following what's been going with Fair, what is your business now?

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2016

Too many entrepreneurs put their best creative thinking into the startup idea, and believe that the business implementation simply requires following tried and true business practices. In my experience as a startup advisor, nothing could be further from the truth. Offer incentives or competition. Start thinking outside the box.

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Xconomy

OCTOBER 28, 2016

The 2016 election is (thankfully) almost here, and as one biotech analyst noted this week, a possible Democratic victory is to blame for a big October sell-off in biotech stocks. THIS WEEK IN DRUG PRICING…. —A coalition of investors pressed drug makers to justify price increases. Here’s more from Forbes.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

If you can’t provide a memorable customer experience, your startup won’t survive very long these days. Here are some key ideas to get you started: It all starts with the right people on your team. It must be written down, with measurable team objectives, validated by metrics and compared against competition.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. These principles include the following: Free and ultra-low cost may no longer be competitive.

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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.” Startups funded by large venture-capital investments rarely think about productivity. Marty Zwilling First published on Entrepreneur.com on 02/19/2016.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2016

In my experience in large businesses as well as years of advising startups, I see far too much focus on product skills, and too little on people and process skills. Storytelling and projecting a vision are foundational skills that are required from the first moment in starting a business. It’s up to you to clear the way.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

After listening to hundreds of startup pitches, and reading even more business plans, most new venture investors develop their own favorite list of “red flags” that signal the beginning of the end of their interest. Every startup needs focus, due to limited resources, so setting irrational goals implies overall poor business acumen.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 28, 2016

Making the decision to start your own business is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. These are not valid reasons to start a business. But if you're focused on solving a real problem, believe you can do it better than anyone else, and confident in wearing many hats, you have the right start-up mindset.

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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. Few entrepreneurs know that even the most successful startups had pivots, which rarely get mentioned.

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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). Every startup has limited resources and people, so rolling out your solution in multiple channels will likely mean a weak implementation in all, and customer confusion.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

They are devastated when their business growth never starts or stalls, and they have no idea how to get it moving again. As an advisor to many startups, I often spend hours with business owners helping them anticipate every possible obstacle to the adoption of their solution, and developing a rollout plan to include antidotes.

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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.

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Xconomy

JULY 19, 2016

In 2015, Cybersecurity startups saw 332 funding deals with investments hitting the highest ever at $3.8 For 2015, there were 133 information security M&A deals, according to 451 Research’s Tech M&A Outlook 2016. Symantec Forces the Industry to Stay Competitive. A Startup’s Opportunity to Thrive.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 22, 2016

Customers react poorly when they hear your value claims for them, and see more value to you (bottled water in your hotel room at a high price as a “convenience” to you). Commitment means signing up willingly, showing up mentally, standing up for the customer, and never ever giving up.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

There is much discussion online and also in small, private groups, about why the price of technology companies – public and private – are falling. Valuing any company can be difficult because it requires a degree of forecasting future growth & competition and ultimately the profits of the organization.

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